Cognitive Neuroscience - Coursework Example

Cognitive Neuroscience In the attempt to explain human behavior, several explanations are given. Among these explanations is one that proposes that human behavior is as a result of the different cognitive processes that take place in the brain. This explanation asserts that there are neural substrates that are concerned with the cognitive functions, and that human behavior is controlled by the brain through the different cognitive function. This explanation is termed as cognitive neuroscience. Despite the many developments that have taken place in the field of cognitive neural science, there are some critics who assert that cognitive neural science has not done much to explain human behavior. This paper therefore aims to disprove this by identifying the different approaches with which cognitive neural science can be used to explain human behavior, and how it (cognitive neural science) can be applied to the understanding of the different ways in which people believe. Cognitive Neuroscience There have been notable developments in the field of neural sciences. Some of the major advancements have been in the field of cognitive neuroscience which has been widely studied and has come to be used in many fields. Cognitive neuroscience has mainly been used to explain the different aspects of human behavior.Cognitive neuroscience is a concerned with the scientific study of the biological substrates that are known to underlie cognition. The focus in cognitive neuroscience is on the neural substrates concerned with the mental processes.it therefore focuses on how the different cognitive functions are produced by the brain.It has however been argued that the use of cognitive neuroscience has not told us anything new about human behavior. This assertion is however untrue as cognitive neuroscience can be used to explain many aspects of human behavior such as language, perception, memory and conscious awareness among others. Cognitive neuroscience is therefore an important part of the inquiry into human behavior and human actions. The assertion that Cognitive neuroscience has not done anything explaining human behavior is mostly based on the assumption that the methods that are used to understand the human brain (such as fMRI) cannot be used to explain behavior. This is because behavior is dependent on the context and usually involves two or more people. This therefore means that the interactive aspect of human behavior is not adequately captured by Cognitive neuroscience. This however does not mean that it (Cognitive neuroscience) does not play an important aspect in explaining human behavior as there are many aspects that ought to be examined, and one of the most important aspects is the cognitive aspect which is adequately covered by Cognitive neuroscience. It is therefore incorrect to say that Cognitive neuroscience has not played any role in explaining human behavior. Cognitive neuroscience explains human behavior in many ways and several studies have shown that it is a reliable way to explain human behavior (Adolphs, 2003). The origin of cognitive neuroscience can be traced to psychology and to systems neurobiology. Psychology is concerned with the development of new methods to analyze behavior and cognition in people while systems neurobiology is concerned with the workings of the neuronal systems and circuits of the sensory and of the motor functions of the brain. The coming together of these two distinct disciplines led to the development of cognitive neuroscience. The development of cognitive neuroscience was further enhanced by the need to use the concepts found in neurobiology to the analysis of human behavior and cognition. The realization that there were some internal processes that influenced or were an essential component of how different people behave and react to situations also furthered the development of cognitive neuroscience. It became necessary therefore for there to be access to the neural substrates that would help in gaining an understanding of what happens between perception and action (Ochsner & Lieberman, 2001). The study of cognitive neuroscience led to the discovery that there were direct correlations between the different cognitive processes that take place and the cell activity in some specific parts of the brain. These cognitive processes include attention and decision making. This direct correlation therefore means that the way information is processed in the brain influences the behavior or the reactions that an individual will have. The developments and advancements in the field of cognitive neuroscience have been encouraged by the developments that have occurred in technology. The technological advances have led to new developments such as in the use of event related potentials (ERP), the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). These have led to a more clear view of how the human brain processes information and how it accomplishes other cognitive functions such as speech and memory (Andersen, 1995). Studies have shown that injuries or lesions to different parts of the brain cause different deficits in the cognitive processes. These studies have therefore shown that the process of cognition is not a unitary process. There exists many different cognitive systems, and each of these systems has different systems of processing information. An example of these processes is in the visual system of man which has specialized system pathways that process information on color, movement and form about what is being seen. Cognitive neuroscience is therefore important in the understanding of complex behavior such as speech and language. One of the most significant components of human behavior studied in the field of cognitive neuroscience is the human memory. Cognitive neuroscience has been important in gaining the understanding of how the human nervous system learns and how information or learned concepts are remembered. There are many assemblies of cells in the brain that work together to represent any information. These assemblies of cells can be found distributed over large area of the cortex. It is therefore possible for sufficient numbers of interconnected cells to survive lesions making it possible for information to continue to be represented. Cognitive neuroscience has made it possible to recognize that there does not exist a single center of memory, and that many parts of the nervous system cooperatively