cortex

In mice, the brain's prefrontal cortex, which serves as a major center for executive control, sends tailored signals to regions involved in vision and movement.

For many years, researchers focused on two primary memory centers: the hippocampus, which supports short-term memory, and the cortex, which was believed to store long-term memories.

After examining patterns of brain activity, Tafazoli and Buschman found that the prefrontal cortex, a region at the front of the brain involved in high-level thinking and decision-making, contained several recurring patterns of activity.

This digital reconstruction of the entire mouse cortex gives researchers a new way to explore brain function by recreating conditions such as Alzheimer's or epilepsy inside a virtual environment.

The brain's ability to interpret the visual world does not depend solely on its advanced outer layer, the cortex.