To simulate the brain functions,a quantum associative memory combined with information preprocessing by a sparse coding model is presented. The sparse coding scheme is used to simulate the information transformation from retina up to primary visual cortex (V1) along the visual path and the quantum associative memory is used to simulate the pattern processing functions of the brain such as the pattern storing,forgetting and retrieving. Experimental results show that the model exhibits good associative ability on face recognition. Considering the huge storage capacity,mass parallel-distributed processing ability and oscillatory phenomena of the quantum system,this model might be a biological plausible implementation.