The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Neuroscience ─ Core Topics

Cognitive neuroscience has grown into a rich and complex discipline, some 35 years after the term was coined. Given the great expanse of the field, an inclusive and authoritative resource such as this handbook is needed for examining the current state-of-the-science in cognitive neuroscience.

Spread across two volumes, the 59 chapters included in this handbook systemically survey all aspects of cognitive neuroscience, spanning perception, attention, memory, language, emotion, self and social cognition, higher cognitive functions, and clinical applications. Additional chapters cover topics ranging from the use of top-down cognitive processes in visual perception to the representation and recognition of objects and spatial relations; attention and its relationship to action as well as visual motor control; language and related core abilities including semantics, speech perception and production, the distinction between linguistic competence and performance, and the capacity for written language. Special coverage is also given to chapters describing the psychopharmacology of cognition, the theory of mind, the neuroscience underlying the regulation of emotion, and neuropsychological and neuroimaging evidence that supports the special status of self-knowledge in memory.

This handbook provides a comprehensive compendium of research on cognitive neuroscience that will be widely accessible to students, researchers, and professionals working in this exciting and growing field.

Kevin N. Ochsner, PhD, is Associate Professor of Psychology, Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Psychology, and Director of Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at Columbia University.

Stephen M. Kosslyn, PhD, is the Director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. He was formerly chair of the Department of Psychology, Dean of Social Science, and the John Lindsley Professor of Psychology in Memory of William James at Harvard University.