The past decade of progress in neurobiology has uncovered important organizational principles for network preconfiguration and neuronal selection that suggest a generative grammar exists in the brain. In this Perspective, I discuss the competence of the hippocampal neural network to generically express temporally compressed sequences of neuronal firing that represent novel experiences, which is envisioned as a form of generative neural syntax supporting a neurobiological perspective on brain function. I compare this neural competence with the hippocampal network performance that represents specific experiences with higher fidelity after new learning during replay, which is envisioned as a form of neural semantic that supports a complementary neuropsychological perspective. I also demonstrate how the syntax of network competence emerges a priori during early postnatal life and is followed by the later development of network performance that enables rapid encoding and memory consolidation. Thus, I propose that this generative grammar of the brain is essential for internally generated representations, which are crucial for the cognitive processes underlying learning and memory, prospection, and inference, which ultimately underlie our reason and representation of the world.

神经生物学过去十年的进展揭示了网络预配置和神经元选择的重要组织原则，表明大脑中存在生成语法。在本视角中，我讨论了海马神经网络一般表达代表新体验的神经元放电的时间压缩序列的能力，这被设想为支持大脑功能神经生物学观点的一种生成神经语法形式。我将这种神经能力与海马网络性能进行了比较，海马网络性能代表了重播期间新学习后具有更高保真度的特定体验，这被设想为支持补充神经心理学观点的神经语义形式。我还展示了网络能力的语法如何在产后早期出现，以及随后的网络性能的发展，从而实现快速编码和记忆巩固。因此，我认为大脑的这种生成语法对于内部生成的表征至关重要，这对于学习和记忆、展望和推理的认知过程至关重要，而这些认知过程最终构成了我们对世界的推理和表征的基础。