Cognitive neuroscience
Encyclopedia
Cognitive neuroscience is an academic field concerned with the scientific study of biological substrates underlying cognition
, with a specific focus on the neural substrates of mental processes. It addresses the questions of how psychological/cognitive functions are produced by the brain. Cognitive neuroscience is a branch of both psychology
and neuroscience
, overlapping with disciplines such as physiological psychology
, cognitive psychology
and neuropsychology
. Cognitive neuroscience relies upon theories in cognitive science
coupled with evidence from neuropsychology
, and computational model
ling.
Due to its multidisciplinary nature, cognitive neuroscientists may have various backgrounds. Other than the associated disciplines just mentioned, cognitive neuroscientists may have backgrounds in these disciplines: neurobiology, bioengineering, psychiatry
, neurology
, physics
, computer science
, linguistics
, philosophy
and mathematics
.
Methods employed in cognitive neuroscience include experimental paradigms from psychophysics
and cognitive psychology
, functional neuroimaging
, electrophysiology
, cognitive genomics and behavioral genetics. Studies of patients with cognitive deficits due to brain lesion
s constitute an important aspect of cognitive neuroscience (see neuropsychology
). Theoretical approaches include computational neuroscience
and cognitive psychology
.
We could begin with Aristotle, who argued that sensory information went from the senses to the heart, which he thought was the seat of reason. Later observers correctly identified the brain as the biological substrate for thinking. However, early efforts to subdivide the brain proved problematic. The phrenologist movement failed to supply a scientific basis for their theories and has since been rejected. However, the phrenological assumption that specific areas of the brain conduct specific functions still applies. The modern evidence for this specificity (sometimes called modularity) includes direct recording from single neurons, case studies of patients with brain damage or disease, recording of electrical or magnetic activity in the brain through advanced scanning techniques, and even direct manipulation of brain activity.
approach that claimed that behavior could be determined by the shape of the scalp
. In the early 19th century, Franz Joseph Gall
and J. G. Spurzheim believed that the human brain
was localized into approximately 35 different sections. In his book, The Anatomy and Physiology of the Nervous System in General, and of the Brain in Particular, Gall claimed that a larger bump in one of these areas meant that that area of the brain was used more frequently by that person. This theory gained significant public attention, leading to the publication of phrenology journals and the creation of phrenometers, which measured the bumps on a human subject's head. While phrenology remained a fixture at fairs and carnivals, it did not enjoy wide acceptance within the scientific community.
experimental psychologist, was one of many scientists that challenged the views of the phrenologists. Through his study of living rabbits and pigeons, he discovered that lesions to particular areas of the brain produced no discernible change in behavior. He proposed the theory that the brain is an aggregate field, meaning that different areas of the brain participated in behavior.
caused the localizationist view to re-emerge as the primary view of behavior. Jackson studied patients with brain damage
, particularly those with epilepsy
. He discovered that the epileptic patients often made the same clonic
and tonic movements of muscle during their seizures, leading Jackson to believe that they must be occurring in the same place every time. Jackson proposed that specific functions were localized to specific areas of the brain, which was critical to future understanding of the brain lobes.
In 1861, French neurologist Paul Broca
came across a man who was able to understand language but unable to speak. The man could only produce the sound "tan". It was later discovered that the man had damage to an area of his left frontal lobe now known as Broca's area
. Carl Wernicke, a German
neurologist, found a similar patient, except that this patient could speak fluently but non-sensibly. The patient had been the victim of a stroke
, and could not understand spoken or written language. This patient had a lesion in the area where the left parietal and temporal lobes meet, now known as Wernicke's area
. These cases strongly supported the localizationists' views, because a lesion caused a specific behavioral change in both of these patients. The studies of Broca and Wernicke spawned a new research field, which studies the relationship between psychological phenomena and lesions (or otherwise induced deficits) of the brain: neuropsychology.
