--- title: Cognitive Neuroscience description: This interdisciplinary field studies the neural substrates underlying mental processes. Learners will understand how brain activity, neural networks, and cognitive functions like perception, memory, and decision-making are linked using neuroimaging and experimental methods. category: social-sciences subcategory: psychology difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/cognitive-neuroscience --- # Cognitive Neuroscience This interdisciplinary field studies the neural substrates underlying mental processes. Learners will understand how brain activity, neural networks, and cognitive functions like perception, memory, and decision-making are linked using neuroimaging and experimental methods. ## Where to start Start with The Human Brain (MIT 9.13), Nancy Kanwisher's free MIT OpenCourseWare course, whose lectures show how perception and cognition map onto brain regions, largely through neuroimaging evidence. If you only use one resource, make it Fundamentals of Cognitive Neuroscience by Bernard J. Baars and Nicole M. Gage, an undergraduate textbook spanning vision, attention, memory, language, emotion and consciousness. Then read the primary papers in Michael S. Gazzaniga's Cognitive Neuroscience. ## Available Resources 2 Books • 4 Courses • 4 Websites ## Courses ### 1. The Human Brain (MIT 9.13) **Author:** Nancy Kanwisher How core perceptual and cognitive abilities are implemented in the human brain, covering representation, development and functional specialization of brain regions, largely through neuroimaging evidence. Includes 18 lecture videos and slide notes, preparing learners to read and critically evaluate current research articles. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/9-13-the-human-brain-spring-2019/ **Tags:** cognitive-neuroscience, functional-specialization, fmri, perception, brain-imaging ### 2. Computational Neuroscience **Author:** Adrienne Fairhall, Rajesh Rao University of Washington course on how neurons and networks represent and process information, covering neural encoding and decoding, information theory, single-neuron biophysical models, synaptic plasticity and network learning. Learners can build and interpret quantitative models of neural computation through programming exercises. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/computational-neuroscience **Tags:** computational-neuroscience, neural-coding, information-theory, neuron-models, synaptic-plasticity ### 3. Medical Neuroscience Medical Neuroscience explores the functional organization and neurophysiology of the human central nervous system, while providing a neurobiological framework for understanding human behavior. In this course, you will discover the organization of the neural systems in the brain and spinal cord that mediate sensation, motivate bodily action, and integrate sensorimotor signals with memory, emotion and related faculties of cognition. The overall goal of this course is to provide the foundation for understanding the impairments of sensation, action and cognition that accompany injury, disease or dysfunction in the central nervous system. The course will build upon knowledge acquired through prior studies of cell and molecular biology, general physiology and human anatomy, as we focus primarily on the central nervous system. This online course is designed to include all of the core concepts in neurophysiology and clinical neuroanatomy that would be presented in most first-year neuroscience courses in schools of medicine. However, there are some topics (e.g., biological psychiatry) and several learning experiences (e.g., hands-on brain dissection) that we provide in the corresponding course offered in the Duke University School of Medicine on campus that we are not attempting to reproduce in Medical Neuroscience online. Nevertheless, our aim is to faithfully present in scope and rigor a medical school caliber course experience. This course comprises six units of content organized into 12 weeks, with an additional week for a comprehensive final exam: - Unit 1 Neuroanatomy (weeks 1-2). This unit covers the surface anatomy of the human brain, its internal structure, and the overall organization of sensory and motor systems in the brainstem and spinal cord. - Unit 2 Neural signaling (weeks 3-4). This unit addresses the fundamental mechanisms of neuronal excitability, signal generation and propagation, synaptic transmission, post synaptic mechanisms of signal integration, and neural plasticity. - Unit 3 Sensory systems (weeks 5-7). Here, you will learn the overall organization and function of the sensory systems that contribute to our sense of self relative to the world around us: somatic sensory systems, proprioception, vision, audition, and balance senses. - Unit 4 Motor systems (weeks 8-9). In this unit, we will examine the organization and function of the brain and spinal mechanisms that govern bodily movement. - Unit 5 Brain Development (week 10). Next, we turn our attention to the neurobiological mechanisms for building the nervous system in embryonic development and in early postnatal life; we will also consider how the brain changes across the lifespan. - Unit 6 Cognition (weeks 11-12). The course concludes with a survey of the association systems of the cerebral hemispheres, with an emphasis on cortical networks that integrate perception, memory and emotion in organizing behavior and planning for the future; we will also consider brain systems for maintaining homeostasis and regulating brain state. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/medical-neuroscience **Tags:** courses, humanities-social-sciences, psychology ### 4. Synapses, Neurons and Brains **Author:** Idan Segev Hebrew University of Jerusalem course on how synapses, neurons and neural networks compute, covering synaptic and dendritic integration, the plasticity underlying learning and memory, and large-scale cortical simulation like the Blue Brain Project. Learners understand neurons as computational elements and debates in brain research. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Language:** English | **Duration:** 16 hours | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/synapses **Tags:** neurons, synapses, synaptic-plasticity, neural-computation, brain-simulation ## Websites ### 1. neuromatch.io Neuromatch.io is the hub for Neuromatch’s online neuroscience education and community resources, offering free materials for learning computational neuroscience—courses, lectures, tutorials, and code notebooks—along with information about events and the Neuromatch Academy. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://neuromatch.io **Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, psychology ### 2. cogneurosociety.org The official site of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, with information about membership, governance, and community engagement. It also features details on the CNS annual meeting, society news, grants and awards, career resources, and links to related publications such as the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://cogneurosociety.org **Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, cognitive-science ### 3. humanconnectome.org Official hub for the Human Connectome Project, providing an overview, data access, and educational resources for studying brain connectivity. It hosts high-quality MRI datasets (structural, functional, diffusion), preprocessing pipelines, and links to the ConnectomeDB data portal and analysis tools. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://humanconnectome.org **Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, psychology ### 4. NITRC: NeuroImaging Tools and Resources Collaboratory An NIH-funded registry of neuroimaging software, datasets, and cloud computing resources, with documentation, forums, and a public data repository. Researchers use it to find and compare tools for MRI, PET, and EEG analysis and to obtain shared imaging datasets. **Difficulty:** Advanced | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://nitrc.org **Tags:** neuroimaging, fmri-analysis, neuroinformatics, open-datasets ## Books ### 1. Cognitive Neuroscience **Author:** Michael S. Gazzaniga Edited collection of foundational primary papers in cognitive neuroscience, from early brain-plasticity work to executive function, grouped by history, methods, attention, memory, and language. Readers gain direct exposure to the experiments the field's textbook summaries are built on. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/063121660X?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, cognitive-science ### 2. Fundamentals of Cognitive Neuroscience **Author:** Bernard J. Baars, Nicole M. Gage Undergraduate textbook mapping brain anatomy onto cognition: vision, hearing, attention, memory, language, executive control, emotion, and consciousness. After working through it, a reader can interpret imaging studies and connect neural systems to specific mental functions. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0124158056?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, psychology --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/cognitive-neuroscience