Chapter 6: Spatial Cognition and Attention

Question 1

intention

Answer 1

When used in contradistinction to attention, intention refers to the processes required to prepare for (or, sometimes, just to contemplate) performing an action.

Question 2

peripersonal space

Answer 2

The space surrounding one’s body that is within one’s grasp.

Question 3

extinction

Answer 3

A phenomenon often accompanying unilateral neglect, whereby a patient can be aware of a single object presented on her left, but will lose awareness of it if a second item is then presented on her right.

Question 4

blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD)

Answer 4

The signal most commonly detected by fMRI, measured via T2* relaxation.

Question 5

region of interest (ROI)

Answer 5

In neuroimaging, a region from which signal is extracted for analysis.

Question 6

voxels

Answer 6

A 3-D image element, the smallest unit of data in a PET or fMRI data set; 2-D “picture elements” having earned the nickname “pixel,” these “pixels with volume” have been dubbed “voxels.”

Question 7

lateral inhibition

Answer 7

When that activity of a neuron in area X inhibits the activity of other neurons in area X; i.e., the source of the inhibition is nether feedback nor feedforward, but “feed-sideways” / “feed-laterally”

Question 8

saccade

Answer 8

A French word for a fast eye movement that “jumps” from point A to point B, with “no interest” in what is between the two points. Saccadic eye movements differ from smooth-pursuit eye movements, in which the eye follows the movement of an object in the environment

Question 9

overt attention

Answer 9

Attention deployed toward an object or location by looking directly at it.