Research at the CIMeC is conducted in various areas that range from experimental psychology, to neuroimaging acquisition methods, cognitive neurosciences and animal cognition, as well as computational linguistics and human-machine interfaces. In addition, the Center for Neurorehabilitation (CeRiN) is dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of pathologies deriving from cerebral damage.

Research is conducted in five interdisciplinary labs that compose the CIMeC: the Animal Cognition and Neuroscience Lab (ACN), the Experimental Psychology Labs (EPL), the Neuroimaging Labs (LNiF), the Language, Interaction and Computation Lab (CLIC) and the CeRiN Center for Neurocognitive Rehabilitation.

The CIMeC has also developed collaborations with other Departments of the University and other entities, which have led to the creation of shared laboratories: the Laboratory of Neurophysics (NPhys), with the Department of Physics; the NeuroInformatics Lab (NILab), with the Bruno Kessler Foundation; the Insect Neurobiology and Neuroecology Lab (INN Lab), with the Edmund Mach Foundation; the Ethology, Ecology and Evolution Lab (EEE Lab), with the Fondazione Museo civico di Rovereto.