Neuroscience 3680
Cognitive Neuroscience
Matthew Tata
Fall 2011
September 8 2010
The Plan
Foundations
The Brain in
Action
-Techniques of Cognitive Neuroscience
-Some functional anatomy
-Vision
-Attention
-Memory
-Language and Music
-Executive Control
-Consciousness
Textbook and Other
Resources
•Cognitive Neuroscience, Second or Third Edition by
Gazzaniga, Ivry and Mangun
•Consider Scholarpedia as alternative to Wikipedia
•Review articles in Trends in Neuroscience, Trends in
Cognitive Science and Nature Reviews Neuroscience
•Brain Voyager Tutor:
www.brainvoyager.com/BrainTutor.html
Website
•www.uleth.ca -> Class Web Sites -> Neuroscience -> NEUR
3680 click on “A”
•Course outline will be available here
•Lecture slides will be available here
Evaluation

Class Participation
10%

Mid-Term 1 20%
Tentatively Oct 5; date to be adjusted slightly

Mid-Term 2 20%
Tentatively Nov 2; date to be adjusted slightly

Final 25%
TBA

Project 25%
December 9
Midterms will be in-class, location of final T.B.A.
Evaluation

Project will be a written research proposal describing a research question, a
theory that potentially answers this question and an experiment to test that
theory…more details in the coming weeks
Grades
Your f inal Lett er grade will be calculat ed as fo llows:
Percenta ge
Lett er Grade
90 -100
A+
84 -89
A
80 -83
A77 -79
B+
73 -76
B
70 -72
B67 -69
C+
63 -66
C
60 -62
C55 -59
D+
50 -54
D
<50
F
Rounding will be by convention except when we
decide otherwise!
Interaction


Matt’s Office hours: immediately after class
Email: [email protected]
 Rules:
 1. No emailing the night before a test
 2.
You must try to answer your question on your own first before emailing
me…trust me
Interaction

TAs:

Karla Ponjavic and Amanda McMullen
What is Cognitive
Neuroscience?
Cognition = “Representing”, interpreting, using and
storing information by the mind
•
•
Neuroscience = the study of the nervous system
What is Cognitive
Neuroscience?
Cognition = “Representing”, interpreting, using and
storing information by the mind
•
•
Neuroscience = the study of the nervous system
• Cognitive Neuroscience = the study of the
neurobiology that [“underlies” “creates” “is” ]cognition
What is Cognitive
Neuroscience?
Cognition = “Representing”, interpreting, using and
storing information by the mind
•
•
Neuroscience = the study of the nervous system
• Cognitive Neuroscience = the study of the
neurobiology that [“underlies” “creates” “is” ]cognition
So why isn’t all Neuroscience “Cognitive Neuroscience”?
Topics we will (try) to cover
Methods of Cognitive Neuroscience
Perception (Mainly Vision)
Attention
Memory
Language and Music
Consciousness

Start Thinking Like a
Neuroscientist...

How many of you have heard the statement
that you only use 10% of your brain?
Start Thinking Like a
Neuroscientist...


How many of you have heard the statement
that you only use 10% of your brain?
What do you suppose this means? Would
that be a bad thing?
Start Thinking Like a
Neuroscientist...
Does it refer to 10% of brain tissue or 10% of a
more abstract “functional capacity”?
 If it refers to 10% of brain tissue, then which
10%!?
 Does it mean “at any moment” or “ever in your
life”?
 If it means “at any moment” (and it were true),
would it be a good thing to boost this number to
100%!?
 What does “use” mean?

Start Thinking Like a
Neuroscientist...
Is the 10% “myth” true?
 More importantly, how could you go about
testing this proposition?
