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a history of cognitive neuroscience in three minutes.

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Lost Your Train of Thought? Brain’s ‘Stopping’ System May Be to Blame

Have you had the experience of being just on the verge of saying something when the phone rang? Did you then forget what it is you were going to say? A study of the brain’s electrical activity offers a new explanation of how that happens.

The research is in Nature Communications. (full open access)

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What is Psycholinguistics?

Psycholinguistics is a field of Linguistics which deals with the aspects of how humansproduce and perceive language. It largely focusses on trying toexplain what the mental processes of de- and encoding languageinformation are.

It is closely related to several aspects of Psychology and Neuroscience, therefore dealing with a lot of questions revolving around as to how language and thinking are related, how language affects neuronal and cognitive processes and how people in general acquire language. Moreover, it is also concerned with the aspects of Aphasia, thus relating to Medical Science.

I personally found it a quite fascinating part of Linguistics since it touches several other disciplines such as Biology, Cognitive and Neuroscience and Information Science, and also Developmental Psychology and Social Science.

Unlike other fields of Linguistics, Psycholinguistics is based on experiments, so knowledge of Statistics is recommended. Just for the record though: Basic Statistics is not as scary as you might think, so should you consider Psycholinguistics worth a look, don’t let that scare you away. _______________________________________________

We have just started beginning to understand how the human mind works. According to Steven Pinker Language “is a window into the human mind” and can reveal quite a lot about ourselves and the underlying processes.

To get a first impression I can recommend the following books:

Trevor A. Harley: “The Psychology of Language” Stanislas Dehaene: “Reading in the Brain: The New Science of How We Read” Steven Pinker: “The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language” Michael Tomasello: “The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition”

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The meaning of language is represented in regions of the cerebral cortex known collectively as the “semantic system”. However, little of the semantic system has been mapped comprehensively, and the semantic selectivity of most regions is still unknown. Here we systematically map semantic selectivity across the cerebral cortex using voxel-wise modeling of fMRI data collected while subjects listened to several hours of natural narrative stories. We show that the semantic system is organized into intricate patterns that appear highly consistent across individuals. We then use a novel Bayesian generative model to map these patterns and create a detailed semantic atlas. Our results suggest that most areas within the semantic system represent information about specific semantic domains and our atlas shows which domains are represented in each area.

There’s a great video on that page explaining the paper. The full paper is paywalled by Nature, but you can request a reprint from the authors.

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In quantum theory of cognition, memories are created by the act of remembering

The way that thoughts and memories arise from the physical material in our brains is one of the most complex questions in modern science. One important question in this area is how individual thoughts and memories change over time. The classical, intuitive view is that every thought, or “cognitive variable,” that we’ve ever had can be assigned a specific, well-defined value at all times of our lives. But now psychologists are challenging that view by applying quantum probability theory to how memories change over time in our brains.

Continue Reading

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One reason why stress makes you unsociable

If you’ve ever been through an extended period of stress, you might remember some point when you just wanted everybody to go away and leave you alone–even family and friends you cared about. You might have felt kind of foggy and stupid, too, like your brain wasn’t quite firing on all cylinders. Both of these are actually pretty natural reactions to stress, caused by structural changes in the hippocampus in your brain.

Some researchers in France (at ECOLE POLYTECHNIQUE FÉDÉRALE DE LAUSANNE) performed a series of experiments on rats that demonstrated why this might happen. It all comes down to neural connectivity.

The synapses that connect one nerve to another are actually tiny gaps where messages are carried by chemicals called neurotransmitters. In order for them to work optimally, they need to be aligned at the proper distance. Various proteins attached to the surface of the nerve cells grab onto partners in neighboring neurons. One of the most important of these hand-holding proteins is called nectin-3.

Normally, nectin-3 holds on tight to a binding partner called cadherin, stabilizing the synapse so neurotransmitters can easily cross the gap. When the brain needs to realign connections, a remodeling enzyme called MMP-9 is released, slicing the nectin-3 molecule and breaking the synaptic connection. Other connections are formed as the brain changes and adapts, a process called neural plasticity.

During sustained periods of stress, MMP-9 ends up doing a lot more slicing than is necessary. Important synaptic connections are disrupted, causing reduced sociability and increased aggression. Cognitive performance is also decreased, and I can’t help but think that these symptoms just make the stress worse.

The researchers did try a couple options for treating the stressed rats, with some success. One treatment involved administering a virus to trigger overexpression of nectin-3, resulting in more stable connections. This made stressed rats more sociable, but unfortunately didn’t make them less aggressive. Another promising treatment involved inhibiting the NMDA receptor in the synapse that triggers release of the MMP-9 enzyme, restoring sociability and cognitive ability.

This research offers some promising alternatives to treating the negative effects of chronic stress, and might offer ways to prevent more serious effects like depression. At the very least, it helps explain how stress makes physical changes in the brain–and gives us some very good reasons to avoid prolonged stress whenever we can.

