Cognitive Neuroscience Flashcards
Cognitive neuroscience
involves study of physiological basis of cognition
- nervous system + individual units
Nerve net
interconnections of neurons in a highway type of format making it a continuous network
Neuron doctrine
the idea that individual nerve cells with GAPS between them transmit the signals (aren’t continuous with other cells)
Neurons
cells specialized to create, receive, and transmit information in the nervous system through electrical and chemical means
Cell body
like the eyeball body of the neuron ykwim keeping the cell alive that main ball part
axon
the stringy thing protruding from the cell body filled with fluid that transmits electrical signals to other neurons
TRANSMITTING INFO
dendrites
multiple branches from the cell body RECEIVING INFORMATION from other neurons
RECEIVING INFO
Action potential
- no big or small - fires or it doesn’t!
- electrical impulse used for signalling purposes
Microelectrodes
placed near axon and pick up electrical signal
Low intensity action potentials
slow firing
High intensity
Rapid firing
synapse
space between axon of one neuron and dendrite of other neuron
Feature detectors
neurons taht only fire for a particular “favourite stimulus”
- tune themselves based on what’s in environment
Cats raised in tubes with ONLY vertical lines didn’t have feature detectors for horizontal lines -> nothing fires when they see horizontal lines
Eg: i know damn well i have feature detectors that fire when i see sanemi hes sooooo 😍 😍 😍 LIKE i have feature detectors for the curved lines of his chest and the lines of his scars, not his whole being, I have SPECIFICITY CODING FOR THAT!!!
Experience dependent plasticity
brain anticipates what stimuli it has to prepare for in the future
Feature detectors
neurons tuned to respond in specific low-level stimulus properties
- Okay i know i joke about having feature detectors for sanemi but low key he’s too complex for me too loll
- feature detectors -> respond to lines and shapes simple things
Hierarchical processing
the way your brain ascends from lower (simple) to higher levels of the brain when perceiving an object
- you perceive the most simple forms first, before making your way up to seeing/perceiving the whole picture
Mirror neurons
the neurons responsible for monkey see monkey do
- specialized for emulating what other people are experiencing, doing, feeling
- fire when you watch someone do an action AND when you do the action yourself wow -> evolutionary adaptation -> preheat the oven; pre-learn an activity
empathy is likely due to what type of neurons
mirror
Specificity coding
representation of a specific stimulus by firing of specifically tuned neurons specialized to respond to specific stimulus
- specific neurons for specific people!??!?!?
- okay I definitely have special neuron for sanemi
Specificity coding
representation of a specific stimulus by firing of specifically tuned neurons specialized to respond to specific stimulus
- okay I definitely have special neuron for sanemi
Population coding
Representation of a PARTICULAR object by the pattern of firing of large number of neurons
- same neurons fire for detecting a human face but at different rates depending on WHO it is
sparse coding
when a particular object is represented by a pattern of firing of only a SMALLER (sparse) group of neurons while the others mostly remain silent
Differences in coding/types of representation by neural firing:
feature detectors
specificity coding
population coding
Sparse coding
feature detectors - neurons for specific SIMPLE stimuli like lines
specificity coding - single specific neurons for specific stimulus (like specific neuron for specific person)
population coding - a large group of neurons fire in different patterns for different stimuli/objects (same neurons fire for detecting human but different pattern depending on who)
sparse coding - a small group of neurons fire in different patters for different stimuli/objects while the other neurons remain mostly silent
Localization of function
the idea that specific functions are served by particular areas of the brain
Eg: occipital lobe FOR visual input
Hierarchial processing elaboration: seeing jewels
see lines of jewels -> see shapes of jewels -> see jewels cute cat face -> recognize that this is my cat jewels
occipital lobe -> frontal lobe/top parts of the brain
-> get the visual information -> then identify what this visual information IS -> make sense of what this is
Cerebral cortex
casing of brain - 3 mm layer that covers brain - contains mechanisms responsible for most of our COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS
where is Broca’s area located (lobe) and what does it do
frontal lobe
forming and speaking words
where is Wernicke’s area (what lobe) and what is it responsible for
temporal lobe
comprehending language
Double dissociations
when damage to one part of the brain causes one function to be impaired while another function is maintained
And vice versa (the inverse) when that other part of the brain is damaged
- basically the idea that some parts of the brain are ONLY responsible for certain functions, and not others
- if one part of the brain is damaged, that part’s corresponding specific function won’t work, but other functions related to undamaged parts still work
- confusing for no reason istg
the presence of double associations prove _______
localization of function