Brain and cognition
LECTURE 1: Cognitive neuroscience: definitions, themes and approaches
What is cognitive neuroscience?
A relatively new research discipline that combines neuroscience with cognitive science. It’s a
promising discipline.
Cognitive science: wants to study mental science, cognition.
Cognition: ‘set of processes to perceive external stimuli, to extract key information and hold it in
memory, and generate thoughts and actions to reach desired goals.
- In cognition we study different processes:
a. Acquire information
b. Store and retrieve information in memory
c. Generate and use information to reach a goal
d. Many cognitive processes that happen are conscious and unconscious processes.
Cognitive science; a historical sketch:
- Plato and Aristotle already the studied the nature of knowledge (500 before chr)
- In the 19th century, people started studying mental processes by applying experience. They
wanted empirical evidence through experimental manipulations.
- Wilhelm Wundt: The godfather of experimental psychology- used introspection to
experimentally investigate cognitive processes (like a math problem)
a. Introspective approach got a lot of critique since we can only access mental processes we
are aware of.
- As a counter-effect of the introspective approach: behaviorism. Early 20 th century: rise of
behaviorism (especially in the US)
A. Objective experimental approach: objective external stimuli are matched to measurable
behavior. All mental activity can be reduced to behavioral activity. We can always study
cognition by watching someone do something. This led to the use of animals.
Skinner box: Animals (rats) can perform complex behaviors through reward-based learning (i.e.e
operant conditioning) Skinner was able to learn pigeons how to read.
- If rat behaved as he wanted to, he got a treat. If not he got a an electric shock.
- Critical to behaviorism: memory is shaped by reward/punishment and
Thus, passive. If you put a stimulus on the focus of the memory, it will follow
a specific trace.
black box = fixed memory learned by
reward/punishment. It’s passive, and irrelevant because it is not doing anything. You just have to
watch how a stimulus could evoke a specific response.
,Halfway 20th century: cognitive science
- Changed again because some experiments which could not have been explained through
behaviorism.
- Like rats who appear to learn without rewarding stimuli (experiment by Tolman on latent
learning)
- Also rise of computers and information theory. People started thinking of minds as computers.
- Psychological states affect responses to stimuli. There is more to it than just a fixed memory.
Big difference: As cognitive scientist we think that the thing between the stimulus and the response is
dynamic and an active recording of different processes.
What we want to do in cognitive science: open the black box and build a model that can look into it
and predict how stimulus would evoke a specific response.
This model could explain why the stimulus tinnitus could cause distress. Models predict how sensory
stimui leads to behavioral responses.
Components of these types of models, are not specifically related to physcial processes in the brain.
Models make us of psychological constructs (e.g. attention, arousal). You could say that the models
are kind of limited.
What is neuroscience?
- The study of the nervous system.
- How is the nervous system (of humans and other animals) organized and how does it
function?
Important historical moments:
- Gall: The founding father of phrenology. Phrenology: By looking at the form of the skull you
can deduce the personality traits and cognitive aspects. By the size of the bumps on the skull.
, a. Cognitive functions and personality traits are
associated with different parts of the cerebral
cortex. The extend of a function of trait could
be mapped by measuring bumps on the skull
(phrenology)
b. Although phrenology is now dismissed, the
idea that functions can be localized in
specific brain areas is still very popular (but
very wrong in many – or most – cases!!!!)
- Only in 2nd half of the 19th century people came to realize that the brain was made up by
different neurons. The neuron doctrine emerged: the nervous system is made up of discrete
individual cells (i.e. neurons)
- Santiago Ramon Y Cajal: had a staining method so he could dye specific neurons, and he
was watching them with a microscope and making drawings of different types of neurons.
- This was an important step forward.
- Soon after came the discovery that neurons communicate via electrical impulses (action
potentials) and biochemical substances (neurotransmitters)
Cognitive neuroscience:
- As stated before: the intersection of cognitive science and neuroscience
- The goal is not to just create maps of brain function. It is not the search of neural correlates of
a cognitive function. Move away from the ‘phrenological approach.”
- EG. We want to move away from the phrenological approach
- The goal is to understand cognition in terms of the underlying neural computations. We want
to develop ‘neurobiologically grounded models of cognitive functions!
- How do we do this?; wealth of research methods, but all methods have limitations
Spatial resolution: if you have a high spatial resolution, you can have a very detailed picture
of where something is happening. High in spatial details.
Temporal resolution: it is highly detailed on the amount of samples being taken.
Idealy: address the same research question with multiple methods and research paradigms
- 1st principle: Convergence: study a theoretical concept with different paradigms. A
hypothesis that is tested with different experimental designs that all give the same results (i.e.
they converge on the findings) provides very strong empirical evidence that the hypothesis is
real. Combining information from multiple studies can be done by performing a meta-
anyalysis (analysis of analyses)
, - 2nd principle: Complementarity: we should use different methods to provide different
sources of information. For example, some methods have a high temporal resolution, other
have a high spatial resolution.
Neuroanatomy (Appendix):
Anatomical terminology:
Human terminology is based on animal.
rostral: front part of the brain. Rostral caudal axis
dorsal upper side of the brain
ventral lower side of the brain.
Anterior: front part of the brain
Posterior: behind part of the brain
Superior: above
Inferior: lower part of the brain
If you have a sagittal slice exactly on the middle part of the brain you call this is a mid-sagittal slice.
