lecture 1: intro

Question 1

Neuroscience

Answer 1

the scientific study of the brain and
nervous system

Question 1

Cognition

Answer 1

mental processes involved in knowing and thinking

Question 2

Cognitive neuroscience

Answer 2

the scientific study of how the brain
produces thoughts, ideas, and related mental phenomena

Question 3

ALZHEIMER’S

Answer 3

Form of progressive dementia.

Most common dementia affecting nearly half of
adults over 85.

Increasing age is the biggest risk factor; family history
is second.

Memory is affected early but not exclusively.
Medial temporal lobe is affected early but not
exclusively.

Question 4

hippocampus

Answer 4

The hippocampus is located deep in the brain, hidden within the medial part of the temporal lobe.

The hippocampus is involved in long-term memory formation and memory retrieval. It also plays a role in spatial memory, allowing individuals to keep track of where objects are and the position of their body relative to the objects around them.

Question 5

Neuropathology of Alzheimer’s disease:

Answer 5

Neurofibrillary tangles
Amyloid Plaques

Question 6

Neurofibrillary tangles

Answer 6

Neurofibrillary tangles are twisted fibers produced by abnormal tau proteins that are likely related to cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease

Question 7

Amyloid plaques

Answer 7

Amyloid is a protein that is normally found
throughout the body. For reasons as yet unknown, in
AD, the protein divides improperly, creating a form
called beta amyloid which is toxic to neurons in the
brain

Question 8

Opioid Crisis

Answer 8

In late 1990’s pharmaceutical companies reassured the
medical community that patients would not become
addicted to prescription opiod pain relievers, and they
were prescribed with increasing frequency

• This resulted in widespread misuse of these medications
  that are clearly highly addictive
• In 2017, due to a substantial increase rates of addiction
  and overdose deaths, the Department of Health and
  Human Services declared opioid use a public health
  emergency

Question 9

Medication to Assist Treatment:

Answer 9

Combining psychological and neuorobiological treatments
* Drugs that mimic the action of typical opioids on the brain, without
the ‘high’ (methadone, buprenorphine)
* These drugs reduce withdrawal symptoms and cravings, resulting in
significantly reduced rates of relapse and likelihood of overdose
* Is the “gold standard” of opioid use disorder treatment, but is
underutilized due to stigma

Question 10

Brain Changes with Addiction

Answer 10

nora volkow advocates for decreased stigma around addiction

Question 11

wilder penfield

Answer 11

While operating on epileptic patients, Penfield applied electric currents to the surface of patients’ brains in order to find problem areas. Since the patients were awake during the operations, they could tell Penfield what they were experiencing. Probing some areas triggered whole memory sequences.

mapped out m1 and v1 as well as homonculus

Question 12

phrenology

Answer 12

the detailed study of the shape and size of the cranium as a supposed indication of character and mental abilities.

In the case of slavery, physicians such as Charles Caldwell used phrenology to attempt to prove that African people were in their rightful place as slaves. Caldwell studied the skulls of many different peoples, including Africans, at the Musee de Phrenologie in Paris

Question 13

mind body problem

Answer 13

the problem of how a physical substance (the brain) can give rise to our sensations, thoughts, and emotions (our mind)

Question 14

dualism

Answer 14

the belief the mind and brain are made up of different kinds of substance

Question 15

dual aspect theory

Answer 15

the belief that the mind and brain are two levels of description of the same thing

Question 16

who was a proponent for dualism

Answer 16

rene descartes, who believed the mind was non physical and immortal whereas the body was physical and mortal and when they interact it creates a non physical sense of awareness

Question 17

functional specialization

Answer 17

different regions of the brain are specialized for different functions (stemmed from phrenology)

Question 18

brocas area

Answer 18

a region of the brain concerned with the production of speech, located in the cortex of the dominant frontal lobe. Damage in this area causes Broca’s aphasia, characterized by hesitant and fragmented speech with little grammatical structure.

Question 19

broca’s area

Answer 19

a region of the brain concerned with the production of speech, located in the cortex of the dominant frontal lobe. Damage in this area causes Broca’s aphasia, characterized by hesitant and fragmented speech with little grammatical structure.

Question 20

fodor’s theory of modularity

Answer 20

a theory of the human mind in which the various components of cognition are characterized as independent modules, each with its own specific domain and particular properties

Question 21

bottom up processing

Answer 21

the passage of information from simpler to more complex

Question 22

parallel processing

Answer 22

different information processed at the same time

Question 23

Temporal resolution

Answer 23

the time it takes for a satellite to complete an orbit and revisit the same observation area

Question 24

Hemodynamics

Answer 24

Hemodynamics is how your blood flows through your arteries and veins and the forces that affect your blood flow

Question 25

spatial resolution

Answer 25

refers to the capacity a technique has to tell you exactly which area of the brain is active

lesion and functional imaging show at the mm level but single cell recordings can take it to the level of a neuron

Question 26

which methods have great temporal resolution

Answer 26

EEG, MEG, TMS

fMRI has a temporal resolution of several sections that reflects the slower hemodynamic response

Question 27

methods used in cognitive neuroscience

Answer 27

Question 28

what does it mean when a method is invasive

Answer 28

whether the equipment is located internally or externally

pet is invasive because it requires an injection of a radio labeled isotope

single cell recordings are performed on the brain itself and are normally only carried out in non human animals

Question 29

cognitive psych vs cognitive neuro

Answer 29

software vs hardware
psyh is information processing (intangible) and neuro is brain itself (tangible)

when you look inside the brain you say grey and white matter and blood vessels, not memories thoughts and perceptions