parietal

Preventing false inference: parietal cortex functions across different cognitive domains

The symposium starts at 3.00 p.m.

Summary description of the symposium

Inference about the cognitive functions of a brain region is at the core of cognitive neuropsychology. However, progress in this endeavour has been limited by the fact that the role of a given brain region is often investigated in one cognitive domain only (e.g., language, numerical cognition, praxis etc.). While this has led to important insights into the implementation of cognitive processes in a specific domain, this approach has precluded the characterization of the domain-general cognitive processes implemented in a particular brain region. This is especially true for the parietal cortex which seems to be involved in a multitude of cognitive domains as evidenced by neuropsychological lesion and functional imaging studies.

Therefore, the symposium sets out to elucidate the functions of the parietal cortex across different cognitive domains. To this aim, the three speakers will give an overview of parietal processing in their cognitive domain of interest (Gesa Hartwigsen: language, Wim Fias: numerical cognition; Peter Weiss: praxis) by referring to the literature and their own work (see references). After having delineated the putative cognitive processes implemented in the parietal cortex, they will try to cross-reference their findings to the other cognitive domains presented.

The discussant (Gabriella Bottini) will critically reflect on the proposed domain-general cognitive functions of the parietal cortex and will relate the findings to her own area of expertise (body awareness).

References:

W. Fias, et al., Processing of abstract ordinal knowledge in the horizontal segment of the intraparietal sulcus," (2007)

G. Hartwigsen, et al., "Dissociating parieto-frontal networks for phonologcal and semantic word decisions: A condition-and-perturb TMS study,"  (2016)

E. Niessen, G. R. Fink, and P. H. Weiss, "Apraxia, pantomime and the parietal cortex," (2014).

AGENCY EXPECTANCY LOST_LOVE MONDAY_LECTURES PARIETAL SYMPOSIA