Cognitive neuroscience in the context of "Functional neuroimaging"

Memorization (British English: memorisation) is the process of committing something to memory. It is a mental process undertaken in order to store in memory for later recall visual, auditory, or tactical information.

The scientific study of memory is part of cognitive neuroscience, an interdisciplinary link between cognitive psychology and neuroscience.

In psychology and cognitive neuroscience, pattern recognition is a cognitive process that matches information from a stimulus with information retrieved from memory.

Pattern recognition occurs when information from the environment is received and entered into short-term memory, causing automatic activation of a specific content of long-term memory. An example of this is learning the alphabet in order. When a carer repeats "A, B, C" multiple times to a child, the child, using pattern recognition, says "C" after hearing "A, B" in order. Recognizing patterns allows anticipation and prediction of what is to come. Making the connection between memories and information perceived is a step in pattern recognition called identification. Pattern recognition requires repetition of experience. Semantic memory, which is used implicitly and subconsciously, is the main type of memory involved in recognition.

Behavioral neuroscience, also known as biological psychology, biopsychology, or psychobiology, is part of the broad, interdisciplinary field of neuroscience, with its primary focus being on the biological and neural substrates underlying human experiences and behaviors, as in our psychology. Derived from an earlier field known as physiological psychology, behavioral neuroscience applies the principles of biology to study the physiological, genetic, and developmental mechanisms of behavior in humans and other animals.

Behavioral neuroscientists examine the biological bases of behavior through research that involves neuroanatomical substrates, environmental and genetic factors, effects of lesions and electrical stimulation, developmental processes, recording electrical activity, neurotransmitters, hormonal influences, chemical components, and the effects of drugs. Important topics of consideration for neuroscientific research in behavior include learning and memory, sensory processes, motivation and emotion, as well as genetic and molecular substrates concerning the biological bases of behavior. Subdivisions of behavioral neuroscience include the field of cognitive neuroscience, which emphasizes the biological processes underlying human cognition. Behavioral and cognitive neuroscience are both concerned with the neuronal and biological bases of psychology, with a particular emphasis on either cognition or behavior depending on the field.

Affective neuroscience is the study of how the brain processes emotions. This field combines neuroscience with the psychological study of personality, emotion, and mood. The basis of emotions and what emotions are remains an issue of debate within the field of affective neuroscience.

The term "affective neuroscience" was coined by neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp in the early 1990s, at a time when cognitive neuroscience focused on parts of psychology that did not include emotion, such as attention or memory.

Computational neuroscience (also known as theoretical neuroscience or mathematical neuroscience) is a branch of neuroscience which employs mathematics, computer science, theoretical analysis and abstractions of the brain to understand the principles that govern the development, structure, physiology and cognitive abilities of the nervous system.

Computational neuroscience employs computational simulations to validate and solve mathematical models, and so can be seen as a sub-field of theoretical neuroscience; however, the two fields are often synonymous. The term mathematical neuroscience is also used sometimes, to stress the quantitative nature of the field.

Merlin Wilfred Donald (born November 17, 1939) is an emeritus Canadian professor of psychology, neuroanthropology, and cognitive neuroscience, at Case Western Reserve University, and in the Department of Psychology at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He is noted for the position that evolutionary processes need to be considered in determining how the mind deals with symbolic information and language. In particular, he suggests that explicit, algorithmic processes (the computational theory of mind) may be inadequate to understanding how the mind works.

He is also known as the proponent of the mimetic theory of speech origins.