I often have trouble explaining to people what I am doing for my PhD. This is not a consequence of the topic being so fiendishly complex that no-one else can understand it. Instead it comes from a fact that the area of study seems to fall between several difference subject areas. When I tell people that I am doing my PhD within the Neuroscience department I imagine this provokes images of test-tubes, microscopes and pipettes, and perhaps associations with genetics, animal testing and stem cells. In reality I have little knowledge or experience of any of these topics, having last done ‘traditional’ lab work while I was at secondary school. If you asked me to dissect something, I would probably run a mile! When I instead say that I work within the psychiatry department this probably brings up an altogether different set of images, of drug therapies, ECT and perhaps of ‘talking therapies’ such as CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy). In fact both the above statements regarding my PhD are true, as the Psychiatry department sits within the Neuroscience department, but neither appear to give an accurate impression of what I actually do.
The best description of my area of research is ‘cognitive neuroscience’, but what does this mean? Cognitive Neuroscience relates to the study of the neural basis of behaviour. Roughly, it bridges the gap between biological sciences, and behavioural sciences such as psychology and psychiatry. It attempts to determine how the brain achieves the legion of processes that it performs – crudely ‘what part of the brain does what’! Cognitive neuroscience has only been seen as a separate area of study relatively recently, partly because the advanced brain imaging techniques which the discipline now heavily relies on have only been developed within the last 30 years (according to Wikipedia the term ‘cognitive neuroscience’ itself was coined in the back of a taxi in 1979!!). However scientists from various disciplines have been trying to understand how the brain functions, using whatever methods were available, since at least the 19th century.
Cognitive Neuroscience relies heavily on work done within behavioural sciences, which have served to define how human behaviour and cognition can be classified into concepts that can be studied. Unsurprisingly therefore, cognitive neuroscience research normally involves the application of a behavioural task which has already been utilised without the use of brain imaging techniques. One question this raises is what does knowing how the brain achieves it function tell us that purely behavioural science does not? Psychologists have been ably investigating the details of mental processes for well over a century without knowing (or even caring) what part(s) of the brain are involved. The knowledge that spatial processing is largely dependent on the Hippocampus is not necessary for studying the intricacies and individual differences in spatial processing. So what does an understanding of the neural basis of mental processes achieve?
Firstly understanding the neural basis of a mental process can help distinguish between different theories relating to how that process is performed. Behavioural data is often not sufficient to distinguish between competing theories (e.g. whether a particular process is performed in totality, or whether it is split into components processes that are dealt with separately, and whether such component processes are performed in parallel or in series). Neuroimaging data can be used to provide strong evidence in relation to these questions (1). Secondly cognitive neuroscience can provide insight into areas of cognition that were difficult or impossible to address without neuroimaging techniques. For example much work has been done on trying to understand what the brain does ‘at rest’ (i.e. when no task is being performed, effectively ‘mind wandering’) which can allow us to understand how the brain might work as an self-contained integrative mechanism. As, by definition, non-task related mental processes can’t be manipulated systematically, it is hard to investigate these processes from a purely behavioural standpoint. Similarly neuroimaging has enabled scientists to begin to uncover the neural basis of ‘consciousness’, raising interesting questions about how our experience of the world is constructed (3). These achievements of cognitive neuroscience help elucidate the nature of human thought and behaviour, shedding light on why we act the way that we do.
On a larger scale, understanding how the brain is able to processes such a large variety of information, and produce such a wide variety of responses, can help guide the design of artificial intelligence systems intended to mimic human abilities, facilitating advances in medicine and engineering. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, knowing how the brain produces certain responses can lead to the development of interventions to alter the functioning of the appropriate brain areas when those responses become problematic (e.g. during mental health disorders). One of the major aims of cognitive neuroscience is to identify the neural deficiencies that mark various psychiatry and neurodegenerative disorders. From this information it becomes potentially possible to identify methods of combating such deficiencies. Indeed biological interventions are being developed that can target specific brain areas, potentially offering great hope for improving the therapeutic treatment of mental disorders.
References
(1) Jonides et al (2006). What has Functional Neuroimaging told us about the Mind? So many examples, so little space. Cortex, 42, 414-417 http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jjonides/pdf/2006_3.pdf
(2) Van den Heuval & Pol (2010) Exploring the brain network: A review on resting-state fMRI functional connectivity. European Neuropsychopharmacology, 20(8), 519-534 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924977X10000684
(3) Dehaene & Changeux (2011) Experimental and Theoretical Approaches to Conscious Processing. Neuron, 70. 200-225 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896627311002583
Hi there, im shalini mohan from malaysia,currently doing Foundation in Science in the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus. I would really like to know more on Cognitive Neuroscience as im planning to take this course during my degree. I would like to know on how and what job specification will be given later on and what do we actually do. Would like to here from you as soon as possible. Thank You.
