Talk Title: Using Ecological Neuroscience to Understand Cognitive Security

Presenter: James Crum, PhD, Research Associate, Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado Boulder

Abstract: Cognitive security is a rapidly growing field that aims to understand and protect humans from information-based threats that exploit mental susceptibilities. Information can be a threat to individuals in terms of its capacity to influence or otherwise disrupt information-processing systems in the brain that support judgment and decision making. For example, disinformation represents such a threat, because it involves erroneous information that is communicated with the aim of altering cognitive processing in ways that affect people’s beliefs and behaviors. Human-centered research in this field is therefore concerned with understanding cognitive security at the level of individuals and groups, spanning multiple human roles and populations (e.g., users, teammates, operators, analysts, administrators, etc.), with research being largely directed towards assessing mind-threat interactions in human-cyber-physical systems. So, a key part of this research is investigating what makes individuals susceptible and resilient to information-based threats in different information environments (e.g., digital, occupational, personal settings). Insights into what makes people believe and act on erroneous information in different contexts will help to develop novel intervention strategies for mitigating susceptibility and cultivating resilience. However, the psychological and cognitive processes that are most affected by information-based threats are only beginning to be understood, and even less is clear in terms of their neurophysiological underpinnings. We propose that cognitive neuroscientific research can further constrain theorizing about mind-threat interactions, linking experimental psychological findings with those from neuroimaging methods. More specifically, we think a more naturalistic and multimodal approach to investigating cognitive susceptibility will be most successful. The purpose of this talk is therefore to review approaches and methods of ecological neuroscience (‘real-world’ neuroimaging), such as functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), and to describe how these things are being applied to the study of cognitive security at CU.

Bio: James is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Cognitive Science. Specifically, he is a cognitive neuroscientist in the SHINE Lab at the Center for Innovation and Creativity (CINC) and uses multimodal methods in ‘real-world’ and lab-based paradigms to investigate the neurocognitive mechanisms supporting cognitive security (i.e., how the brain defends against information-based threats). James received his BA in Psychology and Philosophy at Adrian College, Michigan, MRes in cognitive neuroscience at University College London (UCL), England, and PhD in cognitive neuroscience at UCL.