and Gustav Fritsch
published their findings about the behavior of animals. Hitzig and Fritsch ran an electrical current through the cerebral cortex
of a dog
, causing the dog to produce characteristic movements based on where the current was applied. Since different areas produced different movements, the physicians concluded that behavior was rooted at the cellular level. German neuroanatomist
Korbinian Brodmann
used tissue staining techniques developed by Franz Nissl
to see the different types of cells in the brain. Through this study, Brodmann concluded in 1909 that the human brain consisted of fifty-two distinct areas, now named Brodmann area
s. Many of Brodmann's distinctions were very accurate, such as differentiating Brodmann area 17 from Brodmann area 18
.
and Camillo Golgi
began working on the structure of the neuron. Golgi developed a silver staining method that could entirely stain several cells in a particular area, leading him to believe that neurons were directly connected with each other in one cytoplasm
. Cajal challenged this view after staining areas of the brain that had less myelin
and discovering that neurons were discrete cells. Cajal also discovered that cells transmit electrical signals down the neuron in one direction only. Both Golgi and Cajal were awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
in 1906 for this work on the neuron doctrine. The neuron doctrine has ever since provided a fundamental theory for understanding neurophysiology.
took place at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
. George A. Miller presented his "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two
" paper while Noam Chomsky
and Newell
& Simon
presented their findings on computer science
. Ulric Neisser
commented on many of the findings at this meeting in his 1967 book Cognitive Psychology. The term "psychology" had been waning in the 1950s and 1960s, causing the field to be referred to as "cognitive science". Behaviorists such as Miller began to focus on the representation of language rather than general behavior. David Marr's proposal of the hierarchical representation of memory caused many psychologists to embrace the idea that mental skills required significant processing in the brain, including algorithm
s.
(1985) and fMRI (1991). Earlier methods used in cognitive neuroscience includes EEG
(human EEG 1920) and MEG
(1968). Occasionally cognitive neuroscientists utilize other brain imaging methods such as PET
and SPECT. In some animals Single-unit recording
can be used. Other methods include microneurography
, facial EMG
, and eye-tracking. Integrative neuroscience
attempts to consolidate data in databases, and form unified descriptive models from various fields and scales: biology, psychology, anatomy, and clinical practice.
The development of new technologies has allowed neural processing to be examined and revealed on a more global scale and from wider perspectives than before. This tendency is expected to accelerate. Although the results will be progressively interdisciplinary and comprehensive, they will also be increasingly complex and difficult to interpret in any simple way. Thus, a computational and theoretical approach to organize and understand the significance of these results will become increasingly important.
Cognition
In science, cognition refers to mental processes. These processes include attention, remembering, producing and understanding language, solving problems, and making decisions. Cognition is studied in various disciplines such as psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science...
, with a specific focus on the neural substrates of mental processes. It addresses the questions of how psychological/cognitive functions are produced by the brain. Cognitive neuroscience is a branch of both psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
and neuroscience
Neuroscience
Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally, neuroscience has been seen as a branch of biology. However, it is currently an interdisciplinary science that collaborates with other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics,...
, overlapping with disciplines such as physiological psychology
Physiological psychology
Physiological psychology is a subdivision of behavioral neuroscience that studies the neural mechanisms of perception and behavior through direct manipulation of the brains of nonhuman animal subjects in controlled experiments...
, cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology is a subdiscipline of psychology exploring internal mental processes.It is the study of how people perceive, remember, think, speak, and solve problems.Cognitive psychology differs from previous psychological approaches in two key ways....
and neuropsychology
Neuropsychology
Neuropsychology studies the structure and function of the brain related to specific psychological processes and behaviors. The term neuropsychology has been applied to lesion studies in humans and animals. It has also been applied to efforts to record electrical activity from individual cells in...
. Cognitive neuroscience relies upon theories in cognitive science
Cognitive science
Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary scientific study of mind and its processes. It examines what cognition is, what it does and how it works. It includes research on how information is processed , represented, and transformed in behaviour, nervous system or machine...
coupled with evidence from neuropsychology
Neuropsychology
Neuropsychology studies the structure and function of the brain related to specific psychological processes and behaviors. The term neuropsychology has been applied to lesion studies in humans and animals. It has also been applied to efforts to record electrical activity from individual cells in...
