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Cognitive Psychology > Chapter 2 - Cognitive Neuroscience > Flashcards

Chapter 2 - Cognitive Neuroscience Flashcards

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1
Q

what is cognitive neuroscience

A

the study of the physiological basis of cognition

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2
Q

what is the ‘levels of analysis’ approach?

why is it relevant for cognitive science?

A
  • topics can be studied from different levels, ranging from micro (physical and biological processes) to macro structures.
  • to fully understand anything, it must be studied at all possible levels of analysis
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3
Q

what are the two primary functions of the neuron

A

create and transmit information

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4
Q

what is a nerve net, and how was it discovered?

A

a network of neurons that appeared continuous due to the early method of dying neurons and looking through a microscope - couldn’t observe synapses

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5
Q

what was Golgi’s contribution to brain science methodology?

- why was this so useful?

A

developed a staining technique, immersing a thin slice of brain tissue in silver nitrate.

  • less than 1% of the neurons would be stained
  • stood out from the rest of the tissue
  • stained completely as well, so they could make out their structure
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6
Q

what two techniques did Cajal use to investigate the nerve net?
- why was this so effective?

A
  1. Golgi’s staining procedure
  2. studied tissues from newborn animals (sparser cell distribution
    - small % of staining + sparse neurons = very clear detail
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7
Q

what did Cajal discover about neurons?

A

individual units, not the nerve net

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8
Q

what do we call the doctrine that emerged from Cajal’s discovery that neurons were individual units?

A

the neuron dotrctine - individual cells transmit signals in the NS, these cells are not continuous

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9
Q

what were Cajal’s three conlclusions about neurons (other than their discreteness)

A
  1. discovered the synapse (gap btwn neurons)
  2. neurons are not connected indiscriminately, only connect to specific neurons that form higher order sets of connected neurons called neural circuits
  3. neurons that draw information from the environment also exits (receptors)
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10
Q

who was the first to record electrical signals in sensory neurons?

A

Edgar Adrian

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11
Q

explain Adrian’s method for recording neutrons electrical signals

A

micro electrodes (two of them)

  1. recording electrode - placed in a neurone to measure the impulse
  2. reference electrode - placed some distance away so as to be unaffected by the electrical signals
    - difference in charge is the impulse
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12
Q

what is the difference in potential between the recording and reference electrodes when an axon is at rest?
- what do we call this?

A

(-70) mv (inside of the neuron is 70 mv more negative than the outside)
the resting potential

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13
Q

what does the microelectrode process register during a nerve impulse?

A

charge inside axon rises to 40 mv as the impulse passes the electrode, then returns to its resting potential

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14
Q

what do we call the full process of a nerve impulse?

ie, stimulation, electrical transmission down the axon

A

the action potential

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15
Q

how long to action potentials last?

A

1/1000th of a second

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16
Q

what is the importance of the action potential?

A

mechanism by which information is transmitted throughout the NS

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17
Q

what was another one of Adrian’s key findings about action potentials?

A

they maintain the same signal intensity across the length of the axon - ideal for sending signals over long axis, as it preserves informational content

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18
Q

what is the main interest of the cognitive neuroscientist in regards to neural impulses/

A

how they contribute to the operation of the mind

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19
Q

How did Adrian study how neural information is encoded?

A

by measuring the A.P’s of tactile neurons across the length while changing the pressure applied to the skin
- intensity of the individual action potentials remained the same, the rate of action potentials changed (more pressure meant more signals, vice versa)

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20
Q

What does Adrian mean when he says that neurons are representing their stimulus?

A

more stimulus intensity is associated with more frequent neural responses, so this is said to represent the intensity of the stimulus.

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21
Q

What questions can we ask to go beyond Adrian’s study of the magnitude of neural stimulus? (2)
- give a possible solution, and Adrians response

A
  1. how is the quality of experience represented by neural firing across the senses
  2. how is the quality of experience represented by neural firing within a given sense
    - different shapes of action potential
    - Adrian: no, all action potentials have essentially identical size and shape
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22
Q

What is the short answer to the question of how qualitative differences are represented by neural firing?

A

different qualities and aspects of experience activate different neurons and brain regions

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23
Q

what its he principle of neural representation

A

everything a person experiences is based on representations in that persons nervous system

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24
Q

what were the two facts researchers began to uncover when they started studying single neurons in the primary visual cortex?

A
  1. many neurons at higher levels of the visual system respond to complex stimuli (faces, gemetrical shapes)
  2. a specific stimulus causes distributed neural firing across the cortex.
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25
Q

what are feature detectors

A

neurons that respond to specific stimulus features, like orientation, movement or shape.

