Introduction to
Brain and Cognition
Course Content
• Learning Outcomes:
• Broad knowledge and Appreciation of Brain and Cognition
• Acquaintance with the Research interests of CogSciLab (CSL)
faculty!
Learning Assessment
• Quizzes (7 in number): 70 marks
• Expt participation: 10 marks (2 experiments – after
informed consent only)
Or
1 Quiz : 30 marks ( 30 questions)
End-sem: 40 marks (longer answers)
Attend at least 1 external talk (usually Wednesdays): 10
marks
• Recommended textbook:
Daniel Reisberg – Cognition , Exploring The Science of the
Mind
Brain & Cognition
- integration of the neurosciences and cognitive
sciences
I am given the following words:
• EAT, ME, WANTs and LION
Thinking 1: The lion wants to eat me.
Thinking 2: I want to eat the lion.
• Betsy wanted to bring Jacob a present. She shook her piggy bank. It made no sound. She went to look for her
mother. (Charniak, 1972)
What is Cognition?
The word "cognition" is derived from the Latin word cognitio, which means "knowledge" or "the act of knowing." It
comes from the verb cognoscere, which means "to know, recognize, or learn."
Co- (together) + gnoscere (to know) --> cognoscere (to get to know) --> cognitio (knowledge, understanding) -->
cognition (English).
• It encompasses the mental functions by which knowledge is acquired,
retained, and used: perception, learning, memory, and thinking.
• cognicioun, “ability to comprehend, mental act or process of
knowing”, from Latin cognoscere “to get to know, recognize,”
from assimilated form of com “together” + gnoscere “to know”
..(from [Link]
• Most important is ‘reasoning’
Understanding the
definition/word cognition
• The word seems straightforward, yet it is often a cause of
debate in the psychological and neuroscience fields, particularly
about whether a behaviour of an animal that happens not to be
human is truly “cognitive”, in a similar sense to human
cognition.
• Does this mean the birds “know” about the displacement of
water by sinking objects?
(/[Link]/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(09)01455-9).
• Researchers have long investigated whether birds possess the
mental equivalent of a compass, driven by observation of sun or
stars, or a map, driven by geomagnetism.
• That is, mental maps and compass bearings are
representations of information that imply specific c properties,
the bread-and-butter of cognitive theorizing.
Cognition in non-human animals
• J. David Smith, Ph.D., a comparative psychologist at the University at
Buffalo who has conducted extensive studies in animal cognition, says
there is growing evidence that animals share functional parallels with
human conscious metacognition -- that is, they may share humans'
ability to reflect upon, monitor or regulate their states of mind.
• Among these species are dolphins and macaque monkeys (an Old World
monkey species).
Unsolved Mysteries &
intriguing research of the
brain
Migration of the Monarch butterfly
How did the wasp/bird learn to build?
[Link]
01/annual_cycle_wheel.jpg
[Link]
The case of Anna H Oliver Sacks
•Dear Dr. Sacks,
My (very unusual) problem, in one sentence, and in non-medical
terms, is:
I can’t read. I can’t read music, or anything else.
In the ophthalmologist’s office, I can read the individual letters on the
eye chart down to the last line. But I cannot read words, and music
gives me the same problem. I have struggled with this for years, have
been to the best doctors, and no one has been able to help.
I would be ever so happy and grateful if you could find the time to see
me.
Sincerely yours,
Anna H.
The case of Anna H
• Given a battery of neuropsychological tests—tests of visual perception,
of memory, of verbal fluency, etc.—Mrs. H. did particularly badly in the
recognition of drawings: she called a violin a banjo, a glove a statue, a
razor a pen, and pliers a banana.
• Shown a photograph of a face, she could perceive that the person was
wearing glasses, nothing else
• In contrast to her severe visual problems, her speech comprehension,
repetition, and verbal fluency were all normal.
