Beyond Language: Childhood Bilingualism Enhances High-Level Cognitive Functions

2007 ◽  
pp. 301-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ágnes Melinda Kovács
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
High Level

scholarly journals A Roadmap for Understanding Memory: Decomposing Cognitive Processes into Operations and Representations

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosemary Cowell ◽  
Morgan Barense ◽  
Patrick Sadil
Keyword(s):  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Declarative Memory ◽  
Behavioral Control ◽  
Representational Content ◽  
Neural Mechanism ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Medial Temporal Lobes ◽  
Pattern Completion ◽  
High Level

Thanks to patients Phineas Gage and Henry Molaison, we have long known that behavioral control depends on the frontal lobes, whereas declarative memory depends on the medial temporal lobes. For decades, cognitive functions – behavioral control, declarative memory – have served as labels for characterizing the division of labor in cortex. This approach has made enormous contributions to understanding how the brain enables the mind, providing a systems-level explanation of brain function that constrains lower-level investigations of neural mechanism. Today, the approach has evolved such that functional labels are often applied to brain networks rather than focal brain regions. Furthermore, the labels have diversified to include both broadly-defined cognitive functions (declarative memory, visual perception) and more circumscribed mental processes (recollection, familiarity, priming). We ask whether a process – a high-level mental phenomenon corresponding to an introspectively-identifiable cognitive event – is the most productive label for dissecting memory. For example, the process of recollection conflates a neurocomputational operation (pattern completion-based retrieval) with a class of representational content (associative, high-dimensional, episodic-like memories). Because a full theory of memory must identify operations and representations separately, and specify how they interact, we argue that processes like recollection constitute inadequate labels for characterizing neural mechanisms. Instead, we advocate considering the component operations and representations of mnemonic processes in isolation, when examining their neural underpinnings. For the neuroanatomical organization of memory, the evidence suggests that pattern completion is recapitulated widely across cortex, but the division of labor between cortical sites can be explained by representational content.

Contribution of the basal ganglia to spoken language: Is speech production like the other motor skills?

2014 ◽  
Vol 37 (6) ◽  
pp. 576-576 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Zenon ◽  
Etienne Olivier
Keyword(s):  
Basal Ganglia ◽  
Speech Production ◽  
Motor Skills ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Motor System ◽  
Spoken Language ◽  
The Other ◽  
Motor Behaviour ◽  
Hypokinetic Dysarthria ◽  
High Level

AbstractTwo of the roles assigned to the basal ganglia in spoken language parallel very well their contribution to motor behaviour: (1) their role in sequence processing, resulting in syntax deficits, and (2) their role in movement “vigor,” leading to “hypokinetic dysarthria” or “hypophonia.” This is an additional example of how the motor system has served the emergence of high-level cognitive functions, such as language.

On the Principles of Imagination and Creativity

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-62
Author(s):  
Rajashree Chaurasia
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
The Other ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Historical Perspectives ◽  
Fourth Industrial Revolution ◽  
High Level ◽  
Creativity And Innovation

Human beings are the only mammals to be able to utilize high-level cognitive functions to build knowledge, innovate, and communicate their complex ideas. Imagination, creativity, and innovation are interlinked in the sense that one leads to the other. This chapter details the concepts of imagery, imagination, and creativity and their inter-relationships in the first section. Next, the author discusses the historical perspectives of imagination pertaining to the accounts of famous philosophers and psychologists like Aristotle, Kant, Hume, Descartes, Sartre, Husserl, and Wittgenstein. Section 3 and 4 present the neuro-biological correlates of imagination and creativity, respectively. Brain regions, neuronal circuits, genetic basis, as well as the evolutionary perspective of imagination and creativity are elicited in these sections. Finally, creativity and innovation are explored as to how they will contribute to knowledge build-up and advances in science, engineering, and business in the fourth industrial revolution and the imagination age.

scholarly journals Individual Brain Charting, a high-resolution fMRI dataset for cognitive mapping

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Luísa Pinho ◽  
Alexis Amadon ◽  
Torsten Ruest ◽  
Murielle Fabre ◽  
Elvis Dohmatob ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Brain Mapping ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Cognitive Mapping ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Resonance Imaging ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Precise Mapping ◽  
Objective Basis ◽  
High Level

Abstract Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) has furthered brain mapping on perceptual, motor, as well as higher-level cognitive functions. However, to date, no data collection has systematically addressed the functional mapping of cognitive mechanisms at a fine spatial scale. The Individual Brain Charting (IBC) project stands for a high-resolution multi-task fMRI dataset that intends to provide the objective basis toward a comprehensive functional atlas of the human brain. The data refer to a cohort of 12 participants performing many different tasks. The large amount of task-fMRI data on the same subjects yields a precise mapping of the underlying functions, free from both inter-subject and inter-site variability. The present article gives a detailed description of the first release of the IBC dataset. It comprises a dozen of tasks, addressing both low- and high- level cognitive functions. This openly available dataset is thus intended to become a reference for cognitive brain mapping.

