Definitions Flashcards
. A component that characterizes the slowly and tonically changing electrodermal activity
SCL or Skin Conductance
A formula used in physics used to calculate the relationship between voltage, current and resistance in an electrical circuit. It states that the electric current through a COr.or between two points is directly proportional to the voltage across those two points.
I = V/R (Ohm’s Law)
electrical stimulation of Broca’s area in humans produces
speech arrest
A paradigm, which is associated with neuroimaging, and based on the fact that during certain sensory, motor, or cognitive functions, a new step in a given process will activate a new region of the brain in a systematic way.
Subtraction Paradigm
A non-invasive way to measure the electric bases of gastric motility, where surface electrodes record slow wave activity, generated by the pacemaker area in the fundus of the stomach
Electrogastrogram
A psychophysiological lie detection technique designed for examining whether a person has knowledge of crime-relevant information or being involved or committed such crime.
Polygraphy
A sage and non-invasive tool used for brain stimulation using a rapidly changing electric current within a conducting coil to generate a brief, strong, but relatively focal magnetic field.
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
astereognosis is the
Inability to identify objects by touch or manipulation
A set of computer-assisted technologies used to “navigate” within the confines of the skull based on MRI image reconstruction during surgery or during targeting TMS
Neuronavigation
a bout of depression that afflicts a woman around the time she gives birth
Postpartum depression
Broadly defined as the period following the consumption of a meal. The metabolism of nutrients occur in this period of time.
Postprandial State
During the alarm (fight or flight) reaction we can observe
Vasoconstriction in the cutaneous (skin) area
Beta particle emitting radioactive compounds are used in this neuroimaging technique to monitor the levels of metabolism in the brain
PET (positron-emission tomography)
Decreased depolarization wave activity (less than 2 cm) measured over the stomach that can be detected during feeling disgust, cold pressor test, or in case of irritable bowel syndrome.
Bradygastria
Defined as the minimum TMS intensity used over the precentral gyrus, sufficient to produce a predefined motor- evoked potential (MEP) in the contralateral abductor pollicis brevis in at least 50% of trials.
Motor Threshold
Functional Magnetic resonance imaging technique, based on the fact that deoxyhemoglobin in the blood acts a paramagnetic substance within the body.
BOLD fMRI
Increased depolarization wave activity (more than 4cm) measured over the stomach that can be detected during untreated diabetes or vertigo
Tachygastria
Internationally recognized method to define the location of scalp electrodes in the context of an EEG recording to maintain standardized testing conditions.
International 10-20 System
In this sleep stage sleep spindles and K-Complex’s appear
Stage 2 of NREM or Slow Wave sleep stage 2 or SWS2
(Stage 2)
Major common decomposition product of radioactive isotopes used in PET technology
Positrons
Moving of charged particles (electrons or ions), through an electrical conductor or volume. It is measured as the net rate of flow of electric charge through a surface unit.
Electric Current
Complex light sensation(s) that may appear during transcarnial magnetic stimulation of the visual cortex
Occipital TMS stimulation
Name of the procedure that is used to mimic real food consumption during EGG studies where food or drink are not actually swallowed, digested, or absorbed int the GI Svstem
Sham Feeding
Name that involuntary movement that is typical to longitudinal and circular muscles, and it mostly happens in the digestive system. It involves symmetrical muscle contraction and relaxation of muscles that propagates in a wave down the gut tube from oral to aboral direction.
Peristalsis
Because voluntary attention is under direct, conscious control, researchers refer to it as a ——- process
Top-down
Name of the procedure that is used to mimic real food consumption during EEG studies where food or drink are not actually swallowed, digested or absorbed in the GI system
sham feeding
Name of a condition when there is perceived difference between actual and expected motion. Symptoms commonly include balance instability, nausea, vomiting, cold sweat, headache, etc.
Motion sickness
One of the basic pulse sequences of the MR signal that is the basis of structural MRI imaging, and relies upon the longitudinal relaxation of a tissue’s net magnetization vector.
T1 imaging
Other name for a simple form of polysomnographic graph representing the stages of sleep (SWS1-3, REM, micro-awakenings) as a function of time
Hypnogram
The appearance of this evoked potential response correlates with the degree of conscious error detection. It is a sharp negative going signal usually beginning simultaneously with an incorrect motor response
Error Related Negativity (ERN)
The basic functional unit of the neocortex. It is a typical network of a few thousand cortical neurons organized orthogonally to the surface of the cortex in an approx.
