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• Cognitive Neuroscience Arena

Contents

Reflecting recent changes in the way cognition and the brain are studied, this book provides a comprehensive and student-friendly guide to cognitive neuroscience which covers methods, theories and findings in all the key research domains.

• Chapter 1: Introducing Cognitive Neuroscience.
  • Cognitive neuroscience in historical perspective.
  • Does cognitive psychology need the brain?
  • Does neuroscience need cognitive psychology?
  • Boxed Material: Computational and connectionist models of cognition.
  • Boxed Material: Is the brain modular?
• Chapter 2: Introducing the Brain.
  • Structure and function of the neuron.
  • The gross organization of the brain.
  • The cerebral cortex.
  • The subcortex.
  • The midbrain and hindbrain.
  • Boxed Material: Ten interesting facts about the human brain.
• Chapter 3: The Electrophysiological Brain.
  • In search of neural representations: Single-cell Electroencephalography (EEG) and Event Related Potentials (ERPs).
  • Mental chronometry in electrophysiology and cognitive psychology.
  • Magnetoencephalography.
  • Boxed Material: Practical issues to consider when doing research.
  • Boxed Material: Why are caricatures easy to recognize?
• Chapter 4: The Imaged Brain.
  • Structural imaging.
  • Functional imaging.
  • From image to cognitive theory: An example of cognitive subtraction methodology.
  • Beyond cognitive subtraction.
  • Event-related versus blocked designs.
  • Analyzing data from functional imaging.
  • Interpreting data from functional imaging.
  • Why do functional imaging data sometimes disagree with lesion data?
  • Is "Big Brother" round the corner?
  • Boxed Material: Voxel based morphometry (VBM): One of the latest methods of structural analysis.
  • Boxed Material: Safety and ethical issues in functional imaging research.
  • Boxed Material: Could functional imaging be used as a lie detector?
• Chapter 5: The Lesioned Brain.
  • Dissociations and associations.
  • Single case studies.
  • Group studies and lesion-deficit analysis.
  • Animal models in neuropsychology.
  • Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).
  • Boxed Material: Ways of acquiring brain damage.
  • Boxed Material: What is the "visual" cortex of a blind person used for?
  • Boxed Material: Safety and ethical issues in TMS research.
  • Boxed Material: Facilitation, interference and functional integration using TMS.
• Chapter 6: The Seeing Brain.
  • From eye to brain.
  • Cortical blindness and "blindsight".
  • Functional specialization of the visual cortex beyond V1.
  • Recognizing objects.
  • Category specificity in visual object recognition?
  • Recognizing faces.
  • Vision imagined.
  • Boxed Material:
  • Would we notice a gorilla in our midst?
  • How does the brain respond to visual illusions?
  • The Margaret Thatcher illusion.
• Chapter 7: The Spatial Brain.
  • A spotlight on attention.
  • Attending to visual objects: Feature-integration theory.
  • Space, attention and the parietal lobes.
  • Losing space: Seeing one object at a time.
  • Losing half of space: Spatial frames and neglect.
  • Remembering space: Does the hippocampus store a long-term map of the environment?
  • Boxed Material: Why do actors make a hidden entrance from stage right?
  • Boxed Material: How is the brain fooled by a ventriloquist?
  • Boxed Material: Does driving a London taxi increase your grey matter?
• Chapter 8: The Acting Brain.
  • A basic cognitive framework for movement and action.
  • The role of the frontal lobes in movement and action.
  • Planning actions: The SAS model.
  • Ownership and awareness of actions.
  • Action comprehension and imitation.
  • Parietofrontal circuits for sensorymotor transformation.
  • Using objects and tools.
  • Preparation and execution of actions.
  • Boxed Material: Could neural activity in the primary motor cortex be used to guide a prosthetic limb?
  • Boxed Material: The anarchic (or "alien") hand syndrome.
  • How to move a phantom limb.
• Chapter 9: The Remembering Brain.
  • Short-term and working memory.
  • Different types of long-term memory.
  • Amnesia.
  • Memory storage and consolidation: A time-limited role for the hippocampus?
  • Theories of remembering, knowing and forgetting.
  • The role of the prefrontal cortex in long-term memory.
  • Constructive memory and memory distortions.
  • Boxed Material: Amnesia at the movies.
  • Boxed Material: The neuroscience of consolidation.
  • Boxed Material: Recovered memories of abuse can sometimes be false.
• Chapter 10: The Speaking Brain.
  • Speech perception.
  • Spoken word recognition.
  • Semantic memory and the meaning of words.
  • Understanding and producing sentences.
  • Retrieving spoken words.
  • Boxed Material: Do non-human animals have language?
  • Boxed Material: The N400 as an index of semantic congruity.
  • Boxed Material: Looking back on Nineteenth Century models of speech and aphasia.
  • Boxed Material: Early stages of dementia in the language use of Iris Murdoch.
• Chapter 11: The Literate Brain.
  • Visual word recognition.
  • Does understanding text require phonological mediation?
  • Reading aloud: Routes from spelling to sound.
  • Spelling and writing.
  • Does spelling use the same mechanisms as reading?
  • Boxed Material: The origins and diversity of writing systems.
  • Boxed Material: What do studies of eye movement reveal about reading text?
  • Boxed Material: The unusual spelling and writing of Leonardo da Vinci.
• Chapter 12: The Numerate Brain.
  • Universal numeracy?
  • The meaning of numbers.
  • Models of number processing.
  • Are numbers represented in a visuo-spatial code?
  • Boxed Material: Counting with fingers, bodies and bases.
  • Boxed Material: The making of mathematical genius.
• Chapter 13: The Executive Brain.
  • Anatomical and functional divisions of the prefrontal cortex.
  • Executive functions in practice.
  • Accounting for dysexecutive syndrome: How many executive functions?
  • Functional specialization within the lateral prefrontal cortex?
  • The role of the anterior cingulate in executive functions.
  • Task switching.
  • Boxed Material: The frontal lobes and intelligence.
  • Boxed Material: Egas Moniz and the prefrontal lobotomy.
  • Boxed Material: How does the brain appreciate humor?
• Chapter 14: The Social and Emotional Brain.
  • Processing emotions and social cues: Reading faces and reading eyes.
  • Processing emotions: a role for somatic responses?
  • Reading minds.
  • Antisocial behavior.
  • Boxed Material: Posed versus spontaneous emotional displays: Can you tell a sincere smile from an insincere smile?
  • Boxed Material: Is autism an extreme form of the male brain?
  • Boxed Material: The extraordinary case of Phineas Gage.

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