, and computational model
Computational model
A computational model is a mathematical model in computational science that requires extensive computational resources to study the behavior of a complex system by computer simulation. The system under study is often a complex nonlinear system for which simple, intuitive analytical solutions are...
ling.
Due to its multidisciplinary nature, cognitive neuroscientists may have various backgrounds. Other than the associated disciplines just mentioned, cognitive neuroscientists may have backgrounds in these disciplines: neurobiology, bioengineering, psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
, neurology
Neurology
Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...
, physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
, linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
and mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
.
Methods employed in cognitive neuroscience include experimental paradigms from psychophysics
Psychophysics
Psychophysics quantitatively investigates the relationship between physical stimuli and the sensations and perceptions they effect. Psychophysics has been described as "the scientific study of the relation between stimulus and sensation" or, more completely, as "the analysis of perceptual...
and cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology is a subdiscipline of psychology exploring internal mental processes.It is the study of how people perceive, remember, think, speak, and solve problems.Cognitive psychology differs from previous psychological approaches in two key ways....
, functional neuroimaging
Functional neuroimaging
Functional neuroimaging is the use of neuroimaging technology to measure an aspect of brain function, often with a view to understanding the relationship between activity in certain brain areas and specific mental functions...
, electrophysiology
Electrophysiology
Electrophysiology is the study of the electrical properties of biological cells and tissues. It involves measurements of voltage change or electric current on a wide variety of scales from single ion channel proteins to whole organs like the heart...
, cognitive genomics and behavioral genetics. Studies of patients with cognitive deficits due to brain lesion
Lesion
A lesion is any abnormality in the tissue of an organism , usually caused by disease or trauma. Lesion is derived from the Latin word laesio which means injury.- Types :...
s constitute an important aspect of cognitive neuroscience (see neuropsychology
Neuropsychology
Neuropsychology studies the structure and function of the brain related to specific psychological processes and behaviors. The term neuropsychology has been applied to lesion studies in humans and animals. It has also been applied to efforts to record electrical activity from individual cells in...
). Theoretical approaches include computational neuroscience
Computational neuroscience
Computational neuroscience is the study of brain function in terms of the information processing properties of the structures that make up the nervous system...
and cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology is a subdiscipline of psychology exploring internal mental processes.It is the study of how people perceive, remember, think, speak, and solve problems.Cognitive psychology differs from previous psychological approaches in two key ways....
.
Historical origins
Although the task of cognitive neuroscience is to describe how the brain creates the mind, historically it has progressed by investigating how a certain area of the brain supports a given mental faculty. In other words, for most of its history, the biggest question of cognitive neuroscience was "Where?"We could begin with Aristotle, who argued that sensory information went from the senses to the heart, which he thought was the seat of reason. Later observers correctly identified the brain as the biological substrate for thinking. However, early efforts to subdivide the brain proved problematic. The phrenologist movement failed to supply a scientific basis for their theories and has since been rejected. However, the phrenological assumption that specific areas of the brain conduct specific functions still applies. The modern evidence for this specificity (sometimes called modularity) includes direct recording from single neurons, case studies of patients with brain damage or disease, recording of electrical or magnetic activity in the brain through advanced scanning techniques, and even direct manipulation of brain activity.
Phrenology
The first roots of cognitive neuroscience lie in phrenology, which was a pseudoscientificPseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
approach that claimed that behavior could be determined by the shape of the scalp
Scalp
The scalp is the anatomical area bordered by the face anteriorly and the neck to the sides and posteriorly.-Layers:It is usually described as having five layers, which can conveniently be remembered as a mnemonic:...