300-600 um diameter clindrical structure.
Cortical Column
The major type of sweat glands in the human body especially found with highest density in the palm and soles and predominantly being involved in thermoregulation.
Eccrine Sweat Glands
The production of an electromotive force across an electrical conductor in a changing magnetic field.
Electromagnetic Induction
The product of the heart rate multiplied by the stroke volume. Denotes for the amount of blood circulated in the system in a minute
cardiac output
The “rotating” motion of hydrogen protons in static magnetic fields.
Precession
This EEG waveform typically appears in the LA1 (SWS1) sleep stage as well as in activities related to memory functions. (Half)
CPS-Theta
This is an event related potential component to an oddball stimulus in a sequence of stimuli. Best reflects the automatic, modality-specific, pre-attentive information processing and automatic error-detection.
Mismatch Negativity (MMN)
This medical technique involves implantic chronic stimulation electrodes within certain areas of the brain to produce electrical impulses that regulate abnormal electric brain activity and is controlled by a pacemaker-like device
DBS or Deep Brain Stimulation
This minimally invasive technique can be used to measure the binding of neurotransmitter analogues to receptors in each target brain area in near real time
PET
This type of cellular plasticity can be evoked by repetitive TMS
LPT
Unwanted noise signals in an EEG record internally generated by the body. (Half)
Biological artifacts
With this electrophysiological monitoring method we record gross electrical activity of the brain and directly obtain functional information in real time, and in a non-invasive way.
EEG
With this imaging technique we can obtain functional information about the function of the central nervous system from an area around 1 mm° in real time, indirectly and non-invasively
fMRI
Sensory evoked potentials
Exogenous evoked potentials
A safe and non-invasive tool used for brain stimulation using a rapidly changing electric current within a conducting coil to generate a brief, strong, but relatively focal, magnetic field
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Typical EEG activity in normogastria
3 cpm
Sequence used for structural MRI scans
T2* weighted (bold)
Basal electrical rhythm of the stomach musculature with depolarization waves showing a frequency of around 3pm.
Normogastria
A category of disorders in which the cardinal feature is impairment of the ability to
regulate moment-to-moment emotion or affect (also known as: intermittent explosive
disorder (IED)), due to temporal lobe disorders that may underlie some forms of
human violence.
emotional dyscontrol syndrome
According to this theory, subcortical circuits although they are not directly responsible
for conscious feelings, still provide nonconscious inputs that coalesce with other
kinds of neural signals in the cognitive assembly of conscious emotional experiences.
Le Doux’s (higher order) conscious emotional experience
theory
A class of antianxiety drugs that bind with high affinity to receptor molecules in the
central nervous system. One example is diazepam
Benzodiazepines
A class of drugs that act by increasing the synaptic accumulation of serotonin and
norepinephrine
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors
A class of drugs that alleviate symptoms of schizophrenia, typically by blocking
dopamine receptors. Also called neuroleptics.
Antipsychotics
A class of substances that are used to combat anxiety. Examples include alcohol,
opiates, barbiturates, and the benzodiazepines.
Anxiolytics
A collection of axons travelling in the midline region of the forebrain, including the
dopaminergic axons travelling to the ventral striatum
medial forebrain bundle
A condition characterized by the inability to recognize faces (face blindness). If
acquired it is caused by damage to the brain particularly the fusiform gyrus.
Prosopagnosia
A condition in which levels of adrenal glucocorticoids are abnormally high
Cushing Syndrome
A consensual reflex of the eye that controls the diameter of the pupil in response to the intensity of light falling on the retina, regulating the intensity of light entering the
eye. A greater intensity of light causes pupillary constriction, (myosis), whereas lower
intensities cause dilation (mydriasis).
Pupillary Light Response or Pupillary Light Reflex
A drug that induces a state resembling schizophrenia.
Psychotomimetic
A disorder, usually caused by viral infection or stroke, in which the facial nerve on
one side stops conducting action potentials, resulting in paralysis of that side of the
face.
