Lecture 32: Other cognitive realms

Question 1

What does much of our conscious mental activity relate to?

Answer 1

abstraction

Question 2

What is the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex involved in?

Answer 2

working memory, memory of the future, how things work and dorsolateral pfc damage

Question 3

What is working memory?

Answer 3

remembering a phone number, remembering and applying rules (count backwards from 100 in steps of 7)

Question 4

What does memory of the future involve?

Answer 4

planning, goals, temporal structuring of behaviour (delayed gratification)

Question 5

What does memory of how things work involve?

Answer 5

analysis, estimation, strategy, hypothesis, calculation and decision

Question 6

What does dorsolateral pfc damage result in?

Answer 6

distractibility, impulsiveness and perseverative errors

Question 7

What does the Wisconsin Cardsort test measure?

Answer 7

the ability to change categorisation strategy

Question 8

What does the conceptualisation of objects as tools require a link between?

Answer 8

perception and perceptual categorisation (its properties as an object), to a conceptual categorisation (regarding its properties in terms of applications - actual and possible)

Question 9

What is required to form a link between perception / perceptual categorisation and conceptual categorisation?

Answer 9

conception of motor actions and other goals, immediate and future

Question 10

What were Oldowan tools?

Answer 10

tools used for pounding, but also the manufacture of stone tools - sharp flakes of rocks that can hold an edge

Question 11

What were Acheulean bi-faced tools?

Answer 11

tools which required careful selection of starting material, considerable bimanual dexterity and some sense of recursion ie “tools that make tools”

Question 12

What were Levallios tools?

Answer 12

show a vocabulary of tools and processes giving huge variation

Question 13

What do the tools tell us about the minds that made them?

Answer 13

creating “Levallios” tools require a temporal structuring of behavior and the creation of intermediate solution prