Exam 1

Question 1

What term was coined by Thomas Willis as a consequence of the case of Anne Green?

Answer 1

c. Neurology

Question 2

Aside from saving Anne Green’s life, Thomas Willis and Christopher Wren also

Answer 2

a. created very accurate drawings of the brain.
b. came up with the names of a number of brain structures.
c. took the first steps that led to cognitive neuroscience.
d. All of the answer options are correct.

D IS THE CORRECT ANSWER

Question 3

Each of the following are reasons why Willis is considered one of the early figures in cognitive neuroscience EXCEPT:

Answer 3

b. He gave frequent lectures on specific brain regions.

Question 4

While studying brain function, it is often useful to think of development in terms of ____________, which is the perspective of _____________________.

Answer 4

b. survival; evolution

Question 5

Which stance would most likely hold an assumption that physical elements of the brain are responsible for the conscious mind?

Answer 5

a. monism

Question 6

René Descartes posited that the mind was separate from the body. However, he implicated a single brain structure, the pineal gland, as having what function?

Answer 6

b. connecting the mind and the body

Question 7

Considering the perspective recommended for approaching cognitive neuroscience, which of the following would best explain how a cognitive function may have developed?

Answer 7

d. hunting and gathering

Question 8

A central issue of modern cognitive neuroscience is whether specific human cognitive abilities

Answer 8

a. arise from networks of brain areas working together.

Question 9

The discipline of phrenology was founded by

Answer 9

d. Gall and Spurzheim.

Question 10

Phrenologists believed that the contour of the skull could provide valuable information about an individual’s cognitive capacities and personality traits. This approach was based on the assumption that

Answer 10

a. skull protrusions are caused by disproportionate development of the brain areas beneath them, which are responsible for different specific functions.

Question 11

Localizationist is to ________ as holistic is to ________.

Answer 11

b. Gall; Flourens

Question 12

Gall’s method for investigating phrenology was flawed because

Answer 12

c. he sought only to confirm, not disprove, the correlations he observed.

Question 13

The view known as aggregate field theory, which stated that the whole brain participates in behavior, is most associated with

Answer 13

d. Flourens.

Question 14

The key observation leading John Hughlings Jackson to propose a topographical organization in the cerebral cortex was that

Answer 14

c. seizures begin in a localized region of the cortex.

Question 15

In developing phrenology, Gall’s main failure was that

Answer 15

a. he did not seek disconfirming evidence.
b. he was not a scientist.
c. his method was correlational.
d. All of the answer options are correct.
D IS THE CORRECT ANSWER

Question 16

Giovanni visits his local phrenologist. What is this person likely to tell him?

Answer 16

a. You are a domineering person.

Question 17

The view developed by Marie Jean Pierre Flourens, based on the idea that processes like language and memory cannot be localized within circumscribed brain regions, was known as

Answer 17

b. aggregate field theory.

Question 18

John Hughlings Jackson proposed a ________organization in the cerebral cortex, based on his work with people with ________.

Answer 18

c. topographic; epilepsy

Question 19

________ was one of the first brain scientists to realize that specific cognitive functions can be localized to specific parts of the brain and that many different functional regions can take part in a given behavior.

Answer 19

b. Hughlings Jackson

Question 20

Which 19th-century scientist suggested that the frontal lobe contributes to language and speech production?

Answer 20

c. Broca

Question 21

Patient Leborgne was nicknamed “Tan” because that was the only word he could utter. Leborgne had developed an aphasia due to a lesion in which area of the brain?

Answer 21

b. Broca’s area

Question 22

Which of the following things would have been the most difficult for the famous individual studied by Paul Broca to do, compared to before his stroke?

Answer 22

c. reading a book aloud

Question 23

Which of the following things would have been the most difficult for the famous individual described by Carl Wernicke to do, compared to before his stroke?

Answer 23

a. understanding a speech

Question 24

Wernicke was an early researcher who suggested that the ________ contributes to language comprehension.

Answer 24

d. left temporoparietal area

Question 25

Wernicke is to ________ as Broca is to ________.

Answer 25

a. understanding speech; speaking

Question 26

As a first approximation, individuals with damage to the left inferior frontal lobe tend to have more difficulty with ________, whereas individuals with damage to the left posterior temporal lobe tend to have more difficulty with ________.

Answer 26

c. the production of language; the perception of language

Question 27

One reason that early research on specific human cognitive capacities and the brain areas that are responsible for them developed rather slowly before the 20th century is that

Answer 27

a. most early investigators were limited to postmortem studies to localize lesions.

Question 28

Korbinian Brodmann used ________ techniques to document 52 regions of the brain that differed in ________.

Answer 28

c. tissue staining; cytoarchitectonics

Question 29

Each of the following contributions led to the establishment of the neuron doctrine EXCEPT:

Answer 29

c. Thorndike’s observation of adaptive response.

Question 30

Researchers Fritsch and Hitzig found support for the idea that specific functions are localized to discrete parts of the cortex in an experiment using electrical stimulation of a dog’s brain. More specifically, they found __ systematic relationship between the portion of the cortex stimulated and specific ________.

Answer 30

a. a; movements

Question 31

Cytoarchitectonic maps distinguish different cortical regions by

Answer 31

b. their structure at the cellular level.

Question 32

Yvette wants to figure out whether cells in two different layers of the occipital lobe have different functions. What would she have done if she had been a scientist in the early 20th century?

Answer 32

d. look at the layers under a microscope

Question 33

The neuroanatomist who described 52 distinct cortical areas based on cell structure and arrangement, and whose classification scheme is often used today, was

Answer 33

c. Brodmann.

Question 34

Which of the following terms refers to the idea of a continuous mass of tissue that shares a common cytoplasm?

Answer 34

b. syncytium

Question 35

La reazione nera, or “the black reaction,” refers to

Answer 35

a. a cell stain developed by Golgi.

Question 36

Which of the following scientists contributed to modern neuroscience in the 19th century?

Answer 36

a. Paul Broca

Question 37

Which of the following statements best describes the “neuron doctrine”?

Answer 37

c. The nervous system consists of physically distinct cells that are functionally interactive.

Question 38

The neuron doctrine is usually credited to ________, who used a staining technique pioneered by ________.

Answer 38

d. Ramón y Cajal; Golgi

Question 39

The primary contribution of Golgi to the field of cognitive neuroscience was that he

Answer 39

a. developed a staining technique that permitted full visualization of individual neurons.

Question 40

The term synapse, coined by Sherrington, refers to the junction between

Answer 40

c. two adjacent neurons.

Question 41

Rationalism is the philosophical position that knowledge

Answer 41

c. must be deduced and justified through reason.

Question 42

Empiricism is the philosophical position that all knowledge

Answer 42

b. originates from sensory experience.

Question 43

Which of the following is NOT true of empiricism?

Answer 43

c. It postulates a special role for reason and induction in human thought.

Question 44

Ebbinghaus, who is considered the father of modern memory research, was among the first to demonstrate that

Answer 44

d. internal mental processes can be measured in rigorous and reproducible ways.

Question 45

All of the following are representative of the emergence of the field of cognitive science in the second half of the 20th century EXCEPT

Answer 45

b. a philosophical shift in the field toward empiricism and associationism.

Question 46

Thorndike’s law of effect

Answer 46

c. stated that a behavior that is followed by a reward is likely to occur again.

Question 47

____________ is the idea that all knowledge comes from sensory experiences, while ____________ holds that truth is intellectual.

Answer 47

a. Empiricism; rationalism

Question 48

John Watson famously argued that newborn babies

Answer 48

c. can be raised to become anything.

Question 49

According to associationist Herman Ebbinghaus, complex processes such as memory

Answer 49

d. can be measured in an analytic fashion.

Question 50

According to Edward Thorndike, which of the following is NOT true about rewards?

Answer 50

a. They indicate which creatures have malleable structures in the brain.

Question 51

“Cells that fire together, wire together” was first proposed by Donald Hebb as an explanation for

Answer 51

c. the way in which the brain codes new learning.

Question 52

Noam Chomsky argued that the structure of human languages is ________, in contrast to
B. F. Skinner’s assertion that languages are ________.

Answer 52

a. innate; learned

Question 53

Which of the following people did NOT play a strong role in the theoretical shift in psychology in the latter part of the 20th century?

Answer 53

b. Sir Charles Sherrington

Question 54

Which of the following was NOT contributory to the development of the electroencephalogram?

Answer 54

b. studying patients who had skull defects

Question 55

You decide that you want to measure blood flow of the brain. Which of the following methods would you employ to best achieve your goal?

Answer 55

d. None of the answer options is correct.

Question 56

Computerized axial tomography is to MRI as ________ is to ________.

Answer 56

a. X-ray; radio frequencies

Question 57

Which of the following methods relies on blood oxygenation?

Answer 57

b. functional magnetic resonance imaging

Question 58

Suppose you are investigating neurological function, and one of the initial portions of your procedure is to inject radioactive oxygen-15 into the patient’s bloodstream. Which of the following methods are you most likely using to measure neurological activity?

Answer 58

c. positron emission tomography (PET)

Question 59

A group of investigators is conducting research on brain tumors, and they need to obtain three-dimensional brain views to localize the tumors. Which instrument will provide the least invasive way to obtain their objective?

Answer 59

b. computerized axial tomography (CAT)

Question 60

Imagine that you are one of the researchers who advanced the field of cognitive neuroscience by developing a new instrument to measure the brain. Computerized axial tomography (CAT) has already been developed, but your team wants to expand the CAT to develop an instrument that will provide information about brain function. Which method are you most likely developing?

Answer 60

c. positron emission tomography (PET)

Question 61

Draw a diagram demonstrating the approach known as the scientific method. Your diagram should indicate the general procedures used and the order in which they are performed.

Answer 61

ANS:	
Answers will vary. Each should include the following: 
-	make an observation
-	ask why it came about
-	form a hypothesis
-	design and perform an experiment
-	draw a conclusion 
-	may also include replication

Question 62

Describe how and why the term cognitive neuroscience was chosen for this field. Be sure to mention the two fields that combined to create this new field of study.

Answer 62

The scientific field of cognitive neuroscience received its name in the late 1970s in the back seat of a New York City taxi. One of us (M.S.G.) was riding with the great cognitive psychologist George A. Miller on the way to a dinner meeting at the Algonquin Hotel. The din- ner was being held for scientists from Rockefeller and Cornell universities, who were joining forces to study how the brain enables the mind—a subject in need of a name. Out of that taxi ride came the term cognitive neuroscience—from cognition, or the process of knowing (i.e., what arises from awareness, perception, and rea- soning), and neuroscience (the study of how the nervous system is organized and functions). This seemed the per- fect term to describe the question of understanding how the functions of the physical brain can yield the thoughts, ideas, and beliefs of a seemingly intangible mind. And so the term took hold in the scientific community.

Question 63

Localizationists argued that higher cognitive functions were the product of brain activity in specific areas. Give evidence that they used to support their claims.

Answer 63

Gall became
convinced that the brain was the organ of the mind and that innate faculties were localized in specific regions of the cerebral cortex. He thought that the brain was organized around some 35 or more specific functions, ranging from cognitive basics such as language and color percep- tion to more ephemeral capacities such as affection and a moral sense, and that each was supported by specific brain regions.

Question 64

Paul Broca and Carl Wernicke discovered two different forms of aphasia. Compare and contrast them.

Answer 64

Broca’s aphasia and Wernicke’s aphasia. Broca syphilitic lesion in his left-hemisphere inferior frontal lobe. This region is now called Broca’s area. The impact of this finding was huge. Here was a specific aspect of language that was impaired by a specific lesion. Soon Broca had a series of such patients.
Wernicke reported on a stroke vic- tim who (unlike Broca’s patient) could talk quite freely but made little sense when he spoke. Wernicke’s patient also could not understand spoken or written language. He had a lesion in a more posterior region of the left hemisphere, an area in and around where the temporal and parietal lobes meet, now referred to as Wernicke’s area

Question 65

Describe the main tenets of the Neuron Doctrine.

Answer 65

The neuron doctrine states that the basic signaling unit of the nervous system are separate discrete cells with processes arising out of the cell body. Neurons can be divided into many different classifications based on the number of processes arising from the cell body. the nervous system is made up of individual cells. He also recognized that the transmission of electrical information went in only one direction, from the dendrites down to the axonal tip.

Question 66

Describe the evidence that led Marie-Jean-Pierre Flourens to move the field away from localization toward aggregate-field theory.

Answer 66

He destroyed parts of the brains of pigeons and rabbits and observed what happened. He was the first to show that, indeed, certain parts of the brain were responsible for certain functions. For instance, when he removed the cerebral hemispheres, the animal no longer had perception, motor ability, and judgment. He could not, however, find any areas for advanced abilities such as memory or cognition, and he concluded that these were more diffusely scattered throughout the brain. All sensations, all perceptions, and all volitions occupy the same seat in these (cerebral) organs. The faculty of sensa- tion, percept and volition is then essentially one faculty. The theory of localized brain functions, known as local- izationism, fell out of favor.

Question 67

A major question in cognitive neuroscience is the extent to which regions of the brain are independent or integrated. Which of these two viewpoints is most valid? Present evidence to support your view.

Answer 67

The brain is definitely more integrated than independent. Evidence to back this up is patients born with no corpus callosum and their brain compensates for that missing structure by still allowing communication between hemispheres through other commissures.

Question 68

Associationism and empiricism are two main philosophical positions. Pick the one you think best describes how humans come to know things and explain why you think this.

Answer 68

Associationism is what best describes how humans come to know things. This is true because people aren’t born with a blank slate. People tend to learn from associating things like we have seen with conditioning experiments.

Question 69

Describe the transition from behaviorist to cognitive approaches in psychology.

Answer 69

Miller concluded that the brain, among other things, is an information processor and, breaking the bonds of behaviorism, he realized that the contents of the mind could be studied, setting into motion the “cognitive revolution.”

Question 70

Noam Chomsky wrote an article titled “Three Models for the Description of Language.” Describe how the findings he reported moved the field of cognitive psychology forward.

Answer 70

Chomsky showed how the sequential predictability of speech follows from adherence to grammatical, not probabilistic, rules. Chomsky’s deep message was that learning theory—that is, associationism could in no way explain how children learned language. The complexity of language was built into the brain, and it ran on rules and principles that transcended all people and all languages. It was innate and it was universal.

Question 71

Describe two principal methods used to measure brain structure.

Answer 71

CAT scan consists of series of transverse X-rays could be reconstructed into a three-dimensional picture. Using mathematical techniques and multiple two-dimensional X-rays to reconstruct a three-dimensional image.
MRI scans work with the magnetic field temporarily realigns water molecules in your body.

Question 72

The two main classes of cells in the nervous system are

Answer 72

c. neurons and glial cells.

Question 73

In the nervous system, these cells provide structural support and insulation for neurons.

Answer 73

a. glia

Question 74

Two main types of projections extend from the cell body of a neuron. ________ receive inputs from other neurons, while ________ send information to other neurons.

Answer 74

d. Dendrites; axons

Question 75

Within a neuron, the transmission of information is usually ________. Between neurons, the transmission of information is usually ________.

Answer 75

c. electrical; chemical

Question 76

The term concentration gradient refers to a difference in the

Answer 76

b. number of ions found on opposite sides of the cell membrane.

Question 77

At the resting state, a higher concentration of ________ is found outside a neuron and a higher concentration of ________ is found inside a neuron.

Answer 77

b. Na+; K+

Question 78

If you were to insert a microelectrode through the cell membrane of a neuron, you would be able to demonstrate that

Answer 78

b. the region inside the cell membrane is more negatively charged than the region outside the membrane.

Question 79

The ease with which a cell membrane will permit ions to cross is referred to as

Answer 79

b. permeability

Question 80

​If you inserted a micropipette into a neuron without harming the cell and pumped in a small quantity of calcium ions, each of which carried two positive charges, how would this affect the membrane potential?

Answer 80

a. The membrane potential would become depolarized relative to the resting potential.

Question 81

The Hodgkin–Huxley cycle describes how the depolarization of the membrane causes voltage-gated sodium channels to ________, allowing ________ sodium ions to enter the cell. This change in sodium concentration then causes ________ of the cell.

Answer 81

c. open; more; further depolarization

Question 82

Ouabain is a toxin that works by permanently inhibiting the activity of sodium–potassium pumps embedded in neuronal membranes. How would ouabain administration affect the resting potential of a neuron?

Answer 82

a. The magnitude of the resting potential would shift toward zero.

Question 83

The value of the membrane potential to which an axon must be depolarized to initiate an action potential is called the ________ potential for that neuron.

Answer 83

c. threshold

Question 84

The poison tetraethylammonium (TEA) interferes with normal neural communication. The toxin binds to and blocks voltage-gated potassium channels in the neuron cell membrane. Which of the following best describes the effects of TEA on the action potential?

Answer 84

b. The repolarization phase of the action potential is blocked.

Question 85

Demyelinating diseases such as multiple sclerosis disrupt normal neural communication by

Answer 85

c. causing deterioration of the fatty substance that normally coats and insulates axons.

Question 86

The nodes of Ranvier are

Answer 86

d. points along axons that are not surrounded by myelin

Question 87

The primary reason why neurons are refractory for a short period after firing action potentials, and the reason underlying the absolute refractory period, is that the

Answer 87

a. voltage-gated sodium channels are inactivated.

Question 88

If electrical currents on multiple dendrites sum together at the axon hillock, and the current flows across the neuronal membrane to the spike-triggering zone, what is likely to happen?

Answer 88

a. An action potential will be initiated

Question 89

The term saltatory conduction refers to the fact that

Answer 89

c. action potentials appear to jump from node to node in myelinated axons.

Question 90

​In which of the following diseases is myelin damaged or lost?

Answer 90

d. multiple sclerosis

Question 91

​___________ enable(s) the rapid transmission of action potentials down an axon and increase(s) the distance over which transmission can occur.

Answer 91

d. Myelin

Question 92

The ___________, which is comprised of _________, restricts the diffusion of certain molecules and microbes from the circulatory system, protecting the brain from chemical compounds that might otherwise interfere with neuronal activity.

Answer 92

b. blood–brain barrier; astrocytes

Question 93

Which of the following cells produce myelin in the peripheral nervous system?

Answer 93

d. Schwann cells

Question 94

Which of the following cells devour and remove damaged brain cells?

Answer 94

b. microglia

Question 95

Which of the following statements best describes the immediate consequence of neurotransmitter molecules binding to ligand-gated ion channel receptors?

Answer 95

a. Voltage-gated channels in the cell membrane open and permit ion flow through the membrane

Question 96

The role of calcium ions (Ca2+) in synaptic transmission is to

Answer 96

b. mediate the release of neurotransmitter molecules from the presynaptic neuron.

Question 97

Which of the following sequences of steps best represents the order of events that occur during synaptic transmission?

Answer 97

d. release of neurotransmitter from the presynaptic cell  diffusion of neurotransmitter across the synapse  binding of neurotransmitter at the postsynaptic membrane

Question 98

Compare the following analogy to chemical synaptic transmission: Two postage companies use different methods for delivery. Company One’s method is to send a delivery person out with packages that will be delivered directly to the address on the label. Company Two’s method is to send a delivery person out to a transfer center, and a second driver will deliver the package to the address. Company One’s method best compares to ___________________, while Company Two’s method best compares to ___________________. Company ___ uses a faster method.

Answer 98

c. ligand-gated ion channels; G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs); One

Question 99

Consider the synapse shown schematically here.

If neuron A causes neuron B to become hyperpolarized relative to B’s resting state,

Answer 99

b. neuron B is less likely to release neurotransmitter molecules from its own axon terminal.

Question 100

A gap junction is

Answer 100

c. a transmembrane channel that connects the cytoplasm of two cells at an electrical synapse.

Question 101

Which of the following is a catecholamine?

Answer 101

d. norepinephrine

Question 102

The effect of a particular neurotransmitter on postsynaptic neurons

Answer 102

d. depends on the properties of the postsynaptic neuron and may be modulated by the presence or absence of another neurotransmitter.

Question 103

Which of the following is NOT a mechanism for removing a neurotransmitter from the synaptic cleft?

Answer 103

d. transport of the neurotransmitter by ion channels into neighboring glial cells

Question 104

Many drugs produce their effects by facilitating or interfering with neurotransmitters at synapses. Which of the following drugs would most likely increase the effect of serotonin?

Answer 104

b. a drug that prevents the activity of an enzyme that breaks down serotonin molecules in the synaptic cleft

Question 105

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is produced in the lateral and third ventricles by the

Answer 105

d. choroid plexus.

Question 106

The thick outer membrane that encloses the brain within the skull is the

Answer 106

d. dura mater.

Question 107

The two main divisions of the central nervous system are the

Answer 107

c. brain and spinal cord

Question 108

​The difference between gray matter and white matter is that gray matter refers to ________, whereas white matter refers to ________.

Answer 108

c. cell bodies; axon tracts

Question 109

Gray matter is to white matter as ________ are to ________.

Answer 109

c. cell bodies; axon tracts

Question 110

The brainstem includes all of the following components EXCEPT the

Answer 110

c. hypothalamus

Question 111

The specialized structures that comprise the midbrain control functions such as

Answer 111

b. visual reflexes.

Question 112

The dorsal portions of the gray matter in the spinal cord carry

Answer 112

b. sensory information.

Question 113

A patient has great difficulty in maintaining his posture, walking, and coordinating his movements. His brain injuries probably involve the

Answer 113

a. cerebellum.

Question 114

A patient reports that she is functionally blind after a focal brain injury, even though her eyes and optic nerves are completely intact. Of the structures listed here, the most probable location for the brain injury is the

Answer 114

b. lateral geniculate nucleus

Question 115

The part of the thalamus that is most important in relaying information to the primary visual cortex is the

Answer 115

a. lateral geniculate nucleus

Question 116

This brain structure is often called the gateway to the cortex because almost all sensory inputs synapse here before continuing to their primary cortical sensory areas.

Answer 116

c. thalamus

Question 117

Which of the following functions is NOT mediated primarily by the hypothalamus?

Answer 117

c. relay of sensory information from the body to the cortex

Question 118

As a result of a brain injury to this diencephalic structure, a patient is experiencing disruptions in maintaining homeostasis of bodily states and endocrine control.

Answer 118

b. hypothalamus

Question 119

Injury to the hypothalamus would most likely interfere with

Answer 119

a. hormone regulation

Question 120

All of the structures listed here are major components of the basal ganglia EXCEPT the

Answer 120

b. amygdala

Question 121

As a result of a brain injury to the medial temporal lobes and neighboring subcortical structures, a patient exhibits a number of cognitive and behavioral changes. Of the following options, which is the LEAST likely to be affected?

Answer 121

d. somatosensation

Question 122

The ___________________ is a system of structures that includes the ____________. This system has been implicated in ________________________.

Answer 122

a. limbic system; amygdala; emotion behavior

Question 123

​All of the following are advantages of a folded cerebral cortex EXCEPT:

Answer 123

a. The need for blood vasculature in the cortex is eliminated.

Question 124

Communication between the two hemispheres of the brain occurs mainly through the

Answer 124

c. corpus callosum

Question 125

The corpus callosum

Answer 125

a. permits communication between the two cerebral hemispheres.

Question 126

The most caudal lobe of the cerebral cortex is the ________ lobe.

Answer 126

c. occipital

Question 127

​Neurons in two different regions of Brodmann’s cytoarchitectonic map always

Answer 127

b. differ in cell morphology and organization

Question 128

The temporal lobe is to the occipital lobe as ________ is to ________.

Answer 128

c. audition; vision

Question 129

The morphology of the brain of Albert Einstein revealed an unusual Sylvian fissure, the division that separates the ________ lobe from the ________ lobes.

Answer 129

b. temporal; frontal and parietal

Question 130

The central sulcus is an anatomical landmark that separates the ________ lobe from the ________ lobe.

Answer 130

b. frontal; parietal

Question 131

The term cytoarchitectonics refers to

Answer 131

a. how cells in one brain region appear morphologically and how they are arranged with respect to each other.

Question 132

Of the following choices, the most anterior portion of the frontal lobes—the prefrontal cortex—is most critical to

Answer 132

b. executive functions

Question 133

The primary visual cortex, or V1, is located in

Answer 133

a. the striate cortex.

Question 134

The neocortex contains ______ cortical layers, with ________ typically being the input layer.

Answer 134

c. six; layer IV

Question 135

The frontal lobe is ________ to the occipital lobe, whereas the temporal lobe is ________ to the parietal lobe.

Answer 135

b. anterior; inferior

Question 136

All of the following terms refer to the same cortical region that processes visual input EXCEPT

Answer 136

c. Heschl’s gyrus

Question 137

The primary auditory cortex is organized using a tonotopic map, which means that there is an orderly representation of

Answer 137

b. frequency

Question 138

A patient recently suffered a traumatic blow to the head. She reports that she is having social difficulties, such as adding inappropriate comments to conversations. She cannot seem to control these outbursts. Which area of her cortex is most likely affected?

Answer 138

c. the anterior frontal lobe

Question 139

The volume of cortex that is not sensory or motor has traditionally been termed ________ cortex.

Answer 139

c. association

Question 140

Parts of the brain where metabolic activity is relatively high are characterized by

Answer 140

a. elevated regional blood flow.

Question 141

This type of early cell line is the precursor to the cells that will compose the nervous system.

Answer 141

d. ectoderm

Question 142

Which of the following statements regarding the prenatal development of the human nervous system is correct?

Answer 142

b. Ectoderm cells are the precursors of the entire nervous system.

Question 143

A team of scientists from California and Sweden (Eriksson et al., 1998) administered BrdU, a synthetic form of thymidine, to patients. Which of the following best summarizes the findings from these procedures?

Answer 143

d. New neurons are produced in the adult human brain.

Question 144

​____________________ refers to the process of rapid cell division that occurs early in development of the nervous system.

Answer 144

b. Neuronal proliferation

Question 145

The cells in the brain that guide migrating neurons to their final locations are called

Answer 145

b. radial glia

Question 146

Which of the following best describes the reason for substantial growth of the human brain from birth to adulthood?

Answer 146

c. The formation of synapses and growth of dendritic trees.

Question 147

The cell body of a neuron contains the same machinery found in most cells, including a nucleus, ribosomes, and mitochondria.

Answer 147

True

Question 148

Dendrites, which are large treelike processes extending from a neuron, are said to be presynaptic.

Answer 148

False

Question 149

Action potentials are electrical signals that are conducted down the axon of a neuron.

Answer 149

True

Question 150

The term selective permeability refers to the fact that a cell membrane will allow some ions to pass through more readily than others.

Answer 150

True

Question 151

The resting potential of a neuron is typically +40 to +90 millivolts (mV).

Answer 151

False

Question 152

​The equilibrium potential is the membrane voltage at which there is no net flow of ions in or out.

Answer 152

True

Question 153

Hyperpolarization makes the inside of a cell more positive and more likely to generate an action potential.

Answer 153

False

Question 154

The amplitude of an action potential is directly proportional to the size of the initial depolarization that produced it.

Answer 154

False

Question 155

If the sum of the excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) causes a postsynaptic neuron to reach its threshold, then the postsynaptic neuron will generate an action potential.

Answer 155

True

Question 156

Communication between two neurons is always achieved through chemical, and not electrical, mechanisms.

Answer 156

False

Question 157

The term commissure refers to the white matter tracts that connect the brain and spinal cord.

Answer 157

False

Question 158

Neural inputs that target the cortex and originate in the thalamus are referred to as corticothalamic.

Answer 158

False

Question 159

The hippocampus is considered part of the neocortex.

Answer 159

False

Question 160

Sulci are the protruding rounded surfaces of the cortex, and gyri are the fissures and invaginations between the sulci.

Answer 160

False

Question 161

During development, a structure called the blastula begins to form when the neural plate invaginates via neural folds being pushed up at its border.

Answer 161

False

Question 162

Describe the chemical and electrical properties of an action potential. In your answer, describe the movement of Na+ ions and K+ ions across the cell membrane and the resulting changes in electrical potential.

Answer 162

a) An idealized neuron with myelinated axon and axon terminals. Voltage-gated ion channels located
in the spike-triggering zone at the axon hillock and along the extent of the axon at the nodes of Ran- vier open and close rapidly, changing their conductance to specific ions (e.g., Na1), altering the mem- brane potential and resulting in the action potential (inset). (b) The relative time course of changes
in membrane voltage during an action potential, and the underlying causative changes in membrane conductance to Na1 (gNa) and K1 (gK). The initial depolarizing phase of the action potential (red line) is mediated by increased Na1 conductance (black line), and the later repolarizing, descending phase of the action potential is mediated by an increase in K1 conductance (dashed line) that occurs when the K1 channels open. The Na1 channels have closed during the last part of the action potential, when repolar- ization by the K1 current is taking place. The action potential undershoots the resting membrane poten- tial at the point where the membrane becomes more negative than the resting membrane potential

Question 163

​Explain the concept of electrochemical equilibrium. How does this concept allow us to understand the transmembrane potentials in neurons?

Answer 163

the force of the concentration gradient pushing K1 out through the K1 channels is equal to the force of the electrical gradient driving K1 in. When that happens, the opposing forces are said to reach electrochemical equilibrium. The differ- ence in charge thus produced across the membrane is the resting membrane potential, that −70 mV difference. The value for the resting membrane potential of any cell can be calculated by using knowledge from electrochemistry, provided that the concentrations of ions inside and out- side the neuron are known.

Question 164

What are the major differences between electrotonic conduction and the action potential? Describe how these two processes play out in neural transmission.

Answer 164

The small electrical current produced by the EPSP is passively conducted through the cytoplasm of the den- drite, cell body, and axon. Passive current conduction is called electrotonic conduction or decremental conduc- tion: “decremental” because it diminishes with distance from its origin. The action potential doesn’t decrement after only 1 mm. Action potentials enable signals to travel for meters with no loss in signal strength, because they con- tinually regenerate the signal at each patch of membrane on the axon. The action potential is able to regenerate itself because of the presence of voltage-gated ion channels located in the neuronal membrane.

Question 165

Describe the structure, and explain the function, of three types of glial cells.

Answer 165

Astrocytes
• Surround neurons and are in close contact with the brains vasculature
• Create the blood-brain barrier (BBB)
• Have an active role in brain function, e.g., modulate
neuronal activity •
Astrocytes are large glial cells with round or radially symmetrical forms

Oligodendrocytes
• Myelinate axons in the brain and spinal cord.
wrapping their cell membranes around the axon in a concentric manner during development and maturation.

• Microglial cells
• Phagocytes that devour and remove damaged cells
Microglial cells, which are small and irregularly shaped

Question 166

How do two neurons communicate with each other? Describe the process of synaptic transmission, including both chemical and electrical synapses

Answer 166

Through synaptic transmission. Chemical transmission results in the release of neurotransmitters from the presynaptic neuron and
the binding of those neurotransmitters on the post- synaptic neuron, which in turn causes excitatory or inhibitory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs or IPSPs), depending on the properties of the postsynaptic receptor. Electrical synapses are different from chemical synapses because they operate by passing current directly from one neuron (presynaptic) to another neuron (postsynap- tic) via specialized channels in gap junctions that con- nect the cytoplasm of one cell directly to the other. The general mechanism
• The arrival of the action potential at the axon terminal
leads to depolarization of the terminal membrane,
causing voltage-gated Ca2+ channel to open
• It triggers small vesicles containing neurotransmitters to
fuse with the membrane at the synapse and release the
transmitter into cleft
• The transmitter diffuses across the cleft and on reaching
the postsynaptic membrane, binds with specific receptors embedded in it

Question 167

Choose six of the following eight brain regions. For each region, briefly describe its location in the brain and one of its functions. Draw a picture to accompany your answer.
•
frontal lobe
•
parietal lobe
•
temporal lobe
•
occipital lobe
•
basal ganglia
•
hypothalamus
•
thalamus
•
cerebellum

Answer 167

The frontal lobe is important for cognitive functions and control of voluntary movement or activity. The parietal lobe processes information about temperature, taste, touch and movement, while the occipital lobe is primarily responsible for vision. The temporal lobe processes memories, integrating them with sensations of taste, sound, sight and touch.
Thalamus is almost exactly in the center of the brain and perched on top of the brainstem (at the anterior end), the thalamus is the larger of the diencephalon structures. Responsible for
The thalamus has been referred to as the “gateway to the cortex” because, except for some olfactory inputs, all of the sensory modalities make synaptic relays in the thal- amus before continuing to the primary cortical sensory receiving area. Relay center.
Hypothalamus chief site for hormone production and con- trol. Easily located, the hypothalamus lies on the floor of the third ventricle

Question 168

What are the advantages of a cerebral cortex with gyri and sulci? Why might the human cerebral cortex be more heavily folded than those of other mammals?

Answer 168

The folds of the human cortex serve two important functions. First, they enable more cortical surface to be packed into the skull. If the human cortex were smoothed out to resemble that of the rat, for example, humans would need to have very large heads. The total surface area of the human cerebral cortex is about 2,200 to 2,400 cm2, but because of extensive folding, about two thirds of this area is confined within the depths of the sulci.
Second, having a highly folded cortex brings neurons that are located at some distance from each other along the cortical sheet into closer three-dimensional relation- ships; for example, the opposing layers of cortex in each gyrus are in closer linear proximity than they would be if the gyri were flattened. Because the axons that make long-distance corticocortical connections run under the cortex through the white matter and do not follow the foldings of the cortical surface in their paths to distant cortical areas, they can project directly to the neurons brought closer together by folding.

Question 169

Histological methods have been used to classify the cerebral cortex into different cytoarchitectonic divisions, such as the Brodmann areas. Can we predict the function of a brain region based on cytoarchitectonics? Why or why not?

Answer 169

We could but it isn’t enough just to use brodmann areas. It has to be used in conjunction with functions. A com- bination of cytoarchitectonic and functional descrip- tions of the cortex is probably the most effective way of dividing the cerebral cortex into meaningful units. Using different microscopic anatomical crite- ria, it is also possible to subdivide the cerebral cortex according to the general patterns of the cortical layers

Question 170

Describe the events following the fertilization of an egg that pertain to the development of the nervous system. In your answer, name the three main types of cell lines found in the blastula and describe what parts of the organism these cells become.

Answer 170

The blastula contains three main cell lines that, after a few days, form three layers: the ectoderm (outer layer) that will form the nervous system and the outer skin, lens of the eye, inner ear, and hair; the mesoderm (middle layer) that will form the skeletal system and voluntary muscle; and the endoderm (inner layer) that will form the gut and digestive organs.

during the first
21 days of life. (a) Early in embryogenesis, the multicellular blastula contains cells destined to form various body tissues. (b) Migration and specialization of different cell lines leads to formation of the primitive nervous system around the neural groove and, after it fuses, the neural tube (not shown) on the dorsal surface of the embryo. The brain is located at the anterior end of the embryo

Question 171

The field of ________ is based on the idea that perception and thought employ mental representations that undergo transformations as they are used.

Answer 171

c. cognitive psychology

Question 172

Posner and his colleagues had participants view two letters and respond according to whether these letters were both vowels, both consonants, or one of each. Participants were fastest when viewing two physically identical letters, somewhat slower when viewing the same letter in two different fonts, and slowest when two different consonants were presented. This finding shows that

Answer 172

a. we form multiple representations of stimuli.

Question 173

The Sternberg paradigm illustrates that when a set of letters held in short-term memory is tested with a recognition task, the time needed to respond to a probe item is

Answer 173

c. related by a linear function to the number of items in the memory set, the slope of which is the same regardless of whether the probe item was part of the original list.

Question 174

People are better at identifying a briefly presented letter on a computer screen if the letter is

Answer 174

b. presented as part of a word.

Question 175

The Stroop effect demonstrates that when viewing

Answer 175

d. words, we cannot help but activate word representations even when they are irrelevant to the task.

Question 176

One of the experimental strengths of brain-lesion methods in animals, compared to human neuropsychology, is that

Answer 176

a. animal work can be truly experimental, whereas with humans we are limited to correlational inferences.

Question 177

A blockage of the posterior cerebral arteries that resulted in brain damage would most likely cause a deficit in

Answer 177

a. vision.

Question 178

​A patient has an injury to the parietal lobe and has a selective deficit in processing information about the spatial location of visual stimuli. You hypothesize that this region of the brain is distinct in function from other visual areas in the temporal lobe, in which you suspect shape perception information is processed. To establish a double dissociation between the two functions and brain regions, you would need to find another person who had damage to the

Answer 178

d. temporal lobe and had only a shape perception deficit.

Question 179

Which of the following is an advantage of the group study approach in neuropsychology, compared to the individual case study approach?

Answer 179

a. A group study allows a cognitive process to be related to particular underlying brain structures with greater reliability.

Question 180

Which of the following degenerative disorders is believed to have the strongest genetic component?

Answer 180

c. Huntington’s disease

Question 181

For which disorder have patients benefited from deep-brain stimulation of the basal ganglia?

Answer 181

c. Parkinson’s disease

Question 182

What part of the brain does an angiogram allow you to visualize?

Answer 182

d. arteries

Question 183

The driver in a car accident first hits the windshield with great force, then rebounds backward. Which part of the driver’s brain would you expect to be damaged as a result of the countercoup injury?

Answer 183

b. the posterior occipital lobes

Question 184

________ is a condition characterized by excessive and abnormally patterned activity in the brain.

Answer 184

b. Epilepsy

Question 185

Resecting or removing regions of cortex and cutting the corpus callosum are techniques that are usually used to

Answer 185

a. alleviate severe chronic epilepsy.

Question 186

The term ________ is used to describe the situation in which group 1 is impaired on task X and unimpaired on task Y and group 2 is impaired on task Y and unimpaired on task X. In contrast, the term ________ is used when group 1 is impaired on task X and unimpaired on task Y and group 2 is unimpaired on both tasks X and Y.

Answer 186

b. double dissociation; single dissociation

Question 187

For a researcher to provide evidence that a brain area and cognitive function are associated, they could use a _____________ dissociation, however, to provide more substantial evidence about the function and function localization, they would need a ______________ dissociation.

Answer 187

a. single; double

Question 188

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) affects brain function by

Answer 188

a. altering neuronal polarization.

Question 189

A knockout mouse

Answer 189

c. is part of a special genetic strain that lacks or no longer expresses certain genes.

Question 190

The technique known as ________ can be used to induce virtual lesions in humans.

Answer 190

b. TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation)

Question 191

Which of the following imaging techniques would be best for visualizing a skull fracture?

Answer 191

a. CT (computerized tomography)

Question 192

Which of the following imaging techniques can be thought of as a three-dimensional X-ray?

Answer 192

b. CT (computerized tomography)

Question 193

This neuroimaging technique combines X-ray pictures taken from many different angles into a compressed two-dimensional representation of the brain

Answer 193

b. CT (computerized tomography)

Question 194

Which of the following neuroimaging techniques involves manipulating the orientation of hydrogen atoms?

Answer 194

a. MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)

Question 195

A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) image is constructed from signals that are generated by

Answer 195

d. protons rebounding to the MRI’s magnetic field.

Question 196

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)

Answer 196

d. is performed with an MRI scanner but measures the density and motion of water contained in axons.

Question 197

You have isolated a neuron in the occipital lobes that you believe is responsible for processing information about color. What type of neurophysiological technique would allow you to assess this hypothesis in a living animal?

Answer 197

a. single-cell recording

Question 198

The particular region of space in which a stimulus must be presented to evoke a response from a given neuron is its

Answer 198

c. receptive field.

Question 199

What can you infer about the responsiveness of two neurons in the visual cortex that lie next to each other in V1?

Answer 199

c. The receptive fields of these cells are also next to each other.

Question 200

One limitation of what we can learn through the single-cell recording technique is that

Answer 200

b. patterns of activity among groups of neurons may describe the function of a brain area better.

Question 201

Which of the following types of topographic representation does NOT incorporate information about the location of a stimulus in space?

Answer 201

c. cochleotopic maps in the auditory cortex

Question 202

The electrical signal evoked by a class of sensory, motor, or cognitive events, which is observed by averaging multiple EEG traces, is known as a(n)

Answer 202

c. event-related potential.

Question 203

Research questions about the time course of cognition are better addressed using methods like ________, whereas questions about the anatomy of cognition are better addressed using methods like ________.

Answer 203

a. ERP (event-related potential); fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging)

Question 204

Which of the following is an advantage of MEG (magnetoencephalography) over EEG (electroencephalography)?

Answer 204

c. With MEG, magnetic fields are not distorted by the skull.

Question 205

Which of the following best describes the major limitation of MEG (magnetoencephalography)?

Answer 205

c. The MEG requires a magnetically shielded room.

Question 206

The formation of plaques composed of abnormal amyloid protein in the brain is a characteristic symptom of

Answer 206

a. Alzheimer’s disease.

Question 207

A patient suffering from a progressive neurological disorder is brought to a neurologist for diagnosis. The neurologist notes that the patient’s MRI reveals a great deal of cortical atrophy and suspects that the problem may be Alzheimer’s disease. Which of the following symptoms, if also discovered, would confirm this diagnosis?

Answer 207

d. presence of amyloid plaques during postmortem examination of the brain

Question 208

The small regions in a three-dimensional grid, approximately 5 to 10 cubic millimeters in volume, that neuroimagers use to map the brain are known as

Answer 208

c. voxels.

Question 209

Which neuroimaging technique involves injecting an isotope of oxygen into the bloodstream and using it to measure regional cerebral blood flow?

Answer 209

b. PET (positron emission tomography)

Question 210

Suppose oxygen-15 is used as the tracer isotope in a PET (positron emission tomography) study. Which of the following best describes how the PET scanner traces the oxygen-15 after it has been injected into a participant’s bloodstream?

Answer 210

d. The oxygen-15 nuclei decay and emit positrons, the positrons collide with electrons to create gamma rays, and the gamma rays are then detected by the PET scanner.

Question 211

Functional connectivity is a measure of functional relatedness between different

Answer 211

b. brain regions.

Question 212

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is based on a measurement of

Answer 212

d. ratios of oxygenated to deoxygenated hemoglobin in the brain.

Question 213

________ is the science of simulating natural cognitive processes on computers.

Answer 213

c. Artificial intelligence

Question 214

The greatest advantage of incorporating computer modeling into the study of a cognitive phenomenon is that

Answer 214

d. this technique can generate explicit, testable theories of natural cognition.

Question 215

Which of the following is NOT an advantage of computer modeling?

Answer 215

b. Some models have homunculus-like teachers, just like those of biological organisms.

Question 216

Neural network models often

Answer 216

a. have distributed processing.

Question 217

Research using ________ models sometimes involves “lesioning” the model to see if it adequately simulates the behavioral deficits observed in neurological patients.

Answer 217

c. neural network

Question 218

The model of Kali and Dayan predicted that the maintenance of memories over time would

Answer 218

b. depend on reactivation of hippocampal–neocortical connections.

Question 219

Which of the following methods would best reveal an integrative perspective of the brain and its functionality?

Answer 219

b. Comparing patients with lesions to healthy individuals who have undergone transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).

Question 220

Which of the following can be done by combining functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and cannot be done by using only one of these methodologies?

Answer 220

b. Investigators can test causal inferences of neural function.

Question 221

The Sternberg experiment showed that the amount of time it takes to compare a target item with a list of items in memory increases with the number of items in the memory set. This is an example of parallel processing.

Answer 221

False

Question 222

The most frequent cause of stroke is occlusion of the normal passage of blood by a foreign substance, such as an embolus.

Answer 222

True

Question 223

Some progressive neurological disorders can be caused by viruses like the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the herpes simplex virus.

Answer 223

True

Question 224

Weaver mice are a knockout strain in which Purkinje cells, the prominent cell type in the hippocampus, fail to develop. As a result, these mice are “maze dull.”

Answer 224

False

Question 225

The best neuroimaging method for visualizing the white and gray matter is computerized tomography (CT).

Answer 225

False

Question 226

When performing a single-cell recording, researchers typically carefully insert a thin electrode through the cell membrane into the interior of a neuron.

Answer 226

False

Question 227

The term tonotopic refers to the fact that the cochlea and the auditory cortex contain maps that are organized according to the sound frequencies that best stimulate the cells.

Answer 227

True

Question 228

Computational models can vary widely in the level of explanation they seek to provide, and they can range from the cellular/molecular level to the systems level.

Answer 228

True

Question 229

What is the Stroop effect? Describe a principle of cognition that the task’s results reveal.

Answer 229

The Stroop effect powerfully demonstrates the multi- plicity of mental representations. The stimuli in this task appear to activate at least two separable representations. One representation corresponds to the color of each stimulus; it is what allows the participant to perform the task. The second representation corresponds to the color con- cept associated with each word.the activation of a representation based on the word rather than the color of the word appears to be automatic. the word-based representations are closely linked to the vocal response system and have little effect when the responses are produced manually.

Question 230

What is a mental representation? How are mental representations transformed? Give an example to support each of your two answers.

Answer 230

A hypothetical entity that is presumed to stand for a perception, thought, memory, or the like during cognitive operations. It depends of thinking of a word and depends on transforming it using our visual system, auditory system, our ability to comprehend the spatial arrangement of a drawing, language, geometric etc. Thinking of a notebook, then you think of something rectangular and all of its features.

Question 231

What are single and double dissociations? Provide an example of a neuropsychological study illustrating each one.

Answer 231

When a lesion to brain area X impairs the ability of a patient to do task A but not task B, then we can say that brain area X and task A are associated, whereas brain area X and task B are dissociated. We call this a single dissociation. For example, damage to Broca’s area in the left hemisphere impairs a person’s ability to speak fluently, but it does not impair comprehension. When shown an object, J.S. performed poorly in describing its size, but he could readily adjust his grip to match the object’s size and pick it up. Or, if shown two flat and irregular shapes, J.S. found it very challenging to say whether they were the same or dif- ferent, yet he could easily modify his hand shape to pick up each object. As with D.F., J.S. displayed a compelling dissociation in his abilities for object identification, even though his actions indicated that he “perceived” in exqui- site detail the shape and orientation of the objects.

A double dissociation occurs when damage to area X impairs the ability to do task A but not task B, and damage to area Y impairs the ability to do task B but not task A. The two areas have complementary processing. For example, continuing the Broca’s aphasia. Damage to Wernicke’s area impairs comprehension but not the ability to speak fluently. a double dissociation happens when participants are presented with dichotic pairs of sung melodies. We find a right-ear advantage for the song’s words but a left-ear advantage for its melodies

Question 232

Cognitive neuropsychological approaches using people who have suffered a stroke, tumor, or neurological disorder are sometimes described as “correlational.” Explain what this means, and provide a hypothetical case study to illustrate your point.

Answer 232

The ten- dency to infer causation from correlation can be especially great when we are comparing the contribution of nature and nurture to brain and behavior, or when we hold a bias in one direction over another.
It is also important to consider that the causal story may run in the opposite direction. For example, hippocampal volume in people with PTSD.

Question 233

Why are methods that perturb neural function useful to researchers? Give examples of at least two such methods.

Answer 233

They are able to see how brain functions can be disrupted in normal people. Brain function can be perturbed by drugs, genetic ma- nipulations, and magnetic or electrical stimulation. In most cases, these methods allow the same participants to be tested in both “on” and “off” states, enabling within-participant comparisons of performance. For example, tDCS, TMS, optogenetics, DBS, etc.

Question 234

How do transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) differ? Give a real or hypothetical example of an occasion when one of these methods would be preferable to the other. Explain why.

Answer 234

TMS produces relatively focal stimulation of the human brain noninvasively. Triggers the capacitors to send a large electrical current (pulse, as various intensity, timing, and
frequency) through the coil to generate a
magnetic field. The magnetic field propagates though the scalp
and skull to the cortical surface below the coil to alter the electrical activity in the neurons
o Low-level currents that result in action potentials under the anodes
o “Online” and “Offline” manipulation.
Better for resolution purposes

tDCS Delivers a constant low current to the brain via electrodes placed on the scalp
o Anode: depolarized, close to threshold, more likely to initiate an action potential
o Cathode: hyperpolarized, less likely to fire
Better for deeper structure stimulation

tDCS alters neural activity over a much larger area than is directly affected by a TMS pulse

Question 235

Describe an experiment you could conduct in order to understand the properties of a particular cell’s receptive field.

Answer 235

You can conduct a halle berry cell experiment while having participant focus on fixation point and showing the stimulus in the receptive field.

Question 236

Compare and contrast electroencephalogram (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG). Highlight their similarities and differences in your answer.

Answer 236

They are both noninvasive electrical recordings of neuroactivity.
EEG: We can record the electrical potential at the scalp because the tissues of the brain, skull, and scalp passively conduct the electrical currents produced by synaptic activity. However, the strength of the signal is affected by the conducting properties of the tissue and becomes weaker as the distance increases from the neural genera- tors to the recording electrodes. Can be used to detect abnormalities in brain function.
MEG: a technique that measures the magnetic fields produced by the brain’s electrical activity.MEG devices measure electrical activity that is parallel to the surface of the skull. MEG recordings come mainly from the neurons located within sulci unline EEG recordings (they pick up voltage changes from both sulci and gyri. Very expensive but can localize the source for acurately than with EEG.
As with EEG, we record and average MEG traces over a series of trials to obtain event-related signals, called event-related fields (ERFs).

Question 237

What is an event-related potential (ERP)? What benefits do ERPs bring to a researcher’s toolkit?

Answer 237

The evoked response is a tiny signal embedded in the ongo- ing EEG triggered by the stimulus or movement. By averaging the traces, investigators can extract this sig- nal, which reflects neural activity specifically related to the sensory, motor, or cognitive event that evoked it. Many components of the ERP have been associ- ated with specific psychological processes. Thus, ERPs are best suited to addressing questions about the time course of cognition, rather than to localizing the brain structures that produce the electrical events.

Question 238

What role does an isotope play in positron emission tomography (PET)? Include a real or hypothetical example.

Answer 238

the researcher injects this isotope, in the form of water (H215O), into that person’s bloodstream. The 15O nuclei rapidly decay, each one emitting a positron. The collision of a positron with an electron creates two photons, or gamma rays. The two photons move in oppo- site directions at the speed of light, passing unimpeded through brain tissue, skull, and scalp. The PET scanner— essentially a gamma ray detector—determines where the collision took place.

Question 239

How do computational models contribute to our understanding of cognitive neuroscience? Include an example in your answer.

Answer 239

An appealing aspect of neural network models, espe- cially for people interested in cognitive neuroscience, is that with “lesion” techniques, we can demonstrate how a model’s performance changes with altered parts. Like shutting off the left hemisphere and testing them on their language lateralization.

Question 240

Dr. Joseph Bogen severed the corpus callosum of patient W.J. in order to relieve which symptom(s)?

Answer 240

a. seizures

Question 241

After patient W.J. had his corpus collosum severed, he participated in a series of tasks. One of these tasks demonstrated that the specializations of each hemisphere were different. This task permitted him to use ____________, and consequently __________________________________.

Answer 241

d. both hands; his two hands were working in opposition while he arranged colored blocks

Question 242

The posterior and anterior commissures are NOT thick enough for which of the following?

Answer 242

a. to serve as an alternative interhemispheric route for the corpus callosum

Question 243

Which of the following is NOT true of the Wada test?

Answer 243

c. It determines the extent to which the corpus callosum has been resected.

Question 244

Which of the following is NOT an anatomical or physiological difference between the cerebral hemispheres?

Answer 244

b. The Sylvian or lateral fissure is steeper on the left side.

Question 245

One issue in the study of laterality has been to determine whether children with developmental language disabilities show different patterns of hemispheric asymmetry relative to control populations. MRI studies of dyslexic children have found that

Answer 245

c. the left and right planum temporale tend to be symmetrical in this group.

Question 246

An anatomical difference between the cerebral hemispheres that may be related to language lateralization is the enlargement of the ________ in the left hemisphere.

Answer 246

c. planum temporale

Question 247

One difficulty in interpreting the correlation between asymmetry in the planum temporale and language function that has recently arisen is that

Answer 247

a. the extent of the anatomical differences between the left and right hemispheres may have been overestimated by the techniques used to identify this region.

Question 248

On which basis you know about the neurophysiological and microanatomical differences between the right and left hemispheres, choose the option here that correctly lists the properties of cortical tissue samples taken from the left hemisphere.

Answer 248

c. relatively greater high-order dendritic branching, relatively loose packing of cortical columns

Question 249

What are homotopic brain areas?

Answer 249

b. areas in corresponding locations in the two cerebral hemispheres

Question 250

The main mass of fibers that carries signals from the cortex in one cerebral hemisphere to the other is called the

Answer 250

b. corpus callosum.

Question 251

Which of the following, if any, describes a proposed function of the corpus callosum?

Answer 251

b. to allow each hemisphere to inhibit the activity of the other

Question 252

Examination of cerebral organization in the left and right hemispheres indicates that

Answer 252

d. the two hemispheres are more similar to one another in function than they are different.

Question 253

Split-brain research is associated with which of the following?

Answer 253

b. callosotomy

Question 254

Which of the following is a methodological issue that arises in studies investigating cerebral laterality in split-brain patients?

Answer 254

a. Due to their epilepsy, these people may not have had normal brain organization before surgery.

Question 255

Which of the following people would be most likely to receive the split-brain procedure?

Answer 255

d. a person with epilepsy

Question 256

Assessment of the visual processing carried out by each hemisphere in split-brain patients usually involves the brief simultaneous presentation of different stimuli to each visual field while the participant fixates on a central point in space. Why is it necessary to ensure that stimulus presentation is brief?

Answer 256

c. The short presentation time is necessary to prevent eye movements, which would redirect information across the visual fields.

Question 257

A small object, such as a key, is placed in the right hand of a split-brain patient who has her eyes closed. Assuming that this person has left-hemisphere language dominance, which of the following best describes her ability to report information about the object based on how it feels?

Answer 257

a. She will be able to name and describe it verbally.

Question 258

The following is a sample stimulus shown briefly to a split-brain patient who has the typical pattern of language dominance. If you ask her to name the object she sees, what will her answer probably be?

