Ch14-Cognitive Functions Flashcards
____ of cerebral cortex is connected to skin receptors and muscles mainly on right side of body, while _____ is connected to skin receptors and muscles mainly on left side of body [exceptions are trunk & facial muscles]
left hemisphere; right hemisphere
taste and smell send information to the _____ side of brain
ipsilateral
set of axons through which left & right hemispheres exchange info [also exchange through anterior commisure, hippocampal commisure]
corpus callosum
2 hemispheres are not mirror images; division of labor between the 2 hemispheres
lateralization
what is visible at any moment
visual field
light from right half of visual field shines onto left half of both retinas; left half of each retina connects to ____ hemisphere, sees right visual field
left
light from left half of visual field shines onto right half of both retinas; right half of each retina connects to ___ hemisphere, sees left visual field
right
each ear sends information to ____ sides of brain; in order to localize sound
both
damage to corpus callosum
prevents 2 hemispheres from sending info to each other
corpus callosum is sometimes severed to treat severe ____
epilepsy
condition characterized by repeated episodes of excessive synchronized neural activity
epilepsy
block sodium flow across the membrane or enhance effects of GABA
antiepileptic drugs
people who have undergone surgery to corpus callosum
[maintain intellect & motivation, walk normally, use 2 hands together on familiar tasks; struggle with less familiar tasks & can use hands independently]
split-brain people
Roger Sperry’s studies:
- two halves of the brain had different info and could not communicate with each other
- when shown info in left visual field, individual could not name it, but could point to object with ______
left hand
after severing corpus callosum, the brain learns to use smaller connections called _____ between hemispheres
commissures
right hemisphere appears to be better than left at comprehending _____ relationships
spatial
left hemisphere focuses more on ____ & right hemisphere more on overall ______
details; overall
larger in the left hemisphere for 65% of people
planum temporale
children with larger ratio of left to right planum temporale perform best on _____ tests; children with nearly equal hemispheres were better on certain _____ tasks
language; nonverbal
connects anterior parts of cerebral cortex
anterior commisure
connects left & right hippocampi
hippocampal commisure
hemispheres are ____ for different functions
specialized
both hemispheres are used for all, but the _____ tasks
simplest
human language stands out from other forms of communication due to its ______ [the ability to produce new signals to represent new ideas]
productivity
_____ have social order that resembles humans in several regards [possibly have more language potential than common chimps]
Bonobos
human language evolved from precursors present in other _____
species
2 theories of evolution of language
- by-product of overall brain development
- brain specialization
Chomsky & Pinker proposed that humans have a _______ [brain specialization]
language acquisition device
problems with “language is accidental by-product” view
- not all people with full-sized brains have normal language
- Williams Syndrome individuals speak well
individuals will learn language better if they learn it at ______
an early age
mutation in FOXP2 gene can affect language abilities because this gene controls ________
mechanisms of jaw & throat that are important for speech
a language impairment is called _____
aphasia
brain damage that results in impaired language production
- comprehension deficits
- slow & awkward with all forms of expression
- when speaking: omit most pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions etc [due to having trouble understanding these words]
broca’s aphasia
language comprehension of individuals with Broca’s aphasia resembles someone who is ______
highly distracted
characterized by poor language comprehension & impaired ability to remember the names of objects, but speak fluently
Wernicke’s aphasia
difficulty recalling names of objects
anomia
parallels suggest music and language arose _____
together
specific impairment in reading in someone with adequate vision & adequate skills in other academic areas
dyslexia
people with dyslexia are more likely to have _______ cortex
bilaterally symmetrical cerebral
_____ dyslexics have trouble sounding out words & try to remember each word as a whole
dysphonetic
_____ dyslexics sounds out words okay, but fail to recognize a word as a whole [particular trouble with irregularly spelled words]
dyseidetic
the view that everything that exists is physical or material
materialism
the view that only the mind really exists and that the physical world could not exist unless some mind were aware of it
mentalism
the view that mental processes & certain kinds of brain processes are the same thing, described in different terms [neuropsychology view]
identity position
operational definition of consciousness
if person reports presence of one stimulus but no the second stimulus, then this person was conscious of the first but not the second
brief visual stimulus preceded & followed by longer interfering stimuli
masking
brief visual stimulus followed by interfereing stimuli
backward masking
consciousness is almost synonymous with ______
brain activity
slow & gradual shifts in perception from one eye to the other [shift in perception is accompanied by shift in pattern of activity in brain]
binocular rivalry
stimulus activates enough neurons to a sufficient extent, activity extends over much of the brain
if stimulus fails, the pattern will fade
consciousness is a threshold phenomenon
see a dot in one position, alternating with a similar dot nearby, it seems the dot is moving back and forth
phi phenomenon
_____ attention = reaction to stimulus
bottom-up
_____ attention = intentional & controlled
top-down
tendency for many people with damage to parts of the right hemisphere ignore the left side of the body or the left side of objects [problem is attention not sensation]
spatial neglect
spatial neglect is associated with damage to the ______
right parietal cortex
