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Cognitive Control: Understanding the Brain's Executive

Earl K. Miller: June 12, 2003; Running Time: 1:01:09

About the Lecture

About the Lecture

We often take it for granted that we know the difference between a cat and a dog. Where and how do we store the visual information that categorizes “catness” in our minds, so that the next time we see a cat, we know that it is not a dog?

Earl Miller has studied this process of categorization with monkeys to better understand the human brain’s processes. Miller’s research is focused on the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for higher level intellectual or “executive activities”. A monkey’s brain is monitored to see how its “cat- recognition” neurons fire electric signals that enable this process to work. He has determined that the prefrontal cortex is extremely active when the monkey learns a task, and then goes “offline” when the task becomes automatic. Like humans learning to drive a car, at first we focus mental effort on each act of steering or braking, but eventually driving becomes somewhat routine. Mapping neural and chemical pathways for these executive brain functions may ultimately lead to therapies for dysfunctions such at attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism.

Lecture Details

Location: 3-170

“You’re not like video cameras taking in everything. You actively construct your world by paying attention to some things and ignoring others…. (The) prefrontal cortex is the puppet master telling the rest of the brain what to do and ignore.”

Earl Miller

About the Speaker

Earl K. Miller

Picower Professor of Neuroscience
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences Associate Director
The Picower Center for Learning and Memory

Earl K. Miller’s work focuses on the region of the brain that guides complex thought and action. He has received numerous scientific awards, including the Pew Scholar Award, McKnight Scholar Award, an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, John Merck Scholar Award, the National Academy of Sciences Troland Research Award, and the Society for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award. After earning his Ph.D. from Princeton University, Miller trained at the National Institute of Mental Health and came to MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences in 1995.