How does the brain think?

Question 1

dichotic listening

Answer 1

Experimental procedure for simultaneously presenting a different auditory input to each ear through stereophonic earphones.

Question 1

social neuroscience

Answer 1

Interdisciplinary field that seeks to understand how the brain mediates social interactions.

Question 2

brain connectome

Answer 2

Map of the complete structural and functional neural connections of the human brain in vivo.

Question 2

consciousness

Answer 2

The mind’s level of responsiveness to impressions made by the senses.

Question 3

convergent thinking

Answer 3

Form of thinking that searches for a single answer to a question (such as 2 + 2 = ?); contrasts with divergent thinking.

Question 4

neuroeconomics

Answer 4

Interdisciplinary field that seeks to understand how the brain makes decisions.

Question 4

theory of mind

Answer 4

ability to attribute mental states to others

Question 6

cell assembly

Answer 6

Hypothetical group of neurons that become functionally connected because they receive the same sensory inputs. Hebb proposed that cell assemblies were the basis of perception, memory, and thought.

Question 7

attention

Answer 7

Selective narrowing or focusing of awareness to part of the sensory environment or to a class of stimuli.

Question 8

divergent thinking

Answer 8

Form of thinking that searches for multiple solutions to a problem (such as How many different ways can a pen be used?); contrasts with convergent thinking.

Question 9

intelligence B

Answer 9

Hebb’s term for observed intelligence, which is influenced by experience as well as other factors in the course of development and is measured by intelligence tests.

Question 10

perseveration

Answer 10

Tendency to emit repeatedly the same verbal or motor response to varied stimuli.

Question 11

binding problem

Answer 11

Philosophical question focused on how the brain ties single and varied sensory and motor events together into a unified perception or behavior.

Question 12

syntax

Answer 12

ways in which words are put together to form phrases, clauses, or sentences; proposed to be a unique characteristic of human language

Question 13

intelligence A

Answer 13

Hebb’s term for innate intellectual potential, which is highly heritable and cannot be measured directly.

Question 14

cognition

Answer 14

Act or process of knowing or coming to know; in psychology, used to refer to the processes of thought.

Question 15

cognitive neuroscience

Answer 15

Study of the neural bases of cognition.

Question 17

hyperconnectivity

Answer 17

Increased local connections between two related brain regions.

Question 18

split brain

Answer 18

Surgical disconnection of the two hemispheres in which the corpus callosum

Question 20

anomalous speech representation

Answer 20

Condition in which a person’s speech zones are located in the right hemisphere or in both hemispheres.

Question 21

synesthesia

Answer 21

ability to perceive a stimulus of one sense as the sensation of a different sense, as when sound produces a sensation of color; literally, ‘felt together.’

Question 22

psychological construct

Answer 22

Idea, resulting from a set of impressions, that some mental ability exists as an entity; examples include memory, language, and emotion.

Question 23

contralateral neglect

Answer 23

Ignoring a part of the body or world on the side opposite (contralateral to) that of a brain injury.

Question 24

mirror neuron

Answer 24

Cell in the primate premotor cortex that fires when an individual observes a specific action taken by another individual.

Question 25

extinction

Answer 25

In neurology, neglect of information on one side of the body when it is presented simultaneously with similar information on the other side of the body.

Question 26

association cortex

Answer 26

Neocortex outside the primary sensory and motor cortices that functions to produce cognition.