The Neuroscience of Expertise

Merim Bilalić is Professor of Cognitive Psychology at Northumbria University, Newcastle. He received his DPhil in Experimental Psychology from the University of Oxford, and has subsequently held research and teaching positions at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Brunel University, Eberhard- Karls-Universität Tübingen, Germany and Universität Klagenfurt, Austria. His research on problem-solving biases in experts won the Award for the Outstanding Doctoral Research Contribution to Psychology from the British Psychological Society in 2008.

1. Introduction to research on expertise; 1.1 Introduction; 1.2 Definition of expertise and its domains; 1.3 Cognitive mechanisms in expertise; 1.4 How the brain accommodates expertise; 1.5 Expertise as a research vehicle in cognitive neuroscience; 1.6 Conclusion; 2. Perceptual expertise; 2.1 Introduction; 2.2 Anatomy of the perceptual system; 2.3 Adaptability of the perceptual system; 2.4 Visual expertise; 2.5 Auditory expertise; 2.6 Tactile expertise; 2.7 Gustative expertise; 2.8 Olfactory expertise; 2.9 Conclusion; 3. Cognitive expertise; 3.1 Introduction; 3.2 Memory systems and their neural basis; 3.3 Memory expertise (superior memory); 3.4 Calculation expertise; 3.5 Expertise in board games; 3.6 Spatial expertise; 3.7 Conclusion; 4. Motor expertise; 4.1 Introduction; 4.2 Anatomy of the motor system; 4.3 Adaptability of the motor system; 4.4 Simple motor tasks (skill acquisition); 4.5 Motor expertise; 4.6 Music (motor) expertise; 4.7 Cognitive component in motor expertise; 4.8 Neural implementation of motor expertise; 4.9 Conclusions; 5. The road to expertise; 5.1 Introduction; 5.2 Different experts, same cognitive and neural mechanisms; 5.3 Different approaches in expertise research; 5.4. The road to expertise; 5.5 Nature vs nurture in neuroscience; 5.6 Deliberate practice; 5.7 Conclusion.