The binding problem

The brain processes information in a distributed manner so that features of the sensory input are detected at different sites and subsets of these features are integrated into objects. The notion of ‘binding’ refers to the corresponding integration process, leading to perception of these objects as entities, and ‘the binding problem’ either refers to the scientific challenge of identifying mechanisms that may achieve binding or to the difficulty that mind and brain may have with binding in certain situations. This review concentrates on binding of properties in visual perception, but other varieties of the binding problem are also mentioned. The binding problem is reviewed from psychological, neurobiological, and computational perspectives. For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. Conflict of interest: The author has declared no conflicts of interest for this article.