Answer 258

b. “Circle” since it’s in the left visual field

Question 259

Visual information that is presented briefly to the ________ visual field is processed first by the left half of each retina and then by the ________ hemisphere of the brain.

Answer 259

b. right; left

Question 260

If a split-brain patient with the typical pattern of language dominance is shown an object briefly in her left visual field, she will be able to indicate what she saw successfully if she is asked to

Answer 260

b. point to the object using her left hand.

Question 261

If you section all of the corpus callosum EXCEPT the splenial region, information about inputs to the

Answer 261

c. left and right visual field will be successfully integrated.

Question 262

The word superiority effect can be documented

Answer 262

d. in both hemispheres because this effect stems from the visual lexicon.

Question 263

To which of the following aspects of language does the right hemisphere seem to make the smallest contribution, if any?

Answer 263

a. generative syntax

Question 264

A general function that is associated with right-hemisphere activity in most people is

Answer 264

d. visuospatial processing.

Question 265

Although there is a general consensus that the right hemisphere is superior on some tasks that require visuospatial processing, such as the block design task, the findings on this topic are also somewhat inconsistent. One explanation for this inconsistency is that the block design task

Answer 265

a. involves many cognitive operations, and not all of them may be lateralized to the right hemisphere.

Question 266

One advantage to studying cerebral laterality from an information-processing perspective rather than a task-based perspective is that the information-processing approach

Answer 266

c. emphasizes that the two hemispheres may work in concert to perform a task

Question 267

Studies of the production of facial expressions suggest that although ________ can generate spontaneous facial expressions, ________ can generate voluntary facial expressions.

Answer 267

c. both hemispheres; only the left hemisphere

Question 268

Split-brain patients are asked to detect targets that appear briefly on a computer screen. On some trials, the targets are preceded by cues that correctly indicate their upcoming location. The detection advantage produced by the cues

Answer 268

d. occurs regardless of which visual field contains the cue and target.

Question 269

Lesions of the right hemisphere disrupt perception of ________ in visual stimuli and ________ in speech.

Answer 269

a. global structure; prosody

Question 270

Based on what you have learned about laterality, which of the following statements is most accurate?

Answer 270

c. Both hemispheres play a role in most tasks in all people, working in concert with each other.

Question 271

The term _______________________ refers to the idea that a complex perceptual stimulus can be described on multiple levels of detail.

Answer 271

b. hierarchical structure

Question 272

The phenomenon of global precedence described by Navon (1977) is that when hierarchically structured stimuli are presented,

Answer 272

a. global shapes are extracted before local shapes.

Question 273

Based on the work of Navon (1977), which of the following types of stimuli would probably produce the shortest reaction times if participants were required to detect the presence of an “L” in the figure?

Answer 273

c. “L
L
L L L”

Question 274

When presented with lateralized local–global stimuli to control, participants generally

Answer 274

b. identify global targets more quickly by the right hemisphere than the left hemisphere.

Question 275

Robertson and colleagues (1988) investigated possible asymmetries in the processing of hierarchical figures by people who had suffered unilateral brain injuries. They found that patients with injuries to the left hemisphere had difficulty in identifying ________ elements, and patients with injuries to the right hemisphere had difficulty in identifying ________ elements.

Answer 275

b. the local; the global

Question 276

Here are a hierarchical letter figure and a copy of this stimulus drawn by a person with a unilateral brain injury. Where is the most probable location of this injury?

Answer 276

b. the left temporoparietal cortex

Question 277

In an experiment with patients, a group of researchers used nonlinguistic hierarchical shape stimuli such as the example here. How did the results differ from those obtained with hierarchical letter stimuli?

Answer 277

a. The results were the same regardless of whether letter stimuli or shape stimuli were used.

Question 278

Theory of mind is to the interpreter as the _______________ is to the _______________.

Answer 278

c. right hemisphere; left hemisphere

Question 279

One of the hallmarks of humans is our ability to draw causal inferences. In the textbook this is termed________

Answer 279

c. the interpreter.

Question 280

You are watching a show on TV while speaking on your cell phone to a loved one. A commercial with a couple fighting appears. Suddenly, the person says something on the phone and you get irritated. The person on the other side of the line is perplexed by your response. This is an example

Answer 280

a. the interpreter. c. rationalization.
b. left hemisphere brain activity. d. All of the answer options are correct.
THE CORRECT ANSWER IS D

Question 281

In one experiment a group of pictures was presented to split-brain patients. Then a set of pictures was presented either to the left or the right hemisphere. Which of the following statements is true?

Answer 281

a. The left hemisphere accurately identified only the previously presented pictures.
b. The right hemisphere misidentified related pictures as being presented.
c. The left hemisphere accurately identified only the previously presented pictures, and the right hemisphere misidentified related pictures as being presented.
d. None of the answer options is correct.
THE CORRECT ANSWER IS D

Question 282

A split-brain patient is presented with instructions in their left visual field to draw a circle. The experimenter verbally asks the patient to explain why they drew a circle. Which of the following responses is the patient MOST likely to report?

Answer 282

a. “I was drawing a clock.”

Question 283

Animals and humans are shown items that have a 75/25 probability of being in one of two categories. Which participants would perform the best on this task?

Answer 283

b. intact animals

Question 284

When participants in a dichotic listening task with word stimuli are asked afterward to report as many items as possible, they consistently produce the words that were presented to the right ear much more frequently than the words that were presented to the left ear. This phenomenon is called

Answer 284

c. the right-ear advantage.

Question 285

When listening to a song, the right ear is to the left ear as ________ is/are to ________.

Answer 285

b. words; melodies

Question 286

Imagine that you are a neurologist and you have a child patient whom you suspect has agenesis of the corpus collosum (ACC). During a meeting with the child’s parents, which of the following complaints are they LEAST likely to report?

Answer 286

c. The child has been unable to connect socially with his or her peers.

Question 287

Studies of cerebral laterality in nonhuman species indicate that hemispheric differences

Answer 287

b. are found in many species, but the specific functions involved often differ.

Question 288

Localized specialized networks that can perform functions are called

Answer 288

d. modules.

Question 289

Which of the following statements best describes the correlation between handedness and hemisphere dominance for language function in humans?

Answer 289

d. The correlation is weak, such that almost all right-handers and at least half of left-handers exhibit left-hemisphere language dominance, regardless of handedness.

Question 290

Brain asymmetries are restricted to the cerebral cortex and are not found in subcortical structures.

Answer 290

False

Question 291

Asymmetries in language-associated brain regions have been documented at the level of individual neurons that make up the cortical columns.

Answer 291

True

Question 292

Many callosal projections link homotopic areas in corresponding locations in the two hemispheres.

Answer 292

True

Question 293

In neurologically intact people, we can restrict information to only the left hemisphere by presenting it visually in the right visual field.

Answer 293

False

Question 294

There appear to be two mental lexicons, one in each hemisphere.

Answer 294

True

Question 295

The right hemisphere is more important than the left for both the perception and production of facial expressions

Answer 295

False

Question 296

Drawings of hierarchical figures by people with left-hemisphere lesions are likely to focus on local elements while missing global structure.

Answer 296

False

Question 297

The interpreter is a specialization of the left hemisphere.

Answer 297

True

Question 298

The dichotic listening task has been used to show a left-ear advantage for remembering dichotically presented words, consistent with the idea that the left hemisphere processes language.

Answer 298

False

Question 299

One theory of the relationship between language and handedness suggests that both speech and dexterity are related.

Answer 299

True

Question 300

All of the following are common across each sensory system, EXCEPT:

Answer 300

b. System nerves terminate either monosynaptically or disynaptically in different parts of the thalamus.

Question 301

Information about which of the following senses does NOT pass through the thalamus on the way to the cortex?

Answer 301

b. olfaction

Question 302

How many types of receptors are there in the olfactory epithelium?

Answer 302

d. more than five

Question 303

The primary olfactory cortex is located at the junction of the ________ and ________ lobes.

Answer 303

a. frontal; temporal

Question 304

How do the two hemispheres differentially process the local and global elements of visual hierarchical stimuli?

Answer 304

LH better at local level of visual hierarchical stimuli because it has more neuron with small center surround receptive fields that are more sensitive to smaller stimuli
• RH better at global level of visual hierarchical stimuli because it has more neuron with larger center surround receptive fields that are more sensitive to larger stimuli

Question 305

Describe how the right and left hemispheres differ in terms of facial recognition.

Answer 305

The right hem is better at recognizing familiar faces. The right hemisphere is also specialized for efficiently detecting upright faces and discriminating among similar faces. The left hemisphere is not good at distinguishing among similar faces, but it is able to distinguish among dissimilar ones when it can tag the feature differences with words. The left hemisphere was biased toward recognizing one’s own face, while the right hemi- sphere had a recognition bias for familiar others

Question 306

Describe how the facial expressions of right- and left-hemisphere-damaged patients differ.

Answer 306

In split-brain patient, however, when the left hemisphere is given the command to smile, the lower-right side of the face responds first, while the left side responds about 180 ms later. Both hems can generate spontaneous facial expressions but if LH is damaged, then they can’t produce voluntary facial expressions. With RH damage, spontaneous expression is intact whereas voluntary expression are hindered.

Question 307

Describe how the right and left hemispheres differ in terms of the processing of melodies and words for a song.

Answer 307

Neurologically healthy participants exhibit a right-ear advantage when performing the dichotic listening task. When listening to songs, however, while there is a right- ear advantage for the song’s words, there is a left-ear advantage for its melodies.

Question 308

Damage to the right hemisphere is known to cause visual spatial function deficits. Give an example of a result from an experiment that supports this.

Answer 308

Split-brain patients cannot name or describe visual and tactile stimuli presented to the right hemisphere, because the sensory information is disconnected from the dominant left (speech) hemisphere. When given the task in the block design test. They would be unable to duplicate the pattern with either hand.

Question 309

The right and left hemispheres have both been called interpreters. Describe the difference.

Answer 309

The left hemisphere appears to have a specialized ability to make causal inferences and form hypotheses. This ability, known as the interpreter, seeks to explain both internal and external events in order to produce appropri- ate response behaviors.
■ When predicting which of two events will occur, the left hemisphere uses a frequency-matching strategy, where- as the right hemisphere uses a maximizing strategy.
While the left hemisphere has the ability to make causal inferences, the right hemisphere is better at judgments of causal perception (the ability to detect that one object is influencing another object in both time and space).
■ The right hemisphere’s ability to extrapolate a unified picture of the environment from incomplete perceptual information about contours and boundaries is called the “right-hemisphere interpreter.

Question 310

Some people suggest that the loss of visual spatial ability is due to the acquisition of language. Give an example of this from work with nonhuman primates.

Answer 310

The visual system of monkeys, however, transfers visual information across an intact anterior commis- sure, whereas there is no transfer of visual information across the human anterior commissure. In addition, left- hemisphere lesions in the Japanese macaque can impair the animal’s ability to comprehend the vocalizations of conspecifics. Unlike the effects on some aphasic patients, however, this deficit is mild and transient. There is also evidence from split-brain monkeys that, unlike the case with humans, the left hemisphere is better at spatial judg- ments. This observation is tantalizing, because it is con- sistent with the idea that the evolution of language in the left hemisphere in humans has resulted in the loss of some visuospatial abilities from the left hemisphere.

Question 311

How is Brodmann area 22 specialized for the processing of auditory signals in humans?

Answer 311

The left is specialized for word detection and generation; the right is specialized for melody, pitch, and intensity, which are properties of all auditory communication, from bird tweets to monkey calls.

Question 312

The orbitofrontal cortex is considered a secondary cortical area for which of the following senses?

Answer 312

c. olfaction

Question 313

Neurons in the olfactory bulb demonstrate an extensive amount of convergence and divergence. This means that neurons in this system

Answer 313

b. project to, and receive input from, a large number of other neurons.

Question 314

After modeling the quick habituation found in the olfactory system, Sobel’s fMRI research suggested that

Answer 314

d. the primary olfactory cortex is related to sniffing and smell, whereas the orbitofrontal cortex is related to smell but not sniffing.

Question 315

Which of the following is a documented asymmetry in the olfactory system?

Answer 315

c. The nasal passage in one nostril is larger than in the other nostril, and this switches back and forth every few hours.

Question 316

Of the following choices, the strongest evidence for a link between the sense of smell and the triggering of memories is the observation that

Answer 316

a. the olfactory cortex has direct connectivity to the limbic cortex.

Question 317

Sobel and colleagues asked male participants to rate pictures of women’s faces in terms of sexual attraction. While rating the photos, they instructed the participants to sniff either tears from “donor women” or an odorless saline solution. Which of the following best summarizes the findings of this study?

Answer 317

a. Participants rated faces as less sexually attractive when sniffing tears compared to when they were sniffing the saline solution.

Question 318

Suppose you injected an anterograde tracer into taste-specific regions of the thalamus. Which of the following are you LEAST likely to find?

Answer 318

c. The salty cluster may be distributed over multiple pathways.

Question 319

Peng and colleagues manipulated the behavior of mice by activating differential regions of the gustatory cortex. Based on their findings, which of the following scenarios is MOST plausible if translated to human behavior?

Answer 319

d. Alena frequently chooses to drink coffee at her favorite dessert bar, even if she isn’t eating dessert.

Question 320

The basic taste umami is experienced when eating foods rich in

Answer 320

b. protein.

Question 321

Which of the following is NOT one of the basic tastes?

Answer 321

a. acid

Question 322

The primary gustatory cortex is located in the

Answer 322

d. insula and operculum.

Question 323

The orbitofrontal cortex is an integration area for which two senses?

Answer 323

c. olfaction and gustation

Question 324

In which of the following brain areas might you expect an expert taster such as a chef or sommelier to have unique patterns of neural connectivity?

