Lecture notes
The History of Neuroscience
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A summary of lecture notes on the history of neuroscience, along with practice questions to help students better understand and test their knowledge on the concept.
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Lecture 01 - The Beginning of Cognitive NeuroscienceCognitive Psychology “vs” Cognitive neuroscience
🧠
cognitive psychologyis the scientific study of mentalprocesses
○ mental processes: aspects of cognition [i.e. memory,attention, language, etc.]
🧠cognitive neurosciencefocuses on the biology of themind
○ localizing the workings of the mind to the functions of the brain
○ complementary use of various biomedical tech [i.e. fMRI]
○ animal studies and human neuropsychology (brain lesions)
○ works towards a holistic understanding of neurocognitive functioning
🧠essentially the difference is thatpsychologyaimsto study “what” is going on in the brain whileneuroscience
aims to look at where those mental processes come from within the brain
🧠topicscovered in cognitive neuroscience
○ attention
○ object recognition
○ perception
○ memory
○ motor control
○ language
○ emotion
○ cognitive control
🧠a famous study technique used in neuroscience isthestroop task
○ presented the spelling of colours in a diff colour ink [i.e.red]
○ a plethora of mental processes are involved
■ representing of task rule(i.e. naming the colourand not the word)
■ perception of colour, word
■ decoding of colours, word meaning
■ inhibit colour word’s interference(mental car brakes)
■ select response effector(i.e. which finger do I useto answer)
■ respond
■ monitor appropriateness of response, integrate feedback(keeping track of the mistakes and
correct answers; correct answers = continue and mistakes = fix what you’re doing)
The Power of Cognitive Neuroscience
🧠
challenge is to design effective brain-machine interfaces
○ how can tech/mechanical devices be used to improve cognitive function
🧠theory of mind: understanding thoughts and feelingsof others
🧠science is objective,avoid stereotypes
🧠thechallengesandopportunities
○ examining effects of psychoactive drugs for public policy
■ good quality research = inform public policy
○ map cognitive development to neurological development
○ rehabilitate injured brain and map its progress
, ○ identify biomarkers
■ biomarkers=biological signature of disease
● understanding biomarkers leads to being able to find treatment soon after a diagnosis
The Big Challenge
🧠
stimulus/input → mental process (inside brain) → response/output
○ unable toseethe mental process taking place…so howthe hell would you study it🤔
Method of Inquiry: INTROSPECTION (via structuralism)
🧠
introspecting- studying yourself
○ kind of like reflecting
○ not digging too deep into the past
○ one of the first tools in psychology
🧠structuralism- breaking down bigger concepts in psychology
🧠Edward Titchner and William Wundt
Method of Inquiry: BEHAVIOURISM (the dark ages of psychology)
🧠
thought considered thedark ages of psychology, itwasn’t an entirely bad part of history
○ helped show another side of psychology
🧠psychology that solely focused on observable behaviour, stepping away from the mind
○ the notion that the mind is unobservable so it shouldn’t main aspect of scientific inquiry
○ value placed on associative learning, forms of conditioning
○ detailed analysis of behavioural accuracy, reaction time
■ RT (not social prof) taught a lot abou t stimulus input|output
🧠dominated psychology (for years) and parenting
🧠the blindspot to this theory = the mind
○ some things couldn’t be explained through behaviorism (i.e. learning, language, false memories, etc.)
🧠Ivan Pavlov, B.F. Skinner, and John Watson
Method of Inquiry: COGNITIVISM
🧠
cognitive revolutionreferred to the rejection ofbehaviourism being the sole subject to be study
○ acknowledging that what can’t be seen should still be studied because it hold gravity to certain
questions about humans
🧠developingcomplex modelsof cognition
○ serial and parallel processing
■ serial = processing one piece of info at a time)
● too slow based on how fast we do things
■ parallel = processing pieces of info at the same time
● faster than serial processing
🧠James McClelland and David Rumelhart
Lessons Learnt About Cognition
🧠
usage and utility
○ cognitive resources are limited
■ not able to pay attention to more than one thing at a time
■ unable to pull more than one thing at a time from memory
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