VL1 Why cognitive Neuroscience

-          Opening Black Box

-          Falsification of purely cognitive models

-          Showing functional independence of cognitive subsystems

-          Differentiating

unconscious/conscious processes

cognitive/emotional processes

-          Describe temporospatial dynamics of processes to identify mechanisms & strategies

-          Making assessments independent of introspection & self-report

-          Creating biological understanding of abnormal & normal behavior (pharmacological treatment!)

• Baddeleys Working memory model

• Rainer et al 1000: delayed matching to sample task

• stimulus

• delay

• response (selecting match / non match)

• Findings

  • cells responsible for response showed activity in preparation —> when reward better higher activity

  • cells for remembering

• ANTICIPATION IS MISSING

Are emotions or cognitions primary?

• Zajonc: emotional reaction first

• Lazarus: cognitive Processes first

• James/Lange: physiological behavior first

Neurodata by LeDoux

-          Fear condition -> learning to predict fear-inducing stimulus

-          CS – tone; UCS – Shock; CR – blood pressure increase, freezing, stress

-          Result: cooling of auditory neocortex leaves fear conditioning intact

-          No conscious cognitive processing needed to learn & experience emotional reactions à „Quick & dirty route“ = James/Lange

-          „Slow & differentiated route“ can diminish your fear response or modulate it à Lazarus

-          Rudimentary emotional responses possible without cognitive evaluation

-          Central trigger station for fear response is amygdala

-          Cognition modulates emotions

-          Without neurological date: no falsification of cognitive models possible

Memory model Atkinson & Shiffrin

• every step requires previous step

• everything that is encoded in long-term-storage has to be processed in short term storage

-          Hans Markotwitsch et al 1999: patient with tumor in left angular gyrus

-          After tumor removal:

o   below-normal short-term memory

o   normal long-term memory formation

o   normal speech comprehension + production but minor deficit in retaining information long enough in auditory token test

è Patient falsifies model

explicit & implicit memory of fear-inducing stimulus

in a double dissociation of

—> amygdala-mediated implicit fear memory

—> hippocampal-dependent explicit fear memory

they could show that

• people with Amygdala lesions —> remember conditioning but do not react

• people with hippocampal lesions —> implicitly react to cs but do not remember fearful event

Patients Eleanor ELizabeth & Henry Molaison

• both amnesia

  • HM removal of most of hippocampus

    • STM intact, LTM impaired

  • EE

    • STM impaired, LTM intact

• shows that two systems operate independently (LTM & STM)

• more positive response in event-related potentials to words that were shown before than in new words

• also: more positive response in potential to words that were shown before but not consciously recalled

• recognition memory task with neural/emotionally negative connotated words

• Controls vs. panic disorder patients

• behavioral reaction was the same in both groups but on neuronal level there were differences in strategies

  • Controls difference neutral & negative

  • Patients no difference neutral& negative

• game where people punish others

• have to pay for punishing

• activation in reward related brain structures while they are punishing

might not tell you because punishing is not socially favorable

• costs, complexity, expenses

• ethical?

• animal testing

• explanatory gap: how physical processes in the brain give rise to subjective experiences &consciousness

• reductionism —> humans as structure

• correlates no causality