Chapter 1: Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience

• What is Cognition?


  A variety of higher mental processes such as thinking, perceiving, imagining, speaking, acting, and planning
• What is Cognitive Neuroscience?

  Aims to explain cognitive processes in terms of brain-based mechanisms
• What is meant by the mind-body problem?


  The problem of how a physical substance (the brain) can give rise to our sensations, thoughts, and emotions (our mind)
• What is Dualism?


  The belief that mind and brain are made up of different kinds of substance
• What is the Dual-aspect theory?


  The belief that mind and brain are two levels of description of the same thing
• What is meant by reductionism in this context?


  The belief that mind-based concepts will eventually be replaced by neuroscientific concepts
• What is Phrenology? 


  The failed idea that individual differences in cognition can be mapped on to differences in skull shape
• What is functional specialisation?


  Different regions of the brain are specialized for different functions
• What is cognitive neuropsychology? (different from cognitive neuroscience)


  The study of brain-damaged patients to inform theories of normal cognition
• What is information processing?


  An approach in which behavior is described in terms of a sequence of cognitive stages
• What is meant by Interactivity?


  Later stages of processing can begin before earlier stages are complete
• What is meant by Top-down processing?


  The influence of later stages on the processing of earlier ones (e.g. memory influences on perception)
• What is meant by Bottom-up processing?


  The passage of information from simpler (e.g. edges) to more complex (e.g. objects)
• What is meant by parallel processing?


  Different information is processed at the same time (i.e. in parallel)
• What is meant by Modularity?


  The notion that certain cognitive processes (or regions of the brain) are restricted in the type of information they process
• What is meant by Domain-specificity?


  The idea that a cognitive process (or brain region) is dedicated solely to one particular type of information (e.g. colors, faces, words)
• What are Neural Network Models?


  Computational models in which information processing occurs using many interconnected nodes
• What are Nodes?


  The basic units of neural network models that are activated in response to activity in other parts of the network
• What is Temporal Resolution?


  The accuracy with which one can measure when an event (e.g. a physiological change) occurs
• What is Spatial Resolution?


  The accuracy with which one can measure where an event (e.g. a physiological change) is occurring
• What is the Graph Theory????


  A mathematical technique for computing the pattern of connectivity (or “wiring diagram”) from a set of correlations