<p>I'm having a hard time determining if synchrony (I'm talking about the type described in reference to the visual cortex as seen <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19668703" rel="nofollow">here</a> and less about synaptic plasticity which also involves synchrony) based explanations are opposed or integrate-able with the NEF.</p>

<p>I seem to be only able to find evidence that the NEF is opposed to this type of explanation. The visual system of the <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/338/6111/1202" rel="nofollow">Spaun</a> (which is kind of the flagship model for the NEF) doesn't seem to use or exhibit synchrony. Additionally, <a href="http://compneuro.uwaterloo.ca/publications/crawford2013.html" rel="nofollow">Eric Crawford's research on knowledge representation</a> also seems to only criticize the synchronous approach.</p>

<p>However, it does seem that synchrony has a lot of empirical evidence, according to "<a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19668703" rel="nofollow">Neural Synchrony in Cortical Networks</a>".</p>

<p>Can the NEF and synchrony work together somehow?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-23T06:07:26.260Z
What is NEF...?
draks ...
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-06-23T12:02:52.317Z
@draks Its defined in the tag so I didn't bother defining it in the question.
Seanny123
<theoretical-neuroscience><nef><synchronization>
Relation between NEF and synchronous explanation of cognition
Seanny123
# Relation between NEF and synchronous explanation of cognition

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-06-16)

I'm having a hard time determining if synchrony (I'm talking about the type described in reference to the visual cortex as seen [here](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19668703) and less about synaptic plasticity which also involves synchrony) based explanations are opposed or integrate-able with the NEF.

I seem to be only able to find evidence that the NEF is opposed to this type of explanation. The visual system of the [Spaun](http://www.sciencemag.org/content/338/6111/1202) (which is kind of the flagship model for the NEF) doesn't seem to use or exhibit synchrony. Additionally, [Eric Crawford's research on knowledge representation](http://compneuro.uwaterloo.ca/publications/crawford2013.html) also seems to only criticize the synchronous approach.

However, it does seem that synchrony has a lot of empirical evidence, according to "[Neural Synchrony in Cortical Networks](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19668703)".

Can the NEF and synchrony work together somehow?

**Tags:** theoretical-neuroscience, nef, synchronization

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: What is NEF...?  
> **username_0**: @draks Its defined in the tag so I didn't bother defining it in the question.  

---

## 0 answers

