1) Intro and Neuroimaging techniques

Question 1

What is a mental representation?

Answer 1

our external environment simulated by our cognitions

Question 2

Where did the historical view from Aristotle believe mental experience came from?

Answer 2

The heart

Question 3

Where did Plato believe mental experience came from

Answer 3

The brain

Question 4

Who proposed ‘Dualism’, explain it

Answer 4

Descartes, who believed that mind (eternal) and body (mortal) where separate substances, also thinking that the mind controls muscle movement.

Question 5

Who famously disproved Descartes and why?

Answer 5

Luigi Galvani- he believed that muscles (nerves) themselves influence movement , not just the brain

Question 6

What is the middle bundle of nerve fibres called, that connects and runs between both hemispheres?

Answer 6

Corpus Callosum

Question 7

What is the condition called, where a patient experiencing impaired mental functioning due to severing of their corpus callosum?

Answer 7

Split Brains patient

Question 8

What is the left hemisphere dominantly responsible for ?

Answer 8

Language/speech production, but most importantly the RIGHT side of the body/right visual field

Question 9

How can you test for split brains?

Answer 9

Tachistoscopic presentation of stimuli on shown to one hemisphere/visual field

Question 10

What does the tachistoscopic test show?

Answer 10

That callosum severing means info cannot be shared between the two hemis and a patient won’t see the stimuli presented

Question 11

Which neuroimaging techniques show WHEN things happen in the brain

Answer 11

EEG, (temporal, non-invasive)

Question 12

Which neuroimaging techniques show WHERE things happen?

Answer 12

fMRI (non-invasive)

Question 13

Name one more non-invasive and one invasive technique (besides EEG and fMRI- non-invasive)

Answer 13

MEG (non-invasive), PET (invasive, injected, swallowed, inhaled)

Question 14

At the smallest level, what would be the most ideal neuroimaging technique?

Answer 14

Single cell unit recording (records a single neurons activity)

Question 15

How is single cell recording taken out?

Answer 15

An electrode (thin wire) implanted into a part of the brain to measure electrical potential of nearby neurons

Question 16

What does EEG stand for

Answer 16

electroencephalography

Question 17

What does EEG measure and how is it taken out?

Answer 17

Measures electrical activity of brain (the electrical signal from neurons), by recording from electrodes placed on scalp via a cap

Question 18

What does a single EEG signal tell us?

Answer 18

the temporal profile of change in the potential difference between 2 electrodes on the scalp

Question 19

A calculated average across many EEG trials is called what?

Answer 19

An event related potential (ERP), the voltage fluctuations associated with a presented event

Question 20

How many frequencies can raw EEG be converted into , and what’s their names?

Answer 20

4 different types (delta, theta, beta, alpha)

Question 21

If we were to study facial recognition using the EEG method what would the graph show us?

Answer 21

Different peaks would be associated with different aspects of facial recognition (I.e. P300= famous and familiar faces)

Question 22

MEG (magnetoencephalography) measures what?

Answer 22

The magnetic field produced by electrical brain activity, using SQUIDS devices

Question 23

What is MEG especially good for measuring?

Answer 23

Temporal (time) and spatial (space) resolution, however is very expensive

Question 24

How does Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) produce brain images?

Answer 24

Makes use of differential magnetic properties of blood/tissue types

Question 25

Using types of blood/tissue to create a static map of the skull and grey/white matter is an example of what time of imaging?

Answer 25

Structural Imaging

Question 26

Which neuroimaging technique uses differential absorption of X-Rays to build a brain image?

Answer 26

CT scan (Computed Tomography) - Reveals gross features but not the structure

Question 27

What determines if a technique is called 'functional imaging'

Answer 27

When a temporary change in the brain's physiology is made

Question 28

What method involves the invasive use of an injection or swallowed radioactive trace substance in order to map functional brain processes?

Answer 28

PET (Positron Emission Tomography)

Question 29

How does the radioactive trace (PET) create an image?

Answer 29

Once the trace substance decays, a positron it emits is picked up by a detector = areas highly radioactive are associated with brain activity

Question 30

Functional MRI (fMRI) makes use of what in order to build a brain map image?

Answer 30

Since neuronal activity requires lots of oxygen and glucose (energy), also changing blood oxygenation levels, the differential magnetic properties of de/oxygenated blood creates contrasts picked up by the machine

Question 31

What does BOLD stand for?

Answer 31

Blood oxygenation dependent level- blood flow increases when a stimulus is applied

Question 32

What measurement is BOLD made in

Answer 32

Voxels (volume pixels)- smallest part of a 3D image

Question 33

A modified version of MRI is called what?

Answer 33

Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI)

Question 34

What does a DTI scan show?

Answer 34

Location of the brain's white matter tracts (bundles of axons in the brains). Helps visualise the connections made by neurons

Question 35

What imaging technique was first developed by Michael Faraday?

Answer 35

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)

Question 36

What happens in TMS?

Answer 36

Brain activity is disrupted via a virtual 'lesion' which introduces neural 'noise'.

Question 37

What did Faraday's famous experiment use/involve?

Answer 37

Electrical current passing through one coil will affect the other, but only when the magnetic field is changed (i.e. switched on/off)

Question 38

What exactly happens when one coil's magnetic field is changed?

Answer 38

The 2 coils of electric wire around an iron ring, repel each other when a current is induced because both their magnetic fields are competing (in video caused plate to levitate)

Question 39

What can TMS help us study/show in humans?

Answer 39

Applying a TMS impulse leads to TMS interferecne with reading signals, so can study behavioural effects i.e. RT change, longer reading time. Can help establish causal links between behavioural tasks and brain areas

Question 40

What neuroimaging technique has better spatial resolution than a CT scan?

Answer 40

fMRI