![]() ![]() Unlike functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), which is commonly used to measure brain activity, MEG can reveal the precise timing of neural activity, down to the millisecond. The IFJ has previously been implicated in a cognitive ability known as working memory, which is what allows us to gather and coordinate information while performing a task - such as remembering and dialing a phone number, or doing a math problem.įor this study, the researchers used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to scan human subjects as they viewed a series of overlapping images of faces and houses. Rosenblith Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at MIT. The FFA and PPA were first identified in the human cortex by Nancy Kanwisher, the Walter A. In the new study, the researchers found that IFJ coordinates with a brain region that processes faces, known as the fusiform face area (FFA), and a region that interprets information about places, known as the parahippocampal place area (PPA). For spatial attention, that involves regions of the visual cortex that map to a particular area within the visual field. In both cases, the prefrontal cortex - the control center for most cognitive functions - appears to take charge of the brain’s attention and control relevant parts of the visual cortex, which receives sensory input. “It seems like it’s a parallel process involving different areas.” “The interactions are surprisingly similar to those seen in spatial attention,” Desimone says. However, the new findings suggest that these two types of attention have similar mechanisms involving related brain regions, says Robert Desimone, the Doris and Don Berkey Professor of Neuroscience, director of MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and senior author of the paper. Scientists know much less about this type of attention, known as object-based attention, than spatial attention, which involves focusing on what’s happening in a particular location. Picking out a face in the crowd is a complicated task: Your brain has to retrieve the memory of the face you’re seeking, then hold it in place while scanning the crowd, paying special attention to finding a match.Ī new study by MIT neuroscientists reveals how the brain achieves this type of focused attention on faces or other objects: A part of the prefrontal cortex known as the inferior frontal junction (IFJ) controls visual processing areas that are tuned to recognize a specific category of objects, the researchers report in the April 10 online edition of Science. Screen shots from a video of overlapping images of faces and houses, shown to subjects who were asked to pay attention to one or the other.Images: Daniel Baldauf, screen shots colorized by MIT News Neuroscientists identify a brain circuit that's key to shifting our focus from one object to another. Poitras Center for Psychiatric Disorders Research.Principal Research Scientists Open Principal Research Scientists. ![]()
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