Laboratory for Cognitive Brain Mapping

To reveal mechanisms of higher brain functions such as recognition and decision making, we are conducting experiments with non-human primates and functional MRI with a 4T system on normal human subjects. In the research with non-human primates, the animals are trained with various behavioral paradigms, and effects of functional blocage of particular brain sites or connections are examined and single-cell recordings are conducted during the task performance. We are focusing on the mechanisms of visual object recognition in the inferotemporal cortex and those of goal-directed behavior in the prefrontal cortex. To relate research results in human subjects with those in experimental animals, we are also making efforts to increase the spatial resolution of fMRI with human subjects.

Research Subjects

• From the visual object recognition to semantic memory
• Functional differentiation among the prefrontal regions
• Projection-specific functional blockage in macaque monkeys
• fMRI of human cortical functions with columnar spatial resolution

Publications

1. Cheng, K., Waggoner, R. A., Tanaka, K.:
   "Human ocular dominance columns as revealed by high-field functional magnetic resonance imaging."
   Neuron, 32, 359-374 (2001).
2. Matsumoto, K., Suzuki, W., Tanaka, K.:
   "Neuronal correlates of goal-based motor selection in the prefrontal cortex."
   Science, 301, 229-232 (2003).
3. Gardner, J.L., Sun, P., Waggoner, R.A., Ueno, K., Tanaka, K., Cheng, K.:
   "Contrast adaptation and representation in human early visual cortex."
   Neuron, 47, 1-14 (2005).
4. Wang, G., Obama, S., Yamashita, W., Sugihara, T., Tanaka, K.:
   "View-invariant object recognition without experience of object rotations."
   Nature Neuroscience, 8, 1568-1575 (2005).
5. Matsumoto, M. Matsumoto, K, Abe, H., Tanaka, K.:
   "Medial Prefrontal Cell Activity Signaling Prediction Errors of Action Values."
   Nature Neuroscience, 10, 647-656 (2007)
6. Sun, P., Ueno, K., Waggoner, R. A., Gardner, J. L., Tanaka, K., Cheng, K.:
   "A temporal frequency-dependent functional architecture in human V1 revealed by high-resolution fMRI"
   Nature Neurosci. 10, 1404-1406 (2007)
7. Mansouri, F.A., Buckley, M.J., Tanaka, K.:
   "Mnemonic function of lateral prefrontal cortex in conflict-induced behavioral adjustment."
   Science 318: 987-990 (2007)
8. Buckley, M.J., Mansouri, F.A., Hoda, H., Mahboubi, M., Browning, P.G.F., Kwok, S.C., Phillips, A., Tanaka, K.:
   "Dissociable Components of Rule-Guided Behavior Depend on Distinct Medial and Prefrontal Regions."
   Science 325: 52-58 (2009)
9. Wan, X., Nakatani, H., Ueno, K., Asamizuya, T., Cheng, K., Tanaka, K.:
   "The neural basis of intuitive best next-move generation in board game experts."
   Science 331: 341-346 (2011)
10. Wan X, Takano D, Asamizuya T, Suzuki C, Ueno K, Cheng K, Ito T, Tanaka K.:
    "Developing intuition: neural correlates of cognitive-skill learning in caudate nucleus."
    The Journal of Neurosicence 32: 17492-17501 (2012)