chapter two

Question 1

cognitive neuroscience

Answer 1

the study of the physiological basis of cognition

Question 2

neuron doctrine

Answer 2

the idea that individual cells transmit signals in the nervous system, and that these cells are not continuous with other cells

Question 3

cell body

Answer 3

area of metabollic activity that keeps the cell alive

Question 4

dendrites

Answer 4

receives signals from other neurons

Question 5

axon

Answer 5

transmits signal from one neuron to another

Question 6

synapse

Answer 6

the gap between the axon of one neuron and the dendrite of another neuron

Question 7

neural circuits

Answer 7

group of connected neurons

Question 8

resting potential

Answer 8

-70mV

Question 9

characteristics of an action potential

Answer 9

• resting potential is -70mV
• the threshold is -55mV
• unidirectional
• all or none
• firing rate reflects the intensity of the stimulus

Question 10

microelectrodes

Answer 10

small shafts of hollow glass filled with a conductive salt solution that can pick up electrical signals at the tip and send back to the recording devices

Question 11

feature detectors

Answer 11

neurons that respond to specific stimulus features such as orientation, movement and length

Question 12

experience-dependent plasticity

Answer 12

-phenomenon in which the structure of the brain is changed by experience
- feature detectors that respond to stimuli that one is exposed to will be plentiful
- feature detectors that respond to stimuli that one is not exposed to will be lost

Question 13

hierarchical processing

Answer 13

as the complexity of an object increases, higher areas of the brain are involved with its perception

Question 14

neurons in the visual cortex…

Answer 14

process simple stimuli (ie. oriented bars)

Question 15

neurons in the temporal lobe…

Answer 15

process complex visual stimuli (ie. hands and faces)

Question 16

sensory coding

Answer 16

refers to how neurons represent various characteristics of the environment

Question 17

specificity coding

Answer 17

representation of an object based on the neural firing of a specialized neuron that responds to only that object

Question 18

population coding

Answer 18

representation of an object by pattern of neural firing from large group of neurons

Question 19

sparse coding

Answer 19

representation of an object by pattern of neural firing from a small group of neurons

Question 20

localized representation

Answer 20

activity in a specific part of the brain is associated with a function

Question 21

double dissociation

Answer 21

damage to one part of the brain results in impaired function A and intact function B, and damage to another part of the brain causes intact function A and impaired function B

Question 22

frontal lobe

Answer 22

• thinking, problem solving
• coordinate sense

Question 23

parietal lobe

Answer 23

• somatosensory cortex
• touch perception
• pressure and pain

Question 24

temporal lobe

Answer 24

• auditory cortex
• hearing
• fusiform face area
• processing complex visual stimuli

Question 25

occipital lobe

Answer 25

• visual cortex
• visual

Question 26

wernicke’s area

Answer 26

are of the brain for speech comprehension

Question 27

broca’s area

Answer 27

area of the brain for speech production

Question 28

prosopagnosia

Answer 28

• damage to the fusiform face area (impaired facial recognition)

Question 29

distributed representation

Answer 29

activity in multiple areas of the brain is associated with a function (ie. face processing, remembering, production/comprehension of speech)

Question 30

default mode network (DMN)

Answer 30

• a natural network that is active when one is not engaged in a task
• activity associated with mind wandering
• might be involved with attention, memory and creativity