cognitive neuroscience Flashcards
what are the supporting cells of neurones?
glia cells and oligodendrites
what is essential for a well-functioning cell?
COMMUNICATION
what is the border between the cell and the outside world called?
membrane
what is an eukaryote?
an organism whose cells have a nucleus enclosed within membranes
what is a microtubule?
part of the cell that proteins can move along and transport a signal
what is the Cambrian revolution/explosion?
point in time when most major groups of animals appear in the follis record
before this most organisms were simple, composed of individual cells
what are the two ways in which neurones can communicate?
gap junctions
chemical synapses
are gap junctions or chemical synapses more energy intensive?
chemical synapses
how have neurones evolved to communicate?
chemical synapses
more energy intensive but allow for more complex communication
order of evolution from nervous system to humans
nervous system
land animals
mammals
humans
what is myelin?
isolation around the axons to stop action potentials from decaying due to electrical current leaking out through axonal membrane
why are mammals so successful?
they are endothermic
take longer to mature - allowing the development of more complex behaviour
what are the three types in the three brain theory?
reptilian
limbic
neocortex
what is the reptilian brain?
oldest evolutionarily
brainstem and cerebellum
controls the vital functions
e.g. body temp and heart rate
what is the limbic system?
made up of hippocampus, amygdala and hypothalamus
responsible for human emotions
can remember behaviours that received good and bad responses
what is the neocortex
newest evolutionarily
made up of cerebral hemispheres
responsible for human language, consciousness, abstract thought and imagination
what has allowed human culture
what are the three steps in evolution?
specialisation of the cell
specialisation of the organism
specialisation of the group
what element is inside the cell and what is outside?
sodium is outside
potassium is inside
what is ontogeny?
the development of one cell
what is phylogeny?
evolutionary development and diversification of a species
what are stem cells?
they are cells which are not specialised yet so can specialise into anything
what are neurotransmitters?
chemical messengers that transmit signals across chemical synapses and produce activation in the cell they’re sent to
what are some examples of neurotransmitters?
GABA glutamate adrenaline serotonin dopamine endorphins
what is the main excitatory neurotransmitter?
glutamate
what is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter?
GABA
what disease is associated with an imbalance of excitatory and inhibitory transmitters?
parkinson’s
what is acetylcholine important for?
activating movement
attention and memory
function of dopamine?
feelings of pleasure
associated with addiction
people repeat actions that produce dopamine
function of serotonin?
contributes towards well-being and happiness
helps sleep cycle and digestive system regulation
what affects serotonin levels?
light exposure
exercise
what part of the brain receives perceptual information first?
thalamus
what does the basal ganglia do?
facilitates movement and inhibits competing movements
what does the cerebellum do?
regulates motor movements
controls voluntary movements (e.g. posture and balance)
what functions cross in the brain?
i.e. are controlled in the left of brain but performed in right of body?
motor auditory perceptual visual (language is in left hemisphere for right handed people but not automatically the other way round in left handed people)
what are mirror neurones
neurones that fire both when you are performing the action and see the action being performed
what organelle has its own genetic material, independent from that of the nucleus?
mitochondria
What was Haeckel’s idea about development?
ontogeny repeats phylogeny
organisms develop like we evolved with the islets and evolutionarily old features developing first and newest/more complex features developing later
timeline of methods of cognitive neuroscience (6)
observation of brain lesion and resulting behavioural deficits linking deficits to pathology single cell recordings producing deficits in animals stimulation of the cortex neuroimaging
what was Franz Josef Gall’s idea about the brain called?
phrenology
what are the assumptions of phrenology?
human mental capacity is made of different separable functions
the functions can be localised in specific parts of the brain
the use of a function increases the size of the brain region
growth of a brain region leads to development of detectable lumps in the skull
What is Broca’s area?
brain region in frontal lobe associated with language production
what is cytoarchitecture?
looking at the cellular composition of central nervous system tissues under a microscope
what do classical neuroimaging methods actually measure and why?
blood flow
assuming that neurones activity = synapse activity = higher energy consumption = more blood flow
advantages of functional neuroimaging
study of brain function in living organisms
easy to visualise
popular with the media
can use experimental design to control
disadvantages of functional neuroimaging
indirect measure of activity
non-ecological conditions
what is white matter?
connections/myelin
what is grey matter?
nerve cells
what does anterior mean?
front
what does posterior mean?
back
what is associated with the anterior part of the spinal cord?
movement
what is associated with the posterior part of the spinal cord?
sensory
what does dysarthria mean?
slow/slurred speech
poorly articulated speech
what is melodic intonation therapy?
when patients lose speech, they can sometimes still sing
so they are told to sing sentences and learn to speak over time with less melody
distal vs proximal
distal = towards edge vs proximal = towards centre
dorsal vs ventral
dorsal = back or upper side vs ventral = front or lower side
rostral vs caudal
rostral = towards the head or face vs caudal = away from the head or towards the tail
cortical vs subcortical
cortical = surface of the brain vs subcortical = centre of brain
ipsilateral vs contralateral
ipsilateral = same side as something, vs contralateral = opposite side to something (need reference point for these to make sense)
what is cognitive neuropsychology?
the study of the structures and functions of the brain and how they relate to psychological processes
what is anosognosia?
when a patient doesn’t realise they have a problem
what is anosodiaphoria?
when a patient realises they have a problem but is indifferent to the severity of it
what is semantic dementia?
when patients can speak fluently but don’t know very common words
they take things very literally
they try to compensate for semantic memory loss with better episodic memory
