Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience 授課老師：龔俊嘉

Outline Cognitive Neuroscience – 歷史 – 成長 – 未來展望

Cognition Cognition is a general term encompassing all mental processes, eg., perception, thinking, memory, motivation, emotions and so on. In fact, cognition also refers to the ability of one to read and comprehend this text and the abilities that have been used to put this text together. Cognition is older than cognitive neuroscience because of these mental processes have been studied without necessarily considering the possible underlying neural mechanisms.

Cognitive Neuroscience Aims at solving the mind-body problem; How the brain (or, more generally, the body) gives rise to the human mind. The goal is to elucidate the neural basis of the cognitive processes and, naturally, understanding the underlying neural mechanisms. Cognitive neuroscience is a fairly young but rapidly growing discipline of science with the aid of modern non-invasive neuroimaging technology.

Cognitive neuroscience research Planning one’s actions Figuring out the intentions of other persons Maintaining one’s goals persistently Feeling emotions Memorizing things

Cognitive Neuroscience in everyday life: Take the first class of the course as example A responsible and well-mannered student 起床, 盥洗, 梳理, 帶著興奮又期待的心情來到教室 看到同學, memory, figure out the intentions of other persons,… 看到 Note: 上課時間 10:30 AM ~ 12:00 AM The brain-mind interrelationships in every student – Some students decided to come back again later; – Some students decided to wait in the class directly; – Some students decided to …. At 10:30 AM, every student concentrated on listening to the professor’s description about the course 自我評估及各方面考量後，課堂上和 TA 面談與否 ?

Why is Cognitive Neuroscience important? Artificial intelligence Robots Clinical research into disorders of the brain where cognitive processes are deficient Development of drug Man-machine interfaces in engineering

Brain

Brief history of cognitive neuroscience Many of the early philosophers mistook the brain as an organ merely responsible for cooling the body and not as cognition. Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle early attempt to connect mind and the heart towards localization of mental functions. 17 th century ‒ Neuron doctrine by Rene Descartes ‒ Staining methods by Italian scientist Camillo Golgi It was not until the 19 th century that research specifically addressing brain-mind interrelationships begun emerging.

Phrenology: an early attempt to localize mental functions – The first attempt to specifically connect specific brain regions with mental functions by German scientists Franz Joseph Gall (18 th century) and Johann Gaspar Spurzheim (19 th century) – Nowadays regard as a pseudoscience Early animal (rabbits and pigeons) lesion studies challenged the localized- functions hypothesis to holistic functions (Pierre Flourens, 1824) Today, it has become obvious that both sides have been partly correct in their views.

Brain lesions and language impairments: Broca and Wernicke – Paul Broca and Carl Wernicke documented the very first observations of specific cognitive impairments following focal brain damage in the 19 th century – Broca’s area (Broca, 1861) – Wernicke’s area (Wernicke, 1874) Broca’s area

Behavioral tests (also known as neuropsychological tests and intelligence tests) of cognition to study cognitive deficits in neurological patients Behavioral paradigms to assess perceptual and cognitive functions (“psychophysics”) Development of non-invasive neuroimaging methods in the late 20 th century Research on the interrelationships between the brain and mind have not been called cognitive neuroscience until relatively recently.

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