Psalm 139:14
"Neuroscientists are the cartographers of the brain’s diverse domains and territories — the features and activities that define them, the roads and highways that connect them, and the boundaries that delineate them.
Toward the front of the brain, just behind the forehead, is the
prefrontal cortex, celebrated as the seat of judgment.
Behind it lies the motor cortex, responsible for planning and coordinating movement.
To the sides: the temporal lobes, crucial for memory and the processing of emotion.
Above them, the somatosensory cortex;
behind them, the visual cortex.
Neuroscientists generally agree about how the physical tissue of the brain is organized: into particular regions, networks, cell types.
To the retired neurobiologist Steven Wise, formerly of NIMH, the findings imply that instead of categorizing cortical areas in terms of their specialized visual, auditory, somatosensory or executive functions, researchers should study the different combinations of information they represent.
One region might be involved in representing simple combinations of features, such as “orange” and “square” for an orange square. Other regions might represent more complex combinations of visual features, or combinations of acoustic or quantitative information.
Wise argues that this brain organization scheme explains why there’s so much unexpected functional overlap in the traditional maps of mental activity.
Wise argues that this brain organization scheme explains why there’s so much unexpected functional overlap in the traditional maps of mental activity.
When each region represents a particular combination of information, “it does that for memory, and for perception, and for attention, and for the control of action,” Wise said."
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