Cognitive neuroscience is a new field of research that integrates the psychological sciences with the biological sciences. Also called “The Biology of the Mind”, cognitive neuroscience tries to find a scientific solution to the old mind-body problem and to explain how the brain gives rise to the mind. Central topics in cognitive neuroscience include perception, memory, language, emotion, and consciousness: cognitive neuroscience describes their biological mechanisms and their neural correlates in the brain. Central methods in cognitive neuroscience include functional brain imaging with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission tomography (PET) and electromagnetic brain measurements with electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography MEG) and magnetic brain stimulation with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). These methods are used in combination with many traditional methods of psychology and cognitive science, to find out what happens in the brain when a mental phenomenon takes place in the mind.
In Skövde, Cognitive Neuroscience offers two undergraduate programs that focus on the biological basis of two fundamental features of the human mind: Consciousness and Happiness (or subjective well-being). The Consciousness Studies program combines cognitive neuroscience with the traditional philosophical mind-body problem and offers a research-oriented education in Cognitive Neuroscience. It is an especially suitable basic education for those who aim to do teaching or research around the mind-brain connection. The Psychological Coach -program combines cognitive neuroscience with psychology, and especially with the new field of positive psychology. It offers the student a theoretically based but practically oriented education where cognitive neuroscience is studied to understand the biological basis of human well-being. This knowledge is then applied to the use of the evidence-based methods of psychological coaching to enhance the well-being of individuals.
The cognitive neuroscience faculty at Skövde have done research especially on the neural and biological mechanisms of consciousness, visual perception and attention, olfaction, altered and higher states of consciousness (dreaming, hypnosis, meditation), and the philosophical problems relating to consciousness and cognitive neuroscience. They are well-connected internationally and have close collaboration with the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Turku/Åbo, Finland. The aim is in the future to establish a Cognitive Neuroscience laboratory in Skövde, with facilities both for higher-level teaching and research.