Introduction

Abstract

The goal of cognitive neuroscience is to uncover neural mechanisms responsible for intelligent behaviour in humans and animals. Intelligent behaviour has traditionally been taken to include decision-making, use of language and other high-level cognitive phenomena. Over time, however, the scope of what is meant by intelligent behaviour for the purposes of determining the proper subject matter of cognitive sciences (including cognitive neuroscience) has expanded to include any context-dependent responses to stimuli. Cognitive neuroscience therefore engages in search for neural mechanisms underlying sensory perception, memory, navigation, object-recognition, tracking, avoidance, etc. That is, the scope of cognitive neuroscience covers the search for neural mechanisms all the way from sensory processing, through response selection to motor control. Importantly, the scope of the field is not confined to a single species, such as the human, but includes, at least in principle, also the study of animal cognition – either for its own sake or as a model for the human case, when ethical and/or practical considerations prohibit investigation into the human case directly.