. In the early 19th century, Franz Joseph Gall
Franz Joseph Gall
Franz Joseph Gall was a neuroanatomist, physiologist, and pioneer in the study of the localization of mental functions in the brain.- Life :...
and J. G. Spurzheim believed that the human brain
Human brain
The human brain has the same general structure as the brains of other mammals, but is over three times larger than the brain of a typical mammal with an equivalent body size. Estimates for the number of neurons in the human brain range from 80 to 120 billion...
was localized into approximately 35 different sections. In his book, The Anatomy and Physiology of the Nervous System in General, and of the Brain in Particular, Gall claimed that a larger bump in one of these areas meant that that area of the brain was used more frequently by that person. This theory gained significant public attention, leading to the publication of phrenology journals and the creation of phrenometers, which measured the bumps on a human subject's head. While phrenology remained a fixture at fairs and carnivals, it did not enjoy wide acceptance within the scientific community.
Aggregate field view
Pierre Flourens, a FrenchFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
experimental psychologist, was one of many scientists that challenged the views of the phrenologists. Through his study of living rabbits and pigeons, he discovered that lesions to particular areas of the brain produced no discernible change in behavior. He proposed the theory that the brain is an aggregate field, meaning that different areas of the brain participated in behavior.
Localizationist view
Studies performed in Europe by scientists such as John Hughlings JacksonJohn Hughlings Jackson
John Hughlings Jackson, FRS , was an English neurologist.- Biography :He was born at Providence Green, Green Hammerton, near Harrogate, Yorkshire, the youngest son of Samuel Jackson, a yeoman who owned and farmed his land, and the former Sarah Hughlings, the daughter of a Welsh revenue collector...
caused the localizationist view to re-emerge as the primary view of behavior. Jackson studied patients with brain damage
Brain damage
"Brain damage" or "brain injury" is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain injuries occur due to a wide range of internal and external factors...
, particularly those with epilepsy
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...
. He discovered that the epileptic patients often made the same clonic
Clonus
Clonus is a series of involuntary muscular contractions and relaxations. Clonus is a sign of certain neurological conditions, and is particularly associated with upper motor neuron lesions such as in stroke, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord damage and hepatic encephalopathy...
and tonic movements of muscle during their seizures, leading Jackson to believe that they must be occurring in the same place every time. Jackson proposed that specific functions were localized to specific areas of the brain, which was critical to future understanding of the brain lobes.
Emergence of neuropsychology
Paul Broca
Pierre Paul Broca was a French physician, surgeon, anatomist, and anthropologist. He was born in Sainte-Foy-la-Grande, Gironde. He is best known for his research on Broca's area, a region of the frontal lobe that has been named after him. Broca’s Area is responsible for articulated language...
came across a man who was able to understand language but unable to speak. The man could only produce the sound "tan". It was later discovered that the man had damage to an area of his left frontal lobe now known as Broca's area
Broca's area
Broca's area is a region of the hominid brain with functions linked to speech production.The production of language has been linked to the Broca’s area since Pierre Paul Broca reported impairments in two patients. They had lost the ability to speak after injury to the posterior inferior frontal...
. Carl Wernicke, a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
neurologist, found a similar patient, except that this patient could speak fluently but non-sensibly. The patient had been the victim of a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
, and could not understand spoken or written language. This patient had a lesion in the area where the left parietal and temporal lobes meet, now known as Wernicke's area
Wernicke's area
Wernicke's area is one of the two parts of the cerebral cortex linked since the late nineteenth century to speech . It is involved in the understanding of written and spoken language...
. These cases strongly supported the localizationists' views, because a lesion caused a specific behavioral change in both of these patients. The studies of Broca and Wernicke spawned a new research field, which studies the relationship between psychological phenomena and lesions (or otherwise induced deficits) of the brain: neuropsychology.
