Download or read book Understanding the Prefrontal Cortex written by Richard Passingham and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This chapter explains why this book is organized as it is. Each neocortical area has a unique pattern of inputs and outputs. This means that the challenge is to understand the transformation that each of the prefrontal areas performs from input to output. Functional brain imaging allows us to visualize the human brain at work, but it does not have the spatial resolution to identify the mechanisms that support the transformations that the brain performs. It is neurophysiological recordings from cells that tell us how these are achieved. Chapters 3-8 are therefore mainly devoted to studies that have been carried out on the prefrontal cortex of macaque monkeys because the methods are necessarily invasive. Apart from recording, the methods include making selective lesions in an area; it is these that identify the contribution that is unique to that area. The book ends by reviewing the evolution of the human prefrontal cortex; and the final two chapters discuss the ways in which the human prefrontal cortex is specialized in terms of function. In doing so, they attempt to account for the intellectual gap between humans and other primates"--

Download or read book The Neurobiology of the Prefrontal Cortex written by Richard E. Passingham and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2012-07-12 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The prefrontal cortex makes up almost a quarter of the human brain, and it expanded dramatically during primate evolution. The Neurobiology of the Prefrontal Cortex presents a new theory about its fundamental function. In this important new book, the authors argue that primate-specific parts of the prefrontal cortex evolved to reduce errors in foraging choices, so that particular ancestors of modern humans could overcome periodic food shortages. These developments laid the foundation for working out problems in our imagination, which resulted in the insights that allow humans to avoid errors entirely, at least at times. In the book, the authors detail which parts of the prefrontal cortex evolved exclusively in primates, how its connections explain why the prefrontal cortex alone can perform its function, and why other parts of the brain cannot do what the prefrontal cortex does. Based on an analysis of its evolutionary history, the book uses evidence from lesion, imaging, and cell-recording experiments to argue that the primate prefrontal cortex generates goals from a current behavioural context and that it can do so on the basis of single events. As a result, the prefrontal cortex uses the attentive control of behaviour to augment an older general-purpose learning system, one that evolved very early in the history of animals. This older system learns slowly and cumulatively over many experiences based on reinforcement. The authors argue that a new learning system evolved in primates at a particular time and place in their history, that it did so to decrease the errors inherent in the older learning system, and that severe volatility of food resources provided the driving force for these developments. Written by two leading brain scientists, The Neurobiology of the Prefrontal Cortex is an important contribution to our understanding of the evolution and functioning of the human brain.

Download or read book The Prefrontal Cortex written by Joaquin M. Fuster and published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. This book was released on 1997 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Discovering the Brain written by National Academy of Sciences and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1992-01-01 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The brain ... There is no other part of the human anatomy that is so intriguing. How does it develop and function and why does it sometimes, tragically, degenerate? The answers are complex. In Discovering the Brain, science writer Sandra Ackerman cuts through the complexity to bring this vital topic to the public. The 1990s were declared the "Decade of the Brain" by former President Bush, and the neuroscience community responded with a host of new investigations and conferences. Discovering the Brain is based on the Institute of Medicine conference, Decade of the Brain: Frontiers in Neuroscience and Brain Research. Discovering the Brain is a "field guide" to the brainâ€"an easy-to-read discussion of the brain's physical structure and where functions such as language and music appreciation lie. Ackerman examines: How electrical and chemical signals are conveyed in the brain. The mechanisms by which we see, hear, think, and pay attentionâ€"and how a "gut feeling" actually originates in the brain. Learning and memory retention, including parallels to computer memory and what they might tell us about our own mental capacity. Development of the brain throughout the life span, with a look at the aging brain. Ackerman provides an enlightening chapter on the connection between the brain's physical condition and various mental disorders and notes what progress can realistically be made toward the prevention and treatment of stroke and other ailments. Finally, she explores the potential for major advances during the "Decade of the Brain," with a look at medical imaging techniquesâ€"what various technologies can and cannot tell usâ€"and how the public and private sectors can contribute to continued advances in neuroscience. This highly readable volume will provide the public and policymakersâ€"and many scientists as wellâ€"with a helpful guide to understanding the many discoveries that are sure to be announced throughout the "Decade of the Brain."

Download or read book The Prefrontal Cortex as an Executive Emotional and Social Brain written by Masataka Watanabe and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-02-22 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is devoted to the executive, emotional, social, and integrative functions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The PFC has usually been studied only with its executive function or with its emotional function, but recent studies indicate that the PFC plays important roles in integrating executive and emotional functions as well as in social behavior. The first part of the book reviews the functional organization of the PFC in human and nonhuman primates. The subsequent part focuses on the integrator of executive and emotional functions. The third part presents the integrator of executive and social functions, and the final part discusses the default mode of brain activities. There are chapters on animal studies, because functional significance of the PFC cannot be described without referring to those studies. Thus many methodologies are presented such as human neuropsychological, neuroimaging, and stimulation studies, and animal neuropsychological, neurophysiological, neurochemical, neuroanatomical, and neuroimaging studies. Bringing those together, this volume provides a timely and concise picture of the function of the PFC. The result is a valuable resource for students and scientists, providing up-to-date information on this emerging research topic.

