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A hybrid model for the neural representation of complex mental processing in the human brain

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Abstract

In the present conceptual review several theoretical and empirical sources of information were integrated, and a hybrid model of the neural representation of complex mental processing in the human brain was proposed. Based on empirical evidence for strategy-related and inter-individually different task-related brain activation networks, and further based on empirical evidence for a remarkable overlap of fronto-parietal activation networks across different complex mental processes, it was concluded by the author that there might be innate and modular organized neuro-developmental starting regions, for example, in intra-parietal, and both medial and middle frontal brain regions, from which the neural organization of different kinds of complex mental processes emerge differently during individually shaped learning histories. Thus, the here proposed model provides a hybrid of both massive modular and holistic concepts of idiosyncratic brain physiological elaboration of complex mental processing. It is further concluded that 3-D information, obtained by respective methodological approaches, are not appropriate to identify the non-linear spatio-temporal dynamics of complex mental process-related brain activity in a sufficient way. How different participating network parts communicate with each other seems to be an indispensable aspect, which has to be considered in particular to improve our understanding of the neural organization of complex cognition.

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Acknowledgments

I want to especially thank Professor Dr. Erol Basar for a lot of fundamental input that helped me to integrate my own work of the past years into the complexity of contemporary model assumptions about mental brain dynamics and developmental trajectories related to complex mental processing in humans. Furthermore, I want to thank Professor Dr. Heinze and Professor Dr. Hinrichs from Magdeburg University who supported my work on the neural representation of complex mental processing in humans directly and indirectly during the last decade. I also want to thank Prof. Dr. Dr. Manfred Herrmann for providing me with the necessary laboratory equipment at Bremen University, and furthermore, for several controversial discussions that especially improved my understanding about the reality of science politics. My work was in part supported by the Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, University of Magdeburg, by the Center for Cognitive Sciences, Bremen University, and by the Center for Advanced Imaging, Universities of Bremen and Magdeburg.

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  1. Department of Neuropsychology, Center for Cognitive Sciences, Center for Advanced Imaging Bremen/Magdeburg, University of Bremen, Hochschulring 18, 28359, Bremen, Germany

    Thorsten Fehr

  2. Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke-University, Magdeburg, Germany

    Thorsten Fehr

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Fehr, T. A hybrid model for the neural representation of complex mental processing in the human brain. Cogn Neurodyn 7, 89–103 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11571-012-9220-2

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