Cognitive Neuroscience for AI: Key terms all

A student's guide to cognitive neuroscience, fifth edition, chapters: 1 - 7 + 9 done

Cognition

A variety of higher mental processes such as thinking, perceiving, imagining, speaking, acting, and planning.

Cognitive Neuroscience

Aims to explain cognitive processes in terms of brain-based mechanisms.

Mind-body problem

The problem of how a physical substance (the brain) can give rise to our sensations, thoughts, and emotions (our mind).

Dualism

The belief that mind and brain are made up of different kinds of substance.

Dual-aspect theory

The belief that mind and brain are two levels of description of the same thing.

Reductionism

The belief that mind-based concepts will eventually be replaced by neuroscientific concepts.

Phrenology

The failed idea that individual differences in cognition can be mapped onto differences in skull shape.

Functional specialization

different regions of the brain are specialised for different functions.

Cognitive neuropsychology

The Study of brain-damaged patients to inform theories of normal cognition.

Information processing

An approach in which behaviour is described in terms of a sequence of cognitive stages.

Interactivity

Later stages of processing can begin before early stages are complete.

Top-down processing

The influence of later stages on the processing of earlier ones (e.g., memory influences on perception).

Bottom-up processing

The passage of information from simpler (e.g., edges) to more complex (e.g., objects).

Parallel processing

Different information is processed at the same time.

Modularity

The notion that certain cognitive processes (or regions of the brain) are restricted in the type of information they process..

Domain specificity

The idea that a cognitive process (or brain region) is dedicated solely to one particular type of information (e.g. colours, faces, words, etc).

Neural network models

Computational models in which information processing occurs using many interconnected nodes.

Nodes

The basic units of neural network models that are activated in response to activity in other parts of the network.

Deep Neural Network

A neural network model containing multiple layers, typically producing a simple-to-complex hierarchy of information processing.

Temporal resolution

The accuracy with which one can measure when an event occurs.

Spatial resolution

The accuracy with which one can measure where an event is occurring.

Replication crisis

Systematic difficulties in being able to independently reproduce published results that have been documented in many scientific fields.

Connectome

A comprehensive map of neural connections in the brain that may be thought of as its “wiring diagram”.

Graph theory

A mathematical technique for computing the pattern of connectivity (or “wiring diagram”) from a set of correlations.

Replicability

Ability to repeat an experimental design and analysis on an independent sample and achieve the same result.

A power analysis

A statistical method for determining a required sample size given a likely effect size (whether a variable is strong or weak) and the probability of detecting it (due to sample variability).

Meta-analysis

A statistical method for pooling across equivalent datasets (based on a weighted average of effect sizes).

File-drawer problem

The tendency for nonsignificant results to be unpublished.

P-hacking

Analysing the data in multiple ways and choosing to publish a single favourable analysis

Pre-registration

An open set of hypotheses and analysis plan that is posted prior to conducting the analysis.

Registered report

Peer-reviewed scientific paper in which hypotheses, methods, and analysis are reviewed prior to data collection.

HARKing

Hypothesising after the results are known.

Multiverse analysis

Performing multiple analyses of the same dataset across all reasonable options for excluding, transforming, and coding data.

Neuron

A type of cell that makes up the nervous system and supports, among other things, cognitive function.

Cell body

Part of the neuron containing the nucleus and other organelles

Dendrites

Branching structures that carry information from other neurons

Axon

A branching structure that carries information to other neurons and transmits an action potential.

Synapse

The small gap between neurons in which neurotransmitters are released, permitting signaling between neurons.

Action potential

A sudden change (depolarisation and repolarisation) in the electrical properties of the neuron membrane in an axon, which forms the basis for how neurons code information (in the form of the rate and synchrony of action potentials).

Neurotransmitters

Chemical agents that are released by one neuron and effect the properties of other neurons.

Myelin

A fatty substance that is deposited around the axon of some neurons that speeds conduction.

Gray matter

Matter consisting primarily of neuronal cell bodies.

White matter

tissues of the nervous system consisting primarily of axons and support cells.

Glia

Support cells of nervous system involved in tissue repair and in the formation of myelin (among other functions).

Corpus Callosum

A large white matter tract that connects the two hemispheres.

Ventricles

The hollow chambers of the brain that contain cerebrospinal fluid.

Anterior

Toward the front.

Posterior

Toward the back.

Superior

toward the top.

Inferior

Toward the bottom.

Dorsal

Toward the top.

Ventral

Toward the bottom.

Lateral

the outer part.

Medial

In or toward the middle.

