Chapter 1 Flashcards
Cognitive neuroscience
Aims to produce a brain-based account of cognitive and behavioral processes. Made possible by technological advances in studying the brain that are safer and less crude than, say, Penfields method.
Plato
Thought that mental experiences arise in the brain.
Aristotle
Thought that mental experiences arise in the heart.
Mind-body problem
How can a physical substance (brain/body) give rise to mental experience.
Dualism
The mind and body are separate substances (e.g. Descartes) = outdated.
Dual-aspect theory
Mind and body are two levels of explanation of the same thing (e.g. Spinoza).
Reductionism
Mind explained solely in terms of physical/biological theory (e.g. Churchland).
Broca’s area
Speech production; patient only saying one word TAN.
Wernicke’s area
Speech comprehension; patient speaks but has poor speech comprehension.
Phrenology
Gall and Spurzheim; (1) different parts of the cortex serve different functions = correct, (2) differences in personality traits manifest in differences in cortical size and bumps on the skull = incorrect, (3) crude division of psychological traits = incorrect. None of the assumptions was grounded in science.
Connectionists models
Mathematical (computational) in nature but d not involve serial processing and discrete routines.
1970s
Structural imaging methods (CT, MRI etc.) enable precise images of the brain (and brain lesions).
1980s
PET adopted to models cognition developed by psychologists.
1985
TMS is first used ( a non-invasive, safer equivalent of Penfield’s earlier studies.
1990
Level of oxygen in blood used as a measure of cognitive function (the principle behind fMRI).
EEG/ERP
Recording, noninvasive, electrical
Single cell/multi unit
Recording, invasive, electrical
TMS
Stimulation, nonivasive, electromagnetic
tES
Stimulation, noninvasive, electric
MEG
Recording, nonivasive, magnetic
PET
Recording, invasive, hemodynamic
fMRI
Recording, noninvasive, hemodynamic
fNIRS
Recording, noninvasive, hemodynamic
Cognitive neuroscience is not phrenology
(1) Modern cognitive neuroscience uses empirical neuroscience methods to ascertain different cognitive functions, (2) modern cognitive neuroscience builds upon the information processing diagrams of (cognitive) psychology, (3) in combination, this provides information not only what happens where but also how it happens.
Penfield
Carried out a series of experiments on living human brains. The patients where undergoing surgery for epilepsy. To identify and spare regions of the brain involved in movement and sensation, Penfield electrically stimulated regions of the cortex while the patient was still conscious.
Cognition
A variety of higher mental processes such as thinking, perceiving, imagining, speaking, acting and planning.
Cognitive neuroscience
Aims to explain cognitive processes in terms of brain-based mechanisms. It is a bridging discipline between cognitive science and cognitive psychology and biology and neuroscience.
Dualism and cognitive neuroscience
There is little hope for cognitive neuroscience if dualism is true because the methods of physical and biological sciences cannot tap into the non-physical domain.
Reductionism and psychology
Although cognitive, mind-based concepts are now based are currently useful for scientific exploration, but will eventually be replaced by purely biology as we learn more and more about the brain. On the contrary dual-aspect theorists point out that an emotion will still feel like an emotion even if we were to fully understand its neural basis and, as such, the usefulness of cognitive, mind-based concepts will never be fully replaced.
Cognitive neuropsychology
The approach of using patients with acquired brain damage to inform theories of normal cognition.
Information processing
An approach in which behavior is described in terms of a sequence of cognitive stages. The implication was that one could understand the series of steps performed by a computer program, and without reference to the brain.
Modularity
The notion that certain cognitive processes (or regions of the brain) are restricted in the type of information they process.
Domain specificity
The idea that a cognitive process (or brain region) is dedicated solely to one particular type of information.
Interactivity
Later stages of processing can begin before earlier stages are complete.
Top down processing
The influence of later stages on the processing of earlier ones.
Bottom down processing
The passage of information from simpler to more complex.
Temporal resolution
The accuracy with which one can measure when an event occurs.
Spatial resolution
The accuracy with which one can measure where an event is occuring
