Chapter 1

Question 1

Cognitive neuroscience

Answer 1

Aims to produce a brain-based account of cognitive and behavioral processes. Made possible by technological advances in studying the brain that are safer and less crude than, say, Penfields method.

Question 2

Plato

Answer 2

Thought that mental experiences arise in the brain.

Question 3

Aristotle

Answer 3

Thought that mental experiences arise in the heart.

Question 4

Mind-body problem

Answer 4

How can a physical substance (brain/body) give rise to mental experience.

Question 5

Dualism

Answer 5

The mind and body are separate substances (e.g. Descartes) = outdated.

Question 6

Dual-aspect theory

Answer 6

Mind and body are two levels of explanation of the same thing (e.g. Spinoza).

Question 7

Reductionism

Answer 7

Mind explained solely in terms of physical/biological theory (e.g. Churchland).

Question 8

Broca’s area

Answer 8

Speech production; patient only saying one word TAN.

Question 9

Wernicke’s area

Answer 9

Speech comprehension; patient speaks but has poor speech comprehension.

Question 10

Phrenology

Answer 10

Gall and Spurzheim; (1) different parts of the cortex serve different functions = correct, (2) differences in personality traits manifest in differences in cortical size and bumps on the skull = incorrect, (3) crude division of psychological traits = incorrect. None of the assumptions was grounded in science.

Question 11

Connectionists models

Answer 11

Mathematical (computational) in nature but d not involve serial processing and discrete routines.

Question 12

1970s

Answer 12

Structural imaging methods (CT, MRI etc.) enable precise images of the brain (and brain lesions).

Question 13

1980s

Answer 13

PET adopted to models cognition developed by psychologists.

Question 14

1985

Answer 14

TMS is first used ( a non-invasive, safer equivalent of Penfield’s earlier studies.

Question 15

1990

Answer 15

Level of oxygen in blood used as a measure of cognitive function (the principle behind fMRI).

Question 16

EEG/ERP

Answer 16

Recording, noninvasive, electrical

Question 17

Single cell/multi unit

Answer 17

Recording, invasive, electrical

Question 18

TMS

Answer 18

Stimulation, nonivasive, electromagnetic

Question 19

tES

Answer 19

Stimulation, noninvasive, electric

Question 20

MEG

Answer 20

Recording, nonivasive, magnetic

Question 21

PET

Answer 21

Recording, invasive, hemodynamic

Question 22

fMRI

Answer 22

Recording, noninvasive, hemodynamic

Question 23

fNIRS

Answer 23

Recording, noninvasive, hemodynamic

Question 24

Cognitive neuroscience is not phrenology

Answer 24

(1) Modern cognitive neuroscience uses empirical neuroscience methods to ascertain different cognitive functions, (2) modern cognitive neuroscience builds upon the information processing diagrams of (cognitive) psychology, (3) in combination, this provides information not only what happens where but also how it happens.

Question 25

Penfield

Answer 25

Carried out a series of experiments on living human brains. The patients where undergoing surgery for epilepsy. To identify and spare regions of the brain involved in movement and sensation, Penfield electrically stimulated regions of the cortex while the patient was still conscious.

Question 26

Cognition

Answer 26

A variety of higher mental processes such as thinking, perceiving, imagining, speaking, acting and planning.

Question 27

Cognitive neuroscience

Answer 27

Aims to explain cognitive processes in terms of brain-based mechanisms. It is a bridging discipline between cognitive science and cognitive psychology and biology and neuroscience.

Question 28

Dualism and cognitive neuroscience

Answer 28

There is little hope for cognitive neuroscience if dualism is true because the methods of physical and biological sciences cannot tap into the non-physical domain.

Question 29

Reductionism and psychology

Answer 29

Although cognitive, mind-based concepts are now based are currently useful for scientific exploration, but will eventually be replaced by purely biology as we learn more and more about the brain. On the contrary dual-aspect theorists point out that an emotion will still feel like an emotion even if we were to fully understand its neural basis and, as such, the usefulness of cognitive, mind-based concepts will never be fully replaced.

Question 30

Cognitive neuropsychology

Answer 30

The approach of using patients with acquired brain damage to inform theories of normal cognition.

Question 31

Information processing

Answer 31

An approach in which behavior is described in terms of a sequence of cognitive stages. The implication was that one could understand the series of steps performed by a computer program, and without reference to the brain.

Question 32

Modularity

Answer 32

The notion that certain cognitive processes (or regions of the brain) are restricted in the type of information they process.

Question 33

Domain specificity

Answer 33

The idea that a cognitive process (or brain region) is dedicated solely to one particular type of information.

Question 34

Interactivity

Answer 34

Later stages of processing can begin before earlier stages are complete.

Question 35

Top down processing

Answer 35

The influence of later stages on the processing of earlier ones.

Question 36

Bottom down processing

Answer 36

The passage of information from simpler to more complex.

Question 37

Temporal resolution

Answer 37

The accuracy with which one can measure when an event occurs.

Question 38

Spatial resolution

Answer 38

The accuracy with which one can measure where an event is occuring