Intro slide

• Broca's area


  Language production
• Wernicke's area

  Language comprehension
• Cognitive Neuroscience


  • Depends on converging evidence from different methodologies
  • Activation techniques (functional imaging methods) rely on correlation analysis, therefore can't provide causal evidence regarding brain-behavior relationships
  • Deactivation techniques (TMS, neuropsychology) allow causal statements but can be spatially imprecise
• Cognitive neuroscience suggests there is an intermediate level of description at the level of neuronal systems

  Systems do not necessarily have to be mapped to discrete brain regions (although they may be)
• Techniques of cognitive neuroscience can be used to ask different kinds of questions about

  • Functional localisation
  • Mechanics
  • Connectivity
• Computerised cognitive testing


  1. Measuring reaction times (RTs) and/or accuracy in different conditions

  2. Relies on subtraction logic: If you have 2 conditions that differ by a single process, the difference in RT/acc between the two conditions should reflect the operation of that process

  3. Condition 1 (active condition) – decide which of two letters is an X

  4. Condition 2 (control condition) – press when you see any letters

  5. Condition 1 – Condition 2 = selective attention
• Neuropsychology


  • Inferring the function of brain regions from the pattern of deficit when damaged
  • Originally double dissociation logic
  • Allows definitive causal statements about brain-behaviour relationships
  • Problem is the brain regions are so large that such statements sometimes quite imprecise
• Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)


  • Visualising functional brain activity during task or at rest
  • Actually measures Blood Oxygen Level Dependent signal (BOLD) – a proxy for neural activity
  • Advantages: High spatial resolution (mm3)
  • Disadvantages: Low temporal resolution (seconds)
• Electroencephalography (EEG)


  • Recording electrical (neuronal) signals from the scalp
  • Advantages: Very fine temporal resolution (ms)
  • Disadvantages: Poor spatial resolution
• Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)


  • Magnetic field generator placed on surface of head
  • This produces electrical currents in the brain region under the coil via electromagnetic induction
  • The idea is to produce a 'virtual lesion' in the brain
  • By delivering a 'pulse' time-locked to a specific part of a task that the subject performs, possible to investigate the effects of localised neuronal disruption on specific cognitive processes
• Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)


  • Advantages: High temporal precision (ms)
  • Can make inferences about whether brain region is necessary for a particular process
  • Disadvantages: Limited to brain regions near the scalp (can't stimulate subcortical structures)
• Monkey single unit (neuron) recordings


  1. Monkey (usually macaque) is trained on a computerised task

  2. Then anaesthetised, skull opened and an electrode array inserted into the brain

  3. On awaking, monkey performs trained task while neuronal activity recorded
• Monkey individual unit (neuron) recordings


  • Advantages: Excellent temporal and spatial resolution
  • Disadvantages: Arguably unethical
  • Translation to humans can be tenuous