Evolutionary Cognitive Neuroscience (NCE) is an inter and multidisciplinary field whose interest is the understanding of the neuroscientific bases of cognition, mainly human, within which we consider complex phenomena such as: mind, love, thought, feelings, motivations, attention, communication, etc. Cognitive neuroscientists are interested not only in the stimuli an animal detects and the behavior it evokes, but also, and primarily, in the stages of processing and cognitive activity that lead to evaluation and decision-making based on cues. stimuli and their context. This activity can be analyzed both functionally and structurally at different levels in the nervous system. To understand the general objectives of the NCE we must consider that:

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• Inside our skulls there is no light, sounds, images, smells, colors, tastes, only patterns of neural activity.

• All of our life, everything that we are, our desires, perceptions, thoughts, emotions and even our knowledge, are the result of the integration of complex patterns of neural circuit activity in our nervous system.

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Thus, the interests of Cognitive Neuroscience are:

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1. Decipher how all aspects of a mental or behavioral nature are encoded in patterns of activity along neural pathways and circuits.

2. Know how the nervous systems work, develop and evolve to process and integrate complex internal and environmental stimuli; how the different levels of neural organization (physical, biochemical, biological, physiological, and systemic) give rise to mental phenomena (such as thoughts, emotions, memories), which regulate and express the set of behaviors that adapt organisms to their atmosphere.

This involves a collaborative and interdisciplinary effort of different disciplines that converge in Cognitive Neuroscience. Cognitive Neuroscience has not only been incorporated into Cognitive Sciences as one more discipline, but has also become one of its central areas, whose contributions have been fundamental in its development and evolution. This includes, of course, the conceptual and philosophical foundations of how we now understand the mind-brain and mind-body relationship.

 

Thus, the more we understand the nature of this code, the more we will understand ourselves. This will have profound effects in various areas of our lives and in our understanding of everything we consider to be human, such as art, religion, politics, health, in our societies, in science itself.