Chapter 2 Flashcards
Modules
Different parts of the brain, each of which is responsible for particular cognitive operations.
Phrenology
The study of the shape, size, and protrusions of the cranium in an attempt to discover the relationships between parts of the brain and various mental activities and abilities. The more highly developed a function was, the larger it would be, and the larger the protrusion on the skull (Gall & Spurzheim).
Localization of function
The idea that there is a direct correspondence between specific cognitive functions and specific parts of the brain.
Law of mass action
Learning and memory depend the total mass of brain tissue remaining rather than the properties of individual cells. Researched rats in mazes and lesioned their brains in different places and different degrees to see how their performance differed. Performance declined as brain damage or the task difficulty increased, but where the lesions were had no effect. Developed by Shepherd Franz and Karl Lashley.
Law of equipotentiality
Although some areas of the cortex may become specialized for certain tasks, any part of an area can (within limits) do the job of any other part of that area. Also known as plasticity.
Interactionism or dualism
Mind and brain are separate substances that interact with each other and influence each other (associated with Descartes).
Consciousness vs. Mind
Consciousness is the narrower concept, often taken to mean what we are aware of at any point in time. Mind is the broader concept which includes consciousness but also encompasses processes that take place outside our awareness.
Epiphenomenalism
“Mind” is a superfluous or unnecessary by-product of bodily functioning and has no causal role in determining behaviour. The mind is to the brain what steam is to a coal-powered locomotive.
Parallelism
The mind and the brain are two aspects of the same reality, and they operate in parallel. Every event in the mind is accompanied by an event in the brain. (G.T. Fechner)
Isomorphism
Mental events and neural events share the same structure. Isomorphism differs from parallelism in that it envisions more than a simple point-for-point correspondence between mental events and brain events, but rather consciousness is organized into a coherent whole (Gestalt pyschologists). Think of the Necker cube to illustrate isomorphism… the external stimulus is constant but the internal subjective experience varies.
Sensory system
A system that links the physical and perceptual worlds via the nervous system; composed of sensory receptors, neural pathways, and distinct regions of the brain preferentially dedicated to the perception of information. Six main sensory systems: vision, audition, taste, smell, somatosensory (touch, muscle and joint movement), and vestibular (balance and spatial orientation).
Broca’s aphasia
A deficit in the ability to produce speech as a result of damage to Broca’s area. They can understand what is said to them but cannot speak.
Broca’s area
The area of the brain’s left hemisphere that is responsible for how words are spoken.
Wernicke’s area
The area of the brain’s left hemisphere that is responsible for processing the meaning of words.
Wernicke’s aphasia
A deficit in the ability to comprehend speech as a result of damage to Wernicke’s area. Those with it are able to speak but unable to comprehend what is said to them or to produce coherent speech.
Inter-hemispheric Transfer
Communication between the brain’s hemispheres, enabled in large part by the corpus callosum. (Roger Sperry)
Split brain
A condition created by severing the corpus callosum. Sperry did to cats and they acted as if it had two entirely separate brains. Think of the human key and chain example. Remember left brain has most speech functions (analytic) and the right brain has more motor functions (holistic).
Emergent property (Sperry)
In Sperry’s sense, a property that “emerges” as a result of brain processes, but is not itself a component of the brain. In the case of the mind, this means that consciousness is neither reducible to, nor a property of, a particular brain structure or region. He said that consciousness is an emergent property of the brain.
Emergent causation
In Sperry’s sense, causation brought about by an emergent property. Once the “mind” emerges from the brain, it has the power to influence lower-level processes. the brain physiology determines the mental events but is in turn governed by the higher subjective properties of the enveloping mental events.
Supervenient
In Sperry’s sense, describes mental states that may simultaneously influence neuronal events and be influenced by them.
Event-related potential (ERP)
An electrical signal emitted by the brain after the onset of a stimulus. There are differences in neural activity for remembered vs. forgotten items. However ERPs cannot predict the subsequent recall of items. (Rugg)
Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
An imaging technique in which a participant is injected with a radioactive substance that mingles with the blood and circulates to the brain. A scanner is then used to detect the flow of blood to particular areas of the brain.
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)
A non-radioactive, magnetic procedure for detecting the low of oxygenated blood to various parts of the brain. Data acquired more rapidly than PET.
Magnetoencephalography (MEG)
A non-invasive brain imaging technique that directly measures neural activity. Marries spatial resolution of fMRI with the outstanding temporal resolution of ERP. It provides a direct measurement of neural activity rather than the direct measurements of fMRI and PET based on blood flow in the brain. Only really good for activity near the cortical surface of the brain.
Connectionism
A theory that focuses on the way cognitive processes work at the physiological/neurological (as opposed to information-processing) level. It holds that the brain consists of an enormous number of interconnected neurons and attempts to model cognition as an emergent process of networks of simple units (e.g. neurons) communicating with one another.
Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)
An MRI-based neuroimaging technique that makes it possible to visualize the white matter tracts within the brain.
Neural network
Neurons that are functionally related or connected.
Hebb rule
A connection between two neurons takes place only if both neurons are firing at approximately the same time.
Parallel processing
Many neural connections may be active at the same time.
Serial processing
Only one neural activity may take place at any one time.
Zeitgeist
The belief system of a particular group of people at a particular time in history. People thought that the science of the mind would be materialistic and dangerous and this held it back.
Electroencephalography (EEG)
The electrical signals emitted by the brain can be recorded using electrodes placed on the scalp to measure the time course of the flow of sensory information and response-related processes. non-invasive and great for measuring electrical activity in the brain and cost-effective but not very precise. Great for giving an idea where seizures are occurring in the brain.
