Psychology has often found itself in a difficult situation when trying to define what its object of study is and, consequently, give an answer to what psychology is. A frequent answer is that psychology is in charge of studying human behavior, and thus it is believed that the problem is resolved, ignoring that anthropology, economics, history and pedagogy are disciplines also in charge of the study of human behavior, although these They are related to learning, money, temporal human evolution and culture.
What is the study of human behavior in psychology related to then? Probably, just as medicine has techniques for improving health, using biology as the basis of its science, psychology is also oriented to improving health, using cognitive neuroscience as a basis, where it is understood that the functions Psychological responses are generated as a consequence of the neurons and the circuits they generate. In Psychology-Online, we explain more about What is cognitive neuroscience and what does it study?.
What is cognitive neuroscience
The neuroscience is a set of sciences that has the nervous system as its research object with a particular interest in How brain activity relates to behavior and learning. Thus we understand then that the objective of cognitive neuroscience is to understand how mental processes can be related to the entire structure of the nervous system and to make the relationship of each neuronal area with a certain mental response more specific.
Kandel (1977) in his book Neuroscience and behavior, explains to us how important the relationship between the study of the brain and mental processes is. Kandel details that The brain is a network of more than one hundred billion nerve cells. delimited, which are interconnected in systems that produce our perceptions of the external world, focus our attention and control our motor responses. Thus, for Kandel, the first step to understanding the mind is how the neurons become organized into communication pathways and how individual nerve cells in the brain communicate through synaptic transmission. Kandel ends by explaining that, according to this point of view of neuroscience, the behavioral disorders that characterize a mental illness are like this: alterations in brain function.
For Patoriza (2006) current neuroscience is cognitive neuroscience: a fusion of neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, developmental biology, cellular and molecular biology, and cognitive psychology. Patoriza part of this golden rule:
All human activity can, and should, be approached from different levels of analysis: biomolecular, cellular, systems, behavioral and cognitive, in addition to philosophical, epistemological, metaphysical, humanistic and artistic.
What cognitive neuroscience studies
With the analysis of Kandel’s proposal, we understand that neuroscience studies the neurological processes involved in thinking and its corresponding mental response. Thus, cognitive neuroscience in psychology studies the relationship that exists between mental illnesses and thoughts caused by chemical reactions in the nervous system of the human being.
Continuing with Kandel’s proposal, the task of neuroscience is “to provide explanations of behavior in terms of brain activities, and to explain how millions of individual nerve cells in the brain act to produce human behavior and how, in turn, , these cells are influenced by the environment, including the behavior of other individuals.
Cognitive neuroscience allows know the brain regions involved in the development of a cognitive activitythanks to advances in neuroimaging, mental states can be related to specific brain functions.
We thus understand that cognitive neuroscience studies mind-brain relationships, mental processes from an interdisciplinary approach and it is proposed that the disciplines that determine the birth of cognitive neuroscience are neuroanatomy (macro and micro brain structure), neurophysiology (brain functioning) , neuroimaging technologies, cognitive sciences (cognitive psychology, information theory, systems theory). It is also related to neuropsychology and psychophysiology.
Techniques and study methods of cognitive neuroscience
The most used and essential techniques of cognitive neuroscience are neuroimaging techniques which are useful for the study of the anatomy and functions of the brain.
Within these neuroimaging techniques we can mainly mention:
- Functional MRIwhich allows the analysis or study of neuronal activity through the changes that arise in the blood flow of different brain structures.
- It can also be mentioned within the fundamental techniques of neuroscience the electroencephalogram (EEG)which consists of measuring the electrical activity of the brain through the use of electrodes on the scalp of the subject evaluated.
Currently there are other methods of endocrinological studies aimed at measuring the levels of hormones related to some neurotransmitters significantly involved in cognitive processes and their consequent behavioral response. Many of these studies are carried out through hematology tests (such as, for example, studies of the hormone T3 and T4). Many of the alterations of these components produce considerable risks not only on a physical level, but also mentally.
Applied cognitive neuroscience
Applied cognitive neuroscience is a discipline that uses knowledge about the functioning and anatomical structure of the brain to address practical problems. Applied cognitive neuroscience is based on knowledge from clinical psychology.
Currently, the main application of neuroscience is clinical, where neurofeedback and neurostimulation techniques are used to treat sleep disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, epilepsies, depressive symptoms and post-traumatic stress disorders.
The advances that have been achieved to date through neuroscience have facilitated a characteristic and significant advance in the understanding of processes such as emotions, language, consciousness, learning, attention, memory and motivation. These achievements achieved by neuroscience are related not only to the neurochemical processes that support it, but also to the alterations that occur when any of these neurological circuits are altered; Thus it is also possible to explain that Behaviors considered pathological have an organic basis.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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Bibliography
- Eric Kandel. (1997). Neuroscience and behavior. Madrid. Prentice Hall.
- Nelly Pastoriza. (2006). Teaching neuroscientific foundations of cognitive processes. Buenos Aires.