PSYC 3270 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Reductionism, Neuroplasticity
27 Nov 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
PSYC 3270
Cognitive Neuroscience
Week 1
Cognition:
the study of the mind --> the mental actions and processes required for thinking, reasoning and feeling
Neuroscience:
The scientific study of the nervous system (in this case, the brain)
Cognitive Neuroscience: the study of the mind and brain, and their relationship
• How do our brains give rise to our minds?
• What can our brains tell us about our minds?
Philosophical Approaches to this Relationship
(1) Dualism
• Limited relationship
• Brain is physical, mind is non-physical (i.e.. The body and the spirit)
• Philosopher René Descartes (philosophical work known as Cartesian Dualism)
(2) Reductionism
• Everything can be reduced to neuroscience
o The mind, cognition, and consciousness can all be reduced to biological constructs
(3) Dual-Aspect Theory
• Two levels of description/investigation of the same thing
• Central entity to describe both the mind and the brain as a whole rather than completely separate ideas.
o Use two different "lenses" towards this central idea (perspective of the brain or perspective of
the mind)
o Britannica defn: double-aspect theory, the mental and the material are different aspects or
attributes of a unitary reality, which itself is neither mental nor material.
Questions to think about...
Why isn't cognition (or measuring behaviour) enough?
• Converging evidence
• Able to use both cognition and neuro to pull evidence towards the same conclusion
• Might miss structural changes (neuroplasticity)
Why isn't neuroscience enough?
• Looking at just the brain/biological level loses the bigger picture for it's affect on the behaviour
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