1

SEMINAR ON

“COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE”

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

Mr. NARENDRA BABU C RAsst. Prof Dept of CSE, RGIT

SUBMITTED BY

PRASOON GANESH 1RG11CS088

Cognitive Neuroscience

AGENDA INTRODUCTION

THE BRAIN

BASIC UNIT of BRAIN

COGNITION

NEUROCOGNITION

HIPPOCAMPUS and FUNCTIONAL TRADEOFFS

PREFRONTAL CORTEX and BASAL GANGLIA

DECISION MAKING

HOW COGNITION IS STUDIED

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

INTRODUCTIONCognitive neuroscience is an academic field concerned with the

scientific study of biological substrates underlying cognition

with a specific focus on the neural substrate of mental process.

It addresses the questions of how psychological/cognitive

functions are produced by neural circuits in the brain.

Cognitive neuroscience is a branch of both psycology and

neuroscience, overlapping with disciplines such physiological

psycology, cognitive psycology and neuropsycology. 

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The Brain ... The most interesting and the most complex

object in the known universe

How can we understand the workings of the brain?

On what level should we attack this question? An external description won’t help much.

How can we understand the workings of a TV or computer?

Experiments won’t suffice, we must have an understanding of the operating principles.

To verify that we understand how it works, we must make a model.

What is Cognition?

All mental abilities and processes related to knowledge,

attention, memory, reasoning, computing etc.

Why study Cognition?

can provide insight into areas of cognition

can help distinguish between different theories relating to how

that process is performed.

 can help guide the design of artificial intelligence systems

intended to mimic human abilities

Basic Unit of Brain: Neuron

Figure 1: Basic Unit of Brain

Neurons - StructureBasic building block of nervous system

soma - cell body; contact site for other neurons

dendrites - contact site for other neurons

axon - conducts action potential away from cell body &

dendrites towards other neurons

terminal buttons - at end of axon; site of connection to

other neurons

myelin sheath - electrical insulation (optional)

Neuronal functioningAction potential - how neurons convey information; an

electrochemical transmission along length of neuron

Synapse - site of “connection” between adjacent neurons or

between neurons and muscle fibers

Terminal buttons of presynaptic neuron @ dendrites/soma

of postsynaptic neuron (or muscle fibres)

Neurocognition ORCognitive NeuroscienceAll cognition is the result of neurological activity

Most closely linked to cerebral cortex

The study of the relationships between neuroscience and

cognitive psychology, especially those theories of the mind

dealing with memory, sensation and perception, problem

solving, language processing, motor functions and cognition.

The relationship between brain and cognition Cognition is a product of the brain.

Understanding the brain and its organization is useful for

assessing the plausibility of cognitive theories

Hippocampus and Functional Tradeoffs in Memory

Explicit Memory

Complementary Learning Systems

Functional Tradeoffs

Prefrontal Cortex and Basal GangliaDendtate gyrus

NDMA

Functional significance

Basal Ganglia

GATE

Decision MakingThreshold

Speed-accuracy tradeoffs

Human imaging studies

How Cognition is studied?

Psychophysics

Electroencephalography(EEG)

fMRI

Electrocorticography

Transcranial magnetic stimulation

Psychophysics

the scientific study of the relation between stimulus and

sensation

experiments seek to determine whether the subject can detect a

stimulus, identify it, differentiate between it and another

stimulus, or describe the magnitude or nature of this difference

Electroencephalography(EEG)

Electroencephalography (EEG) is the recording of electrical

activity along the scalp.

fMRIFunctional magnetic resonance

imaging or functional MRI (fMRI) is

a functional neuro-imaing procedure

using MRI technology that measures brain

activity by detecting associated changes in

blood flow.

Electrocorticogaphy

It is the practice of using electrodes placed directly on the

exposed surface of the brain to record electrical activity from

the cerebral cortex.

Invasive

Trans-cranial magnetic stimulation

Trans-cranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive

method used to stimulate small regions of the brain.

These examples also highlight some potential routes by

which cognitive theory is most easily elaborated in order

to have an influence on neural data.

We emphasize that cognitive science makes many valuable

contributions without a demand to constrain or influence

neuroscience.

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES [1] Alexander, G. E., DeLong, M. R., & Strick, P. L.

(1986). Parallel organizationof functionally segregated circuits linking basal ganglia and cortex.Annual Review of Neuroscience, 9, 357–381.  

Frank, M. J. (2015). Linking across levels of computation in model-basedcognitive neuroscience. In B. U. Forstmann & E. Wagenmakers (Eds.),An introduction to model-based cognitive neuroscience. New York:Springer (in press).

[3] Badre, D., & Frank, M. J. (2012). Mechanisms of hierarchical reinforcementlearning in cortico-striatal circuits 2: Evidence from fMRI. CerebralCortex, 22(3), 527–536.

[4] O’Reilly, R. C., & McClelland, J. L. (1994). Hippocampal conjunctiveencoding, storage, and recall: Avoiding a tradeoff. Hippocampus, 4,661–682.