Cognitive Neuroscience (Concept) [Wikipedia]
The scientific study of the biological substrates underlying cognition, with a focus on the neural mechanisms of mental processes.
Relations
- INCLUDES → Memory Systems
- INCLUDES → Attention
- INCLUDES → Consciousness
- RELATES_TO → Neuroplasticity
Evidence
Cognitive neuroscience investigates how the brain gives rise to perception, memory, attention, language, decision-making and consciousness through integrated study of neural circuits and cognitive function.
What Is Cognitive Neuroscience? - published by CognitiveNeurosciences.com
Memory Systems (Concept) [Wikipedia]
The multiple neural systems that encode, store and retrieve information, including working, episodic, semantic and procedural memory.
Relations
- DEPENDS_ON → Hippocampus
Evidence
Human memory is not a single faculty but a set of dissociable systems — working, episodic, semantic and procedural — each supported by distinct but interacting brain networks.
Memory Systems - published by CognitiveNeurosciences.com
Attention (Concept) [Wikipedia]
The cognitive process of selectively concentrating on a discrete aspect of information while ignoring other perceivable information.
Relations
- DEPENDS_ON → Prefrontal Cortex
Evidence
Attention encompasses selective, sustained, divided and executive subsystems, jointly mediated by frontoparietal networks that bias perceptual and motor processing toward task-relevant signals.
Attention - published by CognitiveNeurosciences.com
Consciousness (Concept) [Wikipedia]
Subjective awareness of internal and external states, studied through correlates of arousal, access and phenomenal experience.
Evidence
Cognitive neuroscience approaches consciousness through neural correlates: thalamocortical loops sustain arousal, while distributed cortical networks support reportable access to perceptual content.
Consciousness - published by CognitiveNeurosciences.com
Executive Function (Concept) [Wikipedia]
Higher-order control processes — including inhibition, working memory and cognitive flexibility — that regulate goal-directed behaviour.
Relations
- DEPENDS_ON → Prefrontal Cortex
Evidence
Executive functions comprise inhibitory control, working memory updating and set-shifting, and depend critically on prefrontal cortex interactions with basal ganglia and parietal regions.
Executive Function - published by CognitiveNeurosciences.com
Perception (Concept) [Wikipedia]
The neural processes by which sensory signals are organised, identified and interpreted to construct a model of the environment.
Evidence
Perception is an active, inferential process: cortical hierarchies combine bottom-up sensory evidence with top-down predictions to construct stable representations of objects, sounds and space.
Perception & Sensory Processing - published by CognitiveNeurosciences.com
Language (Concept) [Wikipedia]
The cognitive and neural systems supporting comprehension and production of spoken, signed and written language.
Relations
- DEPENDS_ON → Broca's Area
- DEPENDS_ON → Wernicke's Area
Evidence
Language processing recruits a left-lateralised perisylvian network — Broca's and Wernicke's areas with their white-matter connections — supporting phonology, syntax and semantic integration.
Language - published by CognitiveNeurosciences.com
Decision Making (Concept) [Wikipedia]
The cognitive and neural processes by which the brain evaluates options and selects actions under uncertainty.
Evidence
Value-based decision making integrates expected reward, risk and effort signals across orbitofrontal cortex, ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the striatum to bias action selection.
Decision Making - published by CognitiveNeurosciences.com
Prefrontal Cortex (Concept) [Wikipedia]
The anterior region of the frontal lobes supporting executive control, working memory and goal-directed behaviour.
Evidence
The prefrontal cortex orchestrates executive control by maintaining task goals in working memory and biasing processing in posterior cortical and subcortical regions.
Prefrontal Cortex - published by CognitiveNeurosciences.com
Hippocampus (Concept) [Wikipedia]
A medial temporal lobe structure essential for episodic memory formation and spatial navigation.
Evidence
The hippocampus binds elements of experience into episodic memory traces and constructs cognitive maps that support flexible spatial and relational navigation.
Hippocampus - published by CognitiveNeurosciences.com
Amygdala (Concept) [Wikipedia]
A subcortical limbic structure central to emotional learning, threat detection and affective modulation of memory.
Evidence
The amygdala detects motivationally significant stimuli and modulates perception, attention and memory through dense connections with cortical and subcortical targets.
Amygdala - published by CognitiveNeurosciences.com
Functional MRI (Methodology) [Wikipedia]
A non-invasive neuroimaging technique that measures brain activity by detecting blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) signal changes.
Evidence
Functional MRI infers neural activity from BOLD signal changes, offering millimetre spatial resolution that has made it the dominant tool for human cognitive neuroscience.
Functional MRI (fMRI) - published by CognitiveNeurosciences.com
Electroencephalography (Methodology) [Wikipedia]
A neurophysiological technique recording electrical activity of the brain from scalp electrodes with millisecond temporal resolution.
Evidence
EEG records summed postsynaptic potentials at the scalp, providing millisecond temporal resolution that captures the dynamics of perception, attention and cognitive control.
Electroencephalography (EEG) - published by CognitiveNeurosciences.com
Neural Networks (Concept) [Wikipedia]
Interconnected populations of neurons whose collective dynamics implement cognitive functions; also the biological inspiration for artificial neural networks.
Relations
- RELATES_TO → Artificial Neural Network
Evidence
Biological neural networks implement cognition through patterned activity across recurrently connected populations, providing the inspiration for artificial neural networks used in modern AI.
Neural Networks - published by CognitiveNeurosciences.com
Neuroplasticity (Concept) [Wikipedia]
The capacity of the nervous system to reorganise its structure, function and connections in response to experience, learning and injury.
Evidence
Neuroplasticity spans synaptic, dendritic and systems-level changes that enable learning across the lifespan and underlie recovery after brain injury.
Neuroplasticity - published by CognitiveNeurosciences.com
Alzheimer's Disease (Concept) [Wikipedia]
A progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterised by amyloid and tau pathology, leading to memory loss and cognitive decline.
Evidence
Alzheimer's disease is defined by amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tau tangles whose spread from medial temporal to neocortical regions tracks progressive cognitive decline.
Alzheimer's Disease - published by CognitiveNeurosciences.com
ADHD (Concept) [Wikipedia]
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: a neurodevelopmental condition involving inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity linked to frontostriatal dysfunction.
Evidence
ADHD involves atypical development of frontostriatal and frontoparietal circuits supporting attention and inhibitory control, with strong heritability and dopaminergic involvement.
ADHD - published by CognitiveNeurosciences.com
Brain and AI (Concept) [Wikipedia]
The intersection of cognitive neuroscience and artificial intelligence, comparing biological and artificial systems of perception, memory and reasoning.
Relations
- RELATES_TO → Neural Networks
Evidence
Comparing biological brains and artificial neural networks clarifies which computational principles — predictive coding, attention, memory consolidation — generalise across substrates.
Brain & AI - published by CognitiveNeurosciences.com