Cog and Bio Flashcards
what are the three directions in which we can slice the brain
horizontal (top-bottom), ventral (left-right) and sagittal (front-back)
functions of the frontal lobe
○ Movement
○ Personality
○ Impulse control
○ Judgement and planning
○ Involved in executive behaviour
functions of the occipital lobe
visual processing
temporal lobe
- High level visual processing in the inferior
- Object and face recognition in the inferior
Auditory cortex in the superior
- Object and face recognition in the inferior
parietal lobe
- Somatosensory perception
- Intersensory integration
- Spatial vision
- Spatial attention
If lesioned there can be visual neglect, only attending to what is processed
cerebellum
- Balance
- Motor planning
- Motor learning
Eye movement control
brain stem
- Breathing
- Heartbeat
- Artery dilation
Salivation
locations in the neuron and their functions
- Input zone - receives information from other
cells through dendrites- Integration zone - cell body transforms and
combines inputs - Conduction zone - a single axon leads away
from the cell body and transmits electrical
impulse - Output zone - axon terminals at the end
communicate activity to other cells
- Integration zone - cell body transforms and
describe the process of synaptic transmission
- The inside of the cell is more negatively charged than the outside
- The ion channels can enter the cells and change the charge of it
- Once it reaches the threshold for an action potential, there is an influx of positively charged ions (this is the action potential). And the neuron fires
- The pre synaptic neuron will send neurotransmitters across the cleft
- These bind to the post synaptic neuron
- We can have excitatory or inhibitory neurotransmitters
- These either make it closer to fire (more positive) or less likely to fire (more negative)
These will summate and may reach the threshold to fire.
how does an EEG work
- Records synchronised post synaptic activity or similarly oriented pyramidal cells
We record post rather than pre as this change lasts longer so has more time to summate and be detected
pros and cons of EEG
- Uses electrodes on the scalp
- High temporal resolution
- Lose spatial resolution
Relatively cheap
how does MEG work
- Measures changes in the magnetic field generated by the same neural populations with sensors
More sensitive to tangential dipoles
pros and cons of MEG
- High temporal resolution
- High spatial resolution
- Expensive
Must be done in a magnetically shielded room
time domain vs frequency domain
Time domain
- Tells us about changes in activity over time
- Often use ERP (event related potentials) by
Averaging many trials over a specific event
Frequency domain
- Tells us about the frequency content of the signal,
How much of a given frequency is present in the
Signal
or we can have time-frequency which is both teehee
when would you use an intercranial EEG
if the person already has or needs electrodes on the surface of the brain for medical reasons
how does MRI work
- When the body is in a strong magnetic field, a majority of H protons will line up parallel with the field creating a longitudinal net magnetisation vector
- Then energy is applied to the system
- Protons will get knocked into a different orientation
- Protons will start spin around their axis at the frequency of the pulse and thus in sync creating a transverse vector
- After the pulse protons return to their original orientation
- During this return, an electrical signal is induced
○ T1 recovery is for longitudinal magnetisation,T2 is for transverse
○ This return will take different amounts of time for different tissues
○ This is based on the density of H atoms and their molecular formula
We can use these pulse sequences to produce an echo and then generate an image
how do we measure brain activity with fMRI
- Blood flow increases to active brain regions, lots of oxygenated blood increases the oxygenated haemoglobin concentration
- oxygenated and deoxygenated blood have different magnetic properties
○ Oxy doesn’t distort the field, deoxy does, it will be brighter (this is seen on a T2 weighted image)
This is the blood oxygen level dependent (or BOLD) signal
- oxygenated and deoxygenated blood have different magnetic properties
analogous traits
traits shared as a result of convergent evolution
homologous traits
traits shared as a result of being related
what is ethology
the study of animals in their natural habitat
premise of behavioural ecology
- Denied consciousness and cognition in animals
- Say animal behaviour as just stimulus and response due to reward and punishment
Now we know it is stimulus, representations and then response
- Say animal behaviour as just stimulus and response due to reward and punishment
premise of the philosophy of mind
- Animals process information, but is this accompanied by subjective experience?
Computers have cognition but no conscience
examples of comparative psychologists
Darwin, Pavlov, Morgan, Skinner, Lorenz, Harlow, Terrace
anthropocentrism
regarding the world in terms of human values and experiences, e.g. Just because an animal uses a tool doesn’t mean they’re actually intelligent, and just because we can’t distinguish 1000’s of smells like a dog doesn’t mean we’re not intelligent