Psychology
Studying the brain
Studying the brain involves investigating the structure, function, and processes of the brain to understand how it influences behavior, cognition, and emotions. This field of study encompasses various disciplines, such as neuroscience, cognitive psychology, and neuropsychology, and utilizes advanced technologies like brain imaging to explore the complexities of the brain and its impact on human experience and behavior.
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5 Key excerpts on "Studying the brain"
eBook - PDF- Bradley R. Postle(Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
● Studying an aspect of cognition requires careful thought about the validity of the function to be studied; and not all aspects of human behavior can be studied with the same sets of assumptions, or even with the same methods. ● The discipline of cognitive neuroscience could not exist without discoveries yielded by research with nonhuman animals. ● At the dawn of the twentieth century, scientists were Studying the brain and behavior from three related, but distinct, perspectives that would eventually give rise to cognitive neuroscience as we know it today: systems neuroscience, behavioral neurology/neuropsychology, and experimental psychology. INTRODUCTION AND HISTORY INTRODUCTION AND HISTORY 5 CONTENTS KEY THEMES A BRIEF (AND SELECTIVE) HISTORY Construct validity in models of cognition Localization of function vs. mass action The first scientifically rigorous demonstrations of localization of function The localization of motor functions The localization of visual perception The localization of speech WHAT IS A BRAIN AND WHAT DOES IT DO? LOOKING AHEAD TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE END-OF-CHAPTER QUESTIONS REFERENCES OTHER SOURCES USED FURTHER READING 6 SECTION I: THE NEUROBIOLOGY OF THINKING A BRIEF (AND SELECTIVE) HISTORY Although the term “cognitive neuroscience” as a moniker for a scientific discipline has only been with us for a few decades, the field has roots that extend back thousands of years. Ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans all had ideas about the corporeal bases of human thoughts and emo- tions, although many of these did not specify a role for the brain. In preparing the bodies of deceased nobles for the afterlife, for example, ancient Egyptians removed and dis- carded the brain as an early step in the mummification process. The internal organs that were deemed to be important were preserved in urns that were entombed along with the body.
eBook - PDF- Thomas A. Farmer, Margaret W. Matlin(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
But, cognitive psychology as it exists today has become an increasingly interdisciplinary pursuit. The rigorous experimental approach to psychological research that is characteristic of cognitive psychology has become increasingly supplemented by theories and method- ologies borrowed from other fields. In this section, we first consider the interdisciplinary field of cognitive science. Indeed, researchers from many different fields have interests in how the human mind works. As we will see, cross-disciplinary research can produce synthetic contributions to our understanding of the human mind that transcend the contributions from any individual discipline. Next, we touch on theoretical questions concerning how the concept of “the mind” relates to the human brain. To conclude, we will pro- vide an overview of cognitive neuroscience methodologies. These methodologies allow us to gain insight into how our neural hardware supports different cognitive processes. Cognitive Science Cognitive psychology is part of a broad field known as cognitive science. Cognitive science is an inter- disciplinary field that tries to answer questions about the mind. Cognitive science includes contributions from cognitive psychology, neuroscience, computer science, philosophy, and linguistics. In some cases, researchers in the fields of sociology, anthropology, and economics also make contributions to the field of cognitive science. This field emerged when researchers began to notice connections among a variety of disciplines, and thus began to collaborate with one another (Bermúdez, 2010; Sobel, 2001; Thagard, 2005). According to cognitive scientists, thinking requires us to manipulate our internal representations of the external world. Cognitive scientists focus on these internal representations. Cognitive scientists value interdisciplinary studies, and they try to build bridges among the academic areas.
