Cognition, Brain, and Consciousness (eBook)

Front Cover 1
Cognition, Brain, and Consciousness 4
Copyright Page 5
Contents 6
Preface 14
List of contributors 18
Chapter 1 Mind and brain 20
1.0 Introduction 20
2.0 An invitation to mind-brain science 20
3.0 Some starting points 21
3.1 Distance: seven orders of magnitude 21
3.2 Time: ten orders of magnitude 23
3.3 The need to make inferences – going beyond the raw observations 24
3.4 The importance of convergent measures 27
3.5 Major landmarks of the brain 27
4.0 Some history, and ongoing debates 30
4.1 The mind and the brain 30
4.2 Biology shapes cognition and emotion 32
4.3 Cajal's neuron doctrine: the working assumption of brain science 33
4.4 Pierre-Paul Broca and the localization of speech production 33
4.5 The conscious and unconscious mind 40
5.0 The return of consciousness in the sciences 41
5.1 How conscious and unconscious brain events are studied today 41
5.2 History hasn't stopped 43
6.0 Summary 44
7.0 End of chapter exercises 45
7.1 Study questions 45
7.2 Drawing exercise 46
Chapter 2 A framework 48
1.0 Introduction 48
2.0 Classical working memory 49
2.1 The 'inner senses' 50
2.2 Output functions 51
2.3 Only a fleeting moment… 51
2.4 Understanding Clive Wearing in the functional framework 54
2.5 The importance of immediate memory 55
3.0 Limited and large-capacity functions 56
3.1 Dual task limits 56
3.2 Some very large brain capacities 58
3.3 Why are there such narrow capacity limits? 59
3.4 Measuring working memory 59
4.0 The inner and outer senses 61
4.1 The mind's eye, ear and voice 62
4.2 The imagery sketchpad may use visual regions of cortex 63
4.3 Is inner speech like outer speech? 64
4.4 Is there only one working memory? 64
5.0 The central executive 65
5.1 Executive effort and automaticity 66
5.2 Executive and spontaneous attention 68
6.0 Action 69
7.0 Consolidation of short-term events into long-term memory 70
7.1 Is working memory just re-activated permanent memory? 71
8.0 Summary 72
9.0 Study questions and drawing practice 73
9.1 Study questions 73
9.2 Drawing exercises 73
Chapter 3 Neurons and their connections 76
1.0 Introduction 76
1.1 Real and idealized neurons 77
1.2 Excitation and inhibition 78
1.3 Neural computation 80
2.0 Working assumptions 80
2.1 Starting simple: receptors, pathways and circuits 82
3.0 Arrays and maps 84
3.1 Maps flow into other maps 86
3.2 Neuronal arrays usually have two-way connections 88
3.3 Sensory and motor systems work together 89
3.4 Temporal codes: spiking patterns and brain rhythms 90
3.5 Choice-points in the flow of information 91
3.6 Top-down or expectation-driven processing 92
4.0 How neural arrays adapt and learn 93
4.1 Hebbian learning: 'Neurons that fire together, wire together' 93
4.2 Neural Darwinism: survival of the fittest cells and synapses 96
4.3 Symbolic processing and neural nets 97
5.0 Coordinating neural nets 99
5.1 Functional redundancy 100
6.0 Summary 101
7.0 Study questions and drawing exercises 102
7.1 Study questions 102
7.2 Drawing exercises 102
Chapter 4 The tools: Imaging the living brain 104
1.0 Introduction 104
1.1 Brain recording: more and less direct measurements 105
1.2 The time-space tradeoff 108
2.0 A range of useful tools – measuring electric and magnetic signals 110
2.1 Single-unit recording 110
2.2 Animal and human studies cast light on each other 113
2.3 Electroencephalography (EEG) 113
2.4 Magnetoencephalography 118
2.5 Zapping the brain 118
3.0 fMRI and PET: indirect signals for neural activity 123
3.1 Pros and cons of PET and fMRI 123
3.2 Regions of interest 124
3.3 The resting brain is not silent 130
3.4 Empirically defining cognitive functions: the creative key 131
4.0 Conscious versus unconscious brain events 132
5.0 Correlation and causation 132
5.1 Why we need multiple tests of brain function 133
5.2 Brain damage and causal inferences 134
6.0 Summary 135
7.0 Chapter review 135
7.1 Drawing exercises and study questions 135
Chapter 5 The brain 138
1.0 Introduction 138
1.1 The nervous system 139
1.2 The geography of the brain 140
2.0 Growing a brain from the bottom up 143
2.1 Evolution and personal history are expressed in the brain 143
2.2 Building a brain from bottom to top 144
3.0 From 'where' to 'what': the functional roles of brain regions 149
3.1 The cerebral hemispheres: the left-right division 149
3.2 Output and input: the front-back division 153
3.3 The major lobes: visible and hidden 155
3.4 The massive interconnectivity of the cortex and thalamus 159