Download or read book The Human Advantage written by Suzana Herculano-Houzel and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2016-03-18 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why our human brains are awesome, and how we left our cousins, the great apes, behind: a tale of neurons and calories, and cooking. Humans are awesome. Our brains are gigantic, seven times larger than they should be for the size of our bodies. The human brain uses 25% of all the energy the body requires each day. And it became enormous in a very short amount of time in evolution, allowing us to leave our cousins, the great apes, behind. So the human brain is special, right? Wrong, according to Suzana Herculano-Houzel. Humans have developed cognitive abilities that outstrip those of all other animals, but not because we are evolutionary outliers. The human brain was not singled out to become amazing in its own exclusive way, and it never stopped being a primate brain. If we are not an exception to the rules of evolution, then what is the source of the human advantage? Herculano-Houzel shows that it is not the size of our brain that matters but the fact that we have more neurons in the cerebral cortex than any other animal, thanks to our ancestors' invention, some 1.5 million years ago, of a more efficient way to obtain calories: cooking. Because we are primates, ingesting more calories in less time made possible the rapid acquisition of a huge number of neurons in the still fairly small cerebral cortex—the part of the brain responsible for finding patterns, reasoning, developing technology, and passing it on through culture. Herculano-Houzel shows us how she came to these conclusions—making “brain soup” to determine the number of neurons in the brain, for example, and bringing animal brains in a suitcase through customs. The Human Advantage is an engaging and original look at how we became remarkable without ever being special.

Download or read book Prefrontal Cortex written by Satoru Otani and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2004-03-31 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The prefrontal cortex is regarded by many as the executive controller, which determines appropriate coupling between a sensory input and motor output to meet environmental demands. Our cognitive ability heavily relies on the function of the prefrontal cortex. Prefrontal Cortex: From Synaptic Plasticity to Cognition takes an interdisciplinary approach to characterize the function of the anterior portion of the frontal lobe in rodents and human and non-human primates. The topics in this volume are diverse. They range from membrane properties of prefrontal neurons to cognitive psychology and attempt to encompass domains of the prefrontal field in an effort to provide the bigger picture.

Download or read book From Neurons to Neighborhoods written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2000-11-13 with total page 610 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How we raise young children is one of today's most highly personalized and sharply politicized issues, in part because each of us can claim some level of "expertise." The debate has intensified as discoveries about our development-in the womb and in the first months and years-have reached the popular media. How can we use our burgeoning knowledge to assure the well-being of all young children, for their own sake as well as for the sake of our nation? Drawing from new findings, this book presents important conclusions about nature-versus-nurture, the impact of being born into a working family, the effect of politics on programs for children, the costs and benefits of intervention, and other issues. The committee issues a series of challenges to decision makers regarding the quality of child care, issues of racial and ethnic diversity, the integration of children's cognitive and emotional development, and more. Authoritative yet accessible, From Neurons to Neighborhoods presents the evidence about "brain wiring" and how kids learn to speak, think, and regulate their behavior. It examines the effect of the climate-family, child care, community-within which the child grows.

Download or read book The Brain and Behavior written by David L. Clark and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-09-08 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New edition building on the success of previous one. Retains core aim of providing an accessible introduction to behavioral neuroanatomy.

Download or read book Principles of Frontal Lobe Function written by Donald T. Stuss and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2002-06-27 with total page 642 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides a comprehensive review of historical and current research on the function of the frontal lobes and frontal systems of the brain. The content spans frontal lobe functions from birth to old age, from biochemistry and anatomy to rehabilitation, and from normal to disrupted function. The book is intended to be a standard reference work on the frontal lobes for researchers, clinicians, and students in the field of neurology, neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology, and health care.

Download or read book Development of the Prefrontal Cortex written by Norman A. Krasnegor and published by Brookes Publishing Company. This book was released on 1997 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For neuropsychologists, neurobiologists, psychologists, and researchers in developmental psychology and learning disabilities, this volume ensures a comprehensive understanding of the research on the development and function of the prefrontal cortex.

