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MTA Research Centre for Natural Sciences

Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology

Deed of Foundation  

Research 

Research in the Institute covers many areas of psychology. Much effort is put into developing practical applications of basic research results. Research staff have built up a broad network of working contacts within Hungary and abroad. Our projects have proved successful in international terms, and an increasing proportion are awarded funding from Europe and the United States.

Principal Research Fields (For more details see the web pages for particular departments and groups.)

• Neurocognitive characteristics of aphasia, childhood aphasia, dyslexia, dyscalculia and other linguistic disorders, study of brain functions involved in dyslexia. Results have been used in therapy and education.
• Development of a brain cortex multi-electrode and amplifier data collection system which has been applied in neurosurgery.
• Pathological cortex firings and cortex electrical activity related to perception and thinking in epileptic patients. Potential application lies in development of epilepsy diagnosis and treatment, and in more accurate mapping of perception and thinking processes.
• Intelligence and cognitive aspects of child development, for which a human pedagogy model has been developed. This offers benefits in prevention for early development and applications in maintaining equality of opportunity.
• Genetic and environmental factors in the background of infant and child temperament and attachment, contributing to the recognition and therapy of early and subsequent disturbances of attachment.
• Brain characteristics associated with the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, enabling people with the condition to be reliably distinguished from healthy people in the early stages.
• Attention processing changes as a function of age. Research has identified the neurocognitive characteristics of attention in old age.
• Aspects of judgement in uncertainty specific to youth and old age, with applications in work psychology and ergonomics.
• Language technology-based psychological data analysis software for use in personality diagnosis, analysis of social processes, marketing and electronic government.
• Social psychology aspects of illicit drug use by young people. This has contributed to prevention and the drawing up of Hungarian drug policy principles.
• Multi-disciplinary (social psychological, developmental and personality psychological and comparative cultural) study of competition with applications in education, organizations and business.
• Psychological studies of outstanding capabilities and under-performance. These have been applied particularly in education of children with special needs and talent nurturing.
• The social psychology of identity crisis, prejudice and social discrimination. This has contributed to the drawing up of principles for equal opportunities and anti-discrimination policy.
• Social representations of the body, health and sickness. This has contributed to the identification and therapy of psychosomatic illnesses.