L2 Methods Flashcards
How can we represent sensory information about cells in the brain?
Techniques such as single cell recording.
What type of representation is a cell?
Low level representation, very confined area of space (each photo cell has a small visual space that it responds to)
What is a pathway?
where one area is anatomically connected to another area and they both code information
What do we mean by attributes in the brain?
What parts of the brain are interested in what type of information
What are the 4 steps for the hierarchy of processing sensory information?
- Receptors
- Neurons transmit information
- Thalamus (relay station)
- Cortical processing
For sensory information, what does a single cell code?
Codes information present in a small area of space (over time)
What is the receptive field of a cell?
A “receptive field” is the area over which a cell changes its activity in response to a change in stimulus (e.g. luminance or colour)
How do we record cell activity?
Electrophysiology (EP)
What does Electrophysiology (EP) measure?
Records the electrical activity from a single cell
What are the features of Electrophysiology (EP)?
Allows to measure the function of a cell over time
Has high spatial selectivity
If sensory information passes over the receptive field of a neuron, what happens to the neuron?
Increase in electrical activity.
What did Hubel and Weisel get their Nobel prize for?
V1 - simple cells orientation firing rate
What are the features of V1 (simple cells)?
Excitatory and inhibitory regions, arranged side-by-side
Orientation tuned, but not fussy about size
What are the two pathways of sensory encoding called?
Dorsal and Ventral Pathways
Which pathway is the ‘where’ pathway
Dorsal
Which pathway is the ‘what’ pathway?
Ventral
What are the three regions that the visual pathway goes through when going from the retina to the cortex
Retinal Nerve Cells
LGN
V1
Which region of the cortex does the dorsal pathway lead?
Parietal
Which region of the cortex does the ventral pathway lead?
Temporal
The ventral (‘what’) pathway connects what two parts of the brain?
LGN to temporal lobe