29/8/2022

COG4013

Chapter 2

Cognitive Neuroscience

Ms Valarmatdi
PSY1006 Lecturer

1
 29/8/2022

Some Questions We Will Consider

• What is cognitive neuroscience, and why is it

necessary?
• How is information transmitted from one
place to another in the nervous system?
• How are things in the environment, such as
faces and trees, represented in the brain?
• What does studying the brain tell us about
cognition?

2
 29/8/2022

Cognitive Neuroscience

• The study of the physiological basis of

cognition
• Involves an understanding of both the
nervous system as well as the individual
units that comprise that system
• Neuron’s combined behavior: Cognition

3
 29/8/2022

Levels of Analysis
• We do not examine topics
of interest from a single
perspective, but rather we
look at them from multiple
angles and different points
of view
• Each “viewpoint” can add
small amounts of
information which, when
considered together, leads
to greater understanding

4
 29/8/2022

Building Blocks of the Nervous System

• Neurons: cells specialized to create,

receive, and transmit information in the
nervous system
• Each neuron has a cell body, an axon, and
dendrites

5
 29/8/2022

Nerve Nets
• The interconnections of neurons create a nerve net,
which is like a continuous network that is similar to a
highway
– One street connects to another but without stop
signs
– This allows for almost nonstop, continuous
communication of signals throughout the network
• Contradicted by the neuron doctrine
– Ramon y Cajal
– Individual nerve cells transmit signals, and are not
continuous with other cells

6
 29/8/2022

Nerve Nets

7
 29/8/2022

Building Blocks of the Nervous System

• Cell body: contains mechanisms to keep cell

alive
• Dendrites: multiple branches reaching from
the cell body, which receives information
from other neurons
• Axon: tube filled with fluid that transmits
electrical signal to other neurons

8
 29/8/2022

Building Blocks of the Nervous System

9
 29/8/2022

How Neurons Communicate

• Action potential
– Neuron receives signal from environment
– Information travels down the axon of that
neuron to the dendrites of another neuron
• Measuring action potentials
– Microelectrodes pick up electrical signal
– Placed near axon
– Active for ~1 millisecond

10

10
 29/8/2022

How Neurons Communicate

11

11
 29/8/2022

How Neurons Communicate

• Measuring action potentials

– The size is not measured; size remains
consistent
– The rate of firing is measured
• Low intensities: slow firing
• High intensities: fast firing

12

12
 29/8/2022

How Neurons Communicate

13

13
 29/8/2022

How Neurons Communicate

• Synapse: space between axon of one

neuron and dendrite or cell body of
another
• When the action potential reaches the end
of the axon, synaptic vesicles open and
release chemical neurotransmitters
• Neurotransmitters, chemicals that affect
the electrical signal of the receiving neuron,
cross the synapse and bind with the
receiving dendrites
14

14
 29/8/2022

Pre-synaptic
neuron

Post-synaptic
neuron

15

15
 29/8/2022

Representation by Neural Firing

• How quality of experience represented in

neural firing?
• Principle of neural representation:
– Everything a person experience is based on
representations in the person’s nervous system
• Large areas of brain involve in creating
cognition
• Signals are transmitted to many destinations
in brain – neural networks

16

16
 29/8/2022

Representation in the Brain

• Different stimuli caused

different neuron to fire
• Feature detectors –
respond to orientations,
movement and length

17

17
 29/8/2022

Neurons responding to complex stimuli

• Hierarchical processing – the more complex the

stimuli is, the higher the level of processing is!

• The ascension from lower to higher areas of the

brain corresponds to perceiving objects that move
from lower (simple) to higher levels of complexity

18

18
 29/8/2022

Representation in the Brain (Neural coding)

• Specificity coding: an object could be represented

by the firing of a specialized neuron that responds
only to that object is called specificity coding.
• Population coding: representation of a particular
object by the pattern of firing of a large number
of neurons
• Sparse coding: when a particular object is
represented by a pattern of firing of only a small
group of neurons, with the majority of neurons
remaining silent

19

19
 29/8/2022

Representation in the Brain

20

20
 29/8/2022

Representation in the Brain

21

21
 29/8/2022

Representation in the Brain

22

22
 29/8/2022

Parts of Brain

23

23
 29/8/2022

24

24
 29/8/2022

Brain asymmetry

25

25
 29/8/2022

Do you know???