LECTURE 1: Cognitive neuroscience: definitions, themes and approaches
What is cognitive neuroscience?
A relatively new research discipline that combines neuroscience with cognitive science. It’s a
promising discipline.
Cognitive science: wants to study mental science, cognition.
Cognition: ‘set of processes to perceive external stimuli, to extract key information and hold it in
memory, and generate thoughts and actions to reach desired goals.
- In cognition we study different processes:
a. Acquire information
b. Store and retrieve information in memory
c. Generate and use information to reach a goal
d. Many cognitive processes that happen are conscious and unconscious processes.
Cognitive science; a historical sketch:
- Plato and Aristotle already the studied the nature of knowledge (500 before chr)
- In the 19th century, people started studying mental processes by applying experience. They
wanted empirical evidence through experimental manipulations.
- Wilhelm Wundt: The godfather of experimental psychology- used introspection to
experimentally investigate cognitive processes (like a math problem)
a. Introspective approach got a lot of critique since we can only access mental processes we
are aware of.
- As a counter-effect of the introspective approach: behaviorism. Early 20 th century: rise of
behaviorism (especially in the US)
A. Objective experimental approach: objective external stimuli are matched to measurable
behavior. All mental activity can be reduced to behavioral activity. We can always study
cognition by watching someone do something. This led to the use of animals.
Skinner box: Animals (rats) can perform complex behaviors through reward-based learning (i.e.e
operant conditioning) Skinner was able to learn pigeons how to read.
- If rat behaved as he wanted to, he got a treat. If not he got a an electric shock.
- Critical to behaviorism: memory is shaped by reward/punishment and
Thus, passive. If you put a stimulus on the focus of the memory, it will follow
a specific trace.
black box = fixed memory learned by
reward/punishment. It’s passive, and irrelevant because it is not doing anything. You just have to
watch how a stimulus could evoke a specific response.
,Halfway 20th century: cognitive science
- Changed again because some experiments which could not have been explained through
behaviorism.
- Like rats who appear to learn without rewarding stimuli (experiment by Tolman on latent
learning)
- Also rise of computers and information theory. People started thinking of minds as computers.
- Psychological states affect responses to stimuli. There is more to it than just a fixed memory.
Big difference: As cognitive scientist we think that the thing between the stimulus and the response is
dynamic and an active recording of different processes.
What we want to do in cognitive science: open the black box and build a model that can look into it
and predict how stimulus would evoke a specific response.
This model could explain why the stimulus tinnitus could cause distress. Models predict how sensory
stimui leads to behavioral responses.
Components of these types of models, are not specifically related to physcial processes in the brain.
Models make us of psychological constructs (e.g. attention, arousal). You could say that the models
are kind of limited.
What is neuroscience?
- The study of the nervous system.
- How is the nervous system (of humans and other animals) organized and how does it
function?
Important historical moments:
- Gall: The founding father of phrenology. Phrenology: By looking at the form of the skull you
can deduce the personality traits and cognitive aspects. By the size of the bumps on the skull.
, a. Cognitive functions and personality traits are
associated with different parts of the cerebral
cortex. The extend of a function of trait could
be mapped by measuring bumps on the skull
(phrenology)
b. Although phrenology is now dismissed, the
idea that functions can be localized in
specific brain areas is still very popular (but
very wrong in many – or most – cases!!!!)
- Only in 2nd half of the 19th century people came to realize that the brain was made up by
different neurons. The neuron doctrine emerged: the nervous system is made up of discrete
individual cells (i.e. neurons)
- Santiago Ramon Y Cajal: had a staining method so he could dye specific neurons, and he
was watching them with a microscope and making drawings of different types of neurons.
- This was an important step forward.
- Soon after came the discovery that neurons communicate via electrical impulses (action
potentials) and biochemical substances (neurotransmitters)
Cognitive neuroscience:
- As stated before: the intersection of cognitive science and neuroscience
- The goal is not to just create maps of brain function. It is not the search of neural correlates of
a cognitive function. Move away from the ‘phrenological approach.”
- EG. We want to move away from the phrenological approach
- The goal is to understand cognition in terms of the underlying neural computations. We want
to develop ‘neurobiologically grounded models of cognitive functions!
- How do we do this?; wealth of research methods, but all methods have limitations
Spatial resolution: if you have a high spatial resolution, you can have a very detailed picture
of where something is happening. High in spatial details.
Temporal resolution: it is highly detailed on the amount of samples being taken.
Idealy: address the same research question with multiple methods and research paradigms
- 1st principle: Convergence: study a theoretical concept with different paradigms. A
hypothesis that is tested with different experimental designs that all give the same results (i.e.
they converge on the findings) provides very strong empirical evidence that the hypothesis is
real. Combining information from multiple studies can be done by performing a meta-
anyalysis (analysis of analyses)
, - 2nd principle: Complementarity: we should use different methods to provide different
sources of information. For example, some methods have a high temporal resolution, other
have a high spatial resolution.
Neuroanatomy (Appendix):
Anatomical terminology:
Human terminology is based on animal.
rostral: front part of the brain. Rostral caudal axis
dorsal upper side of the brain
ventral lower side of the brain.
Anterior: front part of the brain
Posterior: behind part of the brain
Superior: above
Inferior: lower part of the brain
If you have a sagittal slice exactly on the middle part of the brain you call this is a mid-sagittal slice.
