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Course Description

 

 

Cognitive Neuroscience of Thought

 

 

Kalina Christoff

University of British Columbia, Canada

 

1.Overview and introduction to cognitive neuroscience methods. Anatomy and connectivity of the brain.

• Historical perspectives on cognitive neuroscience and study of thought
• Overview of relevant brain anatomy and connectivity
• Overview of neuroimaging methods for studying thought processes
• Evolutionary aspects

 

Required readings

• Petrides, M. (2005). Lateral prefrontal cortex: architectonic and functional organization. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 360(1456), 781-795.

 

Optional readings

• Semendeferi, K., Lu, A., Schenker, N., & Damasio, H. (2002). Humans and great apes share a large frontal cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 5(3), 272-276.

 

 

2. Goal-directed thought.Thinking in the lateral prefrontal cortex.

• Goal directed thinking, reasoning and problem solving
• Executive functions and processing
• Different mindsets and levels of abstraction

 

Required readings

• Christoff, K., & Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2000). The frontopolar cortex and human cognition: evidence for a rostrocaudal hierarchical organization within the human prefrontal cortex. Psychobiology, 28(2), 168-186.

 

Optional readings

• Christoff, K., Prabhakaran, V., Dorfman, J., Zhao, Z., Kroger, J. K., Holyoak, K. J., et al. (2001). Rostrolateral prefrontal cortex involvement in relational integration during reasoning. NeuroImage, 14(5), 1136-1149.

 

 

3. Emotional and motivational aspects of thought. Thinking in the medial and orbitofrontal cortex

• Regulation of emotions through thinking
• Self-relevant thought and its emotional aspects
• Thinking about others and their mental mind-states (theory of mind)
• Reasoning based on intuition (somatic marker hypothesis)

 

Required readings

• Ochsner, K. N., Ray, R. D., Cooper, J. C., Robertson, E. R., Chopra, S., Gabrieli, J. D., et al. (2004). For better or for worse: neural systems supporting the cognitive down- and up-regulation of negative emotion. Neuroimage, 23(2), 483-499.

 

Optional readings

• Decety, J., & Sommerville, J. A. (2003). Shared representations between self and other: a social cognitive neuroscience view. Trends Cogn Sci, 7(12), 527-533.
• Bechara, A., Damasio, H., Tranel, D., & Damasio, A. R. (1997). Deciding advantageously before knowing the advantageous strategy. Science, 275(5304), 1293-1295.

 

 

4. Spontaneous thought. Thinking outside the frontal lobes.

• Spontaneous thought, mind-wandering, and stimulus-independent thought
• The generation of spontaneous thoughts and its relations to long-term memory
• Creative thought and insight during problem solving

 

Required readings

• Christoff, K., Ream, J. M., & Gabrieli, J. D. (2004). Neural basis of spontaneous thought processes. Cortex, 40(4-5), 623-630.

 

Optional readings

• Smith, R., Luus, B., Smallwood, J., Schooler, J., Keramatian, K., and Christoff, K. (2006)Mind-wandering with and without awareness: An fMRI study of spontaneous thought processes.  Proceedings of the 28th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, Vancouver, August 2006.
• Jung-Beeman, M., Bowden, E. M., Haberman, J., Frymiare, J. L., Arambel-Liu, S., Greenblatt, R., et al. (2004). Neural activity when people solve verbal problems with insight. PLoS Biol, 2(4), E97.

 

5. Clinical applications and future directions in the study of thought

• The role of thought processes in psychiatric disorders
• Using real-time fMRI to train modulation of brain activation
• Future directions in the study of thought and its practical applications

 

Required readings

• deCharms, R. C., Maeda, F., Glover, G. H., Ludlow, D., Pauly, J. M., Soneji, D., et al. (2005). Control over brain activation and pain learned by using real-time functional MRI. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 102(51), 18626-18631.

 

Optional readings

• Mayberg, H. S., Lozano, A. M., Voon, V., McNeely, H. E., Seminowicz, D., Hamani, C., et al. (2005). Deep brain stimulation for treatment-resistant depression. Neuron, 45(5), 651-660.
• Teasdale, J. D., Moore, R. G., Hayhurst, H., Pope, M., Williams, S., & Segal, Z. V. (2002). Metacognitive awareness and prevention of relapse in depression: empirical evidence. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 70(2), 275-287.