Chapter 2: Brain Systems

Question 1

localization of function

Answer 1

One of the basic principles of brain organization is the hypothesis localization of function. It states that specific functions are
served by specific areas of the brain

Question 2

neuropsychology is the study of ______________.

Answer 2

the behaviour of people with brain damage

Question 3

Cortical equipotentiality

Answer 3

principle of brain function, the idea that the brain operated as an invisible whole as opposed to specialized areas

Question 4

Function of the parietal lobe?

Answer 4

responsible for perceptions of touch, pressure, and pain

Question 5

Function of the frontal lobe?

Answer 5

responsible for coordination of the senses, and higher cognitive functions like thinking and problem solving, movement, social cognition

Question 6

Function of temporal lobe?

Answer 6

hearing, language, long-term memory

Question 7

Function of occipital lobe?

Answer 7

visual processing, visual pattern recognition

Question 8

Gerald is listening to a podcast on his way to class.
Which lobe is most relevant to this activity?

Answer 8

temporal lobe

Question 9

Broca’s aphasia

Answer 9

loss of normal grammatical structure in speech

Question 10

What is levels of analysis?

Answer 10

Levels of analysis approach refers to the idea that a topic can be studied in a number of different ways and each approach can contribute in its own way to the understanding of the topic. For example, we can study physiology of cognition at levels ranging from the whole brain to structures within the brain, to chemicals that create electrical signals within these structures.
(SUMMARY: levels of analysis = approaching the problem from several different ways like behavioural, physiological, etc.)

Question 11

What does the principle of neural representation state?

Answer 11

that everything a person experiences is based on representations in the person’s nervous system

Question 12

Explain feature detectors

Answer 12

Feature detectors are neurons (or groups of neurons) in the brain that respond to specific type to stimulation (stimuli) like orientation, movement, and length. For example, the feature detectors that responded to visual stimuli would be orientation of an object that was presented as a visual stimulus to a cat.
(SUMARRY: Neurons that fire to specific qualities of a stimulus (like orientation.)

Question 13

How does the phenomenon called experience-dependent plasticity supports the idea that feature detectors are linked to perception?

Answer 13

Experience-dependent plasticity states that the structure of the brain is changed by experience. If an animal for example, is only exposed to an environment with vertical lines then that animal will only contain feature detectors for perceiving vertical lines. So, the brain of that animal will reshape to only containing neurons (feature detectors) that respond mainly to verticals and had no neurons that responded to horizontals or other orientations. Since kittens are only perceiving verticals, they only have feature detectors for verticals. This was an experiment done by Blakemore and Cooper.

Question 14

Explain the (brief) methodology, results, and how Blakemore and Coopers experiment (feature detectors) concludes that perception is determined by feature detectors. Include significance of this experiment.

Answer 14

Placed kittens in an environment exposing them to only one type of orientation (vertical).
Results = When kittens introduced to other orientations, they only paid attention to the vertical objects and ignored horizontal objects.

Significance
kittens’ brains revealed that the visual cortex had been reshaped so it contained neurons that responded mainly to verticals and had no neurons that responded to horizontals. This experiment was an early demonstration of experience-dependent plasticity.

Question 15

Which option below describes experience-dependent plasticity?
A. Neurons that respond to specific type of stimulation
B. Everything a person experiences is based on representations in the person’s nervous system.
C. Problem of neural representation for the senses
D. Representation of a particular object by the pattern of large numbers of neuronal firing
E. Structure of the brain is changed by experience

Answer 15

E, structure of the brain is changed by experience

Question 16

Neurons in the ________ respond best to complex geometrical stimuli (like faces) and neurons in the visual cortex respond best to __________ (like lines, circles)

Answer 16

temporal lobe, visual cortex

Question 17

What is hierarchical processing?

Answer 17

Answer = Progression from lower to higher areas of the brain.
Example: Neurons in the visual cortex sending their axons to higher levels of the visual system where signals from many neurons combine and interact. The neurons at this higher level, which respond to more complex stimuli then send their signals to even higher areas combining and interacting further and creating neurons that respond to even more complex stimuli like faces.

Question 18

How are neurons involved in specificity coding, sensory coding, and population coding?

Answer 18

Sensory code = how neurons represent various characteristics of the environment

Specificity coding = idea that an object can be represented by firing of a specialized neuron that responds only to that object
Example = a particular neuron that only fires for one person’s face and doesn’t respond to any other persons face.

Population coding = representation of a particular object by the pattern of firing of a large number of neurons
Example: large groups of neurons create patterns that of firing that play a role in recognizing all faces

Sparse coding = occurs when a particular object is represented by a small group of firing neurons in a pattern with the majority of neurons remaining silent.
Example: represent face A by a pattern of firing a few neurons and face B represented by firing different neurons but with possibility of overlapping with neurons in face

(SUMMARY: identification of a stimuli (face) by pattern of firing a LARGE number of neurons is population coding, the identification of a stimuli (face) indicated by. The pattern of firing of a SMALL group of neurons, specificity coding = each stimuli (face) causes a different neuron to fire).

Question 19

The hypothesis that states “different functions of thought are performed in different locations in the brain,” is …
A. Cortical equipotentiality
B. Localization of function
C. Default Mode Network
D. Population coding
E. Experience-dependent plasticity

Answer 19

B, Localization of function

Question 20

What determined localization of function/where did the evidence for localization of function come from?
A. Neuropsychology – the study of the behaviour of people with brain damage
B. Clinical psychology – the study of individuals by observation & experiments
C. Experimental psychology – carrying out psychological experiments using scientific methods

Answer 20

A, Neuropsychology

Question 21

Why localization of function a better hypothesis than cortical equipotentiality? Give evidence of previous research.

