Thought#note/thought
We predict and simulate the world and respond to error in our prediction. We do not respond to the direct input from the world.
Your perceptions of the world are anchored in your predictions, which are them tested against incoming sensory input.
Your brain has 10x more connections sending data from the Visual Cortex to the Thalamus than it does from the retina to the Visual Cortex via the Thalamus. And 90% of all connections coming into the Visual Cortex come from other parts of the vortex. This fits the pattern than most of our experience is prediction and tested against a comparatively small amount of sensory input.
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Figure 4-1: Your brain contains complete maps of your visual field. One map is located in your primary visual cortex, known as V1. If your brain merely reacted to the light waves that hit your retina and traveled to primary visual cortex (V1) via your thalamus, then it would have many neurons to carry that visual information to V1. But it has far fewer than one would expect (top image), and ten times as many projections going in the other direction, carrying visual predictions from V1 to the thalamus (center image). Likewise, 90 percent of all connections coming into V1 (lower image) carry predictions from neurons in other parts of cortex. Only a small fraction carries visual input from the world.