This research concerns forms of coding, processing and learning that are common to many different cortical regions and cognitive functions. Local cortical processors may coordinate their activity by maximizing the transmission of information that is coherently related to the context in which it occurs, thereby forming synchronized population codes. In this coordination, contextual field (CF) connections link processors within and between cortical regions. The effects of CF connections are distinct from those mediating receptive field (RF) input. CFs can guide both learning and processing without becoming confused with RF information. Simulations explore the capabilities of networks built from local processors with both RF and CF connections. Physiological evidence for CFs, synchronization, and plasticity in RF and CF connections is described. Coordination via CFs is related to perceptual grouping, the effects of context on contrast sensitivity, amblyopia, implicit influences of color in achromotopsia, object and word perception, and the discovery of distal environmental variables and their interactions through self-organization. In cortical computation there may occur a flexible evaluation of relations between input signals by locally specialized but adaptive processors whose activity is dynamically associated and coordinated within and between regions through specialized contextual connections.
