Ch. 3: The Brain Flashcards
What is an action potential?
The all-or-none firing of a neuron that leads to the release of neurotransmitters.
What is aphasia?
The loss of language comprehension or expression due to brain damage.
What are association neurons?
Neurons that receive their inputs and send outputs to other neurons.
What is the autonomic nervous system?
A portion of the peripheral nervous system that connects to most organs in the body and regulates certain unconscious bodily functions.
What is an axon?
A projection of the neuronal cell body along which action potentials are propagated, terminating in the release of neurotransmitters.
What is the brainstem?
A stalk-like structure at the base of the brain that connects it to the spinal cord and regulates involuntary functions like heart rate and breathing.
What is Broca’s aphasia?
A form of aphasia typically due to damage to the inferior frontal gyrus that leads to slow and labored speech production.
What is the central nervous system?
A portion of the nervous system consisting of the brain and spinal chord.
What is the cerebral cortex?
A folded, layered structure that is the largest single structure and the most superficial (on the surface) portion of the human brain.
What is the cerebrum?
The largest portion of the human brain, sitting at the top of the brain and consisting of the cerebral cortex and related structures.
What is cognitive neuroscience?
A subfield of neuroscience that uses multiple tools to measure and analyze active brain processing in awake and (typically) healthy individuals.
What does contralateral mean?
A spatial relationship between brain and body observed in vertebrates in which one side of the brain controls or receives input from the opposite side of the body.
What is the corpus callosum?
A band of fibers that connect the right and left hemispheres of the cerebrum.
What are dendrites?
Branch-like projections that protrude from the cell body of a neuron and contain receptor sites to which neurotransmitters can bind.
What is distributed/population encoding?
A theory of neural representation in which complex patterns or objects are represented by the distribution of activation across many neurons.
What is electroencephalography (EEG)?
A method that measures electrical activity due to neural or other processing at the surface of the scalp.
What is the encephalization quotient (EQ)?
A measure of actual brain size relative to the size that would be predicted based on body size alone. It is strongly correlated with intelligence.
What is an event-related potential (ERP)?
Rapid changes in electrical potential, as measured by EEG, due to the onset of a stimulus.
What does excitatory mean?
When the firing of a neuron causes a receiving neuron to fire more frequently.
What is the fight or flight response?
A sympathetic nervous system response that prepares the body with increased strength and stamina in response to a perceived threat.
What is a fissure?
A deep sulcus fold in the cerebral cortex.
What is functional localization?
The concept that certain cognitive functions reside in specific regions of the cerebral cortex.
What is functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)?
A technique in cognitive neuroscience for measuring ratios of oxygenated bloodflow in the brain in order to determine task-related neural activity.
What is functional near-infrared spectroscopy?
A tool of cognitive neuroscience which uses near-infrared light in order to measure oxygenated vs non-oxygenated hemoglobin, a component of blood to derive the hemodynamic response.
What are glial cells?
Cells within the nervous system that provide support to neurons.
What are gyri/gyrus?
The ‘hill’-like projections of the folds of the cerebral cortex.
What is a hemisphere?
Each of the two halves of the cerebrum, divided into a left and right, and connected by the corpus callosum.
What is a hidden layer in an ANN?
The intermediate layers between input and output in an ANN. The units in the hidden layer encode patterns in the input layer or in previous hidden layers.
What is the hippocampus?
A complex structure which is involved in memory formation and is structurally an extension of the temporal lobe of the cortex and is involved in the formation of long-term memories.
What is the hypothalamus?
A small but highly complex cluster of neurons that lies in the center of the brain that regulates multiple involuntary behavioral functions.
What does inhibitory mean?
When the firing of a neuron causes a receiving neuron to fire less frequently.
What are lobes?
The four anatomical divisions of the cortex that exist on each hemisphere.
What are motor neurons?
Neurons whose output leads to activation of muscle fibers.
What is multivariate-pattern analysis (MVPA)?
A data-analysis that uses machine learning to decode what task or stimulus a participant is engaging in, based on the distribution of activity across the brain.
What are nerves?
Bundles of connective tissue that allows neurons to communicate with one another and other parts of the body.
What is the nervous system?
A portion of the body consisting of neurons, nerves, and glial cells whose function is to allow different portions of the body to communicate with one another.
What is neuroplasticity?
The ability of the brain to reorganize the spatial arrangement of its function.
What is neuropsychology?
The study of brain function and impairment due to brain pathology.
What are neurotransmitters?
Chemical agents that serve as ‘messengers’ between neurons.
What is the parasympathetic nervous system?
A subdivision of the autonomic nervous system that regulates certain bodily functions under conditions when immediate action is not needed.
What is the peripheral nervous system?
A portion of the nervous system consisting of all neurons, nerves, and glial cells outside of the central nervous system.
What are receptors?
Sites on the dendrite of a neuron to which neurotransmitters can bind.
What is a reflex action?
The simplest form of autonomic behavioral responses in which the spinal chord generates the behavioral signal without the brain.
What is reuptake?
A process in which neurotransmitters in the synaptic cleft are reabsorbed by a sending neuron.
What are sensory receptors?
Neurons that receive their activation from physical stimulation of the body.
What is sparse coding?
A theory of neural coding in which a complex pattern or object is encoded by the distribution of responses across a small set of neurons.
What is specificity encoding?
A theory of neural coding in which a complex pattern or object is encoded by the response of a single neuron.
What is split-brain?
Patients (typically epileptic) who have had their corpus callosum severed, disconnecting the two hemispheres of the cortex.
What are sulci/sulcus?
The ‘valley’-like indentations of the folds of the cerebral cortex.
What is the sympathetic nervous system?
A subdivision of the autonomic nervous system that unconsciously regulates certain functions of the body to prepare for immediate action.
What is a synapse?
The site at which communication between two neurons occurs. It consists of an empty space between the axon terminal of a neuron that is sending information and receptors on the dendrites of the receiving neuron.
What is the synaptic cleft?
The small gap between sending and receiving neurons into which neurotransmitters are released.
What are synaptic vesicles?
Storage sites within a neuron that hold neurotransmitters prior to their release.
What is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)?
A research technique that uses magnetic pulses to disrupt localized brain processing in order to observe effects on cognitive function.
What is transduction?
The conversion of information from one form to another.
What is Wernicke’s or receptive aphasia?
A form of aphasia typically due to damage to the superior temporal gyrus that leads to fluid but nonsensical speech production.