3.5 The satellites of the subcortex 161
4.0 Summary 163
5.0 Chapter review 163
5.1 Study questions 163
5.2 Drawing exercises 163
Chapter 6 Vision 166
1.0 Introduction 166
1.1 The mystery of visual experience 166
1.2 The purpose of vision: knowing what is where 167
1.3 Knowing what: perceiving features, groups and objects 168
1.4 Knowing where things are 169
2.0 Functional organization of the visual system 169
2.1 The retina 169
2.2 Lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) 172
2.3 Primary visual cortex (V1) 173
2.4 Extrastriate visual areas – outside of V1 175
2.5 Area MT 175
2.6 The ventral and dorsal pathways: knowing what and where 176
2.7 Areas involved in object recognition 178
2.8 Lateral occipital complex (LOC) 179
2.9 Fusiform face area (FFA) 179
2.10 Parahippocampal place area (PPA) 179
3.0 Theories of visual consciousness: where does it happen? 179
3.1 Hierarchical and interactive theories of vision 180
4.0 Brain areas necessary for visual awareness: lesion studies 181
4.1 Consequences of damage to early visual areas 181
4.2 Extrastriate lesions – damage outside area V1 182
4.3 Damage to ventral object areas 183
4.4 Damage to dorsal parietal areas 185
5.0 Linking brain activity and visual experience 187
5.1 Multistable perception 187
5.2 Binocular rivalry: what you see is what you get activated 188
5.3 Visual detection: did you see it? 189
5.4 Constructive perception: more to vision than meets the eye… 190
5.5 Neural correlates of object recognition 192
6.0 Manipulations of visual awareness 192
6.1 Transcranial magnetic stimulation 193
6.2 Unconscious perception 194
7.0 Summary 195
8.0 Study questions and drawing exercises 197
Chapter 7 Hearing and speech 200
1.0 Introduction 200
1.1 A model for sound processing 201
1.2 Sound and hearing basics 203
2.0 The central auditory system 207
2.1 Auditory pathways 208
2.2 Auditory cortex 209
3.0 Functional mapping of auditory processing 214
3.1 Primary auditory cortex 214
3.2 The role of the planum temporale in sound decoding 214
3.3 Cortical auditory 'what' and 'where' systems 216
4.0 Speech perception 224
4.1 Background and history 225
4.2 Early theories of speech perception 227
4.3 Functional mapping of speech-specific processes 228
4.4 The link between speech perception and production 229
4.5 Damage to speech perceptual systems 230
4.6 A working model for speech perception in the brain 232
5.0 Music perception 233
5.1 Stages of music processing 233
5.2 A separate system for music perception? 234
6.0 Learning and plasticity 234
6.1 Plasticity due to deprivation 234
6.2 Plasticity due to learning 235
6.3 Plasticity due to expertise 236
7.0 Auditory awareness and imagery 236
7.1 Auditory awareness during sleep and sedation 236
7.2 Auditory imagery 238
8.0 Summary 239
9.0 Chapter review 239
9.1 Study questions 239
9.2 Drawing exercise 239
9.3 Exploring more 240
Chapter 8 Attention and consciousness 242
1.0 Introduction 242
2.0 A distinction between attention and consciousness 242
2.1 Cortical selection and integration 243
2.2 Selective attention: voluntary and automatic 245
3.0 Experiments on attention 245
3.1 Methods for studying selective attention 247
4.0 The brain basis of attention 250
4.1 Attention as biased competition among neuron populations 250
4.2 Guiding the spotlight 251
4.3 Salience maps help guide attentional selection 251
4.4 Executive (voluntary) attention 252
4.5 Visual attention may have evolved from eye movement control 253
4.6 Maintaining attention against distraction 253
4.7 Attention and consciousness 257
5.0 The brain basis of conscious experience 257
5.1 Conscious cognition 257
5.2 Unconscious comparisons 258
5.3 Binding features into conscious objects 260
5.4 Visual feature integration in the macaque 261
5.5 Conscious events recruit widespread brain activation 263
5.6 Fast cortical interactions may be needed for conscious events 267
6.0 A summary and some hypotheses 268
7.0 Study questions 270
Chapter 9 Learning and memory 272
1.0 Introduction 272
1.1 A functional overview 275
1.2 Learning and memory in the functional framework 275
1.3 Implicit and explicit memory 277
2.0 Amnesia 278
2.1 HM: the best-studied amnesia patient 278
2.2 A summary of amnesia 281
2.3 Spared functions in amnesia: implicit and procedural memory 281
2.4 Spared implicit learning 283
3.0 Memories are made of this 284
3.1 Electrically evoked autobiographical memories 284
3.2 Long-term potentiation and long-term depression: excitatory and inhibitory memory traces 286
