Chapter 2 - Cognitive Neuroscience Flashcards
1
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Cognitive Neuroscience
A
The study of the physiological (biological) basis of cognition (attention, perception, memory)
2
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Levels of Analysis
A
- idea that a topic can be studied in different ways
3
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Neurons
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- create and transmit information about what we experience and know
4
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Nerve Net
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- a network of continuously interconnected nerve fibers
- doesn’t stop sending signals
5
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Neuron doctrine
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- non-continuous, individual cells transmit signals in the nervous system
6
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cell body
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- center of the neuron
- keeps the cell alive
7
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Dendrites
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- receive signals from other neurons
8
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axons (nerve fibers)
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- transmit signals to other neurons
9
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Synapse
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- small gap between the end of a neuron’s axon and the dendrites or cell body of another neuron
10
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neural circuit
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- groups of interconnected neurons that are responsible for processing
- neurons aren’t automatically connected to other neurons - they are selective
11
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receptors
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- neurons specialized to pick up information from the environment (ex. eye, ear, skin)
12
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resting potential
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- difference in charge between the inside and outside of a nerve fiber when the fiber is at rest (no other electrical signals are present)
13
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nerve impulse (action potential)
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- electrical response that is propagated down the length of an axon (nerve fibre)
14
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action potential
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- travel down a neuron’s axon
- electrical potential responsible for transmitting neural information and for communication between neurons
- firing and then going back to resting state
15
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neurotransmitter
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chemical that is released at the synapse in response to incoming action potentials
16
Q
What can cause an increase in the rate of nerve firing
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- increased stimulus intensity (ex. more pressure on someone’s skin)
- when nerve impulses are crowded tightly together, the sensation is more intense
17
Q
What is the principle/idea of neural representation?
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- everything a person experiences is based on representation in the person’s nervous system
18
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Feature detectors
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- neurons that respond to specific stimulus features such as orientation, movement, and length
19
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experience-dependent plasticity
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- structure of the brain is changed by experience
20
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what do neurons in the temporal lobe respond to?
A
- complex geometrical stimuli
- faces
21
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what do neurons in the visual cortex respond to?
A
- simple stimuli
22
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hierarchical processing
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- processing that occurs in a progression from lower to higher areas of the brain
23
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sensory coding
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- how neurons represent various characteristics of the environment
24
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specificity coding
A
- idea that an object could be represented by the firing of a specialized neuron that responds only to that object
- this idea is unlikley to be correct
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population coding
- representation of a particular object by the pattern of firing of a large number of neurons
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sparse coding
- occurs when a particular object is represented by a pattern of firing of only a small group of neurons, with the majority of neurons remaining silent
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what is the difference between representation of perceptions vs of memories?
perceptions: neural firing is associated with the stimulus that is present
memories: neural firing is associated with information about the past that has been stored in the brain
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# basic principles of brain organization
localization of function
- specific functions are served by specific areas of the brain
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what is the cerebral cortex
- wrinkled covering of the brain
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neuropsychology
- the study of the behaviour of people with brain damage
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cortical equipotentiality
- early 1800s
- idea that the brain operated as an invisible whole as opposed to specialized areas
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Broca's area
- in the frontal lobe
- speech production
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Broca's aphasia
- a condition associated with damage to Broca's area, in the frontal lobe, characterized by laboured ungrammatical speech and difficulty in understanding some types of sentences
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Wernicke's area
- in the temporal lobe
- language comprehension
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Wernicke's aphasia
- a condition, caused by damage to the area, that is characterized by difficulty in understanding language, and fluent, grammatically correct but incoherent speech
- struggle to match words with their meanings
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occipital lobe
- where the visual cortex is located
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parietal lobe
- responsible for perceptions of touch, pressure, and pain
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frontal lobe
- receives signals from all of the senses and is responsible for coordination of the senses
- thinking and problem solving
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prosopagnosia
- inability to recognize faces
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double dissociation
- procedure that compares 2 people with complimentary damages to their brains (ex. 1 broca, 1 wernicke)
- demonstrates that those 2 areas aren't linked together and are actually separate areas (ex. speech production and language comprehension come from 2 different areas)
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fMRI
- follows blood flow
- produces a map
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fusiform face area (FFA)
- an area in the temporal lobe that contains many neurons that respond selectively to faces
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parahippocampal place area (PPA)
- an area in the temporal lobe that contains neurons that are selectively activated by pictures of indoor and outdoor scenes
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extrastriate body area (EBA)
- and area in the temporal cortex that is activated by pictures of bodies and parts of bodies, but not by faces or other objects
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multidimentional nature of cognition
- even simple experiences involve combinations of different qualities (ex. looking at a face is not just a face, there are also emotional factors you recognize, etc)
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distributed representation
- occurs when a specific cognition activates many areas of the brain
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episodic memories
- memories for events in a person's life
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Neural networks
- interconnected areas of the brain that can communicate with each other
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semantic memories
- memories for facts
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structural connectivity
- the brain's "wiring diagram"
- created by nerve axons that connect different brain areas
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structural connectivity
- the brain's "wiring diagram"
- created by nerve axons that connect different brain areas
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# structural connectivity
track-weighted imaging (TWI)
- based on the detection of how water diffuses along the length of nerve fibers
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connectome
- structural description of the network of elements and connections forming the human brain
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functional connectivity
- the extent to which the neural activity in separate brain areas is correlated with each other
- if the responses of 2 brain areas are correlated, they are "functionall connected"
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# testing functional connectivity
resting-state fMRI
- fMRI measured while someone is sleeping
- has become one of the main methods
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resting-state funtional connectivity
- a method for determining functional connectivity that involves determining the correlation between the resting-state fMRI in separated structures
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Default mode network (DMN)
- network of structures that are active when a person is not involved in specific tasks
- when DMN is active, people's minds tend to wander (because your brain switched from task-related networks to your DMN)
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action potential
impulse responsible for transmitting neural information and for communication between neurons
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receptor
specialized neural structure that responds to environmental stimuli, mechanical stimulation, or chemical stimuli
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Specificity coding
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Population coding
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Sparse coding
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# cortical organization
Phrenology
- idea that different parts of your brain are different parts of your personality
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Distributive representation
- characteristic of the brain in which looking at a face activates many areas
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Connectome
- structural description of the network of elements and connections forming the human brain
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Voxel
- small cube shaped area in the brain used in analyzing data from brain scanning experiments
