Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Neuroscience: Current (Criticisms/limitations (not all questions can be…
Neuroscience: Current
Criticisms/limitations
fMRI on the rise! 1992 -> 2013: 4 -> 150,000 articles! some say revolutionary
focus on mapping functioning "S-t-FI" - how much can localization really tell us about the mind? is this just the 'new phrenology'?
cognitive theories aren't necessarily about specific brain responses or brain activity, hence, it may be difficult to address some cognitive theories by using neuroimaging
Page: cognitive psychology is interested in understanding how the mind works not where the brain works - issue with "S-to-FI"
"F-to-SD" can distinguish between cognitive theories, so long as they have specific predictions
Wixted: the validity of the interpretation lives and dies with the validity of the cognitive theory on which it depends, in functional neuroimaging.
-
"F-to-SD": the tonotopic map: auditory cortex areas active with different tones/frequencies: these do not represent cognitive functions! this method tells us more about structure and organisation rather than functions?
"S-to-FI": activation doesn't equal cognitive function, tasks performed together may activate an 'overarching' function, the same region may perform multiple functions, some processes require suppression which may cancel out positive activity, absence of activity does not imply absence of cognitive involvement - due to statistical thresholds.
-
fMRI: causality? poor temporal resolution, spatial resolution is good but neurons are far smaller so cant be so accurate, specific neural representations don't tell us where that representation came from- other regions?
Progress
"S-to-FI": some areas are specific to certain functions! e.g. fusiform face area (FFA) Gazzaley: use functional neuroimaging to investigate suppression of facial features in memory tasks in adults
-
Schacter & Addis: fMRI found activation in the same brain region for both remembering the past and imagining the future: impairments in both
-
MRI technology progressing rapidly, becoming less dependent on subtraction, can study networks and connectivity as well as localised functioning
Combining methods: when and where? fMRI + EEG, intervention effects on brain networks? fMRI + TMS/tDCS
-
-
-
-
-
Inferences
Henson: when making assumption that there is some systematic mapping of psychological function to brain structure (cognitive neuroscience view), then neuroimaging can comprise a DV alongside behavioural data, to distinguish psychological theories
Adding a DV in addition to catalogue of behaviour, we can progress understanding of cognition & the mind
e.g.: L/R hand button pressing, muscle excitability (EMG) and dependent variable: BOLD response (fMRI)
Types of reasoning
Deductive
-
-
context-dependent, theory-specific, a single experiment
"Where?" it doesn't matter! it only matters that a significant difference exists i.e. if C1 and C2 produce qualitatively different patterns of brain activity then C1 & C2 differ in at least one function (F)
Assumptions?: 1 assumption: the same psychological function (F) will not create different patterns of brain activity within the experiment
-
Inductive
-
context-independent, assumptions are stronger, several experiments
-
"Where?" precise location matters! i.e. if C1 and C2 activate the same brain regions, the same function (F) is assumed to be engaged in both
"Systematicity": the same regions are involved in the same functions in ALL contexts ( all experiments)
Henson: verbal STM task: item/list probes, serial order maintainance Y/N
-
this region: implicated in timing tasks e.g. finger tapping Catalan hence conclude timing involved in performing serial order tasks.
"S-to-FI": probabilistic, tells us how cognitive functions are implemented in the brain
"F-to-SD": qualitative differences, allow us to distinguish b/w competing cognitive theories.
-
-