The compression already begins with the receptors, maybe I should have started there. Each stimuli/pattern gets more simplified with each neuron layer, e.g. if

The compression already begins with the receptors, maybe I should have started there. Each stimuli/pattern gets more simplified with each neuron layer, e.g. if a region of receptors fire a the same time, fire that one neuron, if not at the same time, inhibit that neuron, if nothing happens, do nothing. It's impossible to "capture" stimuli without compression with neurons in the first place. Information is being "reduced" or encoded if you will along the signal path into the brain, and then over time when recalling this information.