The Cognitive Science Branch (CgSB) applies linguistic, statistical, and knowledge-based research and development in the investigation of techniques for improving access to biomedical information. Innovative CgSB research:

• Builds and improves systems that extract biomedical information from free text
• Seeks to determine the accessibility and understandability of health information
• Develops systems to help users retrieve and integrate electronic biomedical information
• Investigates all aspects of creating and disseminating digital library collections
• Tests theories to enhance or improve current research and development activities

Additionally, branch members actively participate in developing and maintaining the Unified Medical Language System and collaborate with research staff to develop automated and semi-automated techniques for indexing biomedical literature.