W1.1 Cognitive Neuroscience

Question 1

What invention drove cognitive science in the 1970s/80s?

Answer 1

Computers- as they provide technological metaphors

Question 2

What is the difference between activation techniques and de-activation techniques?

Answer 2

Activation techniques are always a correlation so they cannot provide causal evidence based on brain-behaviour relationships, whereas deactivation techniques provide causal evidence but can be spatially imprecise

Question 3

What does cognitive neuroscience suggest at the core of its foundations?

Answer 3

Suggests that there is an intermediate level of description at the level of neuronal systems and systems do not necessarily have to be mapped to discrete brain regions although they may be

Question 4

What are the three main techniques of cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 4

Functional localisation
Mechanics
Connecitivity

Question 5

What is functional localisation in cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 5

A two step process involving cognitive ontology and mapping building blocks to brain regions- can use brain data to inform our knowledge of what the basic building blocks of cognition are

Question 6

What is mechanics in cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 6

Going beyond localisation and asking mechanistic questions about how different parts of the brain mediate various cognitive functions

Question 7

What is connectivity in cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 7

How different brain modules interact with each other, which have strong connections, and how these can communicate. Involves frequency oscillations which are two separate brain regions communicating with each other that often replicate the frequency

Question 8

What are the six main tools used in cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 8

Computerised cognitive testing
Neuropsychology
fMRI
EEG
TMS
Single unit recordings

Question 9

What is neuropsychology?

Answer 9

Inferring the function of brain regions from the pattern of deficit when damaged