John Duncan provides an excellent review of the role of the frontal and parietal cortex in higher level cognition. He argues that they form a multiple-demand (MD) network. Neurons in this MD network have multiple functions, flexibly adapting their coding to signal different things in different tasks. Duncan argues that they play a critical role in subdividing complex problems and organizing a coherent sequence of focused parts or subgoals. The MD network construction of these attentional episodes is thought to be a core function for complex cognition and this function is central to fluid intelligence.
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Miller Lab
The Miller Lab uses experimental and theoretical approaches to study the neural basis of the high-level cognitive functions that underlie complex goal-directed behavior. ekmillerlab.mit.edu