Chapter Two: Cognitive Neuroscience

Question 1

What is the neutron doctrine?

Answer 1

The idea that individual cells transmit information, not continuous with other cells (net theory)

Question 2

Cell body

Answer 2

Metabolic center of the neuron
Contains mechanisms to keep cell alive

Question 3

Dendrites

Answer 3

Branch out of cell body
Receive signals from other neurons.

Question 4

Axons

Answer 4

→ also called nerve fibres
→ long processes that transmit to other neurons

Question 5

Synapse

Answer 5

The gap between the end of an axon and the dendrites OR the cell body of another neuron.

Question 6

Neutrons outside of the brain

Answer 6

→ receptors
→ eye, skin, ear
→ specialized to pick up information from the environment

Question 7

Difference between brain and receptor neutrons

Answer 7

Receptor neutrons have an axon but specialized receptors to get information from the environment vs dendrites

Question 8

What did Ramon Cajal do?

Answer 8

→ Proposed neutron doctrine, synapses, and neural circuits by studying brain tissue of newborns
→ known as the person who made the cellular study of mental life possible.

• ask me to explain the terms *

Question 9

How did Edgar Adrian record a neutron?

Answer 9

→ Using microelectrodes- small glass shafts filled with conductive salt that pick up electrical signals at the electrode tip.

→ a recording electrode tip is placed inside a neuron and signal is compared to a reference electrode.

Question 10

What is the potential of an axon at rest?

Answer 10

• 70 millivolts

→ the axon has a charge that is negative 70 mv more negative then the outside

Question 11

What is a nerve impulse?

Answer 11

A neuron’s receptor is stimulated

Question 12

What is happening if a neuron is +40 millivolts?

Answer 12

The neutron has experienced nerve impulse followed by action potential

Question 13

Explain what is happening when someone applies pressure to your arm.

Answer 13

→ receptor neuron activation

→ environmental receptors take in information

→ signal, that retains shape, travels down axon

→ communicated from axon to receptor/ dendrite via synapse using neurotransmitters

→ the more pressure the more nerve firing Vs larger signal down axon

Question 14

Explain experience in terms of neurobiology

Answer 14

The rate of neural firing is related to the intensity of stimulation, which is related to the magnitude of an experience.