Actie

Question 1

What is the “degrees of freedom problem”?

Answer 1

There are potentially an infinite number of motor solutions for acting on an object

Question 2

What is the homunculus problem?

Answer 2

The problem of explaining volitional acts without assuming a cognitive process that is itself volitional (a man within a man). There is no “I” in the brain.

Question 3

What is sensorimotor information?

Answer 3

Linking together perceptual knowledge of objects in space and knowledge of one’s position of body to enable objects to be acted upon

Question 4

What is the primary motor cortex responsible for?

Answer 4

Execution of voluntary movements of the body

Question 5

What is hemiplegia and what is the cause?

Answer 5

Damage to one side of the primary motor cortex, results in a failure to voluntarily move the other side of the body

Question 6

What does PMC stand for and what does it do?

Answer 6

Primary motor cortex, initiates voluntary movements.

Question 7

What do the premotor regions do?

Answer 7

Online coordination of movements

Question 8

What do the prefrontal regions do?

Answer 8

Plan and select actions according to goals

Question 9

What are the roles of the premotor cortex?

Answer 9

The lateral area is important for linking action with visual objects in the environment (external cues)
The medial area (SMA/supplementary motor area) deals with self-generated actions, important for preparation of actions (internally generated)

Question 10

What is an example of utilization behavior?

Answer 10

Impulsively acting on irrelevant objects in the environment, e.g. walking into a room and sitting in the first chair you see

Question 11

What is the SAS and when is it not active?

Answer 11

Supervisory Attention System (control of cognition). It isn’t active when the schema is activated, an organized set of stored info, like driving home on autopilot

Question 12

What is contention scheduling?

Answer 12

The mechanism that selects one particular schema to be enacted from a host of competing schemas. Activated by objects like a hammer, + top-down activation from the SAS = appropriate schema should have the highest activation

Question 13

What is the dysexecutive syndrome?

Answer 13

Actions that are disorganized, inappropriate and/or unintentional as a result of damage to the prefrontal cortex. Can be accounted for within the SAS model

Question 14

What is a sense of agency?

Answer 14

The subjective feeling that voluntary actions are owned and controlled by the actor

Question 15

What is the forward model and what would be an example?

Answer 15

A representation of the motor command (efference copy) is used to predict the sensory consequences of an action. An example would be that tickling yourself doesn’t work as a consequence of the forward model

Question 16

What phenomenon is intentional binding?

Answer 16

Voluntary actions and their sensory consequences appear closer together in time than they really are. For example, if you expect to hear a sound after pressing a button, it will seem like it arrives faster than in reality because you expect it, so your brain predicts it

Question 17

What is the difference between imitation and mimicry?

Answer 17

Imitation is the ability to reproduce the behavior of another through observation with the goal of the behavior in mind.
Mimicry is imitating the behavior without the goal in mind.

Question 18

What does a mirror neuron do?

Answer 18

It responds to goal-directed actions performed by oneself or by others.

Question 19

What does PRR stand for and what does it do?

Answer 19

Parietal Reach Region
Part of the occipitoparietal cortex that responds, in particular, to reaching movements

Question 20

What does AIP stand for and what does it do?

Answer 20

Anterior Intraparietal area
A part of the intraparietal sulcus that responds, in particular, to manipulate shapes or 3D objects (from vision or touch)

Question 21

What does VIP stand for and what does it do?

Answer 21

Ventral Intraparietal area
A part of the intraparietal sulcus that responds to objects close to the body and in body-centered (as opposed to gaze-centered) coordinates.

Question 22

What are affordances (related to objects)?

Answer 22

Structural properties of objects imply certain usages (sharp is for cutting, etc)

Question 23

What is ideomotor apraxia?

Answer 23

An inability to produce appropriate gestures when given an object, word or command (e.g., wave your hand)

Question 24

What are 7 symptoms of Parkinson’s disease?

Answer 24

Associated with the basal ganglia, lack of self-initiated movement.
1. Akinesia (lack of spontaneous movement)
2. Bradykinesia (slowness of movement)
3. Decay of movement sequences (walking degenerates into shuffle)
4. Failure to scale muscle activity to movement amplitude
5. Failure to weld several movement components into a single action plan
6. Rigidity
7. Tremor (when stationary)

Question 25

What are the two main types of subcortical loops involved in movement generation?

Answer 25

1. Cerebellar loop: coordination of movements, lateral premotor cortex+parietal regions involved in sensorimotor transformation
2. Basal ganglia loop: betrokken bij de initiatie en uitvoering van intern gegenereerde bewegingen, motorisch leren en het vormen van actiesequenties. Genereert niet zelf de signalen maar heeft er wel invloed op (bv. met hoeveel kracht)

Question 26

What is the difference between hypokinetic and hyperkinetic?

Answer 26

Hypokinetic: a reduction in movement
Hyperkinetic: an increase in movement

Question 27

What is Huntington’s disease?

Answer 27

A genetic disorder affecting the basal ganglia and associated with excessive movement

Question 28

What are 4 symptoms of Tourette’s syndrome?

Answer 28

Neuropsychiatric disorder with an onset in childhood
1. Motor tics (eye blinks, neck movements)
2. Echolalia (repeating someone else’s words)
3. Palilalia (repeating one’s own words)
4. Coprolalia (production of obscenities)