Neuroscience of Rule-Guided Behavior

by Silvia A. Bunge (Editor), Jonathan D. Wallis (Editor)

Overview

Neuroscience of Rule-Guided Behavior brings together, for the first time, the experiments and theories that have created the new science of rules. Rules are central to human behavior, but until now the field of neuroscience lacked a synthetic approach to understanding them. How are rules learned, retrieved from memory, maintained in consciousness and implemented? How are they used to solve problems and select among actions and activities? How are the various levels of rules represented in the brain, ranging from simple conditional ones if a traffic light turns red, then stop to rules and strategies of such sophistication that they defy description? And how do brain regions interact to produce rule-guided behavior? These are among the most fundamental questions facing neuroscience, but until recently there was relatively little progress in answering them. It was difficult to probe brain mechanisms in humans, and expert opinion held that animals lacked the capacity for such high-level behavior. However, rapid progress in neuroimaging technology has allowed investigators to explore brain mechanisms in humans, while increasingly sophisticated behavioral methods have revealed that animals can and do use high-level rules to control their behavior. The resulting explosion of information has led to a new science of rules, but it has also produced a plethora of overlapping ideas and terminology and a field sorely in need of synthesis. In this book, Silvia Bunge and Jonathan Wallis bring together the worlds leading cognitive and systems neuroscientists to explain the most recent research on rule-guided behavior. Their work covers a wide range of disciplines and methods, including neuropsychology, functional magnetic resonance imaging, neurophysiology, electroencephalography, neuropharmacology, near-infrared spectroscopy, and transcranial magnetic stimulation. This unprecedented synthesis is a must-read for anyone interested in how complex behavior is controlled and organized by the brain.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190295424
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	10/05/2007
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	15 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

University of California, Berkeley

Department of Psychology Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute

Table of Contents

Contributors.
Introduction.
Part I: Rule Representation.
1. Selection between Competing Responses based on Conditional Rules, Michael Petrides
2. Single Neuron Activity Underlying Behavior-Guiding Rules, Jonathan D. Wallis
3. Brain Mechanisms Involved in Retrieving and Maintaining Task Rules, Silvia A Bunge and Michael J. Souza
4. Maintenance and Implementation of Task Rules, Katsuyuki Sakai
5. The Neurophysiology of Abstract Response Strategies, Aldo Genovesio and Steven P. Wise
6. Using Complex Systems of Abstract Rules: Executive Control and Automaticity at Highest Orders of Abstraction, Kamyar Keramatian and Kalina Christoff
Part II: Rule Implementation.
7. Contrasting Roles of Lateral and Medical Frontal Cortices in Action Selection, Matthew F.S. Rushworth, Paula L. Croxson, Mark J. Buckley, and Mark E. Walton
8. Differential Involvement of the Prefrontal, Premotor, and Primary Motor Cortices in Rule-Based Motor Behavior, Eiji Hoshi
9. The Functional Neuroanatomy of Task Rule Implementation, Marcel Brass, Jan Derrfuss, and D. Yves von Cramon
10. Time Course of Executive Processes: Data from the Event-Related Optical Signal (EROS), Gabriele Gratton, Kathy A. Low, and Monica Fabiani
Part III: Task-Switching.
11. Task-Switching in Human and Non-Human Primates: Understanding Rule Encoding and Control from Behavior to Single Neurons, Glijsbert Stoet and Lawrence H. Synder
12. Neural Mechanisms of Cognitive Control in Task-Switching: Rules, Representations, and Preparation, Hannes Ruge and Todd S. Braver
13. The Differential Contribution of the Catecholamines to Rule Learning and Rule Switching, Angela C. Roberts
14. Dopaminergic Modulation of Cognitive Flexibility: The Role of the Basal Ganglia, Roshan Cools
Part IV: Building Blocks of Rule Representation.
15. Prefrontal-Medial Temporal Lobe Interactions in Memory, Paul A. Lipton and Howard B. Eichenbaum
16. Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex and Controlling Memory to Inform Action, David Badre
17. Neuronal Mechanisms of Visual Categorization, David J. Freedman
18. Rules through Recursion: How Interactions Between the Frontal Cortex and Basal Ganglia may Build Abstract Rules from Concrete Ones, Earl K. Miller and Timothy J. Buschsman
19. A Theoretical Account of the Development of Rule Use Over Childhood, Phillip D. Zelazo

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Michael Joel Schrift, DO, MA (Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine)
Description: This excellent book covers an exciting area of cognitive neuroscience involving the neural mechanisms of rule representation and implementation. Much of our behavior is focused on achieving a particular goal state. Critical to us having goal-oriented behaviors is our ability to learn and use rules that specify the most appropriate response under a given set of circumstances. This book provides readers with the current state of knowledge in this fascinating area of research. Written and edited by a group of internationally recognized researchers in the field, this is an excellent summary of this emerging area of scientific inquiry.
Purpose: The purpose was to summarize a mini symposium on the neuroscience of rule-guided behavior that was given at the Society for Neuroscience in 2005. The editors and chapter authors intended to present "an overview of the current state of knowledge about the neural systems involved in various aspects of rule use: acquisition, long-term storage, retrieval, maintenance, and implementation," featuring a variety of experimental approaches. Indeed, they have produced an outstanding overview of this field.
Audience: The intended audience includes primarily neuroscientists and graduate students in the neurosciences. Anyone wishing to learn about this important knowledge domain should read this book.
Features: The first section covers the neural mechanisms involved in the representation of rules with a very interesting chapter on single neuron activity and behaviorally guiding rules. The next section summarizes the recent research on rule implementation and how various frontal regions mediate decision-making, action-selection, and rule-guided motor behavior. Tasking switching and the underlying neural mechanisms including dopaminergic and serotonergic modulatory effects are covered next. The last section contains overview chapters covering binding and organization, memory and action, the frontal striatal pathways and abstraction, and the development of rule use in childhood. Each chapter ends with a listing of pertinent and timely references of the neuroscientific literature.
Assessment: This exciting book covers an extremely interesting and emerging area of neuroscience. Anyone who wishes to understand the brain and behavior should be familiar with the findings presented here.

Doody's Review Service

"This exciting book covers an extremely interesting and emerging area of neuroscience. Anyone who wishes to understand the brain and behavior should be familiar with the findings presented here."—Doody's

From the Publisher