Accounting for behavioral deficits associated with damage in terms of cortical and subcortical information processes

Abstract

The way information about neurons in the brain is organized is critical to understanding how anatomical structures support cognition and why damage to specific anatomical structures results in specific deficits. Theoretical considerations indicate that the architecture of the brain has been constrained into some specific forms, and these forms make it possible to organize neuroscience information to achieve understanding. Different anatomical structures specialize in different information processes, where the information processes performed by one structure will support many different types of cognitive processes. However, all information processes in the brain are of two general types, condition definition/detection, and behavioral recommendation definition/integration. Motor and cognitive processes are carried out by combinations of processes of these two types. Cortical structures specialize in condition definition/detection processes and subcortical structures specialize in behavioral recommendation definition/integration processes. Local circuits within the cortex-hippocampus-thalamus-basal ganglia-cerebellum system perform different detailed information processes of these types. Brain damage to a specific structure results in loss of the information processes performed by that structure. The different deficits resulting from Parkinson’s disease, Huntingdon’s disease, Hemiballism, Tourette’s syndrome, damage to the hippocampal system, and strokes affecting the cortex, thalamus, or cerebellum can be understood in terms of the loss of specific information processes performed by different brain structures.