September 1, 2012 (Vol. 32, No. 15)

URL:
http://bit.ly/Puw8co

Rating:
Strong Points: Can display individual types of circuits, citations included
Weak Points: Users must have some background in neuroanatomy

Platform:
iPad/iPhone

Cost:
Free

Summary:

In the true spirit of consilience (that is, the integration of knowledge), the Cognitive Consilience app brings together myriad studies from the scientific literature to provide users with an integrated overview of the neuroanatomical pathways involved in primate cognition. The home screen of the app displays schematics of five major brain regions involved in cognition—the cerebral cortex, hippocampus, thalamus, basal ganglia, and metencephalon—as well as four additional minor structures (the corpus callosum, spinal cord, claustrum, and basal forebrain). Reported connections between all of these different regions are marked, with citations given at each position. When clicking on the buttons to display the citations, users have the option of opening the citation in PubMed. Users can view all theorized cognitive circuits at once, or they can display one class of circuits at a time—for instance, the circuits believed to be involved in short-term memory, or those involved in information regulation.

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