fMRI and cognition

Question 1

how does fMRI work?

Answer 1

• oxygen is delivered to neurons by haemoglobin in capillary red blood cells
• more blood flow in activated state, neurons requiring more oxygen, fMRI records blood flow being redirected to activated brain area
• haem is diamagnetic (strong magnetic field) when oxygenated and paramagnetic (weak magnetic field) when deoxygenated
• called BOLD response
• shows us where activity is happening
• initial dip in haem blood flow then increase to overcompensate for amount of oxygen used - happens after 4 seconds

Question 2

what is theory of mind?

Answer 2

understanding what others think

Question 3

reading the mind in the eyes experiment

Answer 3

• people are better at detecting facial expressions from people in same culture as them
• same brain regions for both cultures were responsible for processing emotions and higher patterns of activation when viewing own culture faces
• culture-specific brain responses, performance pattern mirrored by culturally tuned neural activity in bilateral pSTS, high level of consistency in neural responses when decoding mental states from eyes

Question 4

do autistic and neurotypical individuals process emotional images in the same way?

Answer 4

• autistic had reduced activation in MPFC and pSTS compared to neurotypical ps for implicit emotion processing but not during emotion processing
• autistic can’t activate ToM in implicit tasks
• both activate similar network of brain regions when explicitly asked to identify emotional expressions
• autistic people recruit task-specific brain regions for processing emotions when explicitly asked to do so –> perhaps more explicit instructions would be helpful
• reduced activity in brain regions may be why autistic have difficulty recognising subtle emotions

Question 5

EEG compared to fMRI

Answer 5

• EEG has poor spatial resolution so can’t pinpoint specific regions but know when it happens
• fMRI can tell us where it happens but not when and has no ecological validity

Question 6

where does early visual processing occur?

Answer 6

in the primary visual cortex (V1)

Question 7

checkerboard stimulus

Answer 7

-monitors brain activity as checkerboard changes

Question 8

what is the ERP when we process visual information?

Answer 8

P100 - peak of electrical activity at 100ms

Question 9

what do ERP results show for inverted and upright faces?

Answer 9

N170 for faces only

Question 10

advantages of combined fMRI and EEG studies

Answer 10

• high spatial and temporal resolution

- greater accuracy

Question 11

disadvantages of combined fMRI and EEG studies

Answer 11

• time consuming

- costs

Question 12

how can we study the social brain network?

Answer 12

third person or second person stimulus

Question 13

third person

Answer 13

non interactive stimulus e.g.
-passive perception of non-interactive stim
-pre-recorded stim
-can't respond - observation
no ToM networks are activated

Question 14

second person

Answer 14

interactive stimulus e.g.
-gaze contingent avatar
-live social partner transmitted via real-time video link
-pre-recorded stim that ps thinks is real
when doing these tasks ToM networks are activated

Question 15

what is hyperscanning?

Answer 15

method by which multiple subjects, each in a separate MRI scanner, can interact with one another while their brains are simultaneously scanned. allows study of the brain responses that underlie important social interactions
-second person neuroscience is progressing into it

Question 16

Anders et al., 2011

Answer 16

• 6 romantic couples
• females asked to express emotions and males asked to watch partners face and try to feel with her
• activity of one persons brain can influence another
• shared space affect
• our brains show similar patterns to partners

Question 17

what could second-person neuroscience tell us about cognition?

Answer 17

• brain regions involved in social cognition
• how the brain activity of one person can affect another
• enables us to ask new questions about the mechanisms of social behaviour