• The left hemisphere processes verbal and analytical

information, while the right hemisphere processes
spatial and geometrical information!!
• So….
• Shapes presented in the right visual field (left
hemisphere) may take longer to identify than shapes
presented to the left visual field (right hemisphere)
• Words presented on the left visual field (right
hemisphere) may take longer to process than those
presented to the right visual field (left hemisphere).

26

26
 29/8/2022

Do you know????

• Sensory signals from the left side of your body

are sent to the right hemisphere of your brain
and vice versa!!!
• Control of your left body parts is via your right
hemisphere and vice versa!!!

27

27
 29/8/2022

Localization of Function

• Specific functions are served by specific

areas of the brain
• Cognitive functioning breaks down in
specific ways when areas of the brain are
damaged
• Cerebral cortex contains mechanisms
responsible for most of our cognitive
functions

28

28
 29/8/2022

Localization of Function: Language

• Language production is impaired by damage

to Broca’s area
– Frontal lobe
• Language comprehension is impaired by
damage to Wernicke’s area
– Temporal lobe

29

29
 29/8/2022

Localization of Function: Language

30

30
 29/8/2022

Localization of Function: Perception

• Primary receiving areas for the senses

– Occipital lobe: vision
– Parietal lobe: touch, temperature, pain
– Temporal lobe: hearing, taste, smell
• Coordination of information received from all senses
– Frontal lobe

31

31
 29/8/2022

Dissociation

• Process of identifying the neural substrate of a

particular brain function through identification of
case studies, neuro-imaging or neuropsychological
testing.

32

32
 29/8/2022

Double Dissociation

• When two related mental processes are shown to

function independently of each other
• When damage to one part of the brain causes function A
to be absent while function B is present, and damage to
another area causes function B to be absent while
function A is present
• Allows us to identify functions that are controlled by
different parts of the brain

33

33
 29/8/2022

Double Dissociation
Example
Speech and language comprehension
• When the Broca's area is damaged, patients may still
understand language but be unable to speak fluently. They
know what they want to say, but are unable to express
themselves.
• On the other hand, when Wernicke's area is damaged,
patients may still speak fluently, but be unable to
comprehend language. This results in properly constructed
but nonsensical sentences.

34

34
 29/8/2022

Organization: Brain Imaging

• Magnetic
Resonance
Imaging (MRI)
• Functional
Magnetic
Resonance
Imaging
(fMRI)

35

35
 29/8/2022

Brain Imaging: Evidence for

Localization of Function
Fusiform face area (FFA) responds specifically to faces
• Tested by using positron emission tomography (PET):
different patterns of activation in response to the two
different required tasks, face processing verses object
processing.
– Damage in temporal lobe causes prosopagnosia (inability
to recognize faces, but can recognize everyday objects)
• Parahippocampal place area (PPA) responds specifically to
places (indoor/outdoor scenes), by fMRI study:
– PPA represents places by encoding the geometry of the
local environment
– Extrastriate body area (EBA) responds specifically to
pictures of bodies and parts of bodies/less respond to
objects

36

36
 29/8/2022

Brain Imaging: Evidence for

Localization of Function

37

37
 29/8/2022

Distributed Representation in the Brain

• In addition to localization of function, specific

functions are processed by many different areas of
the brain
• Many different areas may contribute to a function
• May appear to contradict the notion of localization of
function, but the two concepts are actually
complementary

38

38
 29/8/2022

Distributed Representation in the Brain

39

39
 29/8/2022

Neural Networks

• Groups of neurons or
structures that are
connected together
• Can be examined using
diffusion tensor imaging
(DTI)

40

40