Distributed Representation

"The concept of distributed representation is a product of joint developments in the neurosciences and in connectionist work on recognition tasks. Fundamentally, a distributed representation is one in which meaning is not captured by a single symbolic unit, but rather arises from the interaction of a set of units, normally in a network of some sort. In the case of the brain, the concept of ‘grandmother’ does not seem to be represented by a single ‘grandmother cell,’ but is rather distributed across a network of neurons. This method of representation stands in direct opposition to the symbolic representation used by adherents of classical artificial intelligence (AI)." (http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~philos/MindDict/distributedrepresentation.html)

For background, see http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~philos/MindDict/distributedrepresentation.html