Rats are experts information processors. Like us, their brains constantly combine top-down and bottom-up information to make sense of the world and respond to it adaptively. We are particularly interested in a region of the brain, the Posterior Parietal Cortex (PPC), that contributes to these abilities, other attentional processes, and spatial navigation. Thanks to NIH grants through RI-INBRE, and together with Dr. Burwell at Brown University, we are examining the possibility of a functional differentiation of the PPC in the rat brain.