Cognitive neuroscience is a practical effort to connect neural science with psychology. It examines classical questions about mental functions in the light of cell and molecular biology, helping to make subjective concepts more objective. Empirical evidence is central to this field, especially when understanding perception, ideas, and feelings in biological terms.
Major domains of cognitive neuroscience include perception, action, emotion, motivation, language, learning, and memory.
Difference Between Sensation and Perception
To understand cognition more clearly, it is useful to distinguish between sensation and perception.
Sensation is a chemical change and/or an electrical signal that occurs in a sense organ when an adequate stimulus activates it. Information about the stimulus is then carried to the central nervous system through the nerves as electrical impulses.
After passing through relays and processing centres, the information reaches the cerebral cortex, the highest level in the processing hierarchy. There it is interpreted and stored; this process is called perception.
For example, an apple in front of my eyes activates the retina, which is sensation. My processing of the apple’s colour, contour, texture, distance, depth, and shadows is perception.
What Happens After Perception Is Formed?
Once perceptions are formed, they are assembled into inner representations. In this stage, I register the object’s details in parts, such as its red colour, smooth texture, closeness, and whether the apple is on the table, on the floor, or deep inside a basket. These inner representations serve two important functions:
- They help construct the information into a complete experience that can be stored for future use.
- They are formulated into plans for immediate behaviour and into concepts for future actions.
In summary, sensory information is first perceived, then organised into perceptions, assembled into inner representations, and finally shaped into plans for immediate behaviour and concepts for future actions.
In the next section, we’ll learn about cortical columns and how do they process the information.