Gyri (gyrus = singular)

the raised folds of the cortex.

Sulci (sulcus = singular)

the buried grooves of the cortex.

Brodmann’s areas

Regions of cortex defined by the relative distribution of cell types across cortical layers (cytoarchitecture).

Basal ganglia

Regions of subcortical gray matter involved in aspects of motor control, skill learning, and reward learning; they consist of structures such as the caudate nucleus, putamen, and globus pallidus.

Limbic system

A region of subcortex involved in relating the organism to its present and past environment; limbic structures include the amygdala, hippocampus, cingulate cortex, and mamillary bodies.

Thalamus

A major subcortical relay center; for instance it is a processing station between all sensory organs (except smell) and the cortex.

Hypothalamus

Consists of a variety of nuclei that are specialised for different functions that are primarily concerned with the body and its regulation.

Superior colliculi

A midbrain nucleus that forms part of a subcortical sensory pathway involved in programming fast eye movements.

Inferior colliculi

A midbrain nucleus that forms part of a subcortical auditory pathway.

Cerebellum

Structure attached to the hindbrain; important for dexterity and smooth execution of movement.

Pons

Part of the hindbrain; a key link between the cerebrum.

Medulla oblongata

Part of the hindbrain; it regulates vital functions such as breathing, swallowing, heart rate, and the wake-sleep cycle.

Representation

Properties of the world that are manifested in cognitive systems (mental representation) and neural systems (neural representation).

Single cell recordings (or single-unit recordings)

Measure the responsiveness of a neuron to a given stimulus (in terms of action potentials per second).

Electroencephalography (EEG)

Measurements of electrical signals generated by the brain through electrodes placed on different points on the scalp.

Event-related potential (ERP)

The average amount of change in voltage at the scalp that is linked to the timing of particular cognitive events.

Reaction time

The time taken between the onset of a stimulus/event and the production of a behavioural response. Also referred to as response time.

Multi-cell recording (or multi-unit recordings)

The electrical activity (in terms of action potentials per second) of many individually recorded neurons recorded at one or more electrodes.

Grandmother cell

A hypothetical neuron that just responds to one particular stimulus.

Rate coding

the informational content of a neuron may be related to the number of action potentials per second.

Temporal coding

The synchrony of firing may be used by a population of neurons to code the same stimulus or event.

Dipole

A pair of positive and negative electrical charges separated by a small distance

Mental chronometry

The study of the time-course of information processing in the human nervous system.

Additive factors method

A general method for dividing reaction times into stages.

N170 (negative potential at 170 ms)

An ERP component linked to perceiving facial structure.

Associative priming

Reaction times are faster to stimulus X after being presented to stimulus Y if X and Y have previously been associated together.

Exogenous

related to properties of stimulus.

Endogenous

related to properties of the task.

Inverse problem

The difficulty of locating the sources of electrical activity from measurements taken at the scalp (in ERP research).

Dipole Modeling

An attempt to solve the inverse problem in ERP research that involves assuming how many dipoles (regions of electrical activity) contribute to the signal recorded at the scalp.

Magnetoencephalography (MEG)

A noninvasive method for recording magnetic fields generated by the brain at the scalp.

Structural imaging

Measures of the spatial configuration of different types of tissue in the brain (principally CT and MRI).

Functional imaging

Measures temporary changes in brain physiology associated with cognitive processing; the most common method is fMRI and is based on a hemodynamic measure.

Voxel-based morphometry (VBM)

A technique for segregating and measuring differences in white matter and gray matter concentration

Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI)

Uses MRI to measure white matter connectivity between brain regions

Voxel

A volume-based unit (cf. pixels, which are 2D); in imaging research the brain is divided into many thousands of these.

Fractional anisotropy (FA)

A measure of the extent to which diffusion takes place in some directions more than others.

BOLD

Blood Oxygen-Level-Dependent contrast; the signal measured in fMRI that relates to the concentration of deoxyhemoglobin in the blood.

Hemodynamic Response Function

Changes in the BOLD signal over time

Cognitive subtraction

A type of experimental design in functional imaging in which activity in a control task is subtracted from activity.

Pure insertion (also pure deletion)

The assumption that adding a different component to a task does not change the operation of other components.

Interactions

The effect of one variable of one variable upon another.

Efference copy

A motor signal used to predict sensory consequences of an action.

Functional integration

The way in which different regions communicate with each other.

Resting state paradigm

A technique for measuring functional connectivity in which correlations between several regions (networks) are assessed while the participant is not performing any tasks.

Default mode network

A set of brain regions that is more hemodynamically active during rest than during tasks