Reorganization of the injured brain: Implications for studies of the neural substrate of cognition
Jesper eMogensen
Frontiers in Psychology May 22, 2014 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00007 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Neuroplasticity |
| Keywords | Consciousness Recovery of function Brain injury Reorganization |
| Key points | Argues that posttraumatic recovery after focal brain injury involves functional reorganization of uninjured brain regions rather than recreation of lost neural mechanisms, allowing surface symptoms including consciousness to return without restoring the original information processing. Proposes a novel REF-model of these processes and discusses its implications for studies of neural substrates of cognition and consciousness. |
Abstract
In the search for a neural substrate of cognitive processes, a frequently utilized method is the scrutiny of posttraumatic symptoms exhibited by individuals suffering focal injury to the brain. For instance, the presence or absence of conscious awareness within a particular domain may, combined with knowledge of which regions of the brain have been injured, provide important data in the search for neural correlates of consciousness. Like all studies addressing the consequences of brain injury, however, such research has to face the fact that in most cases, posttraumatic impairments are accompanied by a functional recovery during which symptoms are reduced or eliminated. The apparent contradiction between localization and recovery, respectively, of functions constitutes a problem to almost all aspects of cognitive neuroscience. Several lines of investigation indicate that although the brain remains highly plastic throughout life, the posttraumatic plasticity does not recreate a copy of the neural mechanisms lost to injury. Instead, the uninjured parts of the brain are functionally reorganized in a manner which – in spite of not recreating the basic information processing lost to injury – is able to allow a more or less complete return of the surface phenomena (including manifestations of consciousness) originally impaired by the trauma. A novel model (the REF-model) of these processes is presented – and some of its implications discussed relative to studies of the neural substrates of cognition and consciousness.
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Citations in the library
Cited by 7
- Phenomenal consciousness and cognitive access. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences September 19, 2018
- Reorganization of the connectivity between elementary functions as a common mechanism of phenomenal consciousness and working memory: from functions to strategies. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences September 19, 2018
- What Brain Plasticity Reveals About the Nature of Consciousness: Commentary Frontiers in Psychology 2011
- Physically Sufficient Neural Mechanisms of Consciousness. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience 2019
- Reorganization of the Connectivity between Elementary Functions - A Model Relating Conscious States to Neural Connections. Frontiers in Psychology April 20, 2017
and 2 more in the library