Cognitive Neuroscience Flashcards
Dualism
No, or very limited, relationship. Brain is physical, mind is non-physical
Reductionism
Mind is a by-product of brain processes, and irrelevant for understanding behaviour (e.g., exhaust from a car)
Dual-Aspect Theory
Two levels of description/investigation of the same thing
The Nervous System
Central Nervous System (CNS): brain and spinal cord
Peripheral Nervous System (PNS): everything else
What Are the Basic Parts of a Neuron?
Cell body: contains the nucleus and cellular machinery
Dendrites: detect incoming signals
Axon: transmits signals to other neuron’s; all or non
Cells of the Brain
EPSP: excitatory postsynaptic potential
IPSP: inhibitory postsynaptic potential
Cerebral Cortex
A thin covering on the outer surface of the forebrain; 3mm thick on average and makes up 50-80% of the human brain
Lobes in the Cerebral Cortex
Frontal, Temporal, Parietal, and Occipital
Frontal Lobe
the lobe of the brain in each cerebral hemisphere that includes the prefrontal area and the primary motor projection area
Temporal Lobe
The lobe of the cortex lying inward and down from the temples; in each cerebral hemisphere, includes the primary auditory projection area, Wernicke’s area, and, subcortically, the amygdala and hippocampus
Parietal Lobe
The lobe in each cerebral hemisphere that lies between the occipital and frontal lobes and that includes some of the primary sensory projection areas, as well as circuits that are crucial for the control of attention
Occipital Lobe
The rearmost lobe in each cerebral hemisphere, and the one that includes the primary visual projection area
Subcortical Structures
Thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala, and basal ganglia
Thalamus
Serves as a major relay and integration centre for sensory information
Hippocampus
Involved in the creation of long-term memory and spatial memory
Hypothalamus
Controls simple motivated behaviour such as eating, drinking, sexual activity, etc.)
Amygdala
Major processing centre for emotions
Basal Ganglia
Habitual behaviour
Functional Organization of the Brain: Sensory
Sensory
- Primary: first cortical receiving area of sensory input
- Secondary: further perceptual processing
Functional Organization of the Brain: Motor
Motor
- Primary: last cortical area before motor output
- Secondary: motor planning and control
How Does Lateralization Work?
Commissures: one of the thick bundles of fibres along with information is sent back and forth between the two cerebral hemispheres
What Does the Corpus Callosum Do?
Links the left and right cerebral hemispheres
How Have We Learned About the Mind/Brain
- Recording neurons (activity of groups of neurons, or action potentials)
- Lesion studies (animal and human)
- Contemporary approaches (EEG, fMRI, TMS)
What is Electrocorticography (ECoG)?
Invasively measuring electrical activity from large areas of the cortex
Benefits of Electrocorticography (ECoG)
- Direct measure of neural activity
- High spatial specificity; individual neurons or groups of neurons
- High temporal specificity; sub millisecond timing
Limitations of Electrocorticography (ECoG)
- Invasive; usually limited to non-human animals or surgical patients
- Often requires animal to be sacrificed
- Limited insight into large-scale network properties of the brain
Lesion Studies
If area X does Y, then damaging area X should impair Y; studies allow for stronger conclusions regarding functional specificity of a particular region
Benefits of Lesion Studies
- Can provide evidence for a causal role of brain area
- Can provide evidence for distinct neural systems: double association
Limitations of Lesion Studies
- Naturally-occurring lesions are rarely limited to individual brain area
- Functional reorganization through cortical plasticity, makes it difficult to draw conclusions about affected brain regions
What is Neuroimaging?
Non-invasive methods for examining either the structure or the activations pattern within a living brain
Structural Types of Neuroimaging
- Computerized axial tomography (CT) scans
- Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans
Functional Types of Neuroimaging
- Positron emission tomography (PET) scans
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
What Is a CT Scan?
A neuroimaging technique that uses X-rays to construct a precise three-dimensional image of the brain’s anatomy
What is a PET Scan?
A neuroimaging technique that determines how much glucose (the brain’s fuel) is being used by specific areas of the brain at a particular moment in time
What is an MRI Scan?
A neuroimaging technique that uses magnetic fields (created by radio waves) to construct a detailed three-dimensional representation of brain tissue (reveal the brain’s anatomy but much more precise than CT scans)
What is an fMRI Scan?
A neuroimaging technique that uses magnetic fields to construct a detailed three-dimensional representation of the activity levels in different areas of the brain at a particular moment in time
Benefits of fMRI
- Non-invasive
- Very good spatial resolution (mm precision)
Limitations of fMRI
- Expensive: $500/hr
- Poor temporal resolution
What is Electroencephalography (EEG)?
A recording of voltage changes occurring at the scalp that reflect activity in the brain underneath
Strengths and Weaknesses of EEG
- Very high temporal resolution (ms)
- Very low spatial resolution (not useful for localizing brain activity)
- Very noisy, can only observe large signals in raw EEG, like sleep waves (need lots of repeated measurement)
- Can only provide correlation data
What is Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)?
A technique in which a series of strong magnetic pulses at a specific location on the scalp causes temporary disruption in the brain region directly underneath the scalp area
What is Apraxias?
A disturbance in the capacity to initiate or organize voluntary action, often caused by brain damage
What is Agnosia?
A disturbance in a person’s ability to identify familiar objects
What is Aphasia?
A disruption to language capacities, often caused by brain damage
What is Unilateral Neglect Syndrome?
A pattern of symptoms in which affected individuals ignore all inputs coming from one side of space (e.g., individuals with this syndrome put only one of their arms into their jackets, eat food from only half of their plates, and read only half of words)
What are Neurons?
An individual cell within the nervous system
What are Glia?
A type of cell found in the CNS and play a key role in guiding the initial development of neural connections
What are Dendrites?
The part of a neuron that usually detects the incoming signal
What is an Axon?
The part of a neuron that typically transmits a signal away from the neuron’s cell body and carries the signal to another location
What is a Synapse?
The area that includes the presynaptic membrane of one neuron, the postsynaptic membrane of another neuron, and the tiny gap between them
PREsynaptic Membrane
The cell membrane of the neuron “sending” information across the synapse
POSTsynaptic membrane
The cell membrane of the neuron “receiving” information across the synapse
Neurotransmitter
One of the chemicals released by neurons to stimulate adjacent neurons
What is Action Potential?
The physical basis of the signal sent from one end of a neuron to the other; it usually triggers a further (chemical) signal to other neurons
