Cowell and Cottrell trained a computational model on images used in fMRI studies of object and face processing. They used multivariate pattern analysis and were able to replicate evidence for a specialized face area even though the model had no specialized processing for faces. The authors suggest that fMRI evidence for a specialized face area should be interpreted with caution.
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Excellent review of an important topic: Working memory capacity. The limitation in working memory capacity is the most objective, easily measured, and tractable property of conscious thought..
Luck and Vogel (2013)Miller Lab work cited:
Siegel, M., Warden, M.R., and Miller, E.K. (2009) Phase-dependent neuronal coding of objects in short-term memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106: 21341-21346. View PDF » -
Peter Lakatos and Charlie Schroeder have conducted elegant work showing that the brain entrains its rhythms to attended sensory inputs. Here, Lakatos et al show that normal human subjects show increased rhythmic entrainment with increasing task demands, By contrast, schizophrenic patients are less able to match their brain rhythms to attended stimuli, even when the task is highly demanding.
Miller Lab work cited:
Buschman, T.J. and Miller, E.K. (2007) Top-down versus bottom-up control of attention in the prefrontal and posterior parietal cortices. Science. 315: 1860-1862 The Scientist’s “Hot Paper” for October 2009. View PDF »Buschman, T.J. and Miller, E.K. (2009) Serial, covert, shifts of attention during visual search are reflected by the frontal eye fields and correlated with population oscillations. Neuron, 63: 386-396. View PDF »
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Your prefrontal cortex becomes less resistant to stress as you age. McEwen and Morrison tell you all about it.
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Boot et al show that it is important for psychology studies to have active controls. To exclude placebo effects, the control should include the expectation of change without the actual manipulation.
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Miller Lab alumnus, Andreas Nieder, finds that abstract decisions divorced from motor plans are distributed across frontal areas, even those traditionally thought of as motor areas. In fact, they are more strongly encoded in the presupplementary motor area than the prefrontal cortex.
Merten and Nieder 2013Miller Lab work cited:
Freedman, D.J., Riesenhuber, M., Poggio, T., and Miller, E.K. (2001) Categorical representation of visual stimuli in the primate prefrontal cortex. Science, 291:312-316. View PDF »Miller, E.K. and Cohen, J.D. (2001) An integrative theory of prefrontal cortex function. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 24:167-202. Designated a Current Classic by Thomson Scientific as among the most cited papers in Neuroscience and Behavior. View PDF »
Miller, E.K. (2000) The prefrontal cortex and cognitive control. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 1:59-65.
Wallis, J.D., Anderson, K.C., and Miller, E.K. (2001) Single neurons in the prefrontal cortex encode abstract rules. Nature, 411:953-956. View PDF »
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Pannunzi et al propose a model of visual category learning in which bottom-up sensory inputs to the inferior temporal cortex are sculpted by top-down inputs from the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The PFC improves signal to noise by enhancing the category-relevant features of the stimuli.
Miller Lab work cited:
Freedman, D.J., Riesenhuber, M., Poggio, T., and Miller, E.K. (2001) Categorical representation of visual stimuli in the primate prefrontal cortex. Science, 291:312-316. View PDF »Freedman, D.J., Riesenhuber, M., Poggio, T., and Miller, E.K (2003) A comparison of primate prefrontal and inferior temporal cortices during visual categorization. Journal of Neuroscience, 23(12):5235-5246. View PDF »
Meyers, E.M., Freedman, D.J., Kreiman, G., Miller, E.K., and Poggio, T. (2008) Dynamic population coding of category information in the inferior temporal cortex and prefrontal cortex. Journal of Neurophysiology. 100:1407-1419. View PDF »
Muhammad, R., Wallis, J.D., and Miller, E.K. (2006) A comparison of abstract rules in the prefrontal cortex, premotor cortex, the inferior temporal cortex and the striatum. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18: 974-989. View PDF »
Seger, C.A. and Miller, E.K. (2010) Category learning in the brain. Annual Review of Neuroscience, Vol. 33: 203-219. View PDF »
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A nice cautionary discussion of how to interpret the results of multiple-way ANOVAs that yield unexpected interactions.
Bishop Blog -
In this week’s NY Times, Susana Martinez-Conde reminds us that our visual system works by detecting change.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/opinion/sunday/vision-is-all-about-change.html -
The human prefrontal cortex may not be special in terms of its size relative to other primates, but it is still a pretty special.
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/2013/05/16/gorillas-agree-human-frontal-cortex-is-nothing-special/?utm_source=feedlyWant to know what it does? Here’s a start:
Miller, E.K. and Cohen, J.D. (2001) An integrative theory of prefrontal cortex function. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 24:167-202. Designated a Current Classic by Thomson Scientific as among the most cited papers in Neuroscience and Behavior. View PDF »