The Student’s Guide to Cognitive
Neuroscience
Chapter 1: Introducing cognitive neuroscience
Cognition: higher mental processes as thinking, perceiving, imagining, speaking, acting and planning.
Cognitive neuroscience: bridges cognitive science and cognitive psychology, aims to explain cognitive
processes in terms of brain-based mechanisms.
Cognitive neuroscience in historical perspective
Philosophical approaches to mind and brain
Mind-body problem: problem of how a physical substance (brain) can give rise to sensations,
thoughts, emotions (mind).
Dualism: mind and brain are made up of different kinds of substances.
Dual-aspect theory: mind and brain are two different explanatory levels for the same thing.
Reductionism: mind-based concepts (e.g. emotions) will be eventually replaced by
neuroscientific concepts
Scientific approaches to mind and brain
Phrenology: failed idea that individual differences in cognition can be mapped onto skull shape
differences. Two key assumptions: different regions perform different functions & size of these
regions produces distortions of the skull. First assumption impactful Broca & language.
Functional specialization: different regions of the brain are specialized for different functions.
Cognitive neuropsychology: study of brain-damaged patients to inform theories of normal cognition.
Information-processing: approach in which behavior is described in terms of a sequence of cognitive
stages. Perception attention short-term memory.
Modularity: notion that certain cognitive processes are restricted in the type of information they
process. 2 types of cognitive processes: central systems and modules.
Modules: domain specificity; dedicated to one type of information (shapes, words).
Central systems: domain independent; non-specific information types (memory, attention).
Interactivity: later stages of processing can begin before earlier stages are complete.
The birth of cognitive neuroscience
Crucial distinction:
- stimulation methods
now across the skull rather than directly to brain (transcranial)
- transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
- transcranial electrical stimulation (tES)
- recording methods
methods that record electrical/magnetic properties of neurons:
- electrophysiological methods (EEG / ERP / single-cell)
- magnetophysiological methods (MEG)
methods that record physiological changes associated with blood supply (hemodynamic):
- functional imaging methods (PET / fMRI / fNIRS)
Method Method type Invasiveness Brain property used
EEG/ERP Recording Noninvasive Electrical
, Single-cell recording Recording Invasive Electrical
TMS Stimulation Noninvasive Electromagnetic
tES Stimulation Noninvasive Electrical
MEG Recording Noninvasive Magnetic
PET Recording Invasive Hemodynamic
fMRI Recording Noninvasive Hemodynamic
fNIRS Recording Noninvasive Hemodynamic
Two dimensions of placing methods:
- temporal resolution: accuracy of measuring when an event occurs.
- spatial resolution: accuracy of measuring where an event occurs.
- invasiveness: whether equipment is located internally or externally.
Does cognitive psychology need the brain (cognitive neuroscience)?
Functional imaging can show where and how cognition is happening
Analogy: cognitive neuroscience researches the hardware (brain) and psychology the software
(information processing).
Does neuroscience need cognitive psychology?
Cognitive psychology is required to frame appropriate research questions.
From modules to networks
Network: dynamically changing pattern of activity over several brain regions.
Entire networks may have specializations. Connectome: comprehensive map of neural connections in
the brain that may be thought of as its “wiring diagram”. Comparing old networks from current ones:
- Contemporary networks are derived from biologically based observations, supported by graph
theory: mathetical technique for computing the pattern of connectivity from a set of correlations.
- brain regions might perform a range of different functions, rather than being highly specialized.
Central challenge for neuroscience: developing ways of describing the relationship between brain
structure and function.
Summary and key points of the chapter
- mind-body problem refers to the question of how physical matter can produce mental experiences
- different regions of the brain are specialized for different functions to some extent
- functional neuroimaging has to be understood to localize cognitive functions
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