Mapping the brain
In 1870, German physicians Eduard HitzigEduard Hitzig
Eduard Hitzig was a German neurologist and neuropsychiatrist born in Berlin.He studied medicine at the Universities of Berlin and Würzburg, and had as instructors, famous men such as Emil Du Bois-Reymond , Rudolf Virchow , Moritz Heinrich Romberg and Karl Friedrich Otto Westphal...
and Gustav Fritsch
Gustav Fritsch
Gustav Theodor Fritsch was a German anatomist, anthropologist, traveller and physiologist from Cottbus, best known for his work with neuropsychiatrist Eduard Hitzig on the electric localization of the motor areas of the brain...
published their findings about the behavior of animals. Hitzig and Fritsch ran an electrical current through the cerebral cortex
Cerebral cortex
The cerebral cortex is a sheet of neural tissue that is outermost to the cerebrum of the mammalian brain. It plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness. It is constituted of up to six horizontal layers, each of which has a different...
of a dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
, causing the dog to produce characteristic movements based on where the current was applied. Since different areas produced different movements, the physicians concluded that behavior was rooted at the cellular level. German neuroanatomist
Neuroanatomy
Neuroanatomy is the study of the anatomy and organization of the nervous system. In contrast to animals with radial symmetry, whose nervous system consists of a distributed network of cells, animals with bilateral symmetry have segregated, defined nervous systems, and thus we can begin to speak of...
Korbinian Brodmann
Korbinian Brodmann
Korbinian Brodmann was a German neurologist who became famous for his definition of the cerebral cortex into 52 distinct regions from their cytoarchitectonic characteristics.-Life:...
used tissue staining techniques developed by Franz Nissl
Franz Nissl
Franz Nissl was a German medical researcher. He was a noted neuropathologist.-Early life:...
to see the different types of cells in the brain. Through this study, Brodmann concluded in 1909 that the human brain consisted of fifty-two distinct areas, now named Brodmann area
Brodmann area
A Brodmann area is a region of the cerebral cortex defined based on its cytoarchitectonics, or structure and organization of cells.-History:...
s. Many of Brodmann's distinctions were very accurate, such as differentiating Brodmann area 17 from Brodmann area 18
Brodmann area 18
-Human:Brodmann area 18, or BA18, is part of the occipital cortex in the human brain. It accounts for the bulk of the volume of the occipital lobe....
.
Neuron doctrine
In the early 20th century, Santiago Ramón y CajalSantiago Ramón y Cajal
Santiago Ramón y Cajal ForMemRS was a Spanish pathologist, histologist, neuroscientist, and Nobel laureate. His pioneering investigations of the microscopic structure of the brain were original: he is considered by many to be the father of modern neuroscience...
and Camillo Golgi
Camillo Golgi
Camillo Golgi was an Italian physician, pathologist, scientist, and Nobel laureate.-Biography:Camillo Golgi was born in the village of Corteno, Lombardy, then part of the Austrian Empire. The village is now named Corteno Golgi in his honour. His father was a physician and district medical officer...
began working on the structure of the neuron. Golgi developed a silver staining method that could entirely stain several cells in a particular area, leading him to believe that neurons were directly connected with each other in one cytoplasm
Cytoplasm
The cytoplasm is a small gel-like substance residing between the cell membrane holding all the cell's internal sub-structures , except for the nucleus. All the contents of the cells of prokaryote organisms are contained within the cytoplasm...
. Cajal challenged this view after staining areas of the brain that had less myelin
Myelin
Myelin is a dielectric material that forms a layer, the myelin sheath, usually around only the axon of a neuron. It is essential for the proper functioning of the nervous system. Myelin is an outgrowth of a type of glial cell. The production of the myelin sheath is called myelination...
and discovering that neurons were discrete cells. Cajal also discovered that cells transmit electrical signals down the neuron in one direction only. Both Golgi and Cajal were awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will...
in 1906 for this work on the neuron doctrine. The neuron doctrine has ever since provided a fundamental theory for understanding neurophysiology.
Birth of cognitive science
On September 11, 1956, a large-scale meeting of cognitivistsCognitivism (psychology)
In psychology, cognitivism is a theoretical framework for understanding the mind that came into usage in the 1950s. The movement was a response to behaviorism, which cognitivists said neglected to explain cognition...
took place at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
. George A. Miller presented his "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two
The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two
"The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information" is one of the most highly cited papers in psychology. It was published in 1956 by the cognitive psychologist George A. Miller of Princeton University's Department of Psychology in Psychological...
