Cognitive Neuroscience

Question 1

Cognitive neuroscience

Answer 1

• Investigates the neural mechanisms underlying all cognitive processes
  → trying to link human mind to brain

Question 2

Cognitive neuropsychology

Answer 2

• Focuses on mental processes with an emphasis on studying the cognitive effects of brain injury or neurological illness

Question 3

Clinical observations

Answer 3

• Measure and record effects of brain damage / diseases
• relate damaged area to lost / disrupted function

Question 4

Electrical stimulation of brain (manipulation)

Answer 4

• Map effects to brain regions using electrodes

Question 5

Lesions (manipulation)

Answer 5

• Surgical destruction of tissue
  → ie. Lobotomy

Question 6

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) (manipulation)

Answer 6

• Magnetic coil placed beside head
• pulse disrupts neural activity (temporarily)
• relates disrupted function to location

Question 7

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

Answer 7

• Measures event-related potentials (ERPs) produced by large numbers of neurons
• intra / extracellular recordings: measure activity of a single neuron using microelectrodes

Question 8

PET scan (brain imaging)

Answer 8

• Uses radioactive form of glucose (what brain uses for energy)
• X-rays cause positrons to be emitted
• shows metabolic (neuron) activity
• not extremely precise

Question 9

fMRI (brain imaging)

Answer 9

• Hemoglobin (carries oxygen in the blood) has magnetic properties; more active neurons require more oxygen
• magnetic field aligns magnetic molecules and a radio wave pulse disorients them
  → once realigned, protons emit radio waves that can be measured (metabolic activity)

Question 10

Subtraction technique (brain imaging)

Answer 10

• Compares activity between two conditions
  → activity produced in control / baseline condition is subtracted from the activity produced in experimental condition
• results show the difference due to experimental manipulation

Question 11

Pros and cons of brain imaging

Answer 11

Pros:
- can correlate active area with function
- neurodiagnosis

Cons:
- can only correlate active area with function (not causation)
- some “evidence” contains irrelevant neuroscience jargon

Question 12

Hindbrain

Answer 12

• Cerebellum: planning, timing, and coordination of voluntary movements
• pons: sleep stages, arousal, consciousness
• medulla oblongata: cardioresperatory function

Question 13

Midbrain

Answer 13

• Superior and inferior colliculi: process visual and auditory information (respectively)
• reticular formation: attention, sleep and arousal, reflexes
• motor function

Question 14

Forebrain

Answer 14

• Thalamus: relay station of incoming sensory information
• hypothalamus: mediator between brain and endocrine system (regulates bodily functioning)
• limbic system: hippocampus, amygdala, septum
• basal ganglia: controlling voluntary movements
• cerebral cortex

Question 15

Cerebral cortex

Answer 15

• Higher order functioning (language, problem-solving, navigation, decision-making)
• gyrus: ridge between anatomical grooves in the cerebral cortex (increase surface area)
• sulcus: small groove in the cortex
• 2 hemispheres, 4 lobes

Question 16

Frontal lobe

Answer 16

• Executive function
• contains motor cortex
• involved in planning, coordinating and controlling behaviour
• emotional control and judgement

Question 17

Parietal lobe

Answer 17

• Contains somatosensory cortex (bodily senses)
• handles spatial information and sense of self

Question 18

Temporal lobe

Answer 18

• Contains audio cortex
• plays role in audio processing, language vision, memory formation and object categorization

Question 19

Occipital lobe

Answer 19

• Contains visual cortex
• handles visuospatial processing, colour, and motion perception

Question 20

Broca’s aphasia

Answer 20

• Impaired speech
  → problems forming sentences (spoken, written, signed)
• comprehension relatively normal but may be affected
• caused by damage in left frontal lobe

Question 21

Wernieke’s aphasia

Answer 21

• Primarily a comprehension problem
• lack of awareness that speech is incomprehensible
• sentences may be fluent and grammatical but is word salad (gibberish)
• caused by damage in the left temporal lobe

Question 22

Conduction aphasia

Answer 22

• Can comprehend language
• have fluent speech but show paraphasic errors (unintended sounds)
• cannot repeat heard words; oral reading may also be poor

Question 23

Angular gyrus

Answer 23

• Recodes visual information into auditory form
• damage causes breakdown in reading

Question 24

Split-brain syndrome

Answer 24

• brain has many connections
• information shared across hemispheres via corpus callosum
  → when corpus callosum is surgically severed it results in split-brain syndrome (two independent brain hemispheres)
• left hemisphere: speech and analysis
• right hemisphere: identifying faces, handling emotions, perceptual / spatial tasks

Question 25

Neurogenesis

Answer 25

- Creation of new neurons in an adult brain from adult stem cells - new neurons have been implicated in memory formation

Question 26

Neuroplasticity

Answer 26

- Modifications to structure and function of neural networks due to changes in neurons and their connections - occurs in childhood after pruning - plasticity in the visual cortex is experience-dependent (visual experience during critical period) - connections can continue to change in adult brains throughout the lifespan (frequency = stronger, synaptogenesis)