2024/12/05 by John Duncan · 2 voices · 21 citations
Neuroscience · Psychology · #Action (physics) #Artificial intelligence #Cognition #Cognitive model #Cognitive neuroscience #Cognitive psychology #Cognitive science #Computer science #Control (management) #Default mode network #EEG and Brain-Computer Interfaces #Memory and Neural Mechanisms #Neural dynamics and brain function #Neuroscience #Perception #Psychology
paper · doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2024.109062
published in Neuropsychologia 207, 109062 (Elsevier BV)
openalex publication_date 2024/12/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
As an organizing framework for questions of mind and brain, I discuss how the brain builds and uses mental models. Mental models provide a complex, structured description of some situation in the world. The role of perception is to build such a model for the current environment; knowledge provides many of the building blocks; in episodic memory, a previous model is reinstated; in cognitive control, the model dictates a choice of action. A model, I suggest, is a compositional, whole brain state, combining information from multiple specialised brain systems into a structured description of entities in the model and their roles and relationships. The default mode network may play an organizational role as parts of a model are combined into a broader whole. The model combines an active attentional foreground with a more extensive, latent background. Foreground is based on active neural firing, orchestrated by the brain’s multiple demand network. Background may also include low-intensity neural activity, but with a substantial contribution from both faster and slower aspects of synaptic change. Interplay between foreground and background underlies core aspects of cognition, including cognitive control, problem solving, abstraction, and learning. Together, these proposals suggest how integrated, whole-brain functions build mental models, providing a unifying framework for the diverse concerns of cognitive neuroscience. • Mental models integrate diverse concerns of cognitive neuroscience • The mental model is a compositional, whole-brain state • The model combines an attentional foreground with a large capacity background • Foreground is integrated by the brain’s multiple-demand system • Background depends on both rapid and long-term synaptic change • Large-scale model structure is provided by the default mode network