eBook - PDF- M. C. Wittrock(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Academic Press(Publisher)
PART III PSYCHOLOGY AND THE RECENT RESEARCH ON THE DRAIN The third and final section of this hook develops relationships between recent research on the brain and cognitive processes of interest to many psychologists. These relationships between the brain and psychology are developed from three different perspectives: that of a brain researcher, a developmental psychologist, and an educational psychologist. These chapters bring together many of the issues and findings reported in the earlier chapters of this volume and relate them to issues in cognition, development, and learning. This page intentionally left blank Chapter VII Cognition ond the Droin tÁAKCÍl KINSBOURNE The purpose of this chapter is to outline some principles of the functional organization of the brain with respect to its control of in-telligent behavior. Drawing upon a combination of known facts and controversial but heuristically useful concepts, it attempts to show that the way the human brain is organized determines the manner in which we expand our potential to learn as our brains mature during childhood. If the educator takes note of the principles of acquisition of skill, and of how these are influenced by brain organization, he will be in a better position to use to best advantage his pupil's cognitive potential and understand an unexpected block to learning when it occurs. I. Point of Departure Neurologically simple organisms behave in a few stereotyped ways predetermined by species-specific genetically mediated control. The number of perceptual discriminations they can make is small, though sufficient to satisfy adaptive necessity. Their limited response repertoire is geared to the few broad categories of perceptual differentiation that they can make. But even quite early in the further elaboration of the nervous system, organisms achieve an additional capability: to learn. 025 THE BRAIN AND PSYCHOLOGY Copyright © 1980 by Academic Press, Inc.
eBook - PDF- William O′Donohue, Richard F Kitchener, Richard F Kitchener, William O′Donohue(Authors)
- 1996(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
CHAPTER 1 5 N EU ROBEHAVIORAL SC I ENCE, N EU ROPSYCHOLOGY, AN D TH E PH I LOSOPHY OF MI N D Karl H. Pribram INTRODUCTION The advent of the cognitive revolution in psychol-ogy ushered in a resurgent interest in the mind! brain connection. In this essay I discuss three forms this interest has taken. Neurobehavioral sci-ence, based to a large extent on animal brain-behavioral research, has made strides in determin-ing the nature of memory storage, and the brain systems involved in attention and in different sorts of learning. Currently the neurochemical basis of emotion and motivation is being clarif ied. Clinical neuropsychology has added to the neurobehav-ioral base, and has been supplemented by it: An examination of memory retrieval processes and the exploration of brain function in the organiza-tion of human consciousness needs a human popu-lation to study. The yield has been rewarding and has given rise to a reexamination by philosophers and others of the nature of mind and spirit as these relate to the material world. 207 NEUROBEHAVIORAL SCIENCE Parts and Wholes Three closely related issues concerning the organi-zation of brain function have been the subj ect of controversy for two centuries. The first of these concerns localization versus distribution of func-tions within the brain. The second issue stems from the first: Does processing proceed among different localizable systems or modules in a hierarchical fashion, or is processing global and heterarchical? Finally, is processing within and between systems serial or parallel? Toward the end of the eighteenth century, Gal l brought these issues to the fore by correlating dif-ferent local brain pathologies to the histories of the cadavers he autopsied. Though often wrong in detail, Gall was correct in the methods he carefully detailed (see Gall & Spurtzheim, 1 809/1969). He was naive in delineating the faculties of mind for
eBook - PDF- Peter Machamer, Rick Grush, Peter McLaughlin, Peter Machamer, Rick Grush, Peter McLaughlin, Rick Grush(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- University of Pittsburgh Press(Publisher)
5 Cognitive Neuroscience Relating Neural Mechanisms and Cognition William Bechtel Philosophy-Neuroscience-Psychology Program, Department of Philosophy, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri In the 1970s and 1980s, the study of cognition and the study of the brain were carried out largely in isolation from each other. Each was the subject of its own interdisciplinary cluster, which had only recently taken shape-cognitive science focusing on cognition, neuroscience on the brain. But in the 1980s the seeds were already being sown for something far grander-an integration of cognitive science and neuro- science in cognitive neuroscience'! In the 1990s cognitive neuroscience matured rapidly, and at the start of the new millennium it is positioned as one of the most vital fields of inquiry. Part of my task is to analyze how cognitive neuroscience has reached this status and how it pro- poses to connect neuroscience and cognition. But there is a second part to my task. Cognitive neuroscientists, to a large degree, proceed as if there had never been a mind-body problem. To a Cartesian-minded philosopher-or even to a 1980s functionalist in the philosophy of mind-this must seem deeply perplexing. The cognitive properties of the mind have seemed to such philosophers to be radically disconnected from those of the brain. How is it that those enmeshed in the study of cognitive processes in the brain have not been ensnared by the mind-body problem? In large part, as I try to show, it is because the explanatory framework they are adopting is one that natu- rally relates cognitive and neural processes. I attempt to illustrate this linkage through a brief case study of the history of research on visual processing. (It is worth noting that the history of research on vision is 81 82 William Bechtel much longer than the modern enterprise of cognitive neuroscience.
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