Southern New Hampshire Cognitive Neuroscience Brain Mechanisms Discussion
Southern New Hampshire Cognitive Neuroscience Brain Mechanisms Discussion
In Module One, you were introduced to the mind-brain problem, where psychologists consider how the brain and the non-physical mind may impact or control behavior. Another important concept in psychology is understanding how the brain develops and changes, and what aids in these changes. Because the field of cognitive neuroscience examines the brain through imaging methods, it is an area of psychology that is poised to answer some of these questions. After completing this week’s readings, answer the following questions: How can current research in cognitive neuroscience be applied to understanding different problems in psychology, including the mind-brain problem and questions concerning brain development and change? How do you think modern imaging methods have helped us understand the brain and solve problems in psychology? Be sure to support your answers with information from the readings (attached and video below).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-8PvNOdByc
In your responses to your peers, examine how your views on cognitive neuroscience and modern imaging are similar to or different from your peers’ views. How could your viewpoint and the viewpoints of your peers be used to help improve research in the field of cognitive neuroscience?
To complete this assignment, review the Discussion Rubric document (attached).
AFTER COMPLETING THE INITIAL POST, PLEASE ALSO RESPOND TO THE FOLLOWING TWO STUDENTS REGARDING THE SAME TOPIC!
STUDENT ONE:
No matter the era or the generation, the brain will always wanted to be studied or understood better. The breadth and depth of this knowledge and understanding can be unlimited because each every individual is different from each other and we are not a cookie cutter society. With brain imaging we can learn (1) where brain activity occurs during a task, (2) when this activity occurs while preforming a task, (3) how the brain behaves and (4) why brain activity occurs (McBride & Cutting, 2019). We can begin to understand how even in simple tasks, what makes people do the things they do and use these foundations to make theories or hypothesis about the general public. When we use this neuroscience with the theories presented by Lev Vygotsky, we get better ideas of the self-talk, Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and More Knowledgeable Other (MKO). “When EEG recordings are connected to specific stimulus presentations, as in ERP, this activity can be examined across stimulus conditions to make comparisons as tests of theoretical hypotheses” (McBride & Cutting, 2019, p. 37). What makes a person partake in the self-talk and how can we possibly close the ZPD to make learning things easier for people.
Some of the hardiest things to learn can be language because observing how other people use it and then learning that ourselves and taking that an then applying into a sentence format can be very difficult but cause it may sound easy but just observing people may cause us to put words in the wrong context or mismatched sentences. Before these neuroimaging tools scientists and psychologists just has ideas of how the brain worked and had this almost giant list of what they thought the brain could or couldn’t do, but now with these neuroimage tools we can start checking them off one by one. As Lev Vygotsky “…realized that what a person can be taught is more important than what the person actually knew” (Famous Psychologists). We can be taught things through preforming tasks and while being taught and performing these tasks we can study the individual and see how self-talk can be used in not only children but ourselves.
The mind and brain can be separate entities but they are equally important to each other. The brain doesn’t need to tell the left leg to move and then the right leg to move and continue to do that over and over. Our body knows that in order to get from point A to point B in our house we need to move our legs but in that function, the brain tells the body to keep pumping blood to the leg so that it doesn’t fall off. This would be the same concept with blood flow to the brain, self-talk, and performing tasks. The brain doesn’t have to tell us how to preform a task but we learn through visualizations and observations, then blood flowing to our brain shows how much we understand what we are learning and how much sticks and through self-talk we can keep the motivation to keep learning things and performing the task better every time. By studying cognitive processes of individuals performing tasks, other psychologist can use this when helping patients and giving them power through things such a Gestalt therapy, Socratic questions, or simple CBT therapeutic training.
Reference:
Lev Vygotsky. (2019). Famous Psychologists. Retrieved from: https://www.famouspsychologists.org/lev-vygotsky/#citethis.
McBride, D.M., & Cutting, J.C. (2019). Cognitive Psychology: Theory, Process, and Methodology. 2nd ed. SAGE Publications. Thousand Oaks, California.
STUDENT TWO:
The field of cognitive neuroscience combines the measurement of brain activity with the connection of cognitive processing and behaviors. In the early times of neuroscience, neuroscientists would identify the area of the brain that was damaged or affected by disease/disorder and determine the functions of the specific brain areas. Now, researchers are able to use different brain recording techniques to examine the brain activity even when there isn’t a visible deficit.
The brain is such a fascinating, complex organ and it is composed of many different areas and billions of neurons. These areas are all organized according to their cognitive functions. McBride & Cutting (2019) describe this as localization of functions (McBride & Cutting, 2019. p 28). Researchers in the past conducted clinical case studies to show the connections of brain function with cognitive abilities. Today, researchers have more knowledge and tools at their disposal to take these early case studies and build on them. There are different brain recording techniques that psychologists can utilize, such as fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), and PET (positron emission tomography). These tests can be used to see activity in different areas of the brain. This is useful for those studying the mind-brain debate or other cognitive issues. For example, when I think about brain disorders that can affect cognitive issues, traumatic brain injuries (TBI) come to mind. TBI’s occur when there is some sort of injury to the head or body. This can be a fall, sports injury, motor vehicle accident, or military combat related explosions. Medical doctors and psychological professionals both benefit from the use of brain recording techniques. Medical doctors can use CT scans and MRI’s to view physical damage to the brain, while psychological professionals can use fMRI’s to see the physiological changes in the brain that may correlate to the cognitive issues the patient is presenting with. I think modern imaging methods will only increase with future advancements in technology. This will allow more studies to be completed and hopefully we will start to learn more about disorders/diseases and how to possibly prevent them in the future.
References:
McBride, D.M., & Cutting, J. C. (2019). Cognitive psychology interactive ebook. 2nd ed. Cengage Learning.
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