Cortex and Mind: Unifying CognitionThis book presents a unique synthesis of the current neuroscience of cognition by one of the world's authorities in the field. The guiding principle to this synthesis is the tenet that the entirety of our knowledge is encoded by relations, and thus by connections, in neuronal networks of our cerebral cortex. Cognitive networks develop by experience on a base of widely dispersed modular cell assemblies representing elementary sensations and movements. As they develop cognitive networks organize themselves hierarchically by order of complexity or abstraction of their content. Because networks intersect profusely, sharing commong nodes, a neuronal assembly anywhere in the cortex can be part of many networks, and therefore many items of knowledge. All cognitive functions consist of neural transactions within and between cognitive networks. After reviewing the neurobiology and architecture of cortical networks (also named cognits), the author undertakes a systematic study of cortical dynamics in each of the major cognitive functions--perception, memory, attention, language, and intelligence. In this study, he makes use of a large body of evidence from a variety of methodologies, in the brain of the human as well as the nonhuman primate. The outcome of his interdisciplinary endeavor is the emergence of a structural and dynamic order in the cerebral cortex that, though still sketchy and fragmentary, mirrors with remarkable fidelity the order in the human mind. |
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action activation amygdala aphasia association cortex auditory axons behavior brain Broca's Broca's area cells cerebral cortex Chapter cognitive functions cognitive networks color complex components concept connections consciousness convergence correlates cortical areas cortical networks creative dendrites distributed encoded environment essential evidence executive cognits executive memory feedback Figure formation frontal cortex frontal lobe func functional architecture Fuster gestalt Goldman-Rakic hemisphere heterarchical hierarchy higher hippocampus human inferences inferotemporal inputs intelligence knowledge language lateral prefrontal cortex layers lesions levels lexical limbic linguistic mechanisms memory networks modality modules monkey motor cortex neocortex neocortical neural neuroimaging neurons Neuropsychology neuroscience nodes organization parietal perception perception-action cycle performance posterior cortex prefrontal cortex premotor cortex primate processing Rakic reasoning regions representation retrieval role selective semantic sensory and motor spatial specific structures studies substrate symbolic synaptic syntax task temporal integration tion unimodal association visual visual cortex Wernicke's area words