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26
Q

how did Hubel and Wiesel discover feature detectors?

A

presented visual stimuli to cats, and found that each neuron in the visual area of the cortex responded to a specific type of stimulation presented to a small area of the retina

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27
Q

what is experience dependent plasticity?

A

changes in Brian structure caused by experience

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28
Q

Explain Blakemore and Cooper’s study on experience dependent plasticity in cats?

A

reared cats in environments containing only vertical or horizontal shapes - became selectively aware of the shape orientation they were reared with, and had virtually no neurons that responded to the opposite stimuli

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29
Q

what do the results of Blakemore and coopers study on experience dependent plasticity suggest?

A

Perception is determined by neurons that fire to specific qualities of a stimulus

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30
Q

how many % of the cortex is comprised by the visual system/?

A

30%

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31
Q

Explain Gross’ findings on anaesthetized monkeys and complex images

A

presented stimuli to anaesthetized monkeys

  • neurons in the temp lobe respond to complex stimuli (hand shaped stimuli with fingers pointing up)
  • also found some that responded best to faces
32
Q

explain hierarchical processing

A
  • neurons in sensory cortexes respond to simple stimuli
  • send this information to higher levels of the system where signals interact from several sources (respond to more complex signals)
  • so on and so forth!
33
Q

what is the sensory code

A

the process by which neurons represent various characteristics of the environment

34
Q

what is specificity coding

A

neurons can respond selectively to specific stimuli

35
Q

is specificity coding correct?

A

probably not; neurons usually respond to a number of similar things (like a set of faces) - would greatly increase the number of necessary neurons

36
Q

what is population coding

A

the representation of an object by the firing patterns of a set of neurons

37
Q

what are some advantages of population coding

A
  1. large number of stimuli can be represented as large groups of neurons can create a bunch of unique patterns of firing
  2. good evidence in other cognitive systems too
38
Q

what is sparse coding

A

particular objects represented by a pattern of firing of only a small number of neurons, while most remain silent
- each neurone can respond to more than one feature

39
Q

explain Quiroga et all 2008 findings on single neuron selectivity

A

found neurons that respond very selectively (like just to Micheal Scott)
- but only had 30 minutes to look, probably examples of sparse coding without enough time to test

40
Q

is sparse coding limited to vision/

A

nope, also in aud and olfactory system

41
Q

what is the difference between representing memories and representing experiences

A

perception is associated with a present stimulus, memory concerns a stimulus as represented already
- likely that population and sparse coding are operative here too, though

42
Q

what is the localization of function

A

specific functions are served by specific brain areas

43
Q

what is the main Brain area for cognitive function

A

cerebral cortex - 3mm thick layer of tissue covering the sub-cortical areas

44
Q

explain the concept of cortical equipotentiality

A

an accepted idea in the 1800s that argued that the brain operated as an indivisible whole

45
Q

How did Broca reject the concept of cortical equipotentiality

A

studied patients with brain damage due to stroke - caused damage to the frontal lobe structure called Broca’s area
- loss of ability to produce speech (slow, laboured and ungrammatical - Broca’s aphasia)

46
Q

explain Wernicke’s aphasia

- dmg to which brain area, and the pathological outcome

A

damage to the area of the temporal lobe that result ied in fluent and grammatical speech that was incoherent
- also unable to understand the speech of others - can’t attach words to their meaning

47
Q

damage to which brain structure resulted in blindness inn WW1?

A

occipital lobe, where the visual cortex is

48
Q

did the specific area of the occipital lobe damaged influence the type of blindness?

A

yes, ex. damage to the left part resulted blindness in the upper right =part of visual space

49
Q

where is the auditory cortex

A

upper temporal lobe

50
Q

where is the somatosensory cortex

A

parietal lobe

51
Q

what is the primary function of the f.lobe in perception

A

receiving information from the other structures, integration and higher cognitive functions

52
Q

what is prosopagnosia and where does damage cause it

A

inability to recognize faces - due to damage to the tempora lobe on the lower right side of the Brian

53
Q

explain double dissociation

A

occurs if damage to one area of the brain results in the loss of some function x while y remans, and vice versa for some other brain area

  • need to find 2 people with brain damage to these 2 areas
  • necessary to prove that a brain region serves a specific function
54
Q

how do we use single neurons to determine localization

A

check the % of neurons that respond selectively to a given thing (say faces) in a specific region
Tsao (2006) - 97% of neurons inn the lower temporal lobe in monkeys respond to faces

