Cognitive Neuroscience Flashcards
What does the corpus callosum do?
Attaches the left and right hemispheres of the brain
What is the left hemisphere dominant for?
Verbal processing
What is the right hemisphere dominant for?
Visual processing
What did René Descartes theory?
We are reflexive organisms and most human behavior can be explained from biological processes
Who is Phineas Gage?
A guy who has a rod shoot through his front skull. His whole personality changed to a crude guy.
What happened to P.Broca?
Damage to left frontal gyrus, lost ability to produce fluent grammatical sentences
What happened to C.Wernicke?
Damage to left superior temporal gyrus, lost ability to produce meaningful sentences
What do Broca and Wernicke’s injuries prove?
They are an example of double dissociation and that parts of the brain work independently
What is a receptive field?
An area in space that a cell responds to, tuned to specific stimulus
What do CT scans and MRI’s scan?
The different densities in the brain
What do EEG’s scan?
Very good at scanning electrical activity generated by the brain. We can quantify brainwaves and event related potentials
What do MEG’s scan?
Magnetic fields generated by the brain. Can quantify brain oscillations.
What do PET scans measure?
They follow blood flow to active brain areas