• A PET scan showed lower activity in the posterior Visual cortex
(dominantly on the left side)
The case fo Howard Engel
• Howard Engel, a Canadian novelist, who told me that he had a somewhat similar problem
following a stroke. “The area affected,” he relates, “was my ability to read. I can write, but
I can’t read what I’ve just written. . . . So, I can write, but I can’t rewrite. . . . My vision for
the most part is unaffected until I look at a text. Then, whatever I’m looking at turns into
unfamiliar blocks of type that could at first glance be taken for Serbo-Croatian. Familiar
words, including my own name, are unfamiliar blocks of type and have to be sounded out
slowly. Each time a name recurs in an article or review, it hits me as unfamiliar on its last
appearance as it does on the first. . . . I have just started [writing] a crime novel in which
the hero has similar problems.” Though Engel was a fair sight reader, he told me later, he
had no musical alexia
So where do we start to understand the brain,
biology & cognition?
What is not fully understood?
• What is the brain made of?
• How does the brain change in disease?
• How do neurons talk to each other?
• How does the brain compute?
• What will it mean to understand our brains?
[Link]
Caenorhabditis elegans
302 neurons and 7,000 connections
Drosophila melanogaster
roughly 135,000 neurons in the brain
86 billion neurons in our brains
Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't
mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny
iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the
rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll
raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid
deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a
wlohe.
Top unsolved or most researched topics in
neuroscience
▪ Perception
▪ Consciousness
▪ Learning and memory:
▪ Neuroplasticity
▪ Development and evolution:
▪ Cognition and decisions
▪ Language
▪ Diseases
Perception
▪ Sensory input into
coherent (private)
percept's.
Consciousness:
Neuronal basis of:
▪ subjective experience
▪ Cognition
▪ Wakefulness
▪ Alertness
▪ Arousal
▪ Attention
How do brains simulate the
future?
Essentially, it asks: what is consciousness? Or how do we
think?
Is simulation possible without learning & the experience that
comes with learning?
Are we conscious of things we have no knowledge off ?
MUST WATCH
▪ [Link]
A
_ the interview with Nobel Laureate in Medicine, Dr
Eric Randel.
The Brain
Cerebrum -The largest division of the brain. It is
divided into two hemispheres, each of which is
divided into four lobes.
Cerebrum
Cerebrum
Cerebellum
[Link]
The Brain
Cerebral Cortex - The outermost layer of gray
matter making up the superficial aspect of the
cerebrum.
Cerebral Cortex
[Link]
Landmarks
Gyri (ridge)
Sulci
(groove)
Fissure
(deep groove)
[Link]
Sections of the brain
coronal
Frontal section
Mid-sagittal
Lateral section
horizontal
Landmarks & Lobes
Central Sulcus
Longitudinal Fissure
Sylvian/Lateral
Fissure
Transverse Fissure
[Link] [Link]
Brain structure
Human Brain
2% of the body weight, 3 pounds approx.
25% of body’s oxygen
70% of glucose
Never rests and its metabolic rate in both day and night
is more or less the same.
In dreams in fact, the metabolic rate increases slightly
Hierarchical Brain
Represents approx. 500 million years of
evolutionary development and fine tuning.
Core structures of brain
They govern the physiological
are the same in all functions
vertebrates
Built upon these are newer systems that involve
complex functions – sensing, emoting, thinking,
reasoning etc.
Reptilian complex
Triune brain (Paul Paleomammalian complex (limbic
system)
MacLean) Neomammalian complex
(neocortex)
Levels of Organization
Churchland & Sejnowski (1992)
Nervous system
The CNS : brain & spinal cord
Wilder Penfield Edwin Boldrey
1 December 1937
Reinforced cortical localization as a valid paradigm to understand motor cognition,
somatosensory perception and higher cognitive functions
From: A little man of some importance
Brain. 2017;140(11):3055-3061. doi:10.1093/brain/awx270
Brain | © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of [Link] is an Open Access
article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ([Link]
which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Homunculus
38
39
Discovery of Neuron
Ramony Cajal and Camillo Golgi 1906 Noble Price
40
Types of neurons
Three main types:
⚫Motor Neurons
⚫Sensory Neuron
⚫Interneurons
The human cerebral cortex consists
of 3 to 6 layers of neurons
drawings made by
Cajal
neuron
42
Neurons and Action Potentials
[Link]
m/watch?v=oa6rvUJlg7o
[Link]
=OvVl8rOEncE
Churchland & Sejnowski (1992)
How ‘neurons’ talk – that is, how humans process
Estimates of the human brain’s memory capacity vary wildly from
1 to 1,000 terabytes (for comparison, the 19 million volumes in the US Library of Congress
represents about 10 terabytes of data).
