Silvia Bunge
University of California-Berkeley, CA·Neuroscience
Reasoning, planning, multi-tasking and judging whether our memories are accurate all depend on the very front of the brain. One part of this region, the anterior lateral prefrontal cortex (aLPFC), is among the least understood areas of the human brain, and its function is disrupted in disorders such as schizophrenia.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Psychology
- Topics
prefrontal cortex
aLPFC
relational reasoning
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2029
What they work on
- Test whether the anterior lateral prefrontal cortex is domain-general by measuring its fMRI activity and connections with other regions during four relational reasoning tasks spanning visual and auditory, spatial and semantic stimuli.
- Test whether small sulci, the grooves on the brain's surface, serve as anatomical landmarks that predict where reasoning-related prefrontal activity lies in each individual's brain.
- Use a 7 Tesla MRI scanner and two combined fMRI methods to test whether aLPFC activity during reasoning is concentrated in superficial cortical layers, consistent with local recurrent connectivity.
- Use high-resolution diffusion-weighted imaging at 7 Tesla to trace whether the aLPFC receives inputs only from other prefrontal areas or also from parietal and temporal cortex.
More about the research
It has been hard to study. There is no precise animal model, researchers disagree about its boundaries, and its anatomy varies from person to person. Leading theories hold that the aLPFC is domain-general, meaning it handles abstract information regardless of whether that information started as sight, sound or meaning. That claim has not been carefully tested.
Why it matters
People with mental health conditions affecting the front of the brain, such as schizophrenia, can struggle with reasoning, planning, multi-tasking and decision-making. Better maps of the anterior lateral prefrontal cortex's structure and function could help identify disordered thinking early in neurodevelopmental conditions. The shared dataset may also support further research by other groups.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jan Zimmermann
University of Minnesota, MN·Neuroscience
Develop radiofrequency coil hardware for 10.5 Tesla MRI that resolves layer-specific fMRI responses in the macaque cortex, revealing feedforward and feedback signals.
Emily Allen
University of Minnesota, MN·Neuroscience
Acquire ultra-high-resolution (~0.35 mm³) 7T MRI anatomical scans of human auditory cortex. Use them to create data-driven maps that match the cortex's underlying cell-layer architecture, rather than relying on the variable Heschl's gyrus landmarks.
Theresa Desrochers
Brown University, RI·Neuroscience·Early-career
Use fMRI in behaving macaque monkeys to identify which frontal brain areas track nonmotor, nonspatial sequences, testing whether the medial prefrontal cortex mainly encodes each item's position in the sequence.
The school
University of California-Berkeley: 46 labs on PI Pages, $1.1B a year on research, 825 research doctorates a year.
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