Answer 21

(1) Paul Broca’s patients with frontal lobe damage. Damage to a specific area of their brains (frontal lobe) caused a specific deficit of behaviour (couldn’t under patient’s speech b/c it was slow and ungrammatical).
(2) Carol Wernicke’s patients with temporal lobe damage caused a behaviour deficit (incoherent speech, not being able to understand others’ speech (can’t match words to meaning).
(3) b/c of Broca and Wernicke, further studies found that damage to occipital lobe of brain where visual cortex is located resulted in blindness and that there was a connection btw the area in the occipital lobe that was damaged and where the blindness occurred.
(4) double association (if you have two functions and damage the certain parts of the brain one or the other function will not work) enables us to conclude that function A and B are served by different mechanisms which operate independently of one another

Question 22

Broca’s area

Answer 22

frontal lobe area

Question 23

What was Paul Broca’s research? What was the significance?

Answer 23

conducted study on patients who had suffered brain damage to frontal lobe area due to strokes that damaged the frontal lobe area called Broca’s area.
-Patient called “tan” b/c only word he could say due to frontal lobe damage, other patients could say more words, but words were slow and jumbled.
Significance = provided evidence for localization of function and evidence against cortical equipotentiality

Question 24

Patients with slow, labored, ungrammatical speech caused by damage to the frontal lobe are diagnosed with having …
A. Distributed representation
B. Prosopagnosia
C. Wernicke’s Aphasia
D. Broca’s Aphasia

Answer 24

D, Broca’s Aphasia

Question 25

An area in the temporal lobe that was damaged is called…
A. Distributed representation
B. Prosopagnosia
C. Wernicke’s area
D. Broca’s Aphasia

Answer 25

C, Wernicke’s area

Question 26

An area in the temporal lobe that was damaged and as a result produced fluent and grammatically correct but incoherent speech is…
A. Distributed representation
B. Prosopagnosia
C. Wernicke’s Aphasia
D. Broca’s Aphasia

Answer 26

C, Wernicke’s Aphasia

Question 27

Damage to the temporal lobe on the lower left side that results in the inability to recognize faces is called…

Answer 27

prosopagnosia

Question 28

What is a double association?

Answer 28

A double association occurs if damage to one area of the brain causes function A to be absent while function B is present and damage to another area causes function B to be absent while function A is present.

Question 29

List the evidence to support localization of function.

Answer 29

(1) localization determined by recording from single neurons =
* Researchers found area in temporal lobe of monkeys that responded to pictures of faces and not pictures objects. This area of the face was located near the area in humans that is associated with prosopagnosia.
(2) localization determined by brain imaging
* fMRI experiments

Question 30

List the pros and cons of and fMRI

Answer 30

Pros = non-invasive & high spatial resolution
Cons = correlational – can’t infer that activity causes behaviour, indirect measure of brain activity, poor temporal resolution & expensive

Question 31

Which part of the brain is damaged in prosopagnosia and what is that part of the brains function?

Answer 31

Face area called fusiform face area (FFA)

Question 32

Give an example of how the brain is multidimensional

Answer 32

Answer = Example, looking at a person’s face triggers reponses to many different aspects of the face so, in order to identify a face as a face we need to understand the aspects of the face like
(1) emotional aspects (smiling/frowning)
(2) where is the person looking? (at me, away from me)
(3) how parts of the face move (watching his lips move = understand someone better)
(4) attractive a face is (handsome)
(5) whether the face is familiar (I remember her from somewhere…)

Question 33

What is distributed representation

Answer 33

When looking at a face activates many areas of the brain.

Question 34

What is rTMS? List the weaknesses/strengths

Answer 34

rTMS
function = can temporarily disrupt or enhance brain activity, repeated magnetic
pulses over an area of
the participant’s head
weaknesses = relatively poor spatial resolution, can’t measure activity in deeper structures
strengths = can manipulate brain activity directly to see its influence on cognition, can infer causality, non-invasive

Question 35

Which methodology would be most useful to investigate the activity of the default mode network during mind wandering?
(A) electroencephalography (EEG)
(B) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
(C) positron emission tomography (PET)
(D) transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS)

Answer 35

B, fMRI

Question 36

Which methodology would be most useful to investigate how fast the brain can respond to an unexpected word that doesn’t fit into a sentence?
(A) electroencephalography (EEG)
(B) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
(C) positron emission tomography (PET)
(D) transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS)

Answer 36

A, EEG?

Question 37

You want to use fMRI to study the neural correlates of face recognition. In some trials, participants view faces of people they know. What would be an appropriate “control” stimulus
to present?
(A) The hands of people the participants know
(B) Faces of people the participants do not know
(C) Pictures of houses

Answer 37

B, faces of people you don’t know

Question 38

strengths/weaknesses of Neuropsychology/Lesion Patients

Answer 38

strength = Can demonstrate a
region is necessary for a
particular function (and
not for another)
weakness = Damage not neatly
limited to one region, Damage to one region
could impact multiple
cognitive processes

Question 39

which brain imaging technique determined the following functional networks visual, auditory, salience, executive function, and motor networks

Answer 39

fMRI

Question 40

What is functional connectivity? What brain imaging method is used?

Answer 40

the extent to which neural
activity in two brain regions is correlated (Use resting state fMRI data)

Question 41

What is structural connectivity?

Answer 41

brain is wired together
- existence of white matter tracts physically interconnecting brain regions

Question 42

Functions of midbrain, hindbrain, forebrain

Answer 42

midbrain = relay centers
for sensory information
entering the brain (Superior and inferior colliculus), eye movement

hindbrain = breathe, heart rat, swallowing, balance and coordination of voluntary movement

forebrain =Regulates higher mental processes and enables people to engage in complex learning, memory, thought, and language