ISBN 978-0-87893-573-4

Cognitive neuroscience Part 1 Chapters 1 to 7 of book Purves et al., Principles of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2nd edition

ISBN 978-0-87893-573-4

Chapter 1: Cognitive neuroscience: definitions, themes, and approaches ..........2 Chapter 2: The methods of Cognitive Neuroscience .........................................4 Chapter 3: Sensory systems and perception: vision .........................................6 Chapter 4: Sensory systems and perception: auditory, mechanical and chemical senses.........................................................................................................10 Chapter 5: Motor systems: the organization of action ....................................18 Chapter 6: Attention and its effects on stimulus processing ...........................22 Chapter 7: The control of attention ...............................................................24

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Chapter 1: Cognitive neuroscience: definitions, themes, and approaches Relatively new discipline that has risen from the combination of neuroscience and cognitive science  integrates investigations of brain structure and function, and seeks to measure cognitive abilities and behavior to understand how the human brain works at all levels.Cognition = set of processes that allow humans and many other animals to perceive external stimuli, to extract key information and hold it in memory, and to generate thoughts and actions that help reach desired goals -Cognitive functions -processing carried out by the mind (?), the mind is difficult to define. Consists of our subjective, conscious experiences.  not all processes studied are conscious.Behaviorism = new emphasis on highly controlled experiments that matched objective external stimuli to measurable behavior.  as a result of growing dissatisfaction with the lack of systematic progress in the study of mental processes.-How changes in stimulus presentation could shape how individuals adapt their behavior to the demands of the environment.

-Skinner: operant conditioning

-Advanced the scientific understanding of behavior: stimulus-response learning.

-Dismissed mental states and only discussed concepts in terms of experimental manipulations Cognitive science = research on mental processes regardless of the specific topic, experimental approach, method or discipline.-Information processing associated with cognitive functions.-Interest in characterizing the phenomena and behavior associated with specific cognitive functions, and in creating cognitive models (= describe underlying psychological processes, predict how sensory input leads to behavioral output) -Psychological constructs = elements of cognitive models that are created to help explain diverse phenomena without reference to their ultimate causes in the brain. \ The field of neuroscience is concerned with how the nervous system of humans and other animals is organized and functions.-Cerebral cortex Phrenology = approach of studying brain function where they believed that cognitive functions and personality traits were associated with different parts of the cerebral cortex and that the size of the cerebral cortex could be mapped by measuring bumps on the overlying skull. made an important contribution to modern neuroscience: it introduced the idea of localization of function (= different parts of the brain contribute to different sorts of information processing).Neurons = separate cells that carry out cognitive processes Action potentials = the electrical properties of neurons; shows that signals are transmitted long distances along neuronal axons

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Neurotransmitters = the chemical substances that neurons use to stimulate the cells they contact. Are released by the terminals of neuronal axons = synapses where neurotransmitters bind to the receptor molecules on target neurons and other cells  altering the membrane potential of the cell contacted.Cognitive neuroscience = work at the intersection of cognitive science and neuroscience.-Think about the cognitive processes that shape our behavior and the contents of our mental lives, and understand cognitive psychology and related fields -Relate those processes and theories to underlying brain function Neural correlates = mapping of the brain regions that are activated during a psychological process.  important role, but cognitive neuroscience goes well beyond creating maps of brain function.-Combines information about brain structure and function to create neurobiologically grounded models of cognition.

Advantages of using multiple methods:

-Convergence = the approach of combining results from multiple experimental paradigms to illuminate a single theoretical concept. When the same result is observed across a range of experimental tasks, then that commonality leads to a stronger inference that could be drawn from any one experiment. Often facilitated by meta- analytic methods.-Complementarity = each research method provides a different sort of information about brain function. Many diverse physiological changes can be measured with research methods that provide insight into these different aspects. Each technique carries distinct strengths and limitations, so the results obtained from multiple techniques are much more compelling than results derived from only one approach.

Summary:

1.Cognitive science seeks to understand the information processing associated with functions like perception, memory, and decision making 2.Neuroscience seeks to characterize the structure and function of the nervous system 3.Cognitive neuroscience is a new discipline that applies research methods from neuroscience to the functions and behaviors studied by cognitive science 4.Cognitive neuroscientists use diverse research methods and experimental paradigms to develop models of mental function and behavior

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