Ch 1

Conducted between 1928 and 1947 on over 400 living human brains.
- Purpose: Identify and spare brain regions involved in movement and sensation during epilepsy surgeries.
- Method: Electrical stimulation of cortex while patients were conscious.
- Patients did not experience pain, as the brain lacks pain receptors.
Fascinating experiences reported by patients during stimulation:
- Occipital lobe: "A star came down toward my nose."
- Region near central sulcus: "Those fingers and my thumb gave a jump."
- Temporal lobe: "I heard the music again; it is like the radio."
Patients interpreted electrical stimulation as mental or cognitive events.

Concerned with studying the mind and brain.
Cognition refers to higher mental processes: thinking, perceiving, imagining, speaking, acting, and planning.
Cognitive neuroscience bridges cognitive science, cognitive psychology, biology, and neuroscience.
Emergence: A distinct field driven by methodological advances for safe brain studies in the lab.
The chapter places various philosophical and scientific approaches to mind and brain in historical context and offers a basic overview of methods used in cognitive neuroscience.

Mind-Body Problem: The challenge of understanding how physical matter (the brain) produces mental experiences.
Dualism (Descartes): The mind and brain consist of different substances but interact.
Dual-aspect Theory (Spinoza): Mind and brain are two explanations of the same phenomenon.
Reductionism: Cognitive concepts will be replaced by biological constructs over time.

Historical Insights, notably during the 19th century:
- Aristotle emphasized the brain's size and intellect in species.
- Galen focused on brain injury but incorrectly posited mental experiences resided in ventricles.
- Phrenology (Gall & Spurzheim):
  - Proposed different brain regions perform distinct functions associated with behaviors.
  - Size of regions correlated with cognitive and personality differences, leading to skull shape assumptions.
- Broca's studies indicated language localization in the brain.

Emerged from studying brain-damaged patients to inform cognition theories.
Relations established between cognitive functions and regions of damage, leading to understanding counts regarding independent language processes.

Cognitive psychology developed without focusing on the brain, using computational models and information processing techniques to describe cognition.
Transitioned to consider the brain as more than a computational device influenced by biological structures.

Imaging technologies advanced knowledge:
- Used for functional imaging and precise descriptions of brain lesions.
- The emergence of a variety of methods which will be compared in detail in following chapters.
Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience Relationships:
- How cognitive psychology can inform neuroscience and vice versa.
- Functional imaging is seen as a new tool that complements traditional cognitive measures.

Focused on networks within the brain rather than single specialization units.
Human Connectome Project aims to map brain connectivity and link it to cognitive functions.
Theoretical approaches will need to reinterpret the nature of cognitive processes in light of this network perspective.

Continuing to explore the mind-body problem remains critical.
Understanding cognitive functions relies on acknowledging both functional specialization and cross-regional networks.
A mix of cognitive, mind-based concepts must serve as groundwork for advancing cognitive neuroscience.