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PrincetonUniversity
Jonathan Cohen checks out fMRI
scanner. • Center for the Study of Brain, Mind, and
Behavior home
page
Most complex device in the known universe. When he
was 11 years old, Jonathan Cohen picked up a copy of Life
magazine and became engrossed in a story about the exploding
pace of neuroscience research. He remembers thinking, "Wow,
the great frontier of science is not out there in the stars,
it's right here with me in my head."
Three decades later, brain research
is indeed a frontier of science, and Cohen, professor of
psychology, is at the center of it. He came to Princeton in
1998 to become director of the new Center for the Study of
Brain, Mind, and Behavior. As its weighty name suggests, the
center is an ambitious effort to investigate some of the
most elusive and quintessentially human aspects of our
being.
The center's goal is to understand
the biological parts and processes behind such phenomena as
consciousness, moral behavior and logical thought. "There
are more synapses in the brain than stars in the galaxy,"
Cohen notes. "We are studying the most complex device in the
known universe."
For many years, brain research
moved along separate tracks. Cognitive psychologists probed
behavior and experiences of the mind, while neuroscientists
investigated the physical properties of the brain. Now
advances in various areas are allowing scientists to bring
the two tracks together. The emerging field of cognitive
neuroscience aims to reveal the physical processes that give
rise to the experiences of the mind.