" paper while Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, and activist. He is an Institute Professor and Professor in the Department of Linguistics & Philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. Chomsky has been described as the "father of modern linguistics" and...
and Newell
Allen Newell
Allen Newell was a researcher in computer science and cognitive psychology at the RAND corporation and at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science, Tepper School of Business, and Department of Psychology...
& Simon
Herbert Simon
Herbert Alexander Simon was an American political scientist, economist, sociologist, and psychologist, and professor—most notably at Carnegie Mellon University—whose research ranged across the fields of cognitive psychology, cognitive science, computer science, public administration, economics,...
presented their findings on computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
. Ulric Neisser
Ulric Neisser
Ulric Neisser is an American psychologist and member of the National Academy of Sciences. He is a faculty member at Cornell University. In 1995, he headed an American Psychological Association task force that reviewed The Bell Curve and related controversies in the study of intelligence. The task...
commented on many of the findings at this meeting in his 1967 book Cognitive Psychology. The term "psychology" had been waning in the 1950s and 1960s, causing the field to be referred to as "cognitive science". Behaviorists such as Miller began to focus on the representation of language rather than general behavior. David Marr's proposal of the hierarchical representation of memory caused many psychologists to embrace the idea that mental skills required significant processing in the brain, including algorithm
Algorithm
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is an effective method expressed as a finite list of well-defined instructions for calculating a function. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning...
s.
Combining neuroscience and cognitive science
Before the 1980s, interaction between neuroscience and cognitive science was scarce. The term 'cognitive neuroscience' was coined by George Miller and Michael Gazzaniga "in the back seat of a New York City taxi" toward the end of the 1970s. Cognitive neuroscience began to integrate the newly laid theoretical ground in cognitive science, that emerged between the 1950s and 1960s, with approaches in experimental psychology, neuropsychology and neuroscience. (Neuroscience was not established as a unified discipline until 1971). In the very late 20th century new technologies evolved that are now the mainstay of the methodology of cognitive neuroscience, including TMSTranscranial magnetic stimulation
Transcranial magnetic stimulation is a noninvasive method to cause depolarization or hyperpolarization in the neurons of the brain...
(1985) and fMRI (1991). Earlier methods used in cognitive neuroscience includes EEG
EEG
EEG commonly refers to electroencephalography, a measurement of the electrical activity of the brain.EEG may also refer to:* Emperor Entertainment Group, a Hong Kong-based entertainment company...
(human EEG 1920) and MEG
Magnetoencephalography
Magnetoencephalography is a technique for mapping brain activity by recording magnetic fields produced by electrical currents occurring naturally in the brain, using arrays of SQUIDs...
(1968). Occasionally cognitive neuroscientists utilize other brain imaging methods such as PET
Positron emission tomography
Positron emission tomography is nuclear medicine imaging technique that produces a three-dimensional image or picture of functional processes in the body. The system detects pairs of gamma rays emitted indirectly by a positron-emitting radionuclide , which is introduced into the body on a...
and SPECT. In some animals Single-unit recording
Single-unit recording
In neurophysiology and neurology, single-unit recording is the use of an electrode to record the electrophysiological activity from a single neuron.-History:...
can be used. Other methods include microneurography
Microneurography
Human microneurography or simply microneurography involves the insertion of metal microelectrodes into nerve fascicles. -Applications:Microneurography is used to study autonomic nervous system function. This is accomplished by recording muscle sympathetic nerve activity...
, facial EMG
Electromyography
Electromyography is a technique for evaluating and recording the electrical activity produced by skeletal muscles. EMG is performed using an instrument called an electromyograph, to produce a record called an electromyogram. An electromyograph detects the electrical potential generated by muscle...
, and eye-tracking. Integrative neuroscience
Integrative neuroscience
Integrative neuroscience sculptures a theoretical neuroscience with amathematical neuroscience that is different from computational neuroscience...
attempts to consolidate data in databases, and form unified descriptive models from various fields and scales: biology, psychology, anatomy, and clinical practice.
