Cognitive Neuroscience

The brain's ability to reorganize its structure, function, and connections in response to experience, learning, injury, or environmental changes. Plasticity operates at multiple levels, from synaptic strengthening (long-term potentiation) to large-scale cortical remapping.

A limited-capacity cognitive system that temporarily holds and manipulates information needed for complex tasks such as reasoning, comprehension, and learning. Baddeley's model proposes a central executive, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and episodic buffer.

The tendency for certain cognitive functions to be processed predominantly by one cerebral hemisphere. While both hemispheres contribute to most tasks, specific functions show asymmetric organization, such as left-hemisphere dominance for language in most right-handed individuals.

A large-scale brain network comprising the medial prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, and angular gyrus that is most active during rest and internally directed thought. It is involved in mind-wandering, autobiographical memory retrieval, and social cognition.

A persistent strengthening of synaptic connections following repeated high-frequency stimulation, widely regarded as a cellular mechanism underlying learning and memory. LTP involves NMDA receptor activation, calcium influx, and subsequent changes in AMPA receptor density.

A set of top-down cognitive control processes mediated primarily by the prefrontal cortex that enable goal-directed behavior. Executive functions include inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and working memory updating.

A network of neurons, originally discovered in the premotor cortex of macaque monkeys, that fire both when an individual performs an action and when they observe another individual performing the same action. In humans, a similar system is thought to support action understanding, imitation, and empathy.

The brain organizes attention through at least three functionally distinct networks: the alerting network (maintaining vigilance, involving the locus coeruleus and right frontal cortex), the orienting network (directing attention to sensory stimuli, involving the superior parietal lobule and frontal eye fields), and the executive attention network (resolving conflict, involving the anterior cingulate cortex).

The process by which newly acquired, labile memories are transformed into stable, long-lasting representations. Systems-level consolidation involves a gradual transfer of memory traces from the hippocampus to distributed neocortical networks, a process facilitated by sleep.

The theoretical framework proposing that cognitive processes are deeply rooted in the body's interactions with the physical world. Rather than treating the brain as an isolated information processor, embodied cognition holds that sensory and motor systems fundamentally shape thought, language, and reasoning.