Chapter 1 Introduction Keywords
Ventral = inferior, or towards the bottom of the brain.
BOLD = blood oxygen level-dependent contrast
BOLD explained = this is the signal measured by fMRI
Bottom-up processing = processing that is directly influenced by environmental stimuli.
Case-series study = a study in which several patients with similar cognitive impairments are tested;
this allows consideration of individual data and of variation across individuals.
Sulcus = a groove or furrow in the surface of the brain.
Syndrome = the notion that symptoms that often co-occur have a common origin.
Top-down processing = stimulus processing that is influenced by factors such as the individual's past
experience and expectations
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) = pulses briefly disrupt the functioning of a given brain
area. It is often claimed that it creates a short-lived "lesion". More accurately, TMS causes
interference when the brain area to which it is applied is involved in task processing as well as
activity produced by the applied stimulation.
Cognitive neuroscience = approach that aims to understand human cognition by combining
information from the brain and behavior.
Cognitive psychology = approach that aims to understand human cognition by the study of behavior;
a broader definition also includes the study of brain activity and structure.
Cognitive architecture = a comprehensive framework for understanding human cognition in the form
of a computer program.
Connectionist models = models in computational cognitive science consisting of interconnected
networks of simple units; the networks exhibit learning through experience and specific items of
knowledge are distributed across numerous units.
Computational modelling = this involves constructing computer programs that simulate or mimic
human cognitive processes.
Implacable experimenter = the situation in experimental research in which the experimenter’s
behavior is uninfluenced by the participant’s behavior.
Lateral = situated at the side of the brain.
Lesions = structural alterations within the brain caused by disease or injury.
Magneto-encephalography (MEG) = a non-invasive brain-scanning technique based on recording the
magnetic fields generated by brain activity.
, Modularity = that the cognitive system consists of many fairly independent or separate modules or
processors, each specialized for a given type of processing.
Meta-analysis = a form of statistical analysis based on combining the findings from numerous studies
on a given issue.
Parallel processing = processing in which two or more cognitive processes occur at the same time.
Medial = situated in the middle of the brain.
Paradigm specificity = the findings with a given experimental task or paradigm are not obtained even
when apparently very similar tasks or paradigms are used.
Serial processing = processing in which one process is completed before the next one starts.
Single-unit recording = an invasive technique for studying brain function, permitting the study of
activity in single neurons.
Artificial intelligence = this involves developing computer programs that produce intelligent
outcomes.
Association = the finding that certain symptoms or performance impairments are consistently found
together in numerous brain damaged patients.
Back-propagation = a learning mechanism in connectionist models based on comparing actual
responses to correct ones.
Domain specificity = the notion that a given module responds selectively to certain types of stimuli
(e.g. faces), but not others.
Dorsal = superior, or towards the top of the brain.
Double dissociation = the finding that some brain damaged individuals have intact performance on
one task but poor performance on another task, whereas other individuals exhibit the opposite
pattern.
Ecological validity = the applicability (or otherwise) of the findings of laboratory studies to everyday
settings.
Electroencephalography (EEG) = recording the brain’s electrical potentials through a series of scalp
electrodes.
Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (efMRI) = a form of fMRI in which patterns of
brain activity associated with specific events are compared.
Event-related potentials (ERPs) = the pattern of ElectroEncephaloGraph (EEG) activity obtained by
averaging the brain responses to the same stimulus presented repeatedly.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) = a technique based on imaging blood oxygenation
using an MRI machine ; it provides information about the location and time course of brain
processes.
Ventral = inferior, or towards the bottom of the brain.
BOLD = blood oxygen level-dependent contrast
BOLD explained = this is the signal measured by fMRI
Bottom-up processing = processing that is directly influenced by environmental stimuli.
Case-series study = a study in which several patients with similar cognitive impairments are tested;
this allows consideration of individual data and of variation across individuals.
Sulcus = a groove or furrow in the surface of the brain.
Syndrome = the notion that symptoms that often co-occur have a common origin.
Top-down processing = stimulus processing that is influenced by factors such as the individual's past
experience and expectations
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) = pulses briefly disrupt the functioning of a given brain
area. It is often claimed that it creates a short-lived "lesion". More accurately, TMS causes
interference when the brain area to which it is applied is involved in task processing as well as
activity produced by the applied stimulation.
Cognitive neuroscience = approach that aims to understand human cognition by combining
information from the brain and behavior.
Cognitive psychology = approach that aims to understand human cognition by the study of behavior;
a broader definition also includes the study of brain activity and structure.
Cognitive architecture = a comprehensive framework for understanding human cognition in the form
of a computer program.
Connectionist models = models in computational cognitive science consisting of interconnected
networks of simple units; the networks exhibit learning through experience and specific items of
knowledge are distributed across numerous units.
Computational modelling = this involves constructing computer programs that simulate or mimic
human cognitive processes.
Implacable experimenter = the situation in experimental research in which the experimenter’s
behavior is uninfluenced by the participant’s behavior.
Lateral = situated at the side of the brain.
Lesions = structural alterations within the brain caused by disease or injury.
Magneto-encephalography (MEG) = a non-invasive brain-scanning technique based on recording the
magnetic fields generated by brain activity.
, Modularity = that the cognitive system consists of many fairly independent or separate modules or
processors, each specialized for a given type of processing.
Meta-analysis = a form of statistical analysis based on combining the findings from numerous studies
on a given issue.
Parallel processing = processing in which two or more cognitive processes occur at the same time.
Medial = situated in the middle of the brain.
Paradigm specificity = the findings with a given experimental task or paradigm are not obtained even
when apparently very similar tasks or paradigms are used.
Serial processing = processing in which one process is completed before the next one starts.
Single-unit recording = an invasive technique for studying brain function, permitting the study of
activity in single neurons.
Artificial intelligence = this involves developing computer programs that produce intelligent
outcomes.
Association = the finding that certain symptoms or performance impairments are consistently found
together in numerous brain damaged patients.
Back-propagation = a learning mechanism in connectionist models based on comparing actual
responses to correct ones.
Domain specificity = the notion that a given module responds selectively to certain types of stimuli
(e.g. faces), but not others.
Dorsal = superior, or towards the top of the brain.
Double dissociation = the finding that some brain damaged individuals have intact performance on
one task but poor performance on another task, whereas other individuals exhibit the opposite
pattern.
Ecological validity = the applicability (or otherwise) of the findings of laboratory studies to everyday
settings.
Electroencephalography (EEG) = recording the brain’s electrical potentials through a series of scalp
electrodes.
Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (efMRI) = a form of fMRI in which patterns of
brain activity associated with specific events are compared.
Event-related potentials (ERPs) = the pattern of ElectroEncephaloGraph (EEG) activity obtained by
averaging the brain responses to the same stimulus presented repeatedly.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) = a technique based on imaging blood oxygenation
using an MRI machine ; it provides information about the location and time course of brain
processes.
