Cognitive Neuroscience

Question 1

Balint’s syndrome

Answer 1

Bilateral parietal lesions resulting in a triad of simultagnosia (inability to perceive the visual field as a whole), occulomotor apraxia (difficulty fixating the eyes) and optic ataxia (inability to move the hand to a specific object using vision). Patients are often unaware of their deficits.

Question 2

Simultagnosia

Answer 2

Difficulty fixating eyes and inability to see the scene as a whole, only seeing individual components.

Question 3

Occulomotor apraxia

Answer 3

Inability to voluntarily move the eyes (or re-fixate) to a new point of interest.

Question 4

Temporal lobe lesions cause problems with:

Answer 4

object identification (what) - agnosia

Question 5

Parietal lobe lesions cause problems with:

Answer 5

spatial perception (where) - aphasia

Question 6

Which parietal hemisphere is particularly important for visuo-spatial attention?

Answer 6

The right parietal hemisphere.

Question 7

Inhibition of return (IOR)

Answer 7

When attention to a location briefly enhances (100-300ms) the detection of a target but then impairs detection speed and accuracy (500-3000ms). Is shown in both auditory and visual stimuli but stronger in vision.