Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41345295›Full record

ReviewNature reviews. Neuroscience2026

How distributed is the brain-wide network that is recruited for cognition?

Matthew C Rosen, David J Freedman

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Nature reviews. Neuroscience, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
8citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

8 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Decoupling Choice from Motor Response Reduces Choice-History Effects.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026
    Article
  3. Article
  4. Review
  5. Addressing degeneracy in rodent studies of cognition.Current opinion in neurobiology · 2026
    Review
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Neural representations of beliefs in a multi-dimensional inference task.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Matthew C RosenDepartment of Neurobiology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. matthew.casciola.rosen@gmail.com.
David J FreedmanDepartment of Neurobiology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA. dfreedman@uchicago.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2485-5981

Funding

Cortical Mechanisms of Visual Category Recognition and LearningR01EY019041 · NEI · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · PI David J Freedman · 2009 to 2026
$8.5M
Multiregional Neuronal Computations Underlying Rapid and Flexible Visual Categorical DecisionsR01EY037119 · NEI · UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO · PI Brent D. Doiron, David J Freedman · 2025 to 2026
$1.4M
NEI NIH HHS R01 EY019041NEI NIH HHS R01 EY037119
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Half a century of neurophysiological recordings from single electrodes established a 'localized' viewpoint on function in the brain - that complex behaviour results from computations that are carried out and representations that occur across distinct brain areas, each of which has a specialized role. Data generated from new techniques for specific, high-throughput measurement of neuronal activity and behaviour in rodents have prompted an alternative viewpoint, which posits that neural encoding of behavioural variables is distributed across a wide range of areas: 'everything, everywhere, all at once'. After briefly introducing these paradigms, we evaluate which of them better describes cognition - the manipulation of internal variables that enables flexible behaviour. Measurements of neuronal activity in both rodents and primates suggest that cognitive variables are reflected broadly but not ubiquitously across the brain, including, to a surprising degree, in regions engaged in controlling movement. We close by discussing why cognitive signals may appear in such areas, as well as the factors that affect the breadth of the brain-wide network that is recruited for cognition.

Indexed as

BrainCognitionNerve NetAnimalsHumansNeurons

Identifiers

PMID41345295
PMCPMC13242167

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
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Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.