Trieste, 11.10.04

PhD admission exam - S.I.S.S.A.

Cognitive Neuroscience Curriculum

Please answer any three of the questions listed below. Individual papers/experimental paradigms that are central to the way you answer one question should not also be central in your answer to others. You are allowed three hours. It is acceptable to write in Italian. However English is preferable.

1. Tell us about a cognition or neuroscience publication published since 2000 that impressed you. Use the following format to answer: (a) title and authors (accuracy not required); (b) the problem addressed in the paper, (c) what was known about the problem before; (d) the methods used to approach the problem; (e) the main results; (f) the authors’ interpretation of the results; (g) any criticisms you have about the methods used or the interpretation: (h) why the publication impresses you.
2. Discuss one instance in which in your view a connectionist model was tested successfully either with neuropsychological or functional imaging data.  Or – in either case - if you do not think such examples exist explain why not.
3. The Monkey Trail rock group have recently accused the singer Ur Kenner of plagiarizing their music, including a carbon copy of a 2 min piece from their little known Bleeding Kidneys. Kenner acknowledges the music is identical, but claims a fortuitous coincidence. Please assess the chances the case can be brought to court.
4. Discuss how a particular functional imaging or TMS study has shed new light on the understanding of a given cognitive mechanism.
5. What does the modularity conceptual framework tell us about the way in which the mind works? What are the advantages and the disadvantages of this approach with respect to cognitive processes?
6. Choose an equation (or system of equations) that you find fascinating, and persuade us of its beauty.
7. Discuss the arguments that explain why infants have innate dispositions to acquire language.
8. Bayes Theorem is commonly cited as a way to calculate the probability that you suffer a given disease, D, given a positive blood test, T: P(D conditional on T). Bayes can also be used to evaluate how sensory neurons represent the external world by their firing; here one would want to solve P(E conditional on F), where E and F are time varying: E is external state of the world and F is the firing of neurons). (a) Why is it interesting to compute P(E given F)? What does it mean? (b) Write out an expression of Bayes solving for P(E conditional on F) using the "prior" P(E), P(F conditional on E), and P(F); (c) Explain the application of the above equation (b) to some artificial, laboratory study of processing in a sensory modality you select. In other words, explain what the terms in (b) refer to in your laboratory experiment. (d) Now try to generalize the experiment (c) to more natural stimulus conditions, changing the terms to ones with real meaning. (e) Then, explain some of the problems neuroscientists face between (b) and (c), that is, generalizing the Bayes framework from artificial to natural conditions. If you are more familiar with some framework other than Bayes (for example Mutual Information), use your preferred terminology to answer these questions in a clear, consistent manner.
9. With the fall of their capital to the Kobashi conquerors, the Mafsides people, some 260,000 strong, were driven from their land and forced to resettle, arbitrarily divided, into 70 cities at the corners of the empire. 50 years later the young Mafside rebel Palít, with a daring escape, reaches the city of Kolti, where he seeks refuge with the Mafside community there. Please estimate the probability that he can identify a common ancestor with one of his hosts, and how many generations that ancestor would be back in time. Please discuss the difference had the deportation proceeded along clan lines.