Brain disorders, leading to cognitive dysfunctions, account for more than one third of the burden of all diseases in Europe. Cognitive brain disorders can appear during the whole life cycle: autism and ADHD in childhood, Schizophrenia in young adults, and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases in the elderly.
Cognitive neuroscience is a rapidly developing field with direct implications for health care and life long learning. Higher brain functions can now be reliably measured and characterized in detail at a behavioural level. The present challenge is to understand the neurobiological substrate for cognitive functions in the healthy and diseased human brain.

SBI focuses on three specific cognitive functions - Action - Perception, Emotions and Learning and Memory. In addition to normal functioning, the three cognitive functions are studied from three different perspectives -Development and aging, Gender and sex differences and Cognitive dysfunctions.