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Below is Henry Markram's response to my e-mail (exact text). Less blunt, but still tries to mislead. "characteristic pattern" is vague enough that with some plausible interpretations it is not false, but the natural interpretation of "very characteristic pattern" suggests that you can predict connections from one circuit to another pretty accurately, which is false.


From:  Henry Markram 
To:  Yehouda Harpaz 
Subject:  Re: "precise interconnections"
Date:  Tue, 01 Apr 2003 12:40:52 +0200
Dear Yehouda,

The neocortical microcircuit is constructed with synaptic connections
(defined as several synaptic contacts) between neurons exhibiting a very
characteristic pattern according to the types of neurons connected. There is
also a non-random selection of target cells by any particular cell which is
characteristic. So there is clearly a specific plan - just how precise it is
we still do not know.

All the best,

Henry


> Dear Professor Henry Markram,
>
> I just read this in your page http://sv.epfl.ch/sv_LNMC.html :
>
> A neocortical column contains several thousand neurons
> interconnected in a precise and intricate manner.
>
> What does "precise" mean here? Does it mean the interconnections
> follow some specific plan?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Yehouda Harpaz
>
>