Definitions Flashcards
magnocellular ganglion cells
Retinal ganglion that are sensitive to peripheral motion and location. They are an initial part of the dorsal stream
parvocellular ganglion cells
Retinal ganglion sensitive to fine details and color that primarily encode from the central areas of the visual field. Part of the ventral stream, these ganglion are more recently evolved and smaller than magnocellular ganglion.
calcarine fissure
A sulcus located in the caudal portion of the midbrain. The location of the primary visual cortex (V1). The cortex associated with the central visual field is in the posterior area of the sulcus and the cortex associated with the peripheral visual field in the anterior.
Separates the occipital lobe. Visual cortex consists of cortex that lies on either side
biological motion
Motion caused by an organism. We perceive and interpret biological motion from others based on our experiences. This can include recognizing gestures, expressions, attending to another person’s gaze. Perceiving and processing biological motion of others is involved in the theory of mind.
allocentric frame of reference
One of the mental representations of the physical relationships between objects. An allocentric frame of reference involves relating multiple objects to each other. Instead of relating all percepts to a single perceiver, allocentric frames are cognitive representations of varied and multifaceted relationships between objects (e.g. x is near y and y is far from z which is on top of a).
egocentric frame of reference
In an egocentric frame of reference, all objects/stimuli are perceived in relation to a single object (e.g. x is close to y, z is far from y, a is beside y). Egocentric neglect (perceptual difficulty understanding one’s own relationships to all other objects) is most frequently due to right hemispheric parietal damage.
medial geniculate nuclei
An area of the thalamus that participates in the auditory pathway. Receives auditory information from inferior colliculi and routes it to primary and secondary auditory cortices.
Thalamic processing center for the auditory pathway
lateral geniculate nuclei
a relay center in the thalamus for the visual pathway. Receives information from the eye and sends axons to the primary visual cortex.
apperceptive agnosia
Abnormality in visual perception and discriminative process despite the absence of elementary visual deficits. Unable to form a percept, or differentiate it, or recognize it. Unable to recognize objects, draw, or copy a figure. They cannot perceive correct forms of the object, although knowledge of the object is intact.
associative agnosia
Difficulty understanding the meaning of what they are seeing. Can perceive, recognize, recreate, differentiate, but unable to associate it (from simple to complex) to some meaning; no semantic associations. Can copy and describe the item, just can’t label it
agnosia
Inability to interpret sensations and thus recognize objects in a specific modality that cannot be explained by other things such as memory, language problems, attention deficits, etc.
chereme
gestural phoneme used in sign language. The smallest unit of gesture that has meaning. Equivalent to a phoneme in speech.
morpheme
A basic unit of meaning within words. Can not be further broken down into meaningful elements.
pragmatics
the socially appropriate use of language, rules of social language. A functional aspect of language.
discourse processing
The ability to go beyond the single sentence; using cognitive processes to build meaning out of linguistic events and make connections within and across linguistic contexts (e.g., manipulation of lexical semantic operations, organization and monitoring of information, and inferring implied meanings; activation of information from memory).
arcuate fasciculus
large nerve fiber tract in the brain that connects the Broca with Wernicke cortices; In individuals w conductive aphasia (cannot repeat what was heard) the arcuate fasciculus is severed or damaged
holophrases
use of a single word to represent a complex idea (e.g., an infant says “go” to mean “I want to leave”).
working memory
Multicomponent system that temporarily holds and manipulates information received from both hemispheres (visual and auditory). WM involves the phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, episodic buffer, and the central executive which integrates all three components.
explicit memory system
allows conscious recollection of prior experiences
implicit memory system
allows prior experience to affect behavior without the need for conscious retrieval of memory or awareness
declarative memory
explicit memory that can be used flexibly (not needed to be linked to the situation in which it was acquired); events and facts that we can talk about or think about (“I know” system); includes episodic and semantic memory
procedural memory
Long term memory involving how to perform certain skills and tasks. It is the type of memory that allows us to do certain things like driving a car, riding a bike or tying our shoes.
