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Brain high-order functions
Hao Wang Ph. D.
Institute of neuroscience
The myth of brain
There are about 86 billion neurons in the human brain!
Neural circuits
Jean Livet et al, 2007
• The brain is the home of complex processes
such as memory, language and attention.
Neuroscientists have long believed that these
higher-order functions are associated with
distinct areas in the brain. But no single area in
the brain is responsible for any one of these
processes. Usually, they require the integrated
action of several brain areas.
Brain higher-order functions
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Attention
Emotions
Memory and learning
Executive functions (thinking)
Self-consciousness
Language
Attention
• Attention is the cognitive process of
selectively concentrating on one aspect of
the environment while ignoring other
things.
Selective attention test
• http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/53rd
b8EUhe8/
Emotions
emotion is the generic term for subjective, conscious experience
that is characterized primarily by psychophysiological expressions,
biological reactions, and mental states.
Emotions in non-human primates
Emotion in rodents
CS
Fear
Condition
US
The most well studied emotion in rodents is fear
Neuronal circuits for conditioned fear
CG, central grey; LH, lateral hypothalamus;
PVN, paraventricular hypothalamus
Memory and learning
• Why we can learn?
- Cellular mechanisms LTP and LTD
- Structure changes after learning
Longitudinal in vivo imaging
Day 19
Day 79
Day 119
Day 226
Dendritic spines remodeling after learning
Where does our memory stored?
• The prefrontal cortex is responsible for
short-term memory, such as keeping a
phone number in mind while dialing it.
• The hippocampus is responsible for
forming new memories.
Executive functions
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Concept
Reasoning
Decision making
Problem solving
Self-consciousness
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