3.3 Consolidation: from temporary to permanent storage 287
3.4 Rapid consolidation: synaptic mechanisms, gene transcription, and protein synthesis 290
3.5 System consolidation: interaction between the medial temporal lobes and neocortex 290
4.0 Varieties of memory 290
4.1 Episodic and semantic memory: 'Remembering' versus 'knowing' 291
4.2 Episodic memories may turn into semantic memories over time 294
4.3 Episodic and semantic memory are often combined 294
5.0 MTL in explicit learning and memory 295
5.1 Divided attention interferes with learning 295
6.0 Prefrontal cortex, consciousness and working memory 296
6.1 Working with memory: the frontal lobe works purposefully with memory 299
6.2 Prefrontal cortex in explicit (conscious) and implicit (unconscious) learning and memory 300
6.3 Different types of working memory 301
6.4 Prefrontal cortex – storage or process control? 302
6.5 Combining prefrontal and MTL regions for working memory 303
7.0 Retrieval and metacognition 303
7.1 False retrieval 304
7.2 Hemispheric lateralization in retrieval 304
7.3 Theta rhythms may coordinate memory retrieval 305
8.0 Other kinds of learning 305
9.0 Summary 306
10.0 Drawings and study questions 307
Chapter 10 Thinking and problem-solving 310
1.0 Working memory 311
1.1 Working memory overlaps with attention, conscious events and episodic recall 312
2.0 Explicit problem-solving 313
2.1 Executive control in problem-solving 315
3.0 Mental workload and cortical activity 318
4.0 Using existing knowledge 320
4.1 Practice and training may change connectivities in the brain 321
4.2 Semantic memory 321
4.3 Abstract concepts, prototypes, and networks 322
4.4 Knowledge comes in networks 323
4.5 Conceptual deficits 325
4.6 Judgments of quantity and number 326
5.0 Implicit thinking 327
5.1 Feelings of knowing 328
6.0 Summary and conclusions 330
7.0 Drawings and study questions 331
Chapter 11 Language 334
1.0 Introduction 334
2.0 The nature of language 335
2.1 Biological aspects 337
2.2 Language origins 342
2.3 Speech versus language 342
3.0 The sounds of spoken language 342
4.0 Planning and producing speech 345
5.0 Evolutionary aspects of speaking and listening 347
6.0 Words and meanings 348
6.1 A cultural treasury of words and ideas 350
6.2 Recognizing synonyms 350
6.3 Current evidence about words and their meanings is fragmentary 351
7.0 Syntax, nesting and sequencing 352
8.0 Prosody and melody 352
9.0 Meaningful statements 354
10.0 Unified representations of language 355
11.0 Summary 356
12.0 Practice drawings and study questions 357
Chapter 12 Goals, executive control, and action 360
1.0 Introduction 360
2.0 Phylogeny and ontogeny 362
3.0 Function overview 362
4.0 Closer look at frontal lobes 363
4.1 Gross anatomy and connections 363
4.2 How prefrontal cortex is defined 364
5.0 A closer look at frontal lobe function 366
5.1 Traditional perspective on frontal lobe function: motor functions, actions and plans 366
6.0 Memories of the future 367
7.0 Novelty and routine 368
8.0 Ambiguity and actor-centered cognition 369
9.0 Working memory and working with memory 370
10.0 Theory of mind and intelligence 371
11.0 Frontal lobe pathology, executive impairment, and social implications of frontal lobe dysfunction 372
11.1 The fragile frontal lobes 372
11.2 Frontal lobe syndromes 372
11.3 Other clinical conditions associated with frontal lobe damage 378
12.0 Executive control and social maturity 379
13.0 Towards a unified theory of executive control: a conclusion 383
14.0 Drawing exercises and study questions 383
Chapter 13 Emotion 386
1.0 Introduction 386
1.1 The triune brain 387
1.2 Basic emotions and the role of reflective consciousness 388
2.0 Panksepp's emotional brain systems 388
2.1 Feelings of emotion 390
3.0 The FEAR system 390
3.1 Conscious and unconscious fear processing: LeDoux's high road and low road 393
3.2 Fear without awareness 393
3.3 Affective blindsight 394
3.4 Cognition-emotion interactions: FEAR 396
3.5 Implicit emotional learning and memory 396
3.6 Emotional modulation of explicit memory 396
3.7 Emotional influences on perception and attention 397
3.8 Emotion and social behavior 398
3.9 Emotion inhibition and regulation 398
4.0 The SEEKING system 400
4.1 Re-interpreting 'reward': from reward to reward prediction to reward prediction error 401
4.2 Reward is more than learning 402
4.3 'Reward pathway' and drug use 404
4.4 Reward cues influence attention 404
5.0 Conclusion 405
6.0 Chapter review 405