Bell’s Palsey
A learning paradigm in which individuals are subjected to inescapable, unpleasant
conditions
Learned Helplessness
A model of attention in which the attentional bottleneck filters out stimuli only AFTER substantial analysis has occurred.
late selection model
A technique used to measure the corneo-retinal dipole potential to detect the position
of the eyeballs. Temporal changes of the potential are utilized for the recording of eye
positions and eye movements especially in sleep polygraphy.
Electrooculography
A neuropsychological test battery, assessing theory of mind (ToM) or cognitive
empathy using facial images containing only eyes showing emotional expressions.
Reading the Mind in Eyes Test
A model of attention in which the attentional bottleneck filters out stimuli only BEFORE substantial analysis has occurred.
Early selection model
A psychiatric disorder characterized by periods of depression that alternate with
excessive, expansive moods. Formerly called manic-depressive illness.
bipolar disorder
A process in which lower-order mechanisms, liek sensory inputs, trigger additional
processing by higher-order systems. There may be no conscious awareness until
late in the process
Bottom-Up Processes
A reflex acting to stabilize gaze during small head movements with subtle eye
movement due to activation of the vestibular system to stabilize images on the
retinas of the eye during head movements. E.g., when the head moves to one side,
the eyes move to the opposite, to keep the image on the retinas of both eyes.
vestibulo-ocular reflex
A region of the frontal lobe of the brain that is involved in the production of speech
Broca’s area
A region in the human parietal lobe, homologous with the monkey lateral intraparietal
area, that is especially involved in voluntary, top-down control of attention.
intraparietal sulcus (IPS)
A region of superior temporal cortex adjacent to the primary auditory area showing
hemispheric asymmetry in 65% of the population.
Planum Temporal
A structure in the floor of the midbrain, which contains dopaminergic neurons and
projects to various forebrain areas via the ascending mesolimbic and mesocortical
pathways.
Ventral tegmental area (VTA)
A sub-topic of social psychology focusing on how cognitive processes influence
social interactions and vica versa
Social Cognition
A system developed to taxonomize human facial expressions on the face, based on
movements of individual facial muscles. It is a common standard to systematically
categorize the physical expression of emotions.
Facial action coding system
a syndrome in which the person fails to pay any attention to objects presented to one side of the body and may even deny connection with that side
Hemispatial neglect
A task in which the participant is asked to simultaneously focus attention on two or
more stimuli.
divided-attention task
A test in which stimuli are very briefly exposed in either the left or right visual half
field.
Tachistoscope Test
the left visual field is projected to
The right hemisphere
Class of antischizophrenic drugs that have actions other than the dopamine D2
receptor antagonism
Atypical antipsychotics
Common name of the eye movements which support foveation of new targets and/or
following foveated targets as they move in visual space.
gaze direction shifting movements
Increased respiratory frequency causing excess elimination of CO2 and resign blood
pH values often resulting in dizziness, fainting and seizures. May accompany
extreme stress conditions, panic attacks, and anxiety disorders.
Hyperventilation
compared with data from controls, PET scans of patients with depression show
Increases in blood flow in the frontal cortex and amygdala
Common name for the eye movements which maintain foveation when the head moves and when there are large-scale movements of the visual field. Includes reflexive eye movements, compensating head movements, etc.
Gaze stabilizing movements
Reading disorder attributed to brain impairment. Acquired forms occur as a result of
injury or disease. Developmental forms are associated with brain abnormalities
present from birth.
Dyslexia
Something out of place - for example, clusters of neurons seen in unusual positions
in the cortex of someone suffering from dyslexia
Ectopia
Specialization of one cerebral hemisphere for a particular intellectual function
cerebral lateralization
The anteriormost region of the frontal lobe, located rostrally to the premotor areas.
Prefrontal Cortex
The perception of emotional tone-of-voice aspects of language.
prosody
The shifting of our limited selective attention around the environment to highlight
stimuli for enhanced processing.
Attentional Spotlight
PET studies of schizophrenia have shown
A lack of increased prefrontal metabolic activity during certain cognitive tasks
The simultaneous delivery of different stimuli to the right and the left ears.
Dichotic Presentation
The theory proposing that Wernicke’sarea and Broca’s area, connected by the
arcuate fasciculus, specialize in the receptive and expressive aspects of language,
respectively.
Connectionist model of Aphasia (Wernike-Geschwind)
