PSY324 Thinking/Cognition

Nature of thought

• Psychological constructs = ideas we use to describe mental processes
  → thinking, memory, emotion, language
  → hard to measure and locate directly in the brain

• Cognition = ability to know and learn
  → includes attention, recognizing stimuli, and planning responses

Lang functions

• gives thinking advantage
  → helps categorize information

• Language helps organize time
  → plan, remember events

• Language has syntax (rules)
  → structured communication

sequencing

arranging actions/sounds in order
→ helped language develop

new sequences → supports flexible thinking

Frontal lobe

key for organizing thought and behavior
→ damage → harder to find new solutions

Neural units of thought

• Neuron connections are organized (not random)
  → form systems and networks

• Thinking = activity of these neural circuits

• Groups of neurons (cell assemblies) represent ideas
  → connections between groups = complex thinking

• Brain works like a computational system
  → can process complex information

Thought comes from organized networks of neurons working together

Cognition & association cortex

• Association cortex = large part of neocortex (~2/3)
  → outside primary sensory & motor areas
  → responsible for cognition (thinking)

• Key difference:
  → receives more processed (complex) information

Cognition & association cortex

• Temporal cortex
  → involved in vision + hearing processing

• Parietal cortex
  → body sensations + movement

• Frontal cortex
  → integrates information from other areas
  → supports planning and higher thinking

Spatial cognition

• Types:
  → Egocentric (based on your position)
  → Allocentric (map-like, independent of you)

• Includes mental rotation
  → imagining objects from different angles

Deficits of spatial behavior

• Damage to right posterior parietal cortex → spatial problems

• Topographic disorientation
  → trouble navigating
  → egocentric: no sense of direction

• Bálint syndrome
  → difficulty processing spatial information

• Also affected by damage to:
  → posterior cingulate cortex
  → medial temporal regions

Attention

• Selective focus
  → concentrate on part of the environment

• Filters information
  → ignore irrelevant stimuli

• 
  → external (world around you)
  → internal (thoughts, memories)

Deficits of attention

• Frontal cortex damage
  → overly focused or can’t shift attention

• Parietal cortex damage
  → contralateral neglect
  → ignore one side of space (usually left side)

• Stronger with right hemisphere damage

• Extinction
  → when two stimuli appear, patient ignores one side

Testing for extinction

• If the same objects appear on both sides
  → patient sees only the right side

• If the objects are different
  → patient may notice both sides

Planning & executive function

Planning uses multiple areas:
→ occipital/temporal (recognize objects)
→ parietal (guide movement)

Frontal lobe = “conductor”
→ organizes actions in time and space

Damage to frontal lobe:
→ poor planning
→ difficulty organizing behavior
→ trouble switching strategies

Wisconsin Card Sorting Test

• → tests planning and flexible thinking

• Common issue: perseveration
  → repeating same response even when it’s wrong

Social neuroscience

• how the brain supports social interactions

• Combines:
  → brain methods (e.g., neuroimaging)
  → social behavior concepts

Understanding oneself

• → right prefrontal + parietal cortex
  → medial prefrontal cortex (self-reflection)

Key idea:
Self-awareness = specific brain activity when thinking about yourself

Understanding others

• Theory of mind (ToM)
  → understand others have different thoughts/feelings

• Based on:
  → observing behavior
  → listening to others

• Empathy
  → linked to medial prefrontal cortex

Self-regulation

• Ability to control emotions and impulses
  → helps achieve long-term goals

• Includes:
  → putting feelings into words
  → predicting how things will feel

• Prefrontal cortex = key
  → controls impulses

• Children:
  → weaker self-regulation (brain still developing)

Neuroeconomics

• how the brain makes decisions
  → combines economics + psychology + neuroscience

• Looks at brain activity during choices

Neuroeconomics, 2 decision systems

• Reflective system (slow):
  → deliberate, logical, rule-based
  → emotionally neutral

• Reflexive system (fast):
  → automatic, quick
  → emotionally biased

Cerebral asymmetry

• Left hemisphere:
  → language
  → verbal processing

• larger secondary auditory areas

• Right hemisphere:
  → music
  → spatial / nonverbal processing

• → larger primary auditory area

Functional asymmetry

• Dichotic listening:
  → right ear → better for words (language)
  → left ear → better for music

• Vision:
  → right visual field → language advantage
  → left visual field → spatial/nonverbal advantage

Split-brain

• Right hemisphere:
  → sees the object
  → cannot speak

• Left hemisphere:
  → can speak
  → does NOT see the object

→ person says: “nothing was shown”

Behavior in experiments:

• Cannot name object (if in left visual field)

• But can point to correct object with left hand

• Each hand may choose different objects

Explaining cerebral asymmetry

• Left hemisphere → language
  → better at fine motor control needed for speech production

• Right hemisphere → spatial abilities
  → better at movement in space and mental images of space

Synesthesia

• One sense triggers another
  → e.g., hearing sounds → seeing colors

• Fairly common
  → ~1 in 23 people

• Often runs in families

• Most common:
  → colored hearing

• Usually one-way
  → sound → color (not color → sound)

Consciousness

• → how much the mind responds to what we perceive

• Likely provides an adaptive advantage

• People can act before being aware of their actions
  → movement ≠ conscious awareness

Conditions of consciousness

Awareness and processing can separate

Without awareness (but still processing):

• Brain processes info, but person is not conscious of it
  → examples:

  • blindsight

  • visual neglect

  • amnesia

With awareness (but not real):

• Person is conscious of things that are not actually present
  → examples:

  • phantom limbs

  • hallucinations