2. Cognitive Neuroscience

Question 1

INTERACTIONALISM

Answer 1

The idea that mind and brain are two separate things interacting with each other

Question 2

EPIPHENOMENALISM

Answer 2

The idea that the mind is a side effect of having a brain.

Question 3

PARALLELISM

Answer 3

The idea that mind and brain are separate things happening at the same time.

Question 4

ISOMORPHISM

Answer 4

The idea that they’re two things kinda inhabiting the same space.

Question 5

Phrenology

Answer 5

The belief that brain size in particular areas are directly correlated with certain abilities.

Question 6

Localization of function

Answer 6

The belief that parts of the brain are responsible for certain things.

We see a little evidence of this later on.
The DLPFC, being responsible for central executive function and stuff like that.

The ACC, responsible for… something.

Then there’s a part in the very back of the brain, responsible for attaching meaning to things in the world.

Question 7

Law of mass action

Answer 7

The idea that learning and memory depend on the total amount of brain tissue remaining, rather than on individual cells.

Question 8

Law of equipotentiality

Answer 8

The idea that some parts of the brain can take up the slack from other parts, which researchers have evilly removed. To a limit.

Question 9

ERPs

Answer 9

Event-related potentials. Researchers hook electrodes up to participants’ brains and measure electrical impulses. Super fast, super accurate, but it’s hard to pinpoint the spatial origin of the impulses.

Question 10

PET

Answer 10

Positon Emission Topography. Based on the theory that more active parts of the brain will consume more oxygen; so let’s spike the oxygen with positrons, which is something we can detect.

There’s a delay, however, between brain activation and resulting consumption of oxygen. Great spatial resolution though.

Question 11

fMRI

Answer 11

Kinda the best! Good spatial resolution. Also based on oxygen - sends powerful magnetic fields into the brain and sees how they change.. The process of scanning the entire brain is slow, though.

Question 12

MEGs

Answer 12

Magnetoenchephalography. Quite a mouthful. Measures the magnetic fields caused by electrical activity in the brain. Great spatial and temporal resolution, but alas, it’s only skin deep.

Question 13

Brain stimulation techniques

Answer 13

Selectively disrupt electrical activity in particular parts of the brain! A way of temporary brain damage. It’s just hard to aim.

Question 14

WAYS TO STUDY THE BRAIN

Answer 14

Animals. We can damage their brains to our heart’s content. We can also infect them with things and activate specific areas by infecting them with a virus that’s turned on by light!
But it’s hard to prove that those results carry over to humans.

Playing Games With Humans
Otherwise known as behavioural models. We do things to humans and see how they react. Great for correlations, poor for seeing what affects what.

People with brain damage!
Great way to study functional specialization, because nature’s done the brain damage for us. No need for ethics!

Question 15

Connectionist models

Answer 15

The idea that the brain is made of a vast system of interconnected neurons, and this is how we think.

Emphasis is placed on connections - synergy. Power arises from parallel processing and good connections.

Question 16

Interhemispheric transfer

Answer 16

Roger Sperry! He severed the optic chiasm and found that each hemisphere acted their own way.

Question 17

Emergent property

Answer 17

Sperry again! He believes that consciousness can’t be predicted from structure. He thinks it emerges, and once it does, it can affect lower-level functions.

Question 18

Supervenient

Answer 18

The property that events in the consciousness can affect lower level functions at the same time as they are being determined by them.

Question 19

The Hebb rule

Answer 19

If both neurons are firing at the same time, they’ll start connecting