As an aside, I found it interesting that inhibiting the NMDA receptor blocked MMP-9 action and mitigated the negative effects of stress. Some recent studies have shown that administration of ketamine, a powerful NMDA inhibitor, can reverse depression after just one dose, and I wonder if the MMP-9/nectin-3 interaction has something to do with it.

References and further reading:

Role for ​MMP-9 in stress-induced downregulation of ​nectin-3 in hippocampal CA1 and associated behavioural alterations, Michael A. van der Kooij et al, Nature Communications, 9/18/2014

How stress tears us apart: Enzyme attacks synaptic molecule, leading to cognitive impairment, Science Daily, 9/18/2014

Image Credit: EPFL via Eurekalert

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Why We Believe in Gods. A cognitive neuroscience approach.

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Awake within a dream: lucid dreamers show greater insight in waking life

People who are aware they are asleep when they are dreaming have better than average problem-solving abilities, new research has discovered.

Experts from the University of Lincoln, UK, say that those who experience ‘lucid dreaming’ – a phenomena where someone who is asleep can recognise that they are dreaming – can solve problems in the waking world better than those who remain unaware of the dream until they wake up.

The concept of lucid dreaming was explored in the 2010 film Inception, where the dreamers were able to spot incongruities within their dream. It is thought some people are able to do this because of a higher level of insight, meaning their brains detect they are in a dream because events would not make sense otherwise. This cognitive ability translates to the waking world when it comes to finding the solution to a problem by spotting hidden connections or inconsistencies, researchers say.

The research was carried out by Dr Patrick Bourke, Senior Lecturer at the Lincoln School of Psychology and his student Hannah Shaw. It is the first empirical study demonstrating the relationship between lucid dreaming and insight.

He said: “It is believed that for dreamers to become lucid while asleep, they must see past the overwhelming reality of their dream state, and recognise that they are dreaming.

“The same cognitive ability was found to be demonstrated while awake by a person’s ability to think in a different way when it comes to solving problems.”

The study examined 68 participants aged between 18 and 25 who had experienced different levels of lucid dreaming, from never to several times a month. They were asked to solve 30 problems designed to test insight. Each problem consisted of three words and a solution word.

Each of the three words could be combined with the solution word to create a new compound word.

For example with the words ‘sand’, ‘mile’ and ‘age’, the linking word would be ‘stone’.

Results showed that frequent lucid dreamers solved 25 per cent more of the insight problems than the non-lucid dreamers.

Miss Shaw, who conducted the research as part of her undergraduate dissertation, said the ability to experience lucid dreams is something that can be learned. “We aren’t entirely sure why some people are naturally better at lucid dreaming than others, although it is a skill which can be taught,” said Hannah.

“For example you can get into the habit of asking yourself “is this a dream?”. If you do this during the day when you are awake and make it a habit then it can transfer to when you are in a dream.”

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“Quantum physics introduced me to my next bridging concept via the principle of "observer-created reality,” which states: (1) There is no reality in the absence of observation and, (2) observation creates reality (Herbert, 1985). Put simply, you as the observer create the subjective reality you are observing.“

Stephen Wolinsky, PhD - Quantum Consciousness

The Guide to experiencing Quantum Psychology

(via subcognition)

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Pigeon power

The more scientists study pigeons, the more they learn how their brains—no bigger than the tip of an index finger—operate in ways not so different from our own.

In a new study from the University of Iowa, researchers found that pigeons can categorize and name both natural and manmade objects—and not just a few objects. These birds categorized 128 photographs into 16 categories, and they did so simultaneously.

Ed Wasserman, UI professor of psychology and corresponding author of the study, says the finding suggests a similarity between how pigeons learn the equivalent of words and the way children do.

“Unlike prior attempts to teach words to primates, dogs, and parrots, we used neither elaborate shaping methods nor social cues,” Wasserman says of the study, published online in the journal Cognition. “And our pigeons were trained on all 16 categories simultaneously, a much closer analog of how children learn words and categories.”

For researchers like Wasserman, who has been studying animal intelligence for decades, this latest experiment is further proof that animals—whether primates, birds, or dogs—are smarter than once presumed and have more to teach scientists.

“It is certainly no simple task to investigate animal cognition; But, as our methods have improved, so too have our understanding and appreciation of animal intelligence,” he says. “Differences between humans and animals must indeed exist: many are already known. But, they may be outnumbered by similarities. Our research on categorization in pigeons suggests that those similarities may even extend to how children learn words.”

Wasserman says the pigeon experiment comes from a project published in 1988 and featured in The New York Times in which UI researchers discovered pigeons could distinguish among four categories of objects.

This time, the UI researchers used a computerized version of the “name game” in which three pigeons were shown 128 black-and-white photos of objects from 16 basic categories: baby, bottle, cake, car, cracker, dog, duck, fish, flower, hat, key, pen, phone, plan, shoe, tree. They then had to peck on one of two different symbols: the correct one for that photo and an incorrect one that was randomly chosen from one of the remaining 15 categories. The pigeons not only succeeded in learning the task, but they reliably transferred the learning to four new photos from each of the 16 categories.

