Computational Neuroscience for Cognitive Brain Functions

Cognitive behavior requires complex context-dependent processing of information that partially emerges from the links between attentional perceptual processes and working memory. We describe a computational neuroscience theoretical framework which shows how an attentional bias can influence perceptual processing, the mapping of sensory inputs to motor output and formation of selective working memory. This theoretical framework incorporates spiking and synaptic dynamics which enable single neuron responses, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activations, psychophysical results, the effects of pharmacological agents, and the effects of damage to parts of the system, to be explicitly simulated and predicted. This computational neuroscience framework provides an approach for integrating different levels of investigation of brain function, and for understanding the relations between them.