Shalini
If you want to know what you will be doing on a particular course you are probably best talking to the course administrator of any courses you are interested in, to get more details as to what is involved. You shoud be able to find contact details on the relevant website. In general terms the specific knowledge that is taught on cognitive neuroscience courses would be designed to lead onto careers in academic research as I don’t believe that the private sector do a great deal of research in cognitive neuroscience, although I may be wrong on that. You would also gain skills in data analysis from a cognitive neuroscience course, which would be helpful in a wide variety on non-research jobs.
Hello my name is Eloisa Jimenez and i just started my college career here in California and you see I want to get my Masters or PhD on psychiatry, moreover dealing with Schizophrenia. Is Cognitive Neuroscience relevant to this? To be honest I’m having a little trouble on knowing what classes to take in order to reach my goal. If its irrelevant what classes do you suggest I look into ? i Would really appreciate the help. Hope to hear from you soon. Thank you
Hi, Eloisa. As schizophrenia is (at least in part) caused by biological factors, and as all behaviour (whether adaptive or dysfunctional) is a consequence of brain activity, cognitive neuroscience is definitely relevant to the study of schizophrenia.
A good proportion of the research that is performed with the aim of understanding psychiatric symptoms involves Cognitive Neuroscience methods, so I think that a MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience, or classes on neuroimaging, would be useful for your purposes.
There are of course other forms of Psychiatric research that don’t involve cognitive neuroscience. There is work that concentrates on the cognitive/behavioural basis of symtpoms, which uses methods from experimental psychology (in effect this is like Cognitive Neuroscience but without the neuroimaging). There is also a lot of clinical trials research (e.g. is treatment X effective) and some genetic research, as there is a complex genetic background to schizophrenia.
Good luck with finding the correct course! It mind be helpful if you can find some recent review articles with reference to schizophrenia and have a look at the sort of research that is being done. From that you might be able to identify what specific areas you are interested in. I’ve linked a couple of recent ones below, but you can use GoogleScholar, or Web of science (if you have access) to find others.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v468/n7321/abs/nature09563.html
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306987712001338
In researching for what I wanted to study for college, I only had a phrase that I was hoping to connect with an “ology.” I’d like to study how, say, psychological fears affected physical reactions. For example, if someone were deeply afraid of spiders, why would that fear, which is mental, affect how their body ends curled up shaking in a corner, while someone else could walk over and pick up the spider and run it through their shirt without a blink. I came across cognitive neuroscience, also known as psychophysiology. I’ve done a lot of research, but I can’t quite tell- Is this the field I am looking for to study how the physical body reacts to mind processes?
Hannah. In terms of college courses your best bet would be psychology which looks at how the brain processes information and how the effects behaviour. It would cover things like the cognitive basis of phobias (which is what you are describing with the spider example in your post). Cognitive Neuroscience effectively fills the gap between psychology and neuroscience by looking at the actualy biological mechanisms involved (i.e. which parts of the brain) rather that just the processes.
To be honest I wouldn’t get too hung up on a particular ‘ology’. Most sciences overlap with other sciences to a greater or lesser extent. Psychology is a very broad discipline, so if you did it university, the courses would likely cover a whole range of stuff, and you could choose what to focus on later (you can see sheffield’s BSc course option here: http://www.shef.ac.uk/prospectus/courseDetails.do?id=5055472013 ). If you talking about secondary/high school, then just doing psychology and maybe biology would be a good preparation for doing the sort of research you mention later on.
Hi. I was wondering what classes I should take in high school to become a Cognitive Neuroscientist?
Sophia
The best thing to do would be to look at the BSc Cognitive Neuroscience courses that universities offer in your area, and see if they have any entry requirements. I suspect they’ll want some GCSE Maths or equivalent. In terms of A-Levels, probably Psychology and Biology would be best. If there are no Con Neuro course, have a look fior the entry requirements at either Psychology or Neuroscience courses instead.
Those are UK qualifications, I don’t know what the US equivalents are if you are from the US. G.S.C.Es are done at the US equivalents of 9th and 10th grade. A-levels are done at the equivalent of 11th and 12th grade.
Hi, I am still confused about some definitions in neuroscience. It would be great if you could help me there.
1. What is the difference of Cognitive Neuroscience and Behavioral Neuroscience?
2. And also: What exactly is the difference of Neuroscience in general and Cognitive Neuroscience?
Thanks in advance.
Hi
1) I think they are terms that largely overlap in meaning. In practice I think ‘behavioural neuroscience’ is used to refer to research into more basic behaviours (e.g. the basic senses) using animal models (i.e. experiments on animals) whereas the term ‘cognitive neuroscience’ is used more when the research is looking at higher functions and the experiments are performed on humans.
2) Neuroscience in general is the study of the nervous system. Cognitive neuroscience is the part of neuroscience that is interested in how the nervous system achieves cognition (i.e. mental processes). This is largely restricted to the study of the brain, whereas Neuroscience as a whole involves the study of the peripheral nervous system as well.