Answer 324

c. the orbitofrontal cortex

Question 325

Which of the following is NOT a type of corpuscle used for somatosensation?

Answer 325

b. Calvert

Question 326

Information about the left hand is processed

Answer 326

d. in the right hemisphere for the primary somatosensory cortex and bilaterally for the secondary somatosensory cortex.

Question 327

Which area of the body has the greatest amount of representation in the human primary somatosensory cortex?

Answer 327

a. hands

Question 328

In the auditory system, the conversion of sound waves into action potentials occurs in the

Answer 328

d. hair cells.

Question 329

In the auditory system, the basilar membrane is located within the

Answer 329

a. cochlea.

Question 330

High-frequency sounds primarily activate hair cells at the ________ of the cochlea, whereas low-frequency sounds primarily activate hair cells at the ________ of the cochlea.

Answer 330

a. base (thicker end); apex (thinner end)

Question 331

Vision is to audition as the ____________ is to the ____________.

Answer 331

b. lateral geniculate nucleus; medial geniculate nucleus

Question 332

The primary auditory cortex is located in the

Answer 332

d. superior temporal lobe.

Question 333

The two cues that barn owls use to localize sounds are

Answer 333

b. interaural time and interaural intensity.

Question 334

Konishi’s model of spatial hearing in the barn owl posits that interaural time is computed using ________, whereas interaural intensity differences are computed using ________.

Answer 334

b. coincidence detectors; relative rate of firing

Question 335

Cells in the posterior part of A1 are to cells in the anterior part of A1 as ______________ is to ______________.

Answer 335

c. high frequency; low frequency

Question 336

The primary visual pathway is best described as

Answer 336

c. retina → optic nerve → optic chiasm → thalamus → occipital lobe.

Question 337

Due to a defect in one type of photoreceptor, Sheena has poor vision at night, when light levels are relatively low. Which type of photoreceptor is defective?

Answer 337

c. rod

Question 338

The highest density of ________, or color-sensitive photoreceptors, can be found in the ________ of the retina.

Answer 338

a. cones; fovea

Question 339

Before entering the brain, each optic nerve splits into two branches so that information from the ________ half of each retina crosses to the opposite side of the brain.

Answer 339

a. nasal (medial)

Question 340

A patient has an injury to the optic nerves, such that the branches of each optic nerve that normally cross to the opposite side of the brain at the optic chiasm are severed. The remaining branches, which do not cross to the other side of the brain, are intact. Which of the following best describes the effect of this injury on his vision?

Answer 340

c. Only the signal for half the visual field of each eye is processed by the brain.

Question 341

Simple cells in the primary visual cortex selectively respond to visual stimuli based on

Answer 341

c. stimulus orientation.

Question 342

If you were to conduct a single-cell recording from a neuron in the MT region of the extrastriate visual cortex, you would probably find that the cell fires most vigorously to a

Answer 342

d. bar of light that moves across the cell’s receptive field.

Question 343

Using single-cell recording, you isolate a neuron in area MT that selectively responds to moving stimuli. What other response property would you expect from this cell?

Answer 343

d. It is selective for stimulus velocity.

Question 344

If a patient has a unilateral lesion in area V5, which of the following disruptions is the patient MOST likely to experience?

Answer 344

d. A subtle deficit in motion perception.

Question 345

Disorders of color perception that arise from disturbances in the central nervous system are called

Answer 345

a. achromatopsia.

Question 346

Achromatopsia is due to

Answer 346

c. cortical lesions in area V4.

Question 347

A patient who has a focal brain injury to the human analog of area MT would demonstrate all of the following for visually presented stimuli EXCEPT

Answer 347

b. accurate velocity discrimination.

Question 348

Why is it difficult to investigate the conscious experience of perception using monkeys?

Answer 348

b. We cannot infer a conscious experience from monkeys’ behavior.

Question 349

A selective loss of motion perception is called

Answer 349

c. akinetopsia.

Question 350

A patient with progressive supranuclear palsy is suffering from gradual deterioration of his superior colliculus. Which of the following statements best describes the result of this disease?

Answer 350

d. The patient is unable to initiate eye movements.

Question 351

While simultaneously listening to a person saying “ba” and seeing a video of them saying “fa,” you will most likely hear ____. This is because of _________________.

Answer 351

b. “fa”; the McGurk effect

Question 352

Which subcortical region is known to maintain multimodal maps of the environment and is involved in the control and orienting of movements?

Answer 352

d. the superior colliculus

Question 353

Which term is used to describe an idiosyncratic union between or within sensory modalities, such as experiencing the color red whenever seeing the letter A?

Answer 353

c. synesthesia

Question 354

Which of the following results would be expected for an individual experiencing the most common form of synesthesia?

Answer 354

b. They show interference effects when asked to identify the colors of letters if the colors are inconsistent with their synesthetic experiences.

Question 355

Which of the following is the best example of cortical plasticity?

Answer 355

a. the processing of tactile information by blind people in cortical regions that process visual information in sighted people

Question 356

Studies of cortical organization in blind people have shown that compared to sighted people,

Answer 356

b. blind people show increased activity in the occipital cortex when given tactile discrimination tasks but not when idly sweeping their fingers over rough surfaces.

Question 357

Which of the following sequences best represents the processing order of the cochlear implant?

Answer 357

b. Sound waves are converted into electrical signals → electrical signals are converted into digital representations → digital representations are transmitted as radio waves → radio waves are reconverted into electrical signals that travel to the cochlea.

Question 358

A review of outcomes compared children who had received cochlear implants at ages ranging from 6 months to 6 years. Which of the following best describes the findings of this review?

Answer 358

a. Children who received the implant before 12 months of age had superior communication outcomes.

Question 359

Which of the following is NOT applicable to the epiretinal implant?

Answer 359

c. It works by exploiting the remaining photoreceptors.

Question 360

If you have a patient with significant photoreceptor loss, what is the BEST treatment available that you can offer?

Answer 360

c. Epiretinal implants

Question 361

Odorants from the mouth can travel back up into the nasal cavity.

Answer 361

True

Question 362

The primary olfactory cortex is located in the parietal lobe.

Answer 362

False

Question 363

The senses of olfaction and gustation are known as chemical senses because they begin with stimulation by chemicals (odorants or tastants).

Answer 363

True

Question 364

The term proprioception refers to the sensation of knowing the position of the body and limbs.

Answer 364

True

Question 365

Different parts of the body are represented in the primary somatosensory cortex in proportion to their size.

Answer 365

False

Question 366

During audition, sound vibrations are encoded as neural signals in the basilar membrane of the cochlea.

Answer 366

True

Question 367

Unlike the visual system, auditory information does not pass through the thalamus on the way to the cortex.

Answer 367

False

Question 368

The two ears of the barn owl are positioned asymmetrically on the head, improving sound localization in the vertical direction.

Answer 368

True

Question 369

Information about color is extensively processed in visual area V5.

Answer 369

False

Question 370

The term akinetopsia refers to unusual sensory unions—either between two senses, such as perceiving tastes for words, or within a single sense, such as perceiving colors for letters.

Answer 370

False

Question 371

How do the two nostrils provide the brain with slightly different samples of the olfactory environment? Why might this be advantageous?

Answer 371

The flow of air is greater into one nostril than into the other because there is a slight turbinate swelling in one. The nostril that takes in more air switches from the left to the right one and back again every few hours, but the effect of this switching on the sense of smell has been unclear, but it might be helpful to smell out dangerous things.

Question 372

How do we know that somatosensory cortex is plastic? Describe the method and results of at least one experiment to support your answer.

Answer 372

Somatosensory cortex is plastic in the sense that it can change in internal organization so that the response properties of neurons in the cortex are altered. Somatosensory representations exhibit plasticity, show- ing variation in extent and organization as a function of individual experience.

Question 373

Describe two ways in which the auditory system of the barn owl computes auditory spatial information.

Answer 373

Barn owls rely on two cues to localize sounds: the difference in when a sound reaches each of the two ears (the interaural time) and the difference in the sound’s intensity at the two ears. Both cues exist because the arriving sound is not identical at both ears.

Question 374

Give several reasons why the following statement is incorrect: “The right visual field is processed by the left hemisphere of the brain, while the left visual field is processed by the right.”

Answer 374

Because the visual fields cross at the optic chiasm.

Question 375

How do receptive fields change as you proceed up the visual pathway (starting at the lateral geniculate nucleus [LGN])? Include an example of a stimulus that would, and would not, cause a neural response for a hypothetical cell at each stage.

Answer 375

In the LGN, the receptive fields have on and off properties

Question 376

Why might it be computationally useful for the primate brain to have so many different visual areas?

Answer 376

Because if one fails, there’s another area to fall back on.

Question 377

Argue that activity in higher visual areas is more closely linked to the percept we experience than are early visual areas, using experimental findings to support your argument.

Answer 377

Although the information is sensed accurately at earlier stages within the visual stream, conscious perception, at least of color, is more closely linked to higher-area activity.
A related study used fMRI to detect the neural fingerprints of unconscious “perception” (Haynes & Rees, 2005). Participants were shown a stimulus under one of two conditions: either for a 20th of a second, or for a 30th of a second but preceded and followed by a mask of crosshatched lines. The participants were to decide which of two ways the stimulus was oriented. In the first condition people responded with a high degree of accuracy, but in the second condition perfor- mance dropped to chance levels. Nonetheless, by using a sophisticated pattern recognition algorithm on the fMRI data from the second condition, the researchers were able to show that activity in V1 could distinguish which stimulus had been presented—an effect that was lost in V2 and V3.

Question 378

Describe two experiments that would allow you to determine if an individual has achromatopsia or has akinetopsia. If the symptoms appeared after a head injury, which brain regions are likely damaged in each case?

Answer 378

You would show the person a series of colored pictures, if they can see the colors well then they do not have achromatopsia (arises from damage to V4 and the region anterior to V4). To determine if the person had akinetopsia (damage to V5 and temporoparietal cortices, including posterior and lateral portions of the middle temporal gyrus), you could show them a video of a person moving through incoming traffic.

Question 379

What would the subjective experience of color-grapheme synesthesia be like? Describe an experiment (real or hypothetical) that would demonstrate that these associations are automatically experienced.

Answer 379

They would experience numbers and letters as attributing to a certain color. You could use the stroop test to show this.

Question 380

Speculate about what kinds of information might be processed in the superior temporal lobe of a congenitally deaf person. In your answer, consider the kinds of environmental information that are especially important in the absence of sound.

Answer 380

Information about things related to a sound is what is processed. When a sensory system is absent, inputs from a different sensory system may expand in terms of their cortical recruitment. This reorganization may be facilitated by connectivity patterns that exist between different sensory areas—a hypothesis that could also account for why an area such as MT/MST is sensitive to auditory motion information even in sighted individuals.

Question 381

An undercover agent notices a green car parked outside her apartment building when she leaves for work at 8:00 a.m. Later she notices the same car in a store parking lot and becomes suspicious that she is being followed. The agent’s ability to recognize the car under these two different circumstances is an example of

Answer 381

b. object constancy.

Question 382

________ is the ability to recognize an object under many different viewing conditions and in many different contexts.

Answer 382

b. Object constancy

Question 383

With regard to perception, the term feature refers to

Answer 383

d. a fundamental component of a visual pattern, such as edge orientation or color.

Question 384

Anatomical outputs from the occipital lobe follow two major axon bundles that terminate in the ________ and ________.

Answer 384

c. inferior temporal lobe; posterior parietal lobe

Question 385

A patient’s ability to represent the spatial layout of their environment has become disturbed. The patient most likely has damage in the _____ lobe.

Answer 385

b. parietal

Question 386

The patient D.F., studied by Goodale and Milner (1982), had severe problems with object recognition. When presented with a circular block into which a slot had been cut,

Answer 386

a. D.F. was able to insert a card into the slot when asked to do so, even though she was unable to follow the instruction to orient the card so that it would fit.

Question 387

Pohl (1973) conducted a study of the “what” and “where” pathways in brain-lesioned monkeys using two different tasks: a landmark discrimination task, which required a visuospatial judgment, and an object discrimination task, which required object recognition. He found that monkeys with temporal lobe lesions became severely impaired in learning the ________ task but not the ________ task. Monkeys with posterior parietal lesions showed the ________ pattern of performance.

Answer 387

c. object discrimination; landmark discrimination; opposite

Question 388

Lomber and Malhorta (2008) conducted a study asking cats to identify the where and what of an auditory stimulus. Using thin tubes of cold liquid, the researchers induced transient lesions. Lesions to the anterior auditory region disrupted the __________ task but not the __________ task. When lesions were induced to the posterior auditory region, the cats showed the _______ pattern of performance.

Answer 388

d. pattern discrimination; localization; opposite

Question 389

A role of the dorsal visual system in computing the way in which a movement should be produced argues for a dichotomy between

Answer 389

c. “what” and “how”.

Question 390

During a single-cell recording study, you locate a neuron in one of the two main output pathways from the occipital cortex that has a large receptive field in the central part of the visual field. The cell probably lies inside the ________ pathway and is specialized for ________.

Answer 390

d. temporal; object recognition

Question 391

With regard to the two main output pathways from the occipital lobe, ________ is to ________ as dorsal is to ventral.

Answer 391

a. “where”; “what”

Question 392

Optic ataxia is to associative visual agnosia as ________ lesions are to ________ lesions.

Answer 392

c. dorsal pathway; ventral pathway

Question 393

The “what” versus “where” distinction is supported by single-cell recording studies showing that neurons in the ________ lobes have receptive fields that are almost always located in the fovea, where high-acuity vision takes place.

Answer 393

b. inferior temporal

Question 394

Optic ataxia is an inability to

Answer 394

d. use visual information to guide movements.

