cognitive control – The Miller Lab @ MIT

31

Jul 2018

Adaptive coding in the human brain: Distinct object features are encoded by overlapping voxels in frontoparietal cortex

Miller Lab

Neuroscience

More evidence for mixed-selectivity in the cortex. This time with voxels in the human brain.

Jackson, J., & Woolgar, A. (2018). Adaptive coding in the human brain: Distinct object features are encoded by overlapping voxels in frontoparietal cortex. Cortex.

Read more about mixed selectivity:
Rigotti, M., Barak, O., Warden, M.R., Wang, X., Daw, N.D., Miller, E.K., & Fusi, S. (2013) The importance of mixed selectivity in complex cognitive tasks. Nature, 497, 585-590, doi:10.1038/nature12160. View PDF »

Fusi, S., Miller, E.K., and Rigotti, M. (2016) Why neurons mix: High dimensionality for higher cognition. Current Opinion in Neurobiology. 37:66-74 doi:10.1016/j.conb.2016.01.010. View PDF »
25

Jan 2017

New paper: Dynamic coding for flexible cognitive control

Miller Lab

Miller Laboratory, Neuroscience

Still think that single neurons with specific functions rule the brain? Let us persuade you otherwise. We argue that cognitive control stems from dynamic, context-dependent population coding.

Stokes, M., Buschman, T.J., and Miller, E.K. (2017) Dynamic coding for flexible cognitive control. The Wiley Handbook of Cognitive Control, The Wiley Handbook of Cognitive Control, Edited by Tobias Egner, John Wiley & Sons, 2017(Chichester, West Sussex, UK). View PDF
20

Dec 2016

Oscillatory Dynamics of Prefrontal Cognitive Control

Miller Lab

Neuroscience

Randoph Helfrich and Robert Knight review evidence that the infrastructure of cognitive control is rhythmic. The general idea is that the prefrontal cortex controls large-scale oscillatory dynamics in the cortex and subcortex. But there is much more. Do yourself a favor: Read it.

Helfrich, R. F., & Knight, R. T. (2016). Oscillatory Dynamics of Prefrontal Cognitive Control. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
1

Sep 2016

Monkey Prefrontal Neurons Reflect Logical Operations for Cognitive Control in a Variant of the AX Continuous Performance Task (AX-CPT)

Miller Lab

Neuroscience

A very nice experiment from Matt Chafee et al (as usual). They show that neurons in the prefrontal cortex don’t have fixed properties. Instead, they show “mixed selectivity” that changes with behavioral context and is biased toward stimuli that inhibit prepotent responses. Sounds like cognitive control to me.

Blackman, Rachael K., et al. “Monkey prefrontal neurons reflect logical operations for cognitive control in a variant of the AX continuous performance task (AX-CPT).” The Journal of Neuroscience 36.14 (2016): 4067-4079.
1

Jun 2016

Frontal preparatory neural oscillations associated with cognitive control

Miller Lab

Neuroscience

This study shows the role of alpha and beta oscillations in the prefrontal cortex and frontal eye fields in a classic test of cognitive control: anti-saccades. It also shows how these oscillatory patterns develop with adulthood.

Hwang, Kai, et al. “Frontal preparatory neural oscillations associated with cognitive control: A developmental study comparing young adults and adolescents.” NeuroImage (2016).
10

Sep 2015

Discrimination of Visual Categories Based on Behavioral Relevance in Widespread Regions of Frontoparietal Cortex

Miller Lab

Neuroscience

Erez and Duncan elegantly show that the prefrontal cortex only cares about behavioral (goal) relevance. Human subjects detected whether images from one of two visual categories were present in a scene. The prefrontal cortex did not distinguish between the two categories but did distinguish whether an image was one the two categories (i.e., a target) or not (a non-target).

Erez, Y. and Duncan, J. Discrimination of Visual Categories Based on Behavioral Relevance in Widespread Regions of Frontoparietal Cortex. The Journal of Neuroscience, 9 September 2015, 35(36): 12383-12393; doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1134-15.2015
25

Aug 2015

Abstract Context Representations in Primate Amygdala and Prefrontal Cortex

Miller Lab

Neuroscience

Abstract context representations are not just in the prefrontal cortex, they are also in the amygdala. The authors also report that errors were associated with reduced context encoding. Cool.

Saez, A., et al. “Abstract Context Representations in Primate Amygdala and Prefrontal Cortex.” Neuron 87.4 (2015): 869-881.

Preview by Cohen and Paz:
Cohen, Yarden, and Rony Paz. “It All Depends on the Context, but Also on the Amygdala.” Neuron 87.4 (2015): 678-680.
27

Jul 2015

Oscillatory dynamics coordinating human frontal networks in support of goal maintenance

Miller Lab

Neuroscience

Voytek et al provide more evidence that oscillatory dynamics play a critical role in neural communication and cognitive control. As humans performed tasks that required greater abstraction, there was an increase in theta synchrony between anterior and posterior frontal cortex. This may allow more anterior frontal cortex is communicate the higher level goals to motor cortex.

Oscillatory dynamics coordinating human frontal networks in support of goal maintenance
Bradley Voytek, Andrew S Kayser, David Badre, David Fegen, Edward F Chang, Nathan E Crone, Josef Parvizi, Robert T Knight & Mark D’Esposito. Nature Neuroscience
12

Feb 2014

Neural circuits as computational dynamical systems

Miller Lab

Neuroscience

Sussillo reviews the use of recurrent neural networks (RNNs) to study cortical neurons. RNNs can explain the high-dimensional, mixed-selectivity properties and oscillatory temporal dynamics of cortical neurons. They share many features of cortical networks including feedback, nonlinearity, and parallel and distributed computing
30

Jan 2014

Autonomous Encoding of Irrelevant Goals and Outcomes by Prefrontal Cortex Neurons

Miller Lab

Neuroscience

Genovesio et al trained monkeys to judge whether red square or blue circle were farther from a reference point. Even though information about the previous trial was irrelevant to the current trial, prefrontal cortex neurons conveyed the outcome of the previous trial and other irrelevant information about it. Information about previous outcomes can often be helpful. This study shows that this is automatically tracked by the prefrontal cortex even when it is not helpful.