Download or read book Structure and Functions of the Human Prefrontal Cortex written by Jordan Grafman and published by . This book was released on 1995 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume contains papers that deal with the structure and functions of the human prefrontal cortex, including a review of recent work on its neuroanatomy, neurochemistry, neural development and degeneration, and neuropsychology. In addition, papers focus on novel and competing theories of human prefrontal cortical functions, utilising convergent evidence from the fields of comparative neuropsychology, cognitive sciences, artificial intelligence, neuropsychiatry, and cognitive neuropsychology. The book provides a broad overview on the subject of the human prefrontal cortex and integration of human prefrontal cortical functioning, and offer in-depth comparisons of alternative testable theories of human prefrontal cortical functions.

Download or read book The Cognitive Emotional Brain written by Luiz Pessoa and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2013-10-04 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A study that goes beyond the debate over functional specialization to describe the ways that emotion and cognition interact and are integrated in the brain. The idea that a specific brain circuit constitutes the emotional brain (and its corollary, that cognition resides elsewhere) shaped thinking about emotion and the brain for many years. Recent behavioral, neuropsychological, neuroanatomy, and neuroimaging research, however, suggests that emotion interacts with cognition in the brain. In this book, Luiz Pessoa moves beyond the debate over functional specialization, describing the many ways that emotion and cognition interact and are integrated in the brain. The amygdala is often viewed as the quintessential emotional region of the brain, but Pessoa reviews findings revealing that many of its functions contribute to attention and decision making, critical components of cognitive functions. He counters the idea of a subcortical pathway to the amygdala for affective visual stimuli with an alternate framework, the multiple waves model. Citing research on reward and motivation, Pessoa also proposes the dual competition model, which explains emotional and motivational processing in terms of their influence on competition processes at both perceptual and executive function levels. He considers the broader issue of structure-function mappings, and examines anatomical features of several regions often associated with emotional processing, highlighting their connectivity properties. As new theoretical frameworks of distributed processing evolve, Pessoa concludes, a truly dynamic network view of the brain will emerge, in which "emotion" and "cognition" may be used as labels in the context of certain behaviors, but will not map cleanly into compartmentalized pieces of the brain.

Download or read book The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Science written by Keith Frankish and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2012-07-19 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An authoritative, up-to-date survey of the state of the art in cognitive science, written for non-specialists.

Download or read book Neurobiology of Sensation and Reward written by Jay A. Gottfried and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2011-03-28 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Synthesizing coverage of sensation and reward into a comprehensive systems overview, Neurobiology of Sensation and Reward presents a cutting-edge and multidisciplinary approach to the interplay of sensory and reward processing in the brain. While over the past 70 years these areas have drifted apart, this book makes a case for reuniting sensation a

Download or read book From Monkey Brain to Human Brain written by Stanislas Dehaene and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leaders in cognitive psychology, comparative biology, and neuroscience discuss patterns of convergence and divergence seen in studies of human and nonhuman primate brains. The extraordinary overlap between human and chimpanzee genomes does not result in an equal overlap between human and chimpanzee thoughts, sensations, perceptions, and emotions; there are considerable similarities but also considerable differences between human and nonhuman primate brains. From Monkey Brain to Human Brain uses the latest findings in cognitive psychology, comparative biology, and neuroscience to look at the complex patterns of convergence and divergence in primate cortical organization and function. Several chapters examine the use of modern technologies to study primate brains, analyzing the potentials and the limitations of neuroimaging as well as genetic and computational approaches. These methods, which can be applied identically across different species of primates, help to highlight the paradox of nonlinear primate evolution--the fact that major changes in brain size and functional complexity resulted from small changes in the genome. Other chapters identify plausible analogs or homologs in nonhuman primates for such human cognitive functions as arithmetic, reading, theory of mind, and altruism; examine the role of parietofrontal circuits in the production and comprehension of actions; analyze the contributions of the prefrontal and cingulate cortices to cognitive control; and explore to what extent visual recognition and visual attention are related in humans and other primates. The Fyssen Foundation is dedicated to encouraging scientific inquiry into the cognitive mechanisms that underlie animal and human behavior and has long sponsored symposia on topics of central importance to the cognitive sciences.

Download or read book Prefrontal Cortex written by Ana Starcevic and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2018-10-03 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The prefrontal cortex reaches its greatest development in the human brain, making up nearly one third of the neocortex. Due to its remarkable evolution, the prefrontal cortex plays an important role in higher integrative functions such as information processing, thinking, understanding, attention, behavior, motivation, emotions, working memory, and analysis. This book brings together theoretical and technical research advances on the prefrontal cortex, from the basic explanations of the neuronal architecture of the prefrontal cortex and its anatomy, presenting it as a morphological substrate for many psychological conditions, through normal and altered connectivity and its manifestation in different behavior and identification of organizational levels inside the prefrontal cortex through different neuroimaging methods. It also provides an interdisciplinary view of the prefrontal cortex and its issues and discovers the main role of this part of brain in psychosocial, economic, and cultural adaptation.