Cognitive Neuroscience

Question 1

What is neuropsychology?

Answer 1

Studies behavior of people with brain damage

Question 2

What is Electrophysiology?

Answer 2

Studies electrical responses of the nervous system including brain neurons

Question 3

What is cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 3

The study of the physiological basis of cognition

Question 4

Levels of analysis

Answer 4

We look at topics of interest from many different perspectives. Each viewpoint adds small amounts that when added together create a greater understanding

Question 5

What are neurons?

Answer 5

Cells specialized to create, receive, and transmit information to the NS

Question 6

Parts of the neuron

Answer 6

Dendrites, cell body (SOMA), and an axon

Question 7

Cell body

Answer 7

Has mechanisms to keep the cell alive

Question 8

Dendrites

Answer 8

Multiple branches that RECEIVE information from other neurons

Question 9

Axon

Answer 9

Tube filled with fluid that SENDS electrical signal to other neurons

Question 10

Action potential

Answer 10

Neuron receives signal and info travels down the axon to be sent to another neuron

Question 11

How to measure action potential

Answer 11

Through a microelectrode

Question 12

What is a microelectrode?

Answer 12

A receptor that measures action potentials in nerves. Placed near the axon

Question 13

Measuring Action Potential

Answer 13

Size is not measured, it remains constant

Question 14

What is measured during AP?

Answer 14

Rate of firing
Low intensity: slow firing
High Intensity: fast firing

Question 15

What is the synapse?

Answer 15

The space between the axon of a neuron and a dendrite of another neuron

Question 16

When the Action potential reaches the end of an axon, ____________

Answer 16

synaptic vesicles open and release chemical neurotransmitters

Question 17

What are neurotransmitters?

Answer 17

chemicals that affect the electrical signal of the receiving neuron

Question 18

Excitatory

Answer 18

INCREASES chance neuron will fire

Question 19

Inhibitory

Answer 19

DECREASES chance neuron will fire

Question 20

Action potential results only if the _______ is reached

Answer 20

Threshold level

Question 21

What is threshold level?

Answer 21

Interaction of excitation and inhibition

Question 22

Definition of the mind

Answer 22

A system that creates representations of the world, so that we can act on it to achieve goals

Question 23

Principle of neuronal representation

Answer 23

Everything a person experiences is based on representations in the person’s NS; Vision example

Question 24

What did Hubel and Wiesel bring to the psych world?

Answer 24

Researched vision stimulus with cats; discovered feature detectors

Question 25

What are feature detectors?

Answer 25

Neurons that respond best to a specific stimulus

Question 26

The stimulus for vision is ________

Answer 26

Light

Question 27

What did Hubel & Wiesel conclude?

Answer 27

Different neurons would respond to different orientations; different neurons respond to vertical stimuli, while others respond to horizontal stimuli.

Question 28

If you did not have vertical line detectors, ________

Answer 28

You would not be able to see and recognize vertical lines

Question 29

What is experience-dependent plasticity?

Answer 29

The brain changes with experiment

Question 30

Kittens exposed to vertical-only stimuli over time___________

Answer 30

Could only perceive verticals in normal stimulus

Question 31

A man losing the ability to walk learning to walk again through a separate part of the brain is an example of _________?

Answer 31

Experience-dependent plasticity

Question 32

What did the kitten-vertical line experiment demonstrate?

Answer 32

demonstrated that perception is determined by neurons that fire to specific qualities of a stimulus

Question 33

What is Hierarchical Processing

Answer 33

When we perceive different objects, we do so in a specific order that moves from lower to higher areas of the brain.

Question 34

What is specificity coding?

Answer 34

Representation of a stimulus by the firing of specifically tuned neurons specialized to respond only to a specific stimulus; NOT USED

Question 35

What is population coding?

Answer 35

Representation of a stimulus by the pattern of firing of a large number of neurons

Question 36

What is sparse coding?

Answer 36

Representation of a stimulus by a pattern of firing only a small group of neurons

Question 37

Is specificity coding, population coding, or sparse coding the accurate coding?

Answer 37

Population and/or sparse

Question 38

What is localization function?

Answer 38

Specific functions are served by specific areas of the brain

Question 39

What is the cerebral cortex?

Answer 39

3-mm-thick layer that contains the mechanisms responsible for most cognitive functions

Question 40

Occipital lobe functions

Answer 40

Vision (lower level)

Question 41

Parietal lobe functions

Answer 41

Somatosensory cortex (touch, pain, pressure) and spatial awareness (orientation, recognition, attention)

Question 42

Temporal lobe function

Answer 42

Hearing, smell, speech, memory

Question 43

Frontal lobe functions

Answer 43

Primary motor cortex, personality, speech, emotion, decision making, recognition,

Question 44

Broca's Area

Answer 44

Produces language; in left hemisphere of frontal lobe

Question 45

Wernicke's Area

Answer 45

Language comprehension; in the left hemisphere of the temporal lobe

Question 46

Example of Broca's Aphasia

Answer 46

Patients know what they want to say but can't get it out; "Tip of the tongue"

Question 47

Example of Wernicke's Aphasia

Answer 47

Patients cannot comprehend what they are trying to say; "Word salad"

Question 48

How do we know about certain area functions?

Answer 48

Brain imaging

Question 49

What is the most common form of brain imaging?

Answer 49

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and

Question 50

What does an fMRI do?

Answer 50

Measures neural activity by identifying highly oxygenated hemoglobin molecules

Question 51

What is fusiform face area (FFA)?

Answer 51

Responds specifically to faces

Question 52

What happens when the FFA is damaged?

Answer 52

Prosopagnosia (inability to recognize faces)

Question 53

What is the Parahippocampal Place Area (PPA)?

Answer 53

Responds specifically to places (indoor/outdoor scenes)

Question 54

What is the Extrastriate Body Area (EBA)?

Answer 54

Responds specifically to pictures of bodies and parts of bodies

Question 55

What is the central principle of cognition?

Answer 55

Most of our experience is multidimensional; we use different parts of the brain to decipher events

Question 56

What is Distributed Representation?

Answer 56

A specific cognition activates many areas of the brain; distributed across the brain

Question 57

Neuronal Networks

Answer 57

Interconnected areas of the brain that communicate with each other

Question 58

What is connectome?

Answer 58

Structural description of the network of elements and connections forming the human brain

Question 59

Structural connectivity

Answer 59

What connects to what; "Wiring Diagrams"

Question 60

How unique are structural connectivities?

Answer 60

They are unique to each person and change over time

Question 61

Functional connectivity

Answer 61

How groups of neurons within a connectome function compared to types of cognition

Question 62

What are the six common functions determined by resting-state fMRI?

Answer 62

Visual, Somato-motor, Dorsal Attention, Executive Control, Salience, Default Mode

Question 63

Dorsal Attention

Answer 63

Attention to visual stimuli and spatial locations

Question 64

Salience

Answer 64

Survival-relevant events in an environment

Question 65

Somato-motor

Answer 65

Movement and Touch

Question 66

Default Mode

Answer 66

Mind Wandering; not oriented towards a task

Question 67

Executive Control

Answer 67

Higher-order functions and thinking

Question 68

Dynamics of cognition

Answer 68

The flow and activity within and across the brain's functional networks change based on conditions