44
Organizing Principles
Modular organization of
Specialization of function the function: Vision,
motor, Language, etc.
Approx. 1012 neurons;
1015 synapses; 1 mm3 of
Numbers: cortical tissue has 105
neurons 109 synapses.
Input is analog (membrane potential is
continuous valued) and Output is discrete
(neuron spikes or not)
Churchland & Sejnowski (1992)
Organizing Principles
• Timing:
• Action Potential (AP) lasts about 1 msec.
• Synaptic Transmission takes about 5 msec
• Synaptic potentials last from a millisecond to several
minutes
• Transmission velocity in myelinated axons is ~ 10-100
meters/sec; in unmyelinated axons is < 1 m/sec
• Reaction times (the time elapsed from the onset of stimulus to the
onset of reaction of the system) are around 50-60 msec (thus
switching time of a neuron is order of milliseconds; processing
speed is about 1KHz at 1 msec per operation!!)
Churchland & Sejnowski (1992)
Von Neumann Computer vs Brain
Jain et al. (1996)
Human Information Processing System
Consciousness
Awareness
Desires
Motivations
Intentions Emotions
Thought
Processes
Bottom-up Memory
Attentional
Processes
Allocation
Memory Storage:
Long-term, Short-term,
Working memory
Pattern Motor
Recognition Programmes
Preliminary Motor Control
Analyses System
Sensory Effectors:
Transduction Speech, limbs
Top-down
Physical signals Sound and movement
Mysteries of the brain
- Interesting…..for discussions only
Dreams
Recalling dreams: The high-recallers and the low-recallers.
• temporo-parietal junction (information-processing hub and attention
orienting toward external stimuli) and medial prefrontal cortex
Perrine Ruby, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center,
Cerebral Cortex, Jan 2013
Credit: © Perrine Ruby / Inserm
Visual/mental imagery & vivid
projections of images internally!
• The Question is: how is the
image formed, stitched and
presented.
• Or is visual imagery really
visual?
Sleep walking
• Brutal act: Case of Scott Falater – 43 year old who stabbed his wife &
ducked her in the pool in 1997. When interrogated, he claimed does not
recall the complete act - When he was tried, the prosecution claimed that
after the murder had been committed, Falater changed his clothes, put the
murder weapon in a Tupperware container, put the container in a trash
bag with his boots and socks, stashed the bag in the spare tire well in the
trunk of his car, and took and hid all the items that showed that he was the
person who killed her.
• On June 18, 1999 a prosecution expert testified that Falater's actions were
"too complex" to have been carried out while sleepwalking. Four weeks
later, Scott Falater was found guilty of first degree murder and sentenced
to life in prison without chance of parole
phantom limbs
• the vivid impression that the limb is not only still present, but
in some cases, painful.
• Patient recognizes that the sensations are an illusion(unreal
vision) not a delusion (false beliefs).
• Case of elaborate sensory memories
The perception of phantom limbs –
V S Ramachandran and William Herstein
Brain, 1998
Major debates
Ongoing debates today
• Local versus widespread functions in the brain
• The neuron doctrine (Advocates of the neuron doctrine claimed that the nervous system
was composed of discrete cellular units. Proponents of the alternative reticular theory, on the
other hand, argued that the entire nervous system was a continuous network of cells, without
gaps or synapses between the cells)
• The question of consciousness
• Unconscious inferences in vision
• Capacity limits in the brain
• Short-term and long-term memory: are they separate?
• The biological bases of emotions – to an extent established (the role
of hormones & limbic lobe)
• Nature versus nurture, genes versus environment
Interesting titbits & myths
• The fastest (simple) reaction time to a stimulus is
about 100 milliseconds, and the time it takes for a
sensory stimulus to become conscious is typically a
few hundred milliseconds.
• Until Andreas Vesalius, a Belgian physician (1514 –
1564), it was widely believed that women had one
less rib than men, based on the Biblical story of
Adam and Eve.
• Descartes is often considered to be the originator of
modern mind/body philosophy.