Cognitive Neuroscience and Visual Perception Flashcards
What is Capgras Syndrome?
Capgrass syndrome is when a person can recognize a loved one but cannot the emotional connection to them.
Why does Capgras Syndrome happen?
In the brain, we have two routes: Dorsal and Ventral route.
The Ventral route is the route that allows us to recognize people whereas the Dorsal route is the one that gives an emotional response.
Capgras Syndrome happens when the Dorsal route was damaged.
Spinal Cord
basic life functions
Cerebellum
Spatial reasoning and coordination
Midbrain
Coordinates movement (especially small movements),
Regulates pain
Relates auditory information for further processing
Cerebral Cortex
Composed by
Corpus Callosum
Hypothalamus
Dura mater
Who was the scientist that was able to see the neurons on brain tissue?
And how?
Ramon y Cajal used Golgi stains which involved to put silver on the tissue to highlight.
This allowed him to clearly see the neurons and showed that it wasn’t a continuous pathway but rather a structure of neurons.
Name 4 components of a neuron’s structure.
Cell body
Dendrites
Axon
Axon terminal
Cell body
Mechanism that keeps the neuron alive
Dendrites
Receives signals from other neurons
Axon
Nerve fiber that transmits signal to other neurons
Axon terminal
Releases neurotransmitters to the synapse to transmit the signal to the next neuron.
Synapse
The gap between two neurons.
Who developed a way to record electrical activity directly from neurons?
Edgar Adrian
How did Edgar Adrian measure the electrical activity in a neuron?
He measured the difference in charge between the recording electrode and the reference electrode.
Note that this difference in charge exists since when a neuron is at rest it is negatively charged inside and positively charged outside.
What is an action potential?
An electrical signal that is transmitted down the axon and the difference in charge shoots up.
Notice: All this happens in a millisecond
True or False
The action potential changes depending on the intensity of the stimulus.
False
The action potential is always the same. On the other hand, the frequency at which the neuron fires changes to indicate the intensity of the stimulus.
What happens at the synapse?
If a neuron is sufficiently stimulated it produces enough action potentials that it will release neurotransmitters which serve as chemical signals that allow the neurons to communicate with each other.
Once the neurotransmitters are released, they are caught by the postsynaptic membrane. If enough neurotransmitters are received, this will cause the charge of the receiving neuron to change and so fire.
True or False
The neurotransmitters change
True
True or False
Specific functions are served by specific areas of the brain
True
Temporal lobe
Auditory receiving area
Occipital lobe
Visual receiving area
Parietal lobe
Skin receiving area
Frontal lobe
Most complex functions, information from all senses to combine them.
Prosopagnosia
Impaired face recognition
If you injure Broca’s area you get Broca’s aphasia, what does this mean?
Understanding of language but difficulty speaking.
If you injure Wernicke’s area you get Wernicke’s aphasia, what does this mean?
You will be able to speak but you will have difficulty understanding.
Would a patient with Broca’s Aphasia have trouble understanding the following sentence?
The boy was pushed by the girl
Yes, they will not be able to understand who pushed who. They have problems understanding “by”