6.1 Study questions 405
6.2 Drawing exercises 405
Chapter 14 Social cognition: Perceiving the mental states of others 408
1.0 Overview 408
1.1 Terms that are used to refer to social cognition 409
1.2 The importance of perspective: the first, second, and third person 409
1.3 Approaches to perceiving others' minds 410
2.0 An organizing framework for social cognition 411
2.1 Intention 411
2.2 Eye detection 411
2.3 Shared attention 412
2.4 Higher-order theory of mind 412
3.0 Mirror neurons and intention detection 412
3.1 From action to intention 412
3.2 Finding posterior mirror neuron 416
3.3 Eye detection and gaze perception 417
3.4 Shared attention 418
3.5 Higher-order TOM abilities 419
3.6 Social cognition of others like and unlike us: I-It in the brain? 422
3.7 Face perception 423
3.8 Disordered social cognition in autism 425
4.0 Summary 426
5.0 Chapter review 426
5.1 Study questions 426
5.2 Drawing exercises 426
Chapter 15 Development 428
1.0 Introduction 428
1.1 New techniques for investigating the developing brain 429
1.2 The mystery of the developing brain: old questions and new 430
2.0 Prenatal development: from blastocyst to baby 430
2.1 Epigenesis 431
2.2 The anatomy of brain development 431
2.3 Neural migration 433
2.4 Nature and nurture revisited 437
2.5 Prenatal hearing experience: voice and music perception before birth 439
3.0 The developing brain: a lifetime of change 440
3.1 The rise and fall of postnatal brain development 440
3.2 Regional differences in brain development 441
4.0 Developing mind and brain 442
4.1 The first year of life: an explosion of growth and development 444
4.2 Childhood and adolescence: dynamic and staged growth 454
5.0 Early brain damage and developmental plasticity 465
6.0 Chapter Summary 467
7.0 Chapter review 468
7.1 Study questions 468
Appendices 470
Appendix A: Neural models: A route to cognitive brain theory 470
Part 1: Traditional neural models 471
1.0 Why two parts? 471
2.0 What is a neural model? 471
3.0 The neuron 472
4.0 The basic artificial neuron (McCulloch and Pitts, 1943) 473
5.0 Learning in a neuron – some basic notions 474
6.0 Other topics in neuron modeling 476
6.1 Hebbian learning 476
6.2 Activation functions 476
7.0 More than one neuron 476
7.1 The perceptron 477
7.2 Limitations of the perceptron 477
7.3 The multilayer perceptron 478
7.4 Cognition and perceptrons? 478
8.0 Recursive or dynamic networks 479
8.1 A simple example of a recursive net 479
8.2 Hopfield nets and Boltzmann machines 479
8.3 Other recursive systems 480
9.0 Looking back on Part l 482
Part 2: Seeing is believing 482
10.0 What is to be seen? 482
11.0 The NRM neuron 482
11.1 The activation and output computation algorithm 482
11.2 An experiment with a single basic digital neuron 483
11.3 An experiment with a layer of basic digital neuron 484
12.0 The NRM dynamic neural net 484
12.1 The state as a label of the input 484
12.2 The state as an inner image (icon) of the input 485
12.3 The inner state as a repository of sensory memories 486
12.4 The state space of the memory network 486
13.0 A complex cognitive system in NRM 487
13.1 What does the model currently tell us? 488
13.2 Response to input changes 489
13.3 Response to simulated voice input 489
13.4 Recall in the absence of stimulus 490
13.5 Summary of NRM work 490
13.6 Neural models of cognition: conclusion 490
14.0 Self-test puzzles and some solutions 491
14.1 Exercises with NRM 491
14.2 Looking at a more complex system (visual awareness) 492
14.3 Beyond the call of duty: stacking and self 493
Appendix B: Methods for observing the living brain 494
1.0 Historical background 494
1.1 Correlating brain and mind 494
1.2 Recording brain activation 495
2.0 Coupling brain activity to blood flow and metabolism 496
2.1 The physiological basis of functional brain mapping using PET and fMRI 496
3.0 Methods 496
3.1 Designing experiments 498
3.2 Electroencephalography (EEG) 498
3.3 Magnetoencephalography (MEG) 502
3.4 Single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) 507
3.5 Positron emission tomography (PET) 508
3.6 Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) 509
3.7 MRI – a tool for the future 520
3.8 Optical imaging 523
4.0 Multimodal brain imaging 523
4.1 Simultaneous imaging from different sources 523
4.2 Imaging genetics 527
5.0 Concluding remarks 527
References 530
Index 554
A 554
B 555
C 555
D 556
E 556
F 557
G 557
H 557
I 558
J 558
K 558
L 558
M 558
N 559
O 560
P 560
Q 561
R 561
S 561
T 562
U 562
V 562
W 563
Z 563