The National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology
The human brain is a wonderfully enigmatic organ, helping to juggle multiple tasks efficiently to help us get through a long day! This feature, called executive function, seats primates like us at the pinnacle of evolution. The prospect of losing the spectacular flow of neural information in our brains because of an accident or disease is, thus, unnerving. In the event of such an unfortunate occurrence, to restore the brain to its previous working condition with full functionality–to reboot it, so to speak–would need a better understanding of the specific neural pathways involved in our daily activities that rely on working memory and decision-making–two important executive functions.