Question 395

In functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies, when a stimulus is repeated, the BOLD response can be ________ for the second presentation compared to the first. This is known as the ________________.

Answer 395

b. lower; repetition suppression effect

Question 396

Eliminating a gnostic unit would

Answer 396

d. completely disrupt recognition of a complex object.

Question 397

There are various issues with the idea that single neurons encode the mental representations for all possible complex visual stimuli. Which of the following is NOT one of these issues?

Answer 397

c. Neurophysiological evidence that visual cells respond to specific types of stimuli is lacking.

Question 398

According to ensemble theories of object recognition, it is possible to confuse similar-looking objects because

Answer 398

a. objects that appear similar activate overlapping networks of cells.

Question 399

Each of the following are factors that currently restrict our ability to decode information from the brain, EXCEPT

Answer 399

b. the availability of necessary data for building decoding models.

Question 400

To create an effective encoding model of the brain’s visual activity, what properties should be used to model V1 voxel activity?

Answer 400

b. receptive field properties

Question 401

Decoding is to encoding as ____________ is to ____________.

Answer 401

b. mind reading; neural activity

Question 402

Which characteristic of brain activity is promising for the potential to decode dreams in the future?

Answer 402

a. Activity patterns during perception resemble those generated when people imagine the same object.

Question 403

Using equipment such as EEG and fMRI, it is possible that in the future, __________ will assist the detection of psychopathy, lies, terrorism, and murder.

Answer 403

c. mind reading

Question 404

A researcher wishes to investigate the visual processing of bodies in the human brain using TMS. Where should he or she stimulate?

Answer 404

a. on the border of the occipital and temporal lobes

Question 405

Neurons in the inferior temporal (IT) cortex rarely respond to __________. Rather, they respond to __________.

Answer 405

a. lines or spots; human hands

Question 406

Cells that respond to the human hand are located in the _____________, and their responsive firing rate is high regardless of the hand’s __________.

Answer 406

a. inferior temporal cortex; orientation

Question 407

Regarding facial recognition, the ventral pathway is to the superior temporal sulcus as __________ is to __________.

Answer 407

c. structure; movement

Question 408

A major source of evidence against the idea that faces are processed in a special neural region in humans is that the candidate region

Answer 408

c. is recruited when people have to make discriminations among highly familiar stimuli.

Question 409

Why might the brain have dedicated regions devoted to recognizing faces or places, but not for making other types of distinctions such as object discrepancies?

Answer 409

c. Recognizing faces and remembering places serves a superior evolutionary advantage.

Question 410

Which of the following is a brain region that would likely be implicated in processing spatial relations in an outdoor scene?

Answer 410

b. the parahippocampal place area (PPA)

Question 411

While conducting an fMRI study, you ask participants to view photographs of scenes and to make distinctions about those scenes. For example, you instruct participants to respond when trees are near a lake or when a house is near a garden. In which area of the brain do you most likely to see a pronounced BOLD signal?

Answer 411

b. the parahippocampal place area (PPA)

Question 412

Generally, brain lesions in individuals with associative agnosia are

Answer 412

b. not highly localized.

Question 413

A person with a visual agnosia has difficulty in recognizing drawings of familiar objects, such as an apple. If she were asked to imagine an apple rather than to inspect a picture of an apple, you would expect to find that

Answer 413

b. she has great difficulty in generating visual images as well as visual perception because the two skills share common brain regions.

Question 414

According to Warrington’s model, patients with left posterior lesions should be particularly impaired in

Answer 414

b. linking functionally associated visual inputs.

Question 415

Which of the following statements does NOT explain why some patients are visually agnosic for living (animate) things versus nonliving (inanimate) things?

Answer 415

d. There are more familiar animate objects in the environment than inanimate objects.

Question 416

The term associative visual agnosia is reserved for patients who

Answer 416

b. cannot recognize objects despite having normal perceptual representations.

Question 417

A patient like G.S. who had visual object agnosia would have difficulty in identifying an object unless

Answer 417

c. he was permitted to touch the object before making a response.

Question 418

When her telephone rings, a patient who has been diagnosed with visual object agnosia immediately picks up the receiver and answers it correctly. Why doesn’t this person show any signs of an object recognition deficit in this scenario?

Answer 418

c. The patient can use the sound of the ringing telephone to cue its recognition.

Question 419

When a picture of a hammer is placed in front of Patient H, she is unable to identify it. How can you determine if her difficulty is in recognizing the object or in simply remembering its name?

Answer 419

a. Ask her to demonstrate its use rather than identifying it.

Question 420

A patient who has difficulty matching pictures of the same object taken from different vantage points may be showing which dysfunction?

Answer 420

c. apperceptive visual agnosia

Question 421

After suffering from a focal brain injury, a patient has difficulty in recognizing visually presented objects, despite normal acuity and color perception. Notably, she has severe difficulty in judging whether two pictures, each showing a different view, represent the same object. What is the most probable diagnosis?

Answer 421

a. apperceptive visual agnosia

Question 422

Humphreys and Riddoch (1994) described a patient with a syndrome they called integrative visual agnosia, which was characterized by difficulty in

Answer 422

b. combining parts of objects into coherent whole percepts.

Question 423

Warrington (1985) proposed an anatomical model of the cognitive operations necessary to explain object recognition. The first stage in this model involves the detection and categorization of visually invariant information, which occurs in the ________ hemisphere; the second stage involves the semantic categorization of visual input, which occurs in ________ hemisphere(s).

Answer 423

c. right; the left

Question 424

A stroke patient is having trouble recognizing objects. For example, sometimes he can’t recognize his own cat depending on how the cat is positioned. Where in the brain does this patient most likely have damage?

Answer 424

d. right hemisphere

Question 425

When a person who has learned to read proficiently subsequently develops reading problems as a result of brain injury, this deficit is called

Answer 425

c. acquired alexia.

Question 426

Prosopagnosia is to alexia as ________ is to ________.

Answer 426

a. face recognition; reading

Question 427

_______ is to ________ as face recognition is to object recognition.

Answer 427

b. Prosopagnosia; agnosia

Question 428

As a neurologist, you have a patient with prosopagnosia, and the patient has also lost the ability to read. Which of the following are you LEAST likely to report after examining this patient?

Answer 428

a. Patient shows signs of a lesion in the inferior parietal lobe.

Question 429

Patients with prosopagnosia typically have difficulty recognizing

Answer 429

d. the faces of both their friends and famous people.

Question 430

Which of the following disorders may be associated with impaired facial perception?

Answer 430

b. autism spectrum disorder

Question 431

Why do people fail to notice when the mouth and eyes of an inverted face remain upright?

Answer 431

b. The overall configuration remains the same.

Question 432

Tanaka and Farah (1993) used line drawings of faces and houses in a recognition task. Participants were instructed to associate houses with names of those who lived there, and to associate faces with names. During the recall portion of the task, items were presented either in isolation or in context. Which of the following best describes the findings of this study?

Answer 432

d. Participants performed the same for house perception regardless of whether presentation was in isolation or in context; however, face perception was better when features were presented in context.

Question 433

Which of the following BEST describes why facial perception is unique compared to object or word recognition?

Answer 433

c. Facial recognition requires a sum of parts.

Question 434

The dorsal visual pathway is associated with the parietal lobe.

Answer 434

True

Question 435

The results of most single-cell studies of temporal lobe neurons support the gnostic unit hypothesis.

Answer 435

False

Question 436

An encoding model of brain activity predicts brain activity from a given stimulus.

Answer 436

True

Question 437

Category-specific deficits may be an emergent property of the fact that different kinds of information are needed to recognize living and nonliving objects.

Answer 437

True

Question 438

The fusiform face area is part of the dorsal stream.

Answer 438

False

Question 439

Three primary localized regions include face, place, and clothes areas.

Answer 439

False

Question 440

Selective damage to the primary visual cortex typically leads to visual agnosia.

Answer 440

False

Question 441

A major distinction in the study of visual agnosia is that between apperceptive visual agnosia and associative visual agnosia.

Answer 441

True

Question 442

Patients with associative visual agnosia can typically describe the functions of objects if they are given the names of the objects verbally.

Answer 442

True

Question 443

Synesthesia is a deficit in the ability to recognize faces that cannot be directly attributed to deterioration in intellectual function.

Answer 443

False

Question 444

Why is object constancy a difficult computational problem for the visual system? Describe some potential changes that can occur when we view the same object under different circumstances.

Answer 444

Because it has to be able to recognize the same object in different context settings. A lot to process.

Question 445

Describe the visual system’s dorsal and ventral pathways. In your answer, describe the kinds of information that are processed in each pathway and the lobes of the brain that are involved. Give an example of an experiment discussed in class or your text that supports this distinction in the visual system.

Answer 445

The ventral stream, or occipitotemporal pathway, is specialized for object perception and recognition. This is often referred to as the “what” pathway. It focuses on vision for recognition.
■ The dorsal stream, or occipitoparietal pathway, is special- ized for spatial perception and is often referred to as
the “where” (or “how”) pathway. It focuses on vision
for action.

Question 446

How do receptive fields of cells in the ventral and dorsal streams differ? How do these characteristics support the functions of the ventral and dorsal streams?

Answer 446

Ventral Temporal lobe neurons
• Determining the identity of an object (e.g., neurons in the inferior temporal cortex)(Figure 6.6)
• Foveal focus
• Diverse selectivity
Dorsal Parietal lobe neurons
• Detecting the presence and location of a stimulus

Question 447

How can researchers use our knowledge of the visual system to maximize the decoding of brain activity? What factors currently limit decoding performance?

Answer 447

we should be able to look at someone’s brain activity and infer what the person is currently seeing (or has re- cently seen, assuming our measurements are delayed)— a form of mind reading. This idea is referred to as decod- ing : The brain activity provides the coded message, and the challenge is to decipher it and infer what is being represented.
A consideration of the computational challenges of decoding raises two key issues. One is that our abil- ity to decode mental states is limited by our models of how the brain encodes information—that is, how infor- mation is represented in different cells or regions of the brain. Our ability to decode will be limited by the resolution of our measurement system.

Question 448

What categories of visual stimuli have regions of cortex that are activated when a person views examples from each category? Describe one approach that can establish a causal role of each region for perceiving these categories. Why is this evidence that these regions are involved in processing these categories?

Answer 448

Just as the FFA is specialized for processing faces, the parahippocampal place area (PPA) is specialized for processing information about spatial relations or for classifying objects based on spatial properties (e.g., an indoor versus outdoor scene), and the extrastriate body area (EBA) and the fusiform body area (FBA) have been identified as more active when body parts are viewed.

Question 449

There is some evidence for a double dissociation between agnosia for animate (living) things compared to inanimate (nonliving) things. Does this mean that there are distinct brain systems for representing these two categories? Why or why not?

Answer 449

Suggest double dissociation in ventral/dorsal pathways and perception/ action tasks. Main point= Object recognition involves distinct pathways.

Question 450

The main deficit in Bálint’s syndrome is that patients can focus attention only on

Answer 450

c. one object at a time.

Question 451

The term ________ refers to the operations involved when we select for further processing a limited subset of information from the total information available to us from our sensory systems and stored mental representations.

Answer 451

c. attention

Question 452

________ refers to the ability to choose certain sensory inputs for further information processing while ignoring others.

Answer 452

d. Selective attention

Question 453

Which component of attention is associated with the pulvinar?

Answer 453

a. the ability to engage visual attention at a particular location in the visual field

Question 454

Joan is a patient who had a stroke in her right parietal lobe and has extinction as a result of her injury. When placed in a driving simulator she would be most likely to miss which stimulus when stopped at a virtual crosswalk and staring straight ahead? (Note: For this question, assume drivers sit on the left side of the car.)

Answer 454

c. a pedestrian on the driver side when a second pedestrian is on the passenger side at the same time

Question 455

Patients with extinction are unable to detect a visual stimulus presented on the contralesional side of space if

Answer 455

b. this stimulus is presented at the same time as a stimulus on the ipsilesional side of the visual field.

Question 456

The involuntary failure to attend to sensory stimuli presented on the side of space opposite to the site of brain injury (in the absence of sensory problems) is called ________ syndrome.

Answer 456

b. neglect

Question 457

The primary functional problem that results from damage to the attentional network and that produces neglect syndrome is that patients

Answer 457

c. cannot disengage attention from information in the ipsilesional side of space.

Question 458

The observation that extinction is worse when identical, rather than different, stimuli are simultaneously presented to the ipsilesional and contralesional sides of the visual field indicates that

Answer 458

b. neglected stimuli undergo perceptual processing in the absence of focused attention.

Question 459

When Bisiach and Luzzatti (1978) asked patients with the neglect syndrome to describe their own mental images of the Italian city in which they lived, the researchers found that

Answer 459

d. the patients also neglected the contralesional side of their own mental images.

Question 460

Why isn’t the neuropsychology of attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) typically studied as a model to understand the anatomy of attention networks?

Answer 460

c. Both the anatomical and behavioral differences in ADHD make it a more complex phenomenon to study than neglect or Bálint’s syndrome.

Question 461

If a patient were demonstrating characteristics of unilateral neglect, which of the following would best explain the patient’s symptoms?

Answer 461

c. Right hemisphere structures contain a full map of visual space, whereas left hemisphere structures contain only a map of contralateral space.

Question 462

Attention can be divided into two broad categories:

Answer 462

b. voluntary and reflexive.

Question 463

Patients with neglect have deficits in _________ attention and those with Bálint’s syndrome have deficits in _________ attention.

Answer 463

b. scene-based; object-based

Question 464

In one of the earliest studies of visual attention, Helmholtz (1894) constructed a screen on which letters were painted at various distances from the center. Following a brief illumination, he found that

Answer 464

a. he could perceive letters located within the focus of his attention better than letters outside, even when his eyes remained at the center of the screen.

