...Chapter 2: Methods

Question 1

What is a stimulus onset asynchrony?

Answer 1

time it takes for one stimulus to end and antoher to start (Stimulus onset asynchrony is when you get AA then AB then Aa your faster at trials that are similar ei all capital letters. It’s harder to tell that Aa is also the same and not different.)

Question 2

What is the Stroop effect? What does it tell us about how we process information?

Answer 2

The troop task is when you get a list of colours written out in different coulis then what the word is. Ie. red in a green font. The you have to say the colour. This tells us that we process info in algorithms ????

Question 3

How is multitasking related to cognitive bottlenecks?

Answer 3

In general we can’t multitask. When were presented with two tasks, we’ll bottle neck and preform one of the tasks first and then the second one after, we can’t do them both at the same time therefore we’re unable to multitask

Question 4

What is direct electrical stimulation (duh)? How can this be used for cognitive neuroscience research? What are some limitations and/or restrictions of this method?

Answer 4

direct electrical stimulation is when you direct a burst of electric at a spot in the brain to stimulate the neurons, direct cranial stimulation. Can use this to try to get a vague idea of what’s happening, the ptways of neurons. This is however time sensitive, and the patient can’t move since their under anesttics.

Question 5

Who is Wilder Penfield?

Answer 5

neurosurgeon who stimulated different areas of patients brains to find the origin of seizures, as he went along he asked them to report their experience of it. was later able to infer dif funstions.

Question 6

What is single-cell recording, and how was it used to identify receptive fields and topographical representations in the visual system? What is an advantage of multielectrode arrays?

Answer 6

single cell recording is when they use a thin electrode and place it into the brain and use it to record neutrons that are being stimulated. All neutrons have a base firing rate so the single electrode just detects the difference between the base and the stimulated firing rate. These can make patters, and single can detect if the patterns are common in different circumstances. This was used to see captive fields. Multielectode arrays is when you add electrodes to the top of the cwire. This allows you to get a broader field of what’s happening with the stimulation so you can see the change between brain layers in the same region. (howevver very limited don;t know if that cell is actually important)

Question 7

What is the difference between intra- and extracellular recording of neuronal activity?

Answer 7

either intracellular electrodes for just one neutron (it pierces it) or extracellular electrodes which are placed adjacent and pick up many signals

Question 8

What is the logic of lesion studies?

Answer 8

lessons studies are useful to see what happens if you lose an area. You might hypothesis that the one area is the only place for say place storage but with a lesion at that area you might find out your wrong.

Question 9

What is a disadvantage of using stroke patients for research?

Answer 9

not even stoke is the same. Strokes happen in broadly different area so the effects of a stroke can be different across all the patients you test.

Question 10

What are some factors that should be controlled for when doing neurology research?

Answer 10

age, gender, IQ level, meds (because there might be certain side effects like cognitive forgetfulness)

Question 11

Why are some researchers wary of group data when testing patients?

Answer 11

Because it can be too generalizing and therefore hind an interning effect that you’d find with just studying individuals. too much variability

Question 12

What is a single dissociation? What is a double dissociation?

Answer 12

Single dissociation is when the control group and the patient group preform diffrently. Double Dissoc is when group 1 diffident in task A but not group 2 and group 2 if diffident in task B but group one isn’t

Question 13

What is a sham control group?

Answer 13

a sham control group is when you mimic the actual experiment but just don;t administer the treatment (do the entire operation, you just don’t end up stimulating the brain or lesioning )

Question 14

What chemical created accidental Parkinsonian symptoms? How can this end up benefiting cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 14

MPPP—>MPTP chem students wanted a high but wound up producing parkinson type symptoms. (for a temporary chemical lesion you can use AMPT)

Question 15

How does transcranial magnetic stimulation lead to increased neuronal activity? How does it lead to decreased neuronal activity?

Answer 15

TMS is reversible temporary lesions . A rapidly changing magnetic field is passed through coils. If its a strong magnetic stimulus to shuts down the brain for up to 30min (disrupts processing), a weak stimulus though will excite the brain.

Question 16

How would using repetitive TMS vs. single-shot TMS alter your research task?

Answer 16

Can do repetivve where you do a bunch of pulses over a period or just a single shot. Wth repetitive there’s lengthy changes in activity so can then run behavioural tests. With single you can do just a single burst (right before the stimulus possibly) and then see how that

Question 17

What are some advantages of using transcranial magnetic stimulation to create temporary lesions?

Answer 17

TMS is completely temporary, its safe to use and you can repetivly do it again. Unlike most lesion study’s this is reversible non invasive and can safely be used on humans which is huge. It’s cheep and you can do within subject design too. However, you can;r kill/stain the brain, it can hurt a bit and it’s got poor spacial rsolution.

Question 18

What is the Human Genome Project?

Answer 18

he human genome project is a project designed to map out the complete human genome. This has been successfully completed and we have a complete map on all the genes in the human body, however we still do not know the function of a lot of these

Question 19

Describe optogenetics.

Answer 19

optogentics: when you extract photopythetic cells from DNA of algae and inject it into the cells of the rat. These cells are noe photosensitive and will be activated with light. The light is on the rat eats, the light shuts off the rat stops eating cause he was full. Add ion channels that open or close in response to a particular wavelength of light into neurons of interest.

Question 20

How do researchers manipulate the genetics of research animals to test theories?

Answer 20

Researchers can insert and modify genes with deleting, mutations etc. Then they measure the behaviour and can see if their theories about what the genes were used for are correct.

Question 21

What are knock outs?

Answer 21

Knock outs are when you delete a gene from a gene sequence. This changes how the gene is expressed. This alters neural development. For example with dopamine the gene COMT is important. Kind of like a lesion

Question 22

List two types of structural scans; list four types of functional scans.

Answer 22

Structural Scans, picture: (CT, MRI…DTI) Functional Scans, brain activity: (fMRI, PET, EEG, ERP, MEG)

Question 23

Describe how CT scans work.

Answer 23

CT scans, basically a brain x-ray that takes a bunch of pictures of your brain then puts them all together. The x-ray beam is affected by brain desists, more dense=slower. All the scans are averaged together, dense areas are darker.

Question 24

Describe how MRI works.

Answer 24

Magnetic resonance imaging, it uses radio waves stimulate hydrogen nuclei into omitting a signal. Hydrogen ions all point one way, then radio wave gets sent and they scatter, they absorb then release NRG and this the release of NRG can be meaured.