SAGE Journal Articles
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Abstract
The recent, rapid expansion of the application of neuroimaging techniques to a broad variety of questions about the structure and function of mind and brain has led to much necessary and often critical introspection about what these techniques can actually tell us about cognitive processes. In this article, we attempt to place neuroimaging within the broader context of the cognitive neuroscience approach, which emphasizes the benefits of converging methodologies for understanding cognition and how it is supported by the functioning of the brain. Our arguments for what neuroimaging has to offer are supported by two specific examples from research on memory that, we believe, show how neuroimaging data have provided unique insights not only into brain organization, but also into the organization of the mind.
Discussion questions:
- What do the authors mean by talking about the “functional architecture of the mind” and the “structural architecture of the brain?”
- The author identifies two “powerful uses of brain imaging data in understanding cognition.” What are they? Using examples, how do these uses differ from each other?
- What insights about memory have come from neuroimaging studies?
Abstract
In order to remember a past event, the brain must not only encode the specific aspects of an event but also bind them in a manner that can later specify the spatiotemporal context in which event occurred. Here, I describe recent research aimed at characterizing the functional organization of two brain regions—the medial temporal lobes and the prefrontal cortex—that allow us to accomplish this task. Converging evidence indicates that different regions of the medial temporal lobes may form representations of items, contexts, and item-context bindings and that areas in the prefrontal cortex may implement working-memory control processes that allow us to build meaningful relationships between items that are encountered over time. The results are compatible with an emerging model that generates novel predictions at both the behavioral and neural levels.
Discussion questions:
- Describe some cognitive tasks that seem to be controlled by the medial temporal lobes and the prefrontal cortex. Which tasks are of interest to the author of this article?
- Explain the difference in the type of information processed by the DLPFC and the VLPFC. Can you give some examples of each type of information?
- In way does this article support the idea that “memory does not work like a video recording of events”?
Abstract
The goal of cognitive neuroscience is to identify the mapping between brain function and mental processing. In this article, I examine the strategies that have been used to identify such mappings and argue that they may be fundamentally unable to identify selective structure–function mappings. To understand the functional anatomy of mental processes, it will be necessary for researchers to move from the brain-mapping strategies that the field has employed toward a search for selective associations. This will require a greater focus on the structure of cognitive processes, which can be achieved through the development of formal ontologies that describe the structure of mental processes. In this article, I outline the Cognitive Atlas Project, which is developing such ontologies, and show how this knowledge could be used in conjunction with data-mining approaches to more directly relate mental processes and brain function.
Discussion questions:
- Describe the three cognitive neuroscience strategies discussed in the article.
- Which of these strategies does the author argue we should follow in cognitive neuroscience research? Why does he make this argument?
- What is the “Cognitive Atlas”? How can it help researchers in the cognitive neuroscience area?