Pigeons have long been known to be smarter than your average bird—or many other animals, for that matter. Among their many talents, pigeons have a “homing instinct” that helps them find their way home from hundreds of miles away, even when blindfolded. They have better eyesight than humans and have been trained by the U. S. Coast Guard to spot orange life jackets of people lost at sea. They carried messages for the U.S. Army during World Wars I and II, saving lives and providing vital strategic information.

UI researchers say their expanded experiment represents the first purely associative animal model that captures an essential ingredient of word learning—the many-to-many mapping between stimuli and responses.

“Ours is a computerized task that can be provided to any animal, it doesn’t have to be pigeons,” says UI psychologist Bob McMurray, another author of the study. “These methods can be used with any type of animal that can interact with a computer screen.”

McMurray says the research shows the mechanisms by which children learn words might not be unique to humans.

“Children are confronted with an immense task of learning thousands of words without a lot of background knowledge to go on,” he says. “For a long time, people thought that such learning is special to humans. What this research shows is that the mechanisms by which children solve this huge problem may be mechanisms that are shared with many species.”

Wasserman acknowledges the recent pigeon study is not a direct analogue of word learning in children and more work needs to be done. Nonetheless, the model used in the study could lead to a better understanding of the associative principles involved in children’s word learning.

“That’s the parallel that we’re pursuing,” he says, “but a single project—however innovative it may be—will not suffice to answer such a provocative question.”

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So you don’t think you’re creative? Think again. 

I’ve never considered myself a creative person. I don’t crank out idea after idea in a brainstorm, theatrically waving my hands in the air and selling in novel concepts with conviction and passion. That’s just not my personality. Apparently it’s not how my brain works either. 

Creative thinking is actually based on our brain’s activity and how we process information, according to Lebanonese psychologist Arne Dietrich (2004). It depends on which part of our brain we’re using and in what context we’re processing information. 

Our brains have developed two different neural systems to extract information: 

Emotional - attaches value and evaluates significance

Cognitive - performs detailed feature analysis and constructs sophisticated foundation for information processing

Couple that with the different environments for which thinking can take place: 

Deliberate - conscious or intentional

Spontaneous - without premeditation or stimulus

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SO that brings us to four different kinds of creativity: 

Deliberate & cognitive - Makes connections between bits of information stored in other parts of our brain. Requires a high degree of knowledge, enough prerequisite information to process, and ample of time to work on a problem. 

Deliberate & emotional - A-ha moments related to our feelings and emotions. Mandates personal, quiet time and stimulus to process and ponder.  

Spontaneous & cognitive - Unconscious mental processing that happens when we’re not thinking about the task at hand. Best when we set up a problem, walk away from it, and then it will come. This does not require any existing body of knowledge related to the problem. 

Spontaneous & emotional - Spontaneous ideas and creations emerge. There is no designing for this and is the tendency of artists, musicians, and the like. 

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This helps me recognize that I’m a deliberate  & cognitive creative thinker, which makes perfect sense considering my knack for making connections, understanding the relationship between ideas, and the need to always ask questions to understand other facets of the problem. So I AM a creative thinker after all. 

Now I can stop trying to be the off-the-wall, ideas-coming-out-of-my-nose and at-the-drop-of-a-hat creative thinker I will never be. 

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Sources: 

Dietrich, A. “The cognitive neuroscience of creativity.” (2004).

Weinschenk, S. 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People. (2011). – a must read!

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Lulz.

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When you talk to yourself, you command the temporal lobes to create verbal dialogues you then evaluate for accuracy. You have networks of mirror neurons that allow you to accurately recreate models of other people and their perspective in your memory. These emotional computations enable you to feel what they feel. When you have an emotional reaction, your job is to feel it, then choose if its fit your understanding of your situation. Your brain follows the lead. “

Synchronicity - Dr. Kirby Surprise (via subcognition)

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The part of the brain that keeps you from walking in circles

Have you ever walked in circles trying to find where you parked your car?

Well, your ability to locate your car in a parking lot may heavily be dependent on the retrosplenial cortex (RSC), the part of the brain region found to be important in helping us navigate and map our position in space.

Spatial navigation, learning, and memory is encoded in several brain regions, but the RSC is the area where this information comes together and is organized. Douglas Nitz, associate professor of cognitive science at UC San Diego, explains that it is, “a kind of ‘conjunction junction,’ putting together all the necessary information for successful navigation.”

Damage to that area can impair ones ability to navigate within familiar environment and location. It produce problems with episodic memory and create “directional amnesia,” a situation where a person “knows where things are in the world, but won’t be able to place the route that they need to get between them,” said graduate student Andrew Alexander.

Read more about the significance of the finding

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Figure illustrating the fields that contributed to the birth of cognitive science, including linguistics, neuroscience, artificial intelligence, philosophy, anthropology, and psychology.

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Time and space are modes by which we think and not conditions in which we live.

Albert Einstein (via scientificpunkrock)

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People reach faster and straighter to pictures of cake than pictures of vegetables.

Cognitive Neuroscience, Brown University