Bridging brain, mind and behaviour
McGill University expert in cognitive neuroscience wins major award
The brain-mind problem is one that has long intrigued philosophers and scientists. Where and how does the physical mass we call the brain store and process the experiences and impressions that make up memory? Drawing upon memory, we use our minds to decide, plan, organize and modify our behaviour. At the highest levels this involves a number of processes (maintaining, monitoring, and manipulating the information we have stored) that can occur only in the more evolved brains of the primates, and mostly so in humans.
One of the worlds top experts in unraveling the mystery of memory is a researcher at McGill University who has just received major support for his groundbreaking work. Dr Michael Petrides has won a James S. McDonnell 21st Century Scientist Award: Bridging Brain, Mind and Behavior. Dr Petrides holds joint appointments in the Department of Psychology and the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery and is director of the Neuropsychology/Cognitive Neuroscience Unit in the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital.
"This is an exciting moment for the research of my students and myself as we will now be able to proceed faster in testing some key ideas that we have about the brain bases of thinking and decision making," says Dr Petrides about the award. A leading investigator in the study of frontal lobe function, Dr Petrides is one of the foremost figures in cognitive neuroscience, the field that studies the relation between mind and the brain. The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that lies just behind the forehead. It has reached its greatest development in the human brain and it is in this region that some of the highest forms of human cognitive processing, such as our capacity to monitor our own thoughts and plan and organize the most complex aspects of our behaviour, are centred. There are many different areas of the prefrontal cortex and their precise role in cognition has until recently remained a mystery. Petrides has carried out anatomical research that has re-defined these different prefrontal areas in both the human and the monkey brains. Furthermore, based on his research, Petrides has specified the role of some of these areas in cognition. He has also developed a theoretical model of how different frontal cortical areas are involved in the highest aspects of memory and thought. Further information can be found in the November 2000 issue of Nature Reviews Neuroscience, which features Petrides work on how the mid-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex allows us to monitor our own thoughts.
n addition to his heavy research load, Petrides teaches one of the most popular courses at McGill University that deals with how the brain underlies the mind (Human Cognition and the Brain). He has received the Leo Yaffe award for Excellence in Teaching from the University.
The James S. McDonnell Foundation was established in 1950 to improve the quality of life by contributing to research and scholarship.
