Representation and Brain

How is information represented in the nervous system? How is that information manipulated and processed? These are some of the more important and challenging questions for neuroscientists and psychologists today. Understanding brain functions, especially the neural mechanisms of higher cognitive processes such as thinking, reasoning, judging, and decision making, are the subjects covered by the research in the chapters of this book. They describe recent progress in four major research areas: visual functions, motor functions, memory functions, and prefrontal functions. Readers will obtain an excellent idea of how the nervous system internally represents the outer world, how the nervous system constructs images or schemas to perceive the outer world or react to the environment, and how the nervous system processes information using internal representations - topics that are at the forefront of brain science today.

Preface Part I: Visual Information Processing and Visual Image Production Chapter 1 Visual Perception of Contextual Effect and Its Neural Correlates Yoshimichi Ejima, Shigeko Takahashi, Hiroki Yamamoto, and Naokazu Goda Chapter 2 Multiple Mechanisms of Top-Down Processing in Vision Giorgio Ganis and Stephen M. Kosslyn Chapter 3 Invariant Representations of Objects in Natural Scenes in the Temporal Cortex Visual Areas Edmund T. Rolls Chapter 4 Representation of Objects and Scenes in Visual Working Memory in Human Brain Jun Saiki Part II: Motor Image and Body Schema Chapter 5 Action Representation in the Cerebral Cortex and the Cognitive Functions of the Motor System Leonardo Fogassi Chapter 6 Representation of Bodily Self in the Multimodal Parieto-Premotor Network Akira Murata and Hiroaki Ishida Chapter 7 Neuronal Correlates of the Simulation, Execution, and Perception of Limb Movements Eiichi Naito Chapter 8 Neural Basis of Saccadic Decision Making in the Human Cortex Samson Freyermuth, Jean-Philippe Lachaux, Philippe Kahane, and Alain Berthoz Part III: Memory as an Internal Representation Chapter 9 Neural Representations Supporting Spatial Navigation and Memory Joel E. Brown and Jeffrey S. Taube Chapter 10 How Can We Detect Ensemble Coding by Cell Assembly? Yoshio Sakurai Chapter 11 Representation of Numerical Information in the Brain Andreas Nieder Part IV: Manipulation of Internal Representation Chapter 12 Prefrontal Representations Underlying Goal-Directed Behavior Jonathan D. Wallis Chapter 13 The Prefrontal Cortex as a Model System to Understand Representation and Processing of Information Shintaro Funahashi Chapter 14 Large-Scale Network Dynamics in Neurocognitive Function Anthony Randal McIntosh Subject Index