Recent trends
One of the most significant recent trends in cognitive neuroscience is that the focuses of research have gradually expanded: from the localization of brain area(s) for a specific function in the adult brain using a single technology, studies have been diverging in several different directions:- Interactions between different brain areas have been increasingly emphasized and clarified for individual functional disciplines, such as sensation and perception, attention, memory, reward and reinforcement, decision, action and language, and across different disciplines. Recent technological developments including multiple-unit recording, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) are among driving factors for this tendency.
- The importance of a computational approach has been emphasized, as findings of global functions and interactions have made interpretations of data increasingly complex.
- Phylogenetic and ontogenetic perspectives have been employed to examine the functions and interactions of brain areas using brain imaging techniques.
- Multimodal techniques have been more readily used to understand brain functions; this is exemplified in neural synchronization research that has been conducted using both unit(s) recordings and electroencephalography (EEG).
The development of new technologies has allowed neural processing to be examined and revealed on a more global scale and from wider perspectives than before. This tendency is expected to accelerate. Although the results will be progressively interdisciplinary and comprehensive, they will also be increasingly complex and difficult to interpret in any simple way. Thus, a computational and theoretical approach to organize and understand the significance of these results will become increasingly important.
Cognitive neuroscience topics
- attentionAttentionAttention is the cognitive process of paying attention to one aspect of the environment while ignoring others. Attention is one of the most intensely studied topics within psychology and cognitive neuroscience....
- change blindnessChange blindnessIn visual perception, change blindness is a normal phenomenon of the brain which show in light that the brain does not have a precise representation of the world but a lacunar one, made of partial details...
- consciousnessConsciousnessConsciousness is a term that refers to the relationship between the mind and the world with which it interacts. It has been defined as: subjectivity, awareness, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind...
- decision-making
- learningLearningLearning is acquiring new or modifying existing knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or preferences and may involve synthesizing different types of information. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals and some machines. Progress over time tends to follow learning curves.Human learning...
- memoryMemoryIn psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store, retain, and recall information and experiences. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including techniques of artificially enhancing memory....
- languageLanguageLanguage may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
- mirror neurons
- mismatch negativityMismatch negativityThe mismatch negativity or mismatch field is a component of the event-related potential to an odd stimulus in a sequence of stimuli. It arises from electrical activity in the brain and is studied within the field of cognitive neuroscience and psychology. It can occur in any sensory system, but...
Cognitive neuroscience methods
Experimental methods of specific psychology fields include:- PsychophysicsPsychophysicsPsychophysics quantitatively investigates the relationship between physical stimuli and the sensations and perceptions they effect. Psychophysics has been described as "the scientific study of the relation between stimulus and sensation" or, more completely, as "the analysis of perceptual...
- Cognitive psychologyCognitive psychologyCognitive psychology is a subdiscipline of psychology exploring internal mental processes.It is the study of how people perceive, remember, think, speak, and solve problems.Cognitive psychology differs from previous psychological approaches in two key ways....
- Cognitive neuropsychologyCognitive neuropsychologyCognitive neuropsychology is a branch of cognitive psychology that aims to understand how the structure and function of the brain relates to specific psychological processes. It places a particular emphasis on studying the cognitive effects of brain injury or neurological illness with a view to...
- Cognitive psychophysiologyPhysiological psychologyPhysiological psychology is a subdivision of behavioral neuroscience that studies the neural mechanisms of perception and behavior through direct manipulation of the brains of nonhuman animal subjects in controlled experiments...
Related WikiBooks
- wikibooks:Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience
- Wikibook on consciousness
- Cognitive Neuroscience chapter of the Neuroscience WikiBook
See also
- Cognitive psychologyCognitive psychologyCognitive psychology is a subdiscipline of psychology exploring internal mental processes.It is the study of how people perceive, remember, think, speak, and solve problems.Cognitive psychology differs from previous psychological approaches in two key ways....
- Experimental psychologyExperimental psychologyExperimental psychology is a methodological approach, rather than a subject, and encompasses varied fields within psychology. Experimental psychologists have traditionally conducted research, published articles, and taught classes on neuroscience, developmental psychology, sensation, perception,...