to represent information about a single event (Gazzaniga, 2004). Because there are several centers of memory, it follows then that skills such as motor skills are a result of a large collection of learning and memories and that they are not dependent on the temporal lobe. This is why in patients who are suffering from amnesia because of lesions in the brain are still able to use and control their motor functions. Studies have also shown that there are different kinds of memory which include the declarative memory and the non-declarative memory. The declarative memory is what people refer to when they talk of memory. This type of memory allows a person to remember facts and occasions. This type of memory is dependent on the temporal medial lobe. It is the memory through which people make their interpretations of the world by the way they recall and interpret events and information. This kind of memory has the potential to either be true or to be false. The memory is affected by the changes in the skilled behavior of an individual, and the change in how an individual reacts to various stimuli. These changes are brought about by the habit of learning or as a result of the conditioning process. In the non-declarative memory on the other hand, the changes in the performance of an individual come about because of experience. Performance in this kind of memory however changes without any form of conscious access to the previous experiences that the individual may have had (Tulving, 2000). The non-declarative forms of memory therefore include habituation (habit memory) and classical conditioning. Habit memory is the dispositions that are gradually acquired that are in response to a specific stimulus or specific set of stimuli and that are important in guiding an individual’s behavior (Johnson, 2011). Cognitive neuroscience has also played an important role in explaining human behavior by explaining the deficits that occur in the socio cognitive process in human beings. Cognitive neuroscience explains those deficits that have a neural cause or basis. These include sociopathy, autism and schizophrenia among others. The motivations or a cause of such behavior is explained by cognitive neuroscience. The long term effects of lesions can also be used to explain behavior in cognitive neuroscience. (Grattan & Eslinger, 1992).In the case of autism for example, there are complex changes that occur in the cognition process. This includes having poor social skills and social knowledge. The condition can be explained from a neural basis. This is usually associated with damage to the amygdala which is seen to cause problems such as problems with empathy which is a common symptom of autism. This means that social behavior can be explained using cognitive neuroscience. In explaining human behavior, Cognitive neuroscience has attempted to explain the process through which people develop the ability to read minds during the process of social interaction. This is an important aspect of human interactions and it develops from within the age of 3 and 4 years. The ability to ‘read minds’ has a big impact on how people behave and react to each other during their social interactions. The ability is affected by conditions such as schizophrenia. Cognitive neuroscience therefore seeks to address this by focusing on the neural aspect of mental attribution (Fletcher, Happe, & Baker et al., 1995). By doing so, Cognitive neuroscience seeks to address the neural basis of the different conditions that affect human interactions. Understanding these conditions is an important part in coming up with the treatments that can treat or effectively manage the conditions. Computer games and simulations have been used to recreate human interactions in order to capture the social aspect of human behavior. To do this, the individuals interact with each other or with the computer with a cooperative computer game (Rilling, Gutman & Zeh et al 2002). The brains of the individuals who are taking part in the interaction are scanned at the same time. While the individuals are not able to see each other, the scans are able to present an accurate representation of the brain function of the individuals during the interaction. The development of such technology means that the field of Cognitive neuroscience continues to have immense ability to explain human behavior. It is however important for social interactions to be quantified so that they can be correlated with specific forms of neural activity. In telling us about behavior, Cognitive neuroscience takes into consideration the process of face perception where the response to stimuli is seen in the facial expression. The facial expressions are important as they help in the categorization of faces as either trustworthy or as untrustworthy. This enables different stimuli to be categorized (Winston, Strange, O’Doherty, & Dolan, 2002). Cognitive neuroscience is therefore important as it helps in the creation of an understanding into the neural basis of human behavior. It helps in coming up with an explanation to how people behave, and why they behave the way that they do. Such information is vital as it can change the way that people perceive and interpret each other’s behavior. References Adolphs, R. (2003). Investigating the cognitive neuroscience of social behavior. Neoropsychologia, 41, 119-126. Andersen, R. (1995). Frontiers in cognitive neuroscience. Boston, MA: MIT Press. Fletcher, P., Happe, F., Baker, S., et al. (1995). Other minds in the brain: A functional neuroimaging study of ‘theory of the mind’ in story comprehension. Cognition, 57, 109-128. Gazzaniga, M. (2004). The cognitive neurosciences. Boston, MA: MIT Press. Grattan L., & Eslinger, P. (1992). Long-term psychological consequences of childhood frontal lobe lesion in-patient. Brain cognition 20, 185-195 Johnson, M. (2011) Developmental cognitive neuroscience: third edition. West Sussex: Blackwell Publishing. Ochsner, K., Lieberman, M. (2001).The emergence of social cognitive neuroscience.American psychologist, 56,717-73 Rilling, J., Gutman, D., Zeh, T., et al (2002). A neural basis for social cooperation. Neuron, 35, 395-405. Tulving, E. (2000). Memory, consciousness and the brain: the Tallinn conference. Philadelphia: Psychology Press. Winston, J., Strange, B., O’Doherty, J., Dolan, R. (2002). Automatic and intentional brain responses during the evaluation of trustworthiness of faces. Nature Neuroscience, 5, 277-283. Read More