episodic memory
memory of a collection of perceptions of events organized in time and identified by a particular context.
semantic memory
a memory of facts and general information. This is the memory that is concept and facts based knowledge.
nucleus accumbens
A nucleus of the basal forebrain near the septum; receives dopamine-secreting terminal buttons from neurons of the ventral tegmental area and is thought to be involved in reinforcement and attention.
amygdala
a structure in the interior of the rostral temporal lobe, containing a set of nuclei; part of the limbic system. Involved in the emotions and the fight or flight response.
retrograde amnesia
amnesia for events that preceded some disturbance to the brain(therefore preceded the amnesia).
anterograde amnesia
amnesia for events that occur after some disturbance to the brain, such as head injury or certain degenerative brain diseases.
vigilance
ability to sustain attention (i.e., maintain alertness) until a task is completed; vigilance plays an important role in multi-step operations (e.g., difficulties maintaining vigilance can result in a “short” attention span)
frontal eye-fields
“Portion of dorsal premotor regions; controls the voluntary execution of eye movements.” (from text)
selective attention
the ability to attend to one task while ignoring others; a filtering process that allows us to avoid distractions and/or irrelevance and “choosing” from alternatives (Luria’s Law of Strength)
hemineglect
an unawareness or unresponsiveness to objects, people, or other stimuli in one particular hemisphere that is typically a result of brain damage (e.g., following a stroke; unawareness happens on contralateral side to brain damage)
stroop effect
Paying attention to one feature of the stimulus (e.g., color) while distracted by another feature (e.g., meaning of the word) (think of the Stroop Task in which participants were asked to name the color of the text while ignoring the word itself which was also a color word); the “emotional Stroop task” (e.g., participants name the color of the text, text consist of positively or negatively valenced words) was found to make this process more difficult (with participants taking extra time), suggesting attentional bias (similar to phobias)
disinhibition
Refers to the inability to inhibit and modulate behavior appropriately, commonly observed in cases where there is frontal-temporal degeneration, Alzheimer’s Disease, or a stroke
metacognitition
An awareness and understanding of one’s own cognitive processes; “the ability to reflect upon a cognitive process” (from text)
supplementary motor area
“A specific brain region that transmits information about a motor program to other brain regions, eventually allowing activation of the specific muscles required to execute the program.” (from text)
Part of cerebral cortex that contributes to the control of movement.
dichotic listening
paying attention to one source of auditory information (e.g., listening on the phone), while exposed to a conversation in the room; “the cocktail party effect” (the ability to focus on one stimuli in a room with many stimuli) changes attention (unless working memory is very strong); the ability to receive two separate auditory stimuli in each ear at the same time
aprosodia
a condition in which an individual cannot distinguish between variations in tone of voice, resulting in difficulty with emotional understanding
propositional prosody
Ability to communicate of lexical and semantic information
affective prosody
The way we communication of emotional context: a) emotional prosody communicating speaker’s emotional state b) attitudinal prosody communicating an attitude toward a person, conveying such things like sarcasm, sense of superiority, liking, etc
informational conformity
when ambiguous and uncertain conformity (the tendency to shift own opinions, beliefs, and actions to be in agreement with others), reliance on others; when we conform for other reasons than being liked (e.g., trusting someone or because we like the same things)
normative conformity
when we conform to be liked by others or to meet expectations
theory of mind
the capacity to represent another person’s mental states and understand that they (other’s opinions, desires, goals, etc) can be different than their own; develops in late preschool years; related to perspective-taking; allows us to say “I know what you do.” but it’s not mine; the ability to do two things simultaneously 1. Understanding what’s going on with you, but 2. Understanding that you think/act/do differently; have to do theory of mind with empathy (understand without contaminating [e.g., stereotypes, prejudice, etc] others perceptions)
empathy
the ability to understand how another feels; a) emotional contagion (feeling like others), b) cognitive perspective-taking or understanding another POV, c) pro-social acting
