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Cognitive Neuroscience > Lecture 1 - Methods in Cognitive Neuroscience > Flashcards

Lecture 1 - Methods in Cognitive Neuroscience Flashcards

1
Q

What is single cell recording?

A
  • Small electrode planted into axon (INTRACELLULAR) or outside axon membrane (EXTRACELLULAR).
  • Firing rate and pattern of single receptor cell can be measured in response to sensory input
  • Recordings of brain activities, measuring electrical potentials of nearby neurons
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2
Q

How does an EEG work? (electroencephalogram)

A
  • Positions electrodes over the scalp to show the brain’s electrical activity.
  • Measures amount of activity caused by stimulus or event
  • Voltage change at the scalp: how many neurons fire and how synchronous firing is.
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3
Q

What is rate coding?

A

Rate of firing - Informational content of a neuron related to the number of action potentials per second

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4
Q

What is temporal coding?

A

How synchronous firing is

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5
Q

What is a reference point?

A

Part of the brain used to compare if something is in motion. Uninfluenced by variable / event being measured.

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6
Q

What is a common reference point?

A

Mastoid bone behind ears or nasal reference - often uninfluenced.

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7
Q

Why is EEG not always best equipped for detecting location?

A

Neural activity can be recorded at a location even when neural activity isn’t at that location - can show firings in multiple areas (also signal to noise)

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8
Q

What is a dipole?

A

A pair of positive and negative electrical charges separated by a small distance

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9
Q

What is polarity?

A

Distribution of electrical charges across neurons and their connections. Direction of the electrical current flow.
By manipulating the polarity of electrical stimulation - investigate how brain regions are involved in cognitive processes.

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10
Q

Positive polarity

A

High electrical charge at the electrode compared to reference point

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11
Q

Negative polarity

A

Low electrical charge at electrode compared to reference

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12
Q

How does an ERP (event related potentials) differ from an EEG?

A

ERP = SPECIFIC brain response to a stimulus
EEG reflects neural activity from all parts of the brain. Some activity relates to specific tasks - reading or listening but a lot of the activity from EEG is spontaneous

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13
Q

Signal to noise ratio

A

Signal = electrical neural response to the event
Noise = background level of electrical activity
It becomes harder to detect a signal as background noise increases
- Seen in EEG’s

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14
Q

What do EEG signals represent?

A

The changes in potentials between two electrodes

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15
Q

How do EEG’s form ERP’s?

A

EEG’s obtained on several trials are averaged to form an ERP. This increases signal to noise ratio and reduces contribution of fluctuations not related to the event

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16
Q

What is an ERP? (event related potential)

A

Voltage fluctuations associated in time with particular event - E.G when we hear our name

17
Q

What ERP is involved in perceptual coding

A

N170 - specialised for face perception (right posterior superior temporal sulcus) - changes to image and coding of faces.

18
Q

What ERP is involved in recognising famous and familiar faces?

A

P300

19
Q

What ERP is involved in familiarity? - face recognition and identity processing

A

N250

20
Q

What ERP is involved in person recognition? - activated by faces and names

A

P400-P600

21
Q

What is mental chronometry?

A

Changes in the efficiency of information processing - time it takes for cognitive processes to occur. Duration and speed. E.G PPTs are faster at working out 4+2=6 compared to 4+3=7

22
Q

What is associative priming?

A

Shorter reaction times when the target stimulus is related to the previously presented stimulus compared to when the target is unrelated. A prime stimulus activates / brings to mind a related concept.

23
Q

What are exogenous components of ERPs

A

Neural responses linked to the physical characteristics of a stimulus; occur early in the waveform (P1 / N1)- initial onset of stimulus. PROPERTIES OF STIMULUS

24
Q

What are endogenous components of ERPs

A

Neural responses modulated by internal cognitive processes - higher order cognitive functions (N400). Later in the wave form - PROPERTIES OF THE TASK

25
Q

What is the inverse problem in ERP research?

A

Difficulty locating the source of electrical activity

26
Q

What is dipole modelling?

A

Solves the inverse problem - assumes how many dipoles (regions of activity) contribute to the signal recorded at the scalp

Cognitive Neuroscience (12 decks)

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