Scientists at the Rotman Research Institute (RRI) are investigating fundamental questions about memory, aging and the neuroscience of cognition.
How does the brain think? That is the question addressed by cognitive neuroscience. It is a combination of psychology and neuroscience that aims to identify how the brain gives rise to mental activity. Scientists at the Rotman Research Institute (RRI) are examining how the human brain is able to think, reason, solve problems and remember the events of our lives. In particular, since its founding in 1990, the RRI has been dedicated to understanding how the brain makes memory and thought possible. To answer this question, we need tools that can allow us to peer inside the brain.
At the RRI, we have a full suite of state-of-the-art tools necessary to carry out world-class cognitive neuroscience. Among others, we have magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to observe the brain’s structure and function, electroencephalography (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG) to measure the brain’s electrical activity, and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to safely stimulate the brain and see how it can improve or rehabilitate human memory and cognition. We also have a team of scientists with the expertise to use these tools to make fascinating and critical new discoveries about how the brain works.
Understanding how the brain thinks and remembers is fundamental to the RRI’s other critical missions involving healthy aging and neurodegenerative disease. If we can better understand the properties, functions and mechanisms of the brain, we can also better see how and why it “trips up” and how to best prevent this from happening.