Cognitive Neuroscience Glossary

A brief electrical impulse (~1ms) that travels along an axon when a neuron fires, caused by sequential opening of voltage-gated sodium and potassium channels.

A medial temporal lobe structure central to emotional processing, particularly fear conditioning and threat detection.

A frontal brain region involved in error detection, conflict monitoring, and cognitive control.

An acquired language disorder resulting from brain damage, typically to left-hemisphere perisylvian regions.

A group of subcortical nuclei involved in motor control, procedural learning, habit formation, and reward processing.

Blood-oxygen-level-dependent signal measured by fMRI, reflecting changes in the ratio of oxygenated to deoxygenated hemoglobin near active neurons.

Left inferior frontal gyrus region critical for speech production and syntactic processing.

A hindbrain structure containing more than half the brain's neurons, involved in motor coordination, timing, and increasingly recognized roles in cognition.

The ability to flexibly direct thought and action in accordance with internal goals, mediated by prefrontal-parietal networks.

A comprehensive map of neural connections within the brain, studied at macro (regional) or micro (synaptic) scales.

The largest white matter bundle connecting the two cerebral hemispheres, enabling interhemispheric communication.

Conscious, explicit memory for facts (semantic) and events (episodic), dependent on the hippocampus and medial temporal lobe.

A large-scale brain network active during rest and internally directed thought, including self-referential processing and mind-wandering.

A neurotransmitter involved in reward processing, motivation, motor control, and learning through reward prediction error signaling.

A non-invasive technique measuring electrical brain activity via scalp electrodes with millisecond temporal resolution.

A neuroimaging method that measures brain activity indirectly through blood oxygenation changes with millimeter spatial resolution.

A medial temporal lobe structure essential for the formation of new declarative memories and spatial navigation.

The tendency for certain cognitive functions to be processed preferentially by one cerebral hemisphere.

A persistent strengthening of synaptic transmission following repeated high-frequency stimulation, considered a cellular basis for learning.

A chemical messenger released at synapses to transmit signals between neurons, including glutamate, GABA, dopamine, and serotonin.

A technique using light to control genetically modified neurons expressing light-sensitive ion channels, enabling precise causal manipulation.

The anterior frontal lobe region responsible for executive functions, planning, decision-making, and social behavior.

Unconscious, implicit memory for skills and habits, dependent on the basal ganglia and cerebellum rather than the hippocampus.

The junction between two neurons where neurotransmitters are released from the presynaptic terminal to bind receptors on the postsynaptic cell.

A diencephalic structure that relays and filters sensory information to the cortex and plays roles in attention and consciousness.