Question 465

During a particularly boring lecture, you carefully note the time on a clock that is mounted on the side wall of the classroom while keeping your eyes fixated on the professor’s face. This is an example of

Answer 465

a. covert attention.

Question 466

The ability to direct attention independently of gaze or eye fixation is called

Answer 466

b. covert attention.

Question 467

You are sitting in a coffee shop talking to your best friend while everyone around you talks and music is playing in the background. The fact that you can attend to your friend and ignore the other sounds around you is best described by which of the following items?

Answer 467

a. dichotic listening

Question 468

Your brother sees that you are talking to a friend through a Bluetooth piece in your left ear while the news is on TV in the room. What is he likely to observe after you hang up?

Answer 468

c. You can remember the details of your friend’s conversation.

Question 469

Which of the following phenomena is the most problematic for a strong early-selection view of attention?

Answer 469

d. intrusion of the unattended

Question 470

________ is the idea that a stimulus does not have to be completely analyzed before it can be either selected for further processing or rejected as irrelevant.

Answer 470

c. Early selection

Question 471

In dichotic listening studies, it has been found that a participant usually notices when his or her own name is embedded in the ignored channel. This finding is considered evidence that

Answer 471

a. selection occurs late in perceptual processing.

Question 472

To explain dichotic listening findings such as the observation that a participant usually notices when his or her own name is embedded in the ignored channel, Treisman (1969) proposed that

Answer 472

a. unattended information is not completely excluded from higher analysis, but merely attenuated.

Question 473

Both early- and late-selection models of attention share the idea that

Answer 473

c. the human information processing system cannot fully process every piece of information it receives.

Question 474

All of the following describe differences between early-selection and late-selection models of attention EXCEPT

Answer 474

b. late-selection models argue that human information processing has limited capacity, whereas early-selection models argue that capacity is unlimited.

Question 475

In attention experiments, cues that correctly predict the location of the target are called ________, whereas cues that predict other locations are called ________.

Answer 475

c. valid; invalid

Question 476

Which of the following phenomena is the most consciously mediated?

Answer 476

d. endogenous cuing

Question 477

The process of directing one’s attention to a specific external stimulus is called

Answer 477

c. orienting.

Question 478

One finding demonstrated by the Posner spatial cuing task (1980) is that

Answer 478

a. the focus of attention can be moved separately from eye fixation.

Question 479

The Posner spatial cuing task (1980) showed that cuing participants to the location of an upcoming target

Answer 479

b. decreased reaction time to detect the target.

Question 480

Results of the Posner spatial cuing task (1980) showed that cuing participants to the location of an upcoming target decreased their reaction time to detect it because attention enhanced perceptual processing for the target. This finding is most consistent with ________ models of attention.

Answer 480

c. early-selection

Question 481

You are working diligently in the chemistry laboratory when suddenly a small explosion occurs in the rear of the room, immediately and automatically capturing your attention. This is an example of

Answer 481

b. exogenous cuing.

Question 482

You are walking down the street and talking to a friend when suddenly, a car screeches its tires, causing you to turn and look toward the sound. This is an example of _____ attention.

Answer 482

d. exogenous, overt

Question 483

On one trial of the Posner spatial cuing task (1980), a flash of light validly cued the location of an upcoming target and enhanced the participant’s reaction time to detect that target. Which of the following statements about the participant’s subsequent responding to this location is most accurate?

Answer 483

d. Detection of targets that appear in this position on subsequent trials will be temporarily inhibited.

Question 484

The observation that participants are actually slower to detect targets that appear at recent previously attended locations is called

Answer 484

c. inhibition of return.

Question 485

Alexandra believes that the effects of attention on perception occur very quickly on a fine temporal scale. Which of the following techniques should she use to investigate the changes in perceptual processing that may accompany focused attention?

Answer 485

c. MEG (magnetoencephalography)

Question 486

Techniques such as EEG are particularly well suited to studies of attention. However, one difficulty in using these techniques is that

Answer 486

a. one must also use a structural neuroimaging technique to isolate the source of attentional activation to a specific brain structure.

Question 487

Hillyard and colleagues (1973) recorded event-related potentials (ERP) from participants while they performed a dichotic listening task. When comparing the ERPs collected when participants attended to a given signal to those collected when they ignored this signal, the researchers found that auditory ERPs

Answer 487

c. were larger for attended versus unattended signals.

Question 488

In ERP studies of performance on the dichotic listening task, Hillyard and colleagues (1973) found that attended signals are accompanied by a negative-polarity waveform that is relatively large and peaks at approximately 180 milliseconds after stimulus presentation. This waveform is called the auditory ________ potential.

Answer 488

a. N1

Question 489

Directing attention to a visual stimulus produces a positive ERP waveform called the P1 waveform if participants are

Answer 489

b. selectively attending to the stimulus based on its location.

Question 490

The P1 ERP is associated most closely with the

Answer 490

a. direction of attention to the spatial location of a visually presented object.

Question 491

Studies of attention employing the P1 waveform and the N1 waveform suggest that

Answer 491

b. both vision and audition involve an early-selection mechanism.

Question 492

You are looking for a friend who is supposed to meet you in a crowded lecture hall. You know that she is wearing a grey sweatshirt and glasses. Which kind of visual search best describes this situation?

Answer 492

a. conjunction search

Question 493

Visual search for ________ targets requires the use of selective attention, whereas visual search for ________ targets can occur without sequential attention.

Answer 493

c. conjunction; feature

Question 494

Visual search is slowest when

Answer 494

a. the focus of attention is driven by voluntary, controlled search.

Question 495

At the neuronal level, the fundamental effect of selective attention is understood to be that selective attention results in

Answer 495

b. increased neuronal activity in areas that would be processing the attended stimulus.

Question 496

Injury to which brain structure results in a deficit in moving focused attention from a particular location in the visual field to another?

Answer 496

c. the superior colliculus

Question 497

Your friend is looking for you and sees your face on someone else’s body. This is most likely due to an error in which attentional system?

Answer 497

d. both the ventral system and the dorsal system

Question 498

You are chasing a tennis ball that has been hit away from you. Which of the following brain areas is least involved in tracking that stimulus?

Answer 498

b. the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex

Question 499

In general, it could be said that ___________________ areas tend to be involved with the control of attention, whereas __________________ areas are affected by attention.

Answer 499

a. frontal and parietal; sensory processing

Question 500

Unilateral spatial neglect typically results from damage to the left temporal lobe.

Answer 500

False

Question 501

Models of late selection hypothesize that attended and ignored inputs are processed equivalently by the perceptual system, reaching a stage of semantic analysis.

Answer 501

True

Question 502

In exogenous cuing, the orienting of attention to the cue is driven primarily by the participant’s goals.

Answer 502

False

Question 503

In visual search tasks, the amount of time it takes to find a target among distracters is independent of the number of distracters if the target can be identified by a single feature.

Answer 503

True

Question 504

Attention can be directed to both spatial and nonspatial features of target visual stimuli.

Answer 504

True

Question 505

ERP studies of visual and auditory attention suggest that early ERP components like the P1 and N1 are not modulated by the participant’s attentional state.

Answer 505

False

Question 506

Spatial attention to one hemifield leads to increased neural activity in the fusiform gyrus in the ipsilateral hemisphere.

Answer 506

False

Question 507

When spatial attention is introduced to one stimulus in a spatial array, simultaneous presentation of competing stimuli interferes less compared to the absence of spatial attention.

Answer 507

True

Question 508

Extrastriate cortical regions specialized for the processing of color, form, and motion are modulated by visual attention to these stimulus features.

Answer 508

True

Question 509

What is the neurological syndrome known as neglect? Describe the typical symptoms and associated brain regions. How does complete neglect differ from extinction?

Answer 509

Unilateral spatial neglect may result from damage to
the right parietal, temporal, or frontal cortices, as well as to subcortical structures. This kind of damage leads to reduced attention to and processing of the left-hand side of scenes and objects, not only in external personal hemispace but also in internal memory.
■ Neglect is not the result of sensory deficits, because visual field testing shows that these patients have
intact vision. Under the right circumstances, they can
easily see objects that are sometimes neglected.
■ A prominent feature of neglect is extinction, the failure to perceive or act on stimuli contralateral to the lesion (contralesional stimuli) when presented simultaneously with a stimulus ipsilateral to the lesion (ipsilesional stimulus).

Question 510

How do early- and late-selection models of attention differ? Propose a dichotic listening experiment that would provide evidence to distinguish between these two models.

Answer 510

According to early-selection models, a stimulus need not be completely perceptually analyzed before it can be selected for further processing or rejected as irrelevant. Broadbent proposed such a model of attention.
■ Late-selection models hypothesize that attended and ignored inputs are processed equivalently by the per- ceptual system, and that selection can occur only upon reaching a stage of semantic (meaning) encoding and analysis.

For example, having someone listen to two different words of separate meanings simultaneously and then hearing their name from the ear of lesser advantage.

Question 511

Describe the experimental design of a Posner cuing experiment. In your answer, provide definitions for the terms exogenous cuing, endogenous cuing, valid trial, invalid trial, and inhibition of return.

Answer 511

target stimulus is flashed onto the screen at either the cued location or another loca- tion. Participants may be asked to press a button as fast as they can following the presentation of a target stimulus to indicate that it occurred, or they may be asked to respond to a question about the stimulus. endogenous cuing, where the orienting of attention to the cue is voluntary and driven by the par- ticipant’s goals (here, compliance with the instructions) and the meaning of the cue. In contrast, an exogenous cue automatically captures attention because of its physical features (e.g., a flash of light). Valid trial when the cue is in the same place where the stimulus is later shown whereas invalid is the opposite of it. Inhibition of return is occurs when orienting toward a
previously viewed object or when the location is suppressed.

Question 512

Describe the basic findings of the visual search research conducted by Treisman and colleagues. In particular, describe the difference between a feature search and a conjunction search. Draw a figure illustrating a typical response-time pattern for the two search types.

Answer 512

In pop-out searches, where an item can be distinguished from distractors by a single feature, increasing the set size does not affect the participants’ reaction times as much as it does in conjunction searches.

Question 513

Describe the role of attention in perception. What might you conclude based on behavioral studies? How do studies of the neural substrate inform behavioral results

Answer 513

Attentional processes serve the tuner function in filtering information selectively for further processing that finally leads to perception.

Question 514

What is the difference between voluntary attention and reflexive attention, and between overt and covert attention? Are the distinctions the same? If not, how do they differ?

Answer 514

Visuospatial attention involves selecting a stimulus on the basis of its spatial location. It can be voluntary, such as when you attend to this page, or it can be reflexive, such as when motion at the door of the classroom attracts your attention and you look up. Voluntary attention (endogenous attention)
• Our ability to intentionally attend to something
• A top-down, goal-driven process
• Reflective attention (exogenous attention)
• A bottom-up, stimulus-driven process (a sensory event captures our attention)
• Overt attention & covert attention
• Overt attention
• When you turn your head (or eyes) to orient toward a stimulus
• Covert attention
• No head (or eye) turn but pay attention to something (e.g., two students’ whisper at the table behand you)
• Involves in changes in internal neural processing (studied more)

Question 515

Can object representations modulate spatial attention? Please describe evidence to support your answer.

Answer 515

In a subsequent set of experiments, we showed that objects can modulate attentional allocation-however, only when they are biased by a spatial (endogenous) cue. In other words, in the absence of a spatial cue or bias, object representations do not guide attentional selection.
It can have a similar effect on the representation as if it were static. For example, even though the task- relevant stimulus attributes were motion and position, independent of the task-irrelevant face–house distinc- tion, attention to the shared irrelevant attribute (face) produced greater activity in the FFA than attention to the task-relevant attributes (motion or position) shared with the house stimulus. The inverse pattern was seen in the PPA, where activity was greater when the attended attributes were shared with the house stimulus.

Question 516

Please describe the dorsal and ventral system of attention. What role do they play in neglect?

Answer 516

a dorsal attention network, concerned primarily with orienting attention, and a ventral attention network, concerned with the nonspa- tial aspects of attention and alerting. The two systems interact and cooperate to produce normal behavior.
■ The dorsal frontoparietal attention network is bilateral and includes the superior frontal cortex, inferior parietal cortex (located in the posterior parietal lobe), superior temporal cortex, and portions of the posterior cingulate cortex and insula.
■ The ventral network is strongly lateralized to the right hemisphere and includes the posterior parietal cortex of the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and the ventral frontal cortex (VFC) made up of the inferior and middle frontal gyri.

Neglect may also result from damage to subcortical structures like the superior colliculus and parts of the thalamus.

Question 517

Describe the subcortical structures involved in attention. Do you think these structures contribute to voluntary or reflexive attention? Why or why not?

Answer 517

there are subcortical networks that include the superior colliculi and the pulvinar of the thalamus. Pulvinar has visually responsive neurons that exhibit selectively for color, motion, and orientation. Pulvinar neurons show enhanced activity when a stimulus is the target of a saccadic eye movement or when a stimulus is attended without eye movements toward the target, demonstrating that it is involved in both voluntary and reflective attention. SC controls the eye movements involved inc hanging the focus of overt attention, and also participates the covert attention. SC would be involved in voluntary attention whereas pulvinar to reflexive

Question 518

Describe the cortical structures involved in attention. Do you think these structures contribute to voluntary or reflexive attention? Why or why not?

Answer 518

frontal, parietal, temporal etc.
superior frontal cortex, inferior parietal cortex (located in the posterior parietal lobe), superior temporal cortex, and portions of the posterior cingulate cortex and insula. \
posterior parietal cortex of the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and the ventral frontal cortex (VFC) made up of the inferior and middle frontal gyri.