- Cognitive psychophysiologyPhysiological psychologyPhysiological psychology is a subdivision of behavioral neuroscience that studies the neural mechanisms of perception and behavior through direct manipulation of the brains of nonhuman animal subjects in controlled experiments...
- Important publications in cognitive neuroscience
- Affective neuroscienceAffective neuroscienceAffective neuroscience is the study of the neural mechanisms of emotion. This interdisciplinary field combines neuroscience with the psychological study of personality, emotion, and mood.-Brain areas related to emotion:...
- Social neuroscienceSocial neuroscienceSocial neuroscience is an interdisciplinary field devoted to understanding how biological systems implement social processes and behavior, and to using biological concepts and methods to inform and refine theories of social processes and behavior. Humans are fundamentally a social species, rather...
- Cultural neuroscienceCultural neuroscienceCultural neuroscience is the study of how cultural values, practices and beliefs shape and are shaped by the mind, brain and genes across multiple timescales. The study of cultural neuroscience bridges theory and methods from anthropology, psychology, neuroscience and genetics...
- Combinatorial game theoryCombinatorial game theoryCombinatorial game theory is a branch of applied mathematics and theoretical computer science that studies sequential games with perfect information, that is, two-player games which have a position in which the players take turns changing in defined ways or moves to achieve a defined winning...
- Brodmann areaBrodmann areaA Brodmann area is a region of the cerebral cortex defined based on its cytoarchitectonics, or structure and organization of cells.-History:...
- List of cognitive neuroscientists
Further reading (Academic journals)
- Acoustical Society of America
- American Journal of Audiology
- Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics
- Auditory Research
- Behavioural Neuroscience
- Behavioural Brain Research
- Brain
- Brain Research
- Cerebral Cortex
- Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology
- Clinical Neuropharmacology
- Clinical Neurophysiology
- Clinical Neuropsychology
- Clinical Neuroscience Research
- Clinical Neuroscience
- Cognition
- Cognitive Brain Research
- Cognitive Psychology
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Consciousness and Cognition
- Current Opinion in Neurobiology
- Developmental Brain Research
- Emotion
- Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology
- European Journal of Neuroscience
- Experimental Neurology
- Experimental Psychology
- Glia
- IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks
- Hearing Research
- Hippocampus
- Human Brain Mapping
- Human Neurobiology
- Intelligence
- Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
- Journal of Computational Neuroscience
- Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance
- Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition
- Journal of Neurobiology
- Journal of Neuroscience
- Journal of Neuroscience Methods
- Journal of Neurophysiology
- Journal of Vision
- Memory and Language
- Nature
- Nature Neuroscience
- Neural Computation
- Neural Networks
- Neural Systems
- Neurobiology of Aging
- Neurochemical Research
- Neurocomputing
- NeuroImage
- Neuron
- Neuropsychologia
- Neuropsychology
- Neuropsychopharmacology
- NeuroReport
- Neuroscience
- Neuroscience Letters
- Neuroscience Research
- Optical Society of America
- Otology and Neurotology
- Perception
- PLoS One
- PLoS Biology
- Psychological Science
- Progress in Brain Research
- Progress in Neurobiology
- Psychological Review
- Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
- Science
- Social neuroscience
- Synapse
- Trends in Neurosciences
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences
- Vision
- Vision Research
- Visual Cognition
- Visual Neuroscience
External links
- Cognitive Neuroscience Society Homepage
- There's Something about Zero
- What Is Cognitive Neuroscience?, Jamie Ward/Psychology Press
- goCognitive - Educational Tools for Cognitive Neuroscience (including video interviews)
- CogNet, The Brain and Cognitive Sciences Community Online, MIT
- Cognitive Neuroscience Arena, Psychology Press
- Cognitive Neuroscience and Philosophy, CUJCS, Spring 2002
- Whole Brain Atlas Top 100 Brain Structures
- Cognitive Neuroscience Discussion Group