Trends in cognitive sciences
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Trends Cogn. Sci. (Regul. Ed.) · Aug 2017
ReviewMeta-Reasoning: Monitoring and Control of Thinking and Reasoning.
Meta-Reasoning refers to the processes that monitor the progress of our reasoning and problem-solving activities and regulate the time and effort devoted to them. Monitoring processes are usually experienced as feelings of certainty or uncertainty about how well a process has, or will, unfold. ⋯ Most metacognitive research has focused on memorization and knowledge retrieval, with little attention paid to more complex processes, such as reasoning and problem solving. In that context, we recently developed a Meta-Reasoning framework, used here to review existing findings, consider their consequences, and frame questions for future research.
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Trends Cogn. Sci. (Regul. Ed.) · Nov 2015
ReviewImitation and Innovation: The Dual Engines of Cultural Learning.
Imitation and innovation work in tandem to support cultural learning in children and facilitate our capacity for cumulative culture. Here we propose an integrated theoretical account of how the unique demands of acquiring instrumental skills and cultural conventions provide insight into when children imitate, when they innovate, and to what degree. ⋯ By contrast, for conventional learning, imitative fidelity stays high, regardless of experience, and innovation stays low. We synthesize cutting edge research on the development of imitative flexibility and innovation to provide insight into the social learning mechanisms underpinning the uniquely human mind.
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Trends Cogn. Sci. (Regul. Ed.) · Oct 2015
ReviewFrontostriatal Gating of Tinnitus and Chronic Pain.
Tinnitus and chronic pain are sensory-perceptual disorders associated with negative affect and high impact on well-being and behavior. It is now becoming increasingly clear that higher cognitive and affective brain systems are centrally involved in the pathology of both disorders. ⋯ If this frontostriatal system is compromised, long-lasting disturbances are the result. Parallels in both systems are striking and mutually informative, and progress in understanding central gating mechanisms might provide a new impetus to the therapy of tinnitus and chronic pain.
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Trends Cogn. Sci. (Regul. Ed.) · Feb 2015
ReviewAnesthesia and neuroimaging: investigating the neural correlates of unconsciousness.
In the past 15 years, rapid technological development in the field of neuroimaging has led to a resurgence of interest in the study of consciousness. However, the neural bases of consciousness and the boundaries of unconscious processing remain poorly understood. ⋯ In this review we summarize findings from functional neuroimaging studies that have used anesthetic drugs to study cognition at different levels of conscious awareness. We relate the results to those of psychophysical studies of cognition and explore their potential usefulness in interpreting clinical findings from studies of non-responsive patients.
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Trends Cogn. Sci. (Regul. Ed.) · Feb 2015
ReviewPredictions and the brain: how musical sounds become rewarding.
Music has always played a central role in human culture. The question of how musical sounds can have such profound emotional and rewarding effects has been a topic of interest throughout generations. ⋯ We summarize how complex cognitive abilities and cortical processes integrate with fundamental subcortical reward and motivation systems in the brain to give rise to musical pleasure. This work builds on previous theoretical models that emphasize the role of prediction in music appreciation by integrating these ideas with recent neuroscientific evidence.