
Study shows where the brain transforms seeing into acting - laurex
http://picower.mit.edu/news/study-shows-where-brain-transforms-seeing-acting
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raincom
I thought that the new phrenology (localizing some cognitive activity
spatially somewhere in the brain) is dead. Late William Uttal provided
empirical arguments to the effect that new phrenology is dead.

This said research is about mouse. Love to see this experiment performed on
many human beings, at many sites, but by different research teams, with the
the same spatial identity. Meta analysis on these as well. Until then, I am
skeptical.

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xg15
Well, there are certainly specialized brain regions for _some_ tasks - e.g.,
we know certain structures in the visual cortex are responsible for extracting
low-level image features (edges, lines, shapes, etc as well as attributes such
as speed and direction). We even have a pretty good idea _how_ they do that -
good enough that early neural network research was inspired by it.

I'm highly skeptical as well though that this works for high-level cognitive
tasks.

I'm also a bit confused by the way the article describes the task. They
describe it as "the link between seeing and doing" as if that were some low-
level, easily predictable reflex. But if you put it that broadly, wouldn't
that entail almost _all_ cognitive decision making?

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raincom
Actually, localization is true for the early phases of input systems (sensory)
and for the later phases of output systems (motor).

From the published paper:"This strongly suggests that PPC neurons encode
choice-related signals related to decision formation or motor planning."
'Decision formation', if seen in isolation, sounds like a higher cognitive
process; however, it is 'motor planning'. Here, one has enough freedom to fall
back on the motor system and its dependence on the sensory system as well.

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megamindbrian2
Twinkle twinkle Little Star

