Articles

Question 1

“The Architect Who Lost the Ability to Imagine”

Answer 1

• report on an architect who lost the ability of visual imagery after suffering a stroke in the posterior cerebral artery; he also could not recognize faces
• aphantasia: inability to generate a mental image
• study wanted to determine which cerebral regions are specifically affected in an aphantasic patient
• study results: regions in the left fusiform gyrus & right lingual gyrus are important for visual imagery; damage to the primary visual cortex does not necessarily cause imagery deficits

Question 2

“Hierarchy in the Organization of Brain Networks”

Answer 2

• there is not one version of a hierarchy that is correct & there are multiple interpretations in the field of neuroscience
• each different sense of hierarchy can provide difference insights about different functions
• integration of object recognition, location, & sound
• a study took recordings from different visual cells along the ventral pathway —> fusiform face area is sensitive to faces; area V5 is for object motion & location

Question 3

single dissociation

Answer 3

• can be done by demonstrating that a lesion to brain structure A disrupts function X but not function Y
• shows that function X and function Y are independent of each other in some way

Question 4

double dissociation

Answer 4

• can be done if you can demonstrate that a lesion to brain structure A impairs function X but not function Y, and demonstrate that a lesion to brain structure B impairs Y but not X
• can conclusively demonstrate that 2 functions are localized in different areas of the brain
• stronger & more conclusive than a single dissociation

Question 5

converging evidence

Answer 5

• scientific findings found with different methodological techniques that converge to create well-supported conclusions
• triangulation of neuroscience approaches: Correlation, Manipulation, Termination (where Neuropsychology falls)

Question 6

differential diagnosis

Answer 6

distinguishing a disease/condition from others that present with similar features

Question 7

“Left-handed musicians show a higher probability of atypical cerebral dominance for language”

Answer 7

• experimental participants were left-handed musicians
• showed that processing music & language share a network in the right auditory cortex & frontal lobe
• showed that musicians have atypical language processing patterns
• interesting to think about other learned skills (like music) that could be related to white matter tracts & potentially used to determine risk for a certain condition

Question 8

“Perspectives given by structural connectivity bridge the gap between structure and function”

Answer 8

• brain areas are interconnected & don’t independently process information
• bridging anatomy and function can bring a lot of insight
• white matter connectivity is essential to understanding functionality & difference in behaviors
• interesting that paper found that there is a relationship between the tissue property of specific fiber tracts in the brain and aggressive behavior after military deployment