Introduction to cognitive neuroscience Flashcards
What is cognition?
Language Memory Attention Executive Function Perception
What is executive function?
Complex behavioural cognitive functions
Control of emotion and behaviour
Inhibition, planning, problem solving, reasoning, mental flexibility, task switching
What do frontal lobe lesion patients show an impairment for?
Stroop effect condition
What is Agnosia?
Failure of recognition
What is visual agnosia?
agnosia for visual stimuli
What is prosopagnosia?
Agnosia for faces
For patient DF what was impaired?
Object perception, recognising letter or line drawings
For patient DF what was intact?
Colour, tactile and auditory recognition help her to recognise real objects, is able to draw from memory
Where in the brain seems to be the issue in patients with visual agnosia?
Ventral stream lesion
Dorsal stream intact
Where in the brain seems to be the issue in patients with optic ataxia?
Dorsal stream lesion
Ventral stream intact
What are the limitations of lesion studies?
Brain functions might be carried out in a disturbed manner, rather than each region having a fixed function Actual area might not be affected but lesion affects the pathway toward a particular area Patients have usually a bigger lesion than the region of interest Other impairment (e.g. other lesions might interefe with performance)
What is Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)?
Non-invasive pain free method to stimulate the human cortex
What does TMS create?
A rapidly changing magnetic field that temporarily interferes with brain functions
What are the advantages of TMS?
More precise than a lesion
More participants can be tested with the same area No interference from other lesions
What are the disadvantages of TMS?
Networks and Pathways
Impossibility to stimulate deep brain structures directly
Coil position needs to be guided by prior evidences and needs to be monitiored
