cognitive neuroscience introduction

Dr PS Deb MD, DM (Neurology)

What is Cognition?

• Middle English cognicion, from Anglo-French, from Latin cognition-,

cognitio, from cognoscere to become acquainted with, know,

from co- + gnoscere to come to know

• The act or process of knowing; perception.

• the product of such a process; something thus known, perceived,

• Faculty for processing information

• Intellectual or mental process whereby an organism become aware

of or obtain knowledge (MeSH)

• A conscious intellectual act , mental process of knowing

learning, thinking, judging

04/11/2023 2Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction

What is Cognition?

Part of speech: noun

Definition: understanding

Synonyms: ◦ acknowledgment, apprehension, attention, awareness,  

cognizance,  comprehension, discernment,  insight

intelligence,  knowledge , mind,  need, 

note, notice, observance, observation,  perception,

percipience, reasoning, recognition,  regard

Antonyms: ignorance, unawareness

Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition

04/11/2023 3Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction

Spectrum of Cognition

04/11/2023 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 4

Nano

Micro

MacroMeta

Para

Cognitive Science

04/11/2023 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 5

Philosophy

Psychology Neuroscience

04/11/2023 6Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction

Evolution & Cognition

“Cognition is survival instinct a consequence of carefully

crafted modules dedicated to solving specific evolutionary

problems”

04/11/2023 7Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction

Evolutionary Cognitive Science

Conditioned taste aversion

Garcia discovered that animals learned to avoid novel food products that made them ill in as little as one learning conditioning trial, something that had not been demonstrated with any other stimulus class previously.

Prepared learningSeligman demonstrated a phenomenon in which it is easier to make associations between stimuli that possess a biological predisposition to be conditioned because of a role these stimuli played in an organism’s evolutionary history

04/11/2023 8Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction

What is the seat of Cognition?

• Trepanning done in South

America over 10,000

years

• To let the bad spirit out

that tormented the brains

04/11/2023 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 9

Surgical Papyrus

• Surgical Papyrus the

oldest medical writing

1600 BC the first known

descriptions of cranial

sutures, the external brain

surface, brain liquor (CSF)

and intracranial pulsation

• Head and spine trauma

and their effect

04/11/2023 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 10

Alcmaeon of Croton (500 BC)o Brain as the site of sensationo Optic nerve as hollow carried the information to the brain where sensory modalities had its own localizationo human soul was immortal and partook of the divine nature, because like the heavenly bodies it contained in itself a principle of motion

04/11/2023 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 11

Brain vs. Heart

Hippocrates 460-377 BC“Men ought to know that from the brain and from the brain only arise our pleasures, joys, laughter and jests, as well as our sorrows, pains, grieves and tears”.

Aristotle 384-322 B.C “the heart as the organ of thinking, of perception and feelings,”“brain could cool the passion of heart”

04/11/2023 12Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction

Galen 130-200 AD

04/11/2023 13Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction

Brain as hollow organ : Nemesius (circa 320)

04/11/2023 14Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452 –1519 )

04/11/2023 15Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction

Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564 CE)

04/11/2023 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 16

Phrenology : Gall-1806 Complex traits such as

combativeness, spirituality, hope, and conscientiousness are controlled by specific areas in the brain, which expand as the traits develop.

This enlargement of local areas of the brain was thought to produce characteristic bumps and ridges on the overlying skull, from which an individual's character could be determined.

04/11/2023 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 17

Beginning of Modular theory

Paul Broca 1868

04/11/2023 18Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction

Brodmann’s area In the early part of the

twentieth century Korbinian Brodmann divided the human cerebral cortex into 52 discrete areas on the basis of distinctive nerve cell structures and characteristic arrangements of cell layers

04/11/2023 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 19

Brain Mapping

04/11/2023 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 20

Lateralization of brain functions

04/11/2023 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 21

Modern Phrenology

04/11/2023 22Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction

Imaging of brain CT Scan

04/11/2023 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 23

MRI Brain

04/11/2023 24Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction

fMRI

04/11/2023 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 25

PET scan

04/11/2023 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 26

Descartes: Brain and Mind

(1596-1650)

04/11/2023 27Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction

Bioelectricity: Galvani 1737-1798

04/11/2023 28Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction

Discovery of Neuron

Ramony Cajal and Camillo Golgi 1906 Noble Price

04/11/2023 29Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction

Nerve Cell

04/11/2023 30Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction

Natural Neural Network

04/11/2023 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 31

Study of Cognitive Neural Science

1. Single cell recording of behaving animal

2. Cellular study of brain architecture

3. Cognitive genetics

4. Study of behavior of patient with specific lesion the

brain

5. Imaging of brain of normal and abnormal

6. Computer modeling

04/11/2023 32Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction

Objectives

To know 1. Organization of Nervous system

2. Nerve signal processing

3. Sensory processing : Physical, chemical, EM

4. Motor control mechanism voluntary and involuntary

5. Consciousness, sleep, emotion reproduction

6. Cognitive function: Language, Memory…

7. Development of NS and Genetics

8. Cognitive Neurophilosophy

9. Recent development

04/11/2023 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 33

1. Functional Organization of NS

04/11/2023 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 34

1. Structural Organization of NS

04/11/2023 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 35

2.Nerve signal processing

04/11/2023 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 36

3. Sensory Signal Processing

Laws of specific sense energies – Muller 1826

“Each nerve fiber is activated primarily by a certain type of stimulus and each makes specific connections to structures in the central nervous system whose activity gives rise to specific sensations”

04/11/2023 37Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction

4. Motor Control

04/11/2023 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 38

VoluntaryInvoluntary

5. Consciousness, Sleep, Emotion Reproduction

04/11/2023 39Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction

6. Higher Cognitive Functions: Language, Memory

04/11/2023 40Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction

7. Brain Development and Genetics

04/11/2023 41Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction

8 Cognitive Neurophilosophy

04/11/2023 42Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction

9. Recent advances

04/11/2023 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 43

Selected Reading

04/11/2023 44Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction

End of Beginning