55
Q

explain fMRI

A
  • neural activity increases brain oxygen in the active areas
    added oxygen increases magnetic properties off hemoglobin - present a magnetic field to the brain these more magnetic oxygenated molecules respond more strongly and increases the fMRI signal
  • measure at voxels, which are small 3d sections of brain
56
Q

what is task-relevant fMRI

A

the change inn brain activity that can be linked to the specific task at hand - measured by fMRI and some complex stats

57
Q

what is the fusiform face area

A

the brain region responsible for facial recognition, in the fusiform gyrus on the bottom of the temporal lobe
- brain region damaged in prosopagnosia

58
Q

pictures of visual scenes activate what area

A

parahippocampal place area

- codes information about spatial layout (activated when viewing empty and full rooms)

59
Q

pictures of bodies or their parts (other than faces) active what area

A

the extra striate body area

60
Q

explain Huth;s film experiment

A

showed people a movie while they were in fMRI - composed a list of more than 1000 objects and action categories and when they came up I the show
- found out which stimuli different voxels responded to

61
Q

what is the paradox behind Huth’s experiment

A
  • specific brain regions are responsible for the perception of specificc types of stimuli
  • map stretches over a large area of the Cortex
62
Q

what does the distribution of ‘human’ concepts in Huth;s experiment tell us?

A

experiences are multidimensional, and even simple experiences involve combining different qualities

63
Q

what is distributed representation

A

the idea that a single experience activates several areas of the brain that may be widely separated

64
Q

explain how distributed representation applies to memory

A
  • STM and LTM are served by different brain regions
  • thinking about episodic and semantic memories also activate different regions
  • memories are multimodal - activate sensory, emotional, etc.
65
Q

explain how distributed representation applies to producing and understanding language

A
  • we have Broca and werneickes areas

- but language also involves communication between the two, connections iwht other areas

66
Q

explain the specific findings related to the distributed representation of language (3)

A
  1. damage to areas other than B and W can cause problems with language (ross 2010)
  2. nonlinguistic functions are associated with B’s area
  3. sentence grammar is processed throughout the language system
67
Q

explain the current neurological model of language

A

2 pathways

  1. involved in processing sounds, speech production, uttering words
  2. understanding words
    - both involved in understanding sentences
68
Q

what are neural networks

A

interconnected Brain areas that communicate with one another
- outcome of distributed processing; distributed regions must be able to communicate

69
Q

what are the 4 principles of neural networks

A
  1. networks are complex structural pathways that form he brains ‘information highway’
  2. functional pathways within structural pathways that serve distinct functions
  3. networks operate dynamically, which mirrors the dynamic nature of cognition
  4. there is a resting state of brain activity
70
Q

what is structural connectivity

- how do owe measure it?

A

the wiring diagram of the brain (synapses and such across brain areas)
- early researchers cut up brains to check these out
- now ; track-weight imaging - detects how water diffuses along the length of nerve fibres
-

71
Q

explain connectome

A

the structural description of the network of elements and connections forming the human brain’

72
Q

what is functional connectivity

A

measured by the degree to which two brain regions correlated - high correspondence means high functional connectivity

73
Q

how does resting state firm measure functional connectivity

A
  1. use task related fmri to determine brain regions responsible for specific tasks - call this the seed location
  2. measure the resting state fmri of the seed
  3. measure the resting state fmri at another location (test location)
  4. calculate the correlation between seed and test location responses across a time axis
    - can also be done with task related fmri between seed and test
74
Q

does high functional connectivity imply structural connectivity
- but is there overlap between the concepts

A

no, could both be getting stimulated by some other region causing the overlap
- yes, they tend to correlate

75
Q

what are the 6 common functional networks we’ve uncovered by resting state frmri

A
  1. visual
  2. somato-motor
  3. dorsal attentiuon (attention to visual stimuli and spatial location)
  4. Executive control - higher level cognitive tasks involved in working memory and directing attention during tasks
  5. salience - attending to survival relevant events
  6. default mode- mind wandering, coenobite activity related to personal life story, social functions, monitoring internal emotions states
76
Q

what is meant by the dynamics of cognition? (2x)

A

flow of activity within the brain is dependent on the environment and mental states and is therefore dynamic, switching strucures on and off and such
- also slow changes; functional changes I memory networks are accumulated during the day and strngthened at night

77
Q

what is the default mode network

A

network of structures that respond when a person is not involved in specific tasks

  • composed of areas in the frontal and parietal lobes that decrease in activity during tasks
  • DMN activity tends to result inn mind wandering
  • mindwandering decreases task-relevant performance

Cognitive Psychology (12 decks)

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