lecture 2

Question 1

define cognitive neuroscience

Answer 1

understand the underlying mechanisms of mental processes

Question 2

what is mental representation?

Answer 2

anything that means something to the individual

Question 3

what is posners letter matching task?

Answer 3

subjects responds same if both letters are constonants or vowels and press different if one of each.

Question 4

results of the posner letter-matching task…

Answer 4

the reactions vary for different conditions- it takes longer to process that there are 2 consonants

Question 5

what is chronometry

Answer 5

using time measures to infer the workings of the brain

Question 6

Posner argues that the latencies in reactions reflect…

Answer 6

the degree of processing for each letter

Question 7

what is stimulus onset asynchrony

Answer 7

same task but an interval between seeing the two letters.

Question 8

describe the procedure of memory comaprsion (subdividing mental operations).

Answer 8

• asked to memorise a set of letters then choose if the letter was in the set after a delay.

Question 9

what are the hypothesised stages in the memory comparison study?

Answer 9

encode, compare, decide and respond

Question 10

what were the results of the memory comparison study?

Answer 10

reaction time gets bigger with set size.t

Question 11

what theory came from the memory comparisons?

Answer 11

suggests that we compare every letter in the sequence even if we have already found it.

Question 12

what are raster plots?

Answer 12

shows all the action potentials

Question 13

what is the peristimulus histogram?

Answer 13

show us wether or not action stimulus change firing

Question 14

during seizures…

Answer 14

all the muscles in the brain contract

Question 15

How long ago was functional neurosurgery invented?

Answer 15

3000 years ago. Drilled holes in skull to release the demons

Question 16

what did the freudian theory mean for functional neurosurgery?

Answer 16

the superego made people depressed so they had surgery and severed the connection between fronal lobes

Question 17

define the term functional neurosurgery

Answer 17

altering the activity of the brain area by ablation, electrical or pharmacological methods.

Question 18

single dissociation

Answer 18

impaired on one task and not another

Question 19

double association

Answer 19

one gorup is impaired in one area but not the other whilst another group is impaired in the other area whilst not the othe.

Question 20

what can cause brain damage?

Answer 20

trauma, stroke, tumors, neurodegenerative diseases and functional neurology

Question 21

what is optogenetics

Answer 21

using light to manipulate neuronal activity

Question 22

transcraial magnetic stimulation

Answer 22

low level currents that result in action potentials

Question 23

fMRI

Answer 23

relies on BOLD- mainpulates hydrogen ions