Vision is often recognized as one of the most important senses, as we get much useful information about the world around us from what we see. In this paper we systematically review the research progress on visual information processing. We first focus on the key questions about how the brain processes and represents visual information. Then, we discuss the recent work on visual plasticity, perceptual learning and bio-social information perception, offering a new understanding of visual information processing and its brain mechanism.

The way our brains perceive and comprehend speech remains an essential issue in psychology and brain science. In recent years, consensus has gradually been made on that the speech motor system (SMS) contributes to speech perception in a modulatory and compensatory manner, especially under noise masking or speech degradation circumstances. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the current work investigates neural mechanisms of sensorimotor integration and compensation during syllable identification task in noisy conditions. Study 1 reveals an increment of the SMS involvement as the task difficulty increases. In addition, the SMS shows more robust specificity of phoneme representations than auditory regions in noisy conditions, as such a superiority climaxes at moderate noise levels. Study 2 finds that older adults with normal hearing have difficulty in syllable-in-noise identification. Compared with younger counterparts, the elders rely more on increased recruitment of the SMS and preserved speech motoric representations, which are less affected by noise and aging effects than auditory ones, to compensate for deficient auditory encoding. Our findings deepen the knowledge of neural mechanisms underlying cross-modal sensorimotor integration in speech perception and its life-span developmental changes. Moreover, new insights could be given on designing and implementing rehabilitative and training regimens for speech comprehension (e.g., SMS-targeted brain enhancement) in older adults with or without hearing loss.

Olfaction is a chemoreception that occurs when odorants bind to olfactory receptors located in the nasal cavity. Recent research on human olfaction shows that it not only enables odor identification but also automatically evokes emotional response and subtly mediates interpersonal communication. By integrating with vision, the sense of smell facilitates object perception and influences socioemotional processing. Moreover, the combination of olfaction, taste and other senses forms flavor perception, which gives rise to the enjoyable experiences of eating and drinking.

To perceive external environment more efficiently, the sensory information derived from the modality of touch, or tactile information, is processed in terms of its physical features and affective responses to these features. This review summarizes the current understanding about how haptic information is processed in skin, spinal cord, and cerebral cortex of animals and humans. Typically, different non-noxious somatosensory information is coded by various cutaneous sensory neurons called low-threshold mechanoreceptors (LTMRs). Next, haptic processing starts at the dorsal horn of the spinal cord, and then it partially segregates into different pathways, transmitting information to the somatosensory cortex, the first crucial brain area for haptic information processing. Moreover, several relatively independent brain networks are responsible for the processing of different properties of haptic information. Finally, by discussing the interactions between touch and other sensory modalities, we argue that such interactions are plastic, which is warranted in the future work to generate extensive value in applications.

Pain has long been a clinical, psychological, and social issue for human beings. Based on the progress of studies on pain mechanisms in neuroscience, more investigations are increasingly focusing on the pain-related psychological processes. Pain or nociception may have appeared pretty early in evolution, and may have long acquired its psychological and social attributes. From the innumerous amount of sensory inputs, our brain presents nociceptive information to our consciousness in the form of pain sensation. The extent of damage is reflected as pain affect. Similar protocols are also employed to reflect impacts in social relations. Different life experiences may thus generate great difference in pain cognition. Understanding pain from the view of both psychology and neuroscience may shed light on the depiction of pain per se.

Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder following Alzheimer's disease. As the world's population aging grows at an unprecedented rate, so does the population with Parkinson's disease. Cognitive impairment and other nonmotor symptoms have become a major factor in decline of quality of life in Parkinson's patients. However, the biological mechanisms responsible for cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease have not been identified with certainty. Cognitive impairment is common in Parkinson's patients but often not recognized in clinical practice. Efficacious therapies have to be developed for treating cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease. This article is to review recent advances in neuroscience and medicine, from the neurochemical basis, genetic risk, and impact of other non-motor symptoms to biomarkers of Parkinson's cognitive impairment.