From a brain question to an experiment

For: Learners with introductory psychology who want to understand the logic behind cognitive-neuroscience studies.

What you will work towards

• Describe a study in terms of question, task, measure and comparison.
• Explain why different methods bear on different aspects of a question.
• Propose a follow-up experiment that tests an alternative explanation.
• Distinguish a relationship between brain regions from a complete account of their interaction.

Known viewing time: 7 hr 2 min across 6 steps; 0 step durations unknown. Lengths are metadata, not evidence of review.

Download the ordered reading list

1. 01

   MIT OpenCourseWare · Source-checked annotation

   Lecture 1: Introduction

   MIT OpenCourseWare · Nancy Kanwisher · intermediate · 1 hr 20 min

   Begin with the course’s aims so that the methods are attached to questions rather than learned as a list of technologies.

   Try this

   Write one question about cognition that you would like evidence to answer; distinguish it from a general topic such as “vision”.

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2. 02

   MIT OpenCourseWare · Source-checked annotation

   Lecture 4: Cognitive Neuroscience Methods I

   MIT OpenCourseWare · Nancy Kanwisher · intermediate · 1 hr 1 min

   Now compare the range of methods the course introduces for investigating those questions.

   Try this

   Make a four-column table: question, measured quantity, comparison and remaining uncertainty. Add two methods from the lecture.

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3. 03

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   Lecture 5: Cognitive Neuroscience Methods II

   MIT OpenCourseWare · Nancy Kanwisher · intermediate · 1 hr 12 min

   Complete the methods pair before choosing an approach for your own question.

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   Add another approach and describe what complementary observation it could provide. Avoid claiming that one method settles every part of the question.

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4. 04

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   Lecture 6: Experimental Design

   MIT OpenCourseWare · Nancy Kanwisher · intermediate · 57 min

   Move from recognising methods to constructing an experimental comparison, using the course’s face-recognition context and design brief.

   Try this

   Read the linked experimental-design assignment. Sketch two linked experiments: the second should challenge an explanation still compatible with the first.

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5. 05

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   Lecture 7: Category Selectivity, Controversies, and MVPA

   MIT OpenCourseWare · Nancy Kanwisher · intermediate · 1 hr 9 min

   Use a domain with explicit competing interpretations to test whether your proposed comparisons could distinguish accounts.

   Try this

   For two possible accounts, state a different prediction. Identify which observation would leave the accounts unresolved.

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6. 06

   MIT OpenCourseWare · Source-checked annotation

   Lecture 21: Brain Networks

   MIT OpenCourseWare · Nancy Kanwisher · intermediate · 1 hr 23 min

   Finish by extending the question from local organisation to relationships between regions.

   Try this

   Rewrite one network claim to specify the evidence it would need. Identify an anatomical, statistical or task-related ambiguity you would investigate next.

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A short starting route

Steps 1, 2, 3. These establish the course’s questions and complete the intended two-lecture methods comparison before the design task.

Continue more deeply

Use the Human Brain experimental-design assignment to refine the two experiments, then take the guide’s connectivity-review branch for an advanced analysis example. Continue at source ↗

Limits of this route

The videos come from the 2019 Human Brain collection. Publisher descriptions and the design assignment were inspected, not full lectures. The path’s tasks are paper exercises, not validated study protocols; resource scientific assessment remains unassessed. Course scientific positions should be attributed rather than presented as universal consensus.