cognitive neuroscience

• The scientific study of influence of brain structure on mental processes
• Uses of scanning, techniques, post – mortems, and study of ‘neurotypical’ individuals to locate physical basis of cognitive processes in brain
• Cognitive neuroscientists identified how damage to the frontal lobe (now known as Broca’s area) could permanently impair speech production and how damage to the left temporal lobe (now known as Wernick’s area) could permanently impair speech comprehension
• Brain imaging has mean neuroscientists are now able to study the living brain, giving them detailed information about the brain structures involved in different mental processes
• The use of non – invasive neuroimaging techniques e.g. positron emission tomography (PET) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) help psychologists understand how brain supports different mental processes and emotions by showing which parts of the brain become activated under certain circumstances
• Cognitive neuroscientists compare neurotypical individuals (control group) with patients who have experienced damage to the brain from trauma, disease, surgery (experimental group)
• Brain injuries can be mapped out using brain – imaging techniques where patients undergo cognitive tests (memory tests) during scanning so brain can be seen ‘in action’. Then the patterns of activity are compared with activity from a normal intact brain. This makes inferences about how cognitive processes normally function
• Cognitive neuroscientists are also interested in how impairments in certain brain areas may characterize certain psychological conditions e.g. some schizophrenic patients have been found to have enlarged ventricles in the brain and the caudate nucleus and orbitofrontal cortex have been linked to OCD