A High Level Model of a Conscious Embodied Agent

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 62-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jirí Wiedermann
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Neural Nets ◽  
Imitation Learning ◽  
Model Based ◽  
Level Model ◽  
Higher Cognitive Functions ◽  
High Level ◽  
Embodied Agent

In this paper, the author describes a simple yet cognitively powerful architecture of an embodied conscious agent. The architecture incorporates a mechanism for mining, representing, processing and exploiting semantic knowledge. This mechanism is based on two complementary internal world models which are built automatically. One model (based on artificial mirror neurons) is used for mining and capturing the syntax of the recognized part of the environment while the second one (based on neural nets) for its semantics. Jointly, the models support algorithmic processes underlying phenomena similar in important aspects to higher cognitive functions such as imitation learning and the development of communication, language, thinking, and consciousness.

scholarly journals Centanarians of Moscow: functional, cognitive and emotional state

2020 ◽  
pp. 57-63
Author(s):  
K. A. Eruslanova ◽  
N. V. Sharashkina ◽  
I. V. Permikina ◽  
A. V. Luzina ◽  
Y. S. Onuchina ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Mental Status ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Emotional State ◽  
Medical Personnel ◽  
Visual Assessment ◽  
100Th Anniversary ◽  
Instrumental Activity ◽  
Status Assessment ◽  
High Level

The long-livers of Moscow: functional, cognitive and emotional status. Aim: To evaluate the functional, cognitive and emotional state of long-livers for determining the amount of necessary assistance from social services and medical personnel.Methods: According to  the register of  super-long-livers of  Moscow, 82 people aged from 95 to 105 years were recruited. Participants looked around at home. When visiting, the comprehensive geriatric assessment were performed for each paitent, including an  assessment of  the overall level of physical and instrumental activity, mental status and cognitive functions. The following questionnaires were used for the assessment: a  brief scale of  mental status assessment (MMSE), a  geriatric scale of  depression, the Barthel index (activity in  everyday life), IADL (assessment of instrumental activity), to assess the quality of life, a visual assessment scale (VAS) was used.Result: The study showed that, on average, people who reached or were approaching the 100th anniversary had a high level of instrumental (15.6 +/–5.4) and daily activity (72 +/–27.8). In general, no significant decrease in cognitive functions (21.8 +/–5.6) and emotional level (6.3 +/–4.1) was detected in the study participants.Conclusion: The first data showed the uniqueness and fragility of  people in  this age group. Future work using a similar integrated and multidimensional approach is necessary for a better understanding of aging processes and risk factors worsening the condition of patients, ensuring an increase in the number of centenarians with a high level of life satisfaction.

scholarly journals The Effects of 12-Week Physical Exercise Tapping High-level Cognitive Functions

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-66
Author(s):  
Zhiguang Ji ◽  
Tian Feng ◽  
Hongbiao Wang
Keyword(s):  
Physical Exercise ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
High Level

High-Level Cognitive Functions in Healthy Subjects

2014 ◽  
pp. 299-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tal Sela ◽  
Michal Lavidor
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Healthy Subjects ◽  
High Level

Resetting the brain

2021 ◽  
pp. 110-123
Author(s):  
Chris Letheby
Keyword(s):  
Neural Networks ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Prediction Error ◽  
Cognitive Process ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Predictive Processing ◽  
Therapeutic Benefits ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Brain

‘Resetting the brain’ examines the hypothesis that (i) large-scale neural networks become stuck in dysfunctional configurations in pathology, and (ii) psychedelics cause therapeutic benefits by disrupting these configurations, providing an opportunity to ‘reset’ the relevant networks into a healthier state. This chapter argues that this view is correct but limited; per Chapter 5, it needs to be supplemented with an account of these networks’ cognitive functions. To this end, the chapter introduces the predictive processing (PP) theory of cognition, which views the brain as an organ for prediction error minimisation. One PP-based theory of psychedelic action claims that (i) the networks targeted by psychedelics encode high-level beliefs, and (ii) psychedelic disruption of these beliefs provides an opportunity to revise them. This is the cognitive process that corresponds to the ‘resetting’ of neural networks. The chapter concludes by proposing that the beliefs most often revised in successful psychedelic therapy are self-related beliefs.

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