The Brain's Processing of Information

Paper Summary:

This paper reviews Potts, Martin, Burton and Montague's examination into the way the brain processes information, specifically how it orders and accesses data to know what is the most relevant information. It looks at their 2006 article, "When Things are Better or Worse than Expected: The Medial Frontal Cortex and the Allocation of Processing Resources."

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From the Paper:

"The authors consider some models for this process that have been offered by other theorists. Data that is considered task-relevant is data with motivational value, meaning they confer rewards or punishment. Activity has been identified in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), ventral striatum, and medial and orbito-frontal cortex for reward signals. Research has shown many of the specific mechanisms involved, such as the pairings of VTA neurons and what makes them fire. How these neurons fire has been demonstrated not simply to code reward but to code how reward outcome relates to expectation. Another identified component is ERN (error-related negativity), associated with the monitoring of ongoing behavior rather than attention selection. However, in some tasks, the brain has insufficient information to evaluate whether a response is correct or not, in which case feedback is needed to make an assessment. In such a case, the ERN is elicited to the feedback rather than the response."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Potts, G.F., Martin, L.E., Burton, P., & Montague, P.R. (2006). When things are better or worse than expected: The medial frontal cortex and the allocation of processing resources. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 18:7, 1112-1119.

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