AO3 - Emergence of Cognitive Neuroscience

• A strength of cognitive neuroscience is that it uses scientific methods. This is because it is based on objective and empirical techniques of brain scans such as fMRI and PET scans. These are used in order to identify which areas of the brain are responsible for specific internal mental processes, for example the Hippocampus in the memory system. This increases the overall internal validity of cognitive neuroscience research, thus raising psychology's scientific status.
• However, some of the research into cognitive neuroscience lacks mundane realism as they require visualising a task whilst receiving a brain scan. For example, visualising riding a bike when receiving a brain scan to identify the role of the motor cortex and cerebellum in procedural memory. This may not represent the way internal mental processes function in everyday life, so more research is needed before firm conclusions are possible.
• The scientific nature of cognitive neuroscience has lead to practical applications. This is because the principles of the theory that there are physical differences between people who have an abnormality and people who do not has led to a wide ranged of practical applications such as the understanding of the role of the parahippocampal gyrus in OCD. Therefore, cognitive neuroscience has a wide range of applications to the real world and is an important part of applied psychology.