Figure 7. Schematic of NCL’s proposed function.

Diagram inspired by Miller and Cohen⁴⁷. S1–S3 denote environmental stimuli, R1–R3 behavioral responses. The NCL receives sensory information from higher sensory areas (inbound arrows from S1–S3) and in turn modulates sensory processing (outbound arrows to S1–S3; ‘attention’). Similarly, NCL projects to downstream motor centers and in turn receives afferent information from these centers (inbound and outbound arrows from and to NCL from R1–R3). Each stimulus has a strong connection to one of the responses (bold horizontal arrows). In simple situations, NCL does not need to interfere between ongoing stimulus-response chains (arrows from S1–S3 to R1–R3). In case of conflict, NCL biases S-R connections. See Discussion for further details.