Unit 1 - Introducing Cognitive Neuroscience Flashcards
What is cognition?
A variety of higher mental processes such as thinking, perceiving, imagining, speaking, acting, and planning
What is cognitive neuroscience? What does it aim to do?
The bridging discipline between cognitive science and biology
Explain cognitive processes in terms of brain-based mechanisms
What is the mind-body problem?
The problem of how a physical substance (brain) can give rise to our sensations, thoughts, and emotions (mind)
What is dualism? Who believed in it? What did this person believe about science’s ability to study the mind?
The belief that the mind and brain are made up of different kinds of substances, although they may interact
Rene Descartes
Not possible to tap into its non-physical domain
What is the dual-aspect theory? Who believed in it?
A belief that mind and brain are two different levels of explanation of the same thing, but not two different things
Spinoza and Velmans
What is reductionism? What does it infer about psychology? What is a critique of it?
The belief that mind-based concepts will eventually be replaced by purely biological constructs
That it will eventually become biology
E.g., emotions will still feel like emotions, meaning that mind-based concepts will never be fully replaced
What was Broca’s realisation in 1861? How did he conclude this?
That language could be localised to a particular region of the brain
From studying two brain-damaged patients
What is phrenology? What are its main beliefs? What was it not based on?
A pseudoscience that stated that:
different regions of the brain perform different functions and are associated with different behaviours
the size of these regions produces distortions of the skull and correlates with individual differences in cognition and personality
Experiments or theories of cognition
What was Lichteim’s and Wernicke’s argument about language? What was it based on?
That it could be subdivided into speech recognition, speech production, and conceptual knowledge
Brain damage observations
What is cognitive neuropsychology? Is it considered part of cognitive neuroscience?
The study of brain-damaged patients to inform theories of normal cognition
Yes
What are the two main steps forward of the past in terms of thinking about the mind and brain?
Using empirical observations
Developing models of cognition (without knowing the specific regions involved)
What is information-processing? What does it resemble? What was it the foundation for?
Approach in which behaviour is described in terms of sequences of cognitive stages
Computer programs
Cognitive psychology
What is functional specialisation?
The idea that different regions of the brain are specialised for different functions
What was Fodor’s theory of modularity?
That cognitive processes can be divided in central systems and modules based on the type of information they can process
What is modularity?
The idea that certain cognitive processes (or brain regions) are restricted in the type of information they process
In Fodor’s theory of modularity, can cognitive systems operate in isolation of other cognitive systems?
Yes
What is meant by domain specificity? How does it relate to Fodor’s cognitive systems? How could it be specified?
The processing of only particular type of information
Modules in Fodor’s theory are domain specific
Innately in the genetic code
What is meant by domain independent? How does it relate to Fodor’s theory?
The processing of non-specific information
Central systems are domain-independent
What are the two main critiques of Fodor’s theory?
Domain specificity and systems like reading cannot be innate, e.g., because reading was only recently developed
Modules are not isolated from other cognitive processes
What is meant by interactivity?
The fact that later stages of processing can begin before earlier stages are complete
What is meant by bottom-up processing?
Passage of information from simpler, e.g. edges, to more complex, e.g. objects
What is parallel processing?
Different information being processed simultaneously
What is meant by top-down processing? Provide an example
Influence of later stages on the processing of earlier stages
Memory influencing perception
What are neural network models? What do they provide in terms of cognitive neuroscience?
Computational models in which information processing occurs using many interconnected nodes
Examples of ways in which the brain might implement cognitive functions
What is a node?
The basic units of neural network models that are activated in response to activity in other parts of the network
What are the three dimensions of methods of cognitive neuroscience?
Temporal resolution, spatial resolution, and invasiveness
What is meant by temporal resolution?
The accuracy with which one can measure when an event occurs
What is meant by spatial resolution?
The accuracy with which one can measure where an event is occurring
What is the effect on reaction time to a stimulus if the same stimulus was recently presented?
Quicker reaction time
What can cognitive psychology do and what it can not do?
May tell us the structure of information processing, but not why information processing is configured in this way
What is meant by invasiveness?
Whether a method refers to equipment located internally (invasive) or externally (non-invasive)
Is cognitive neuroscience replacing cognitive psychology? What is the relation between the two?
No
Cognitive psychological theories can inform theories and experiments in the neurosciences and vice versa
How does neuroscience need cognitive psychology?
Neuroscience requires insights from cognitive psychology to frame appropriate research questions
What is meant by a network in neuroscience? Which two parts of humans are seen to function as a network?
A dynamically changing pattern of activity over several brain regions
The mind and brain
What is a connectome? What does it exemplify? What is it based on?
A comprehensive map of neural connections in the brain
The network of the brain
Structural and functional imaging techniques over thousands of people
What is graph theory? What was it used for?
A mathematical technique for computing the pattern of connectivity
Deriving the human connectome
What is the main challenge for future cognitive neuroscience?
To develop new ways of describing the relationship between brain structure and function
What are three different ways of mapping brain structures to different functions?
- One to one association between brain structure and function
- Network of regions may make different contributions to a given function, and network consists of specialised units that interact
- Network of regions may make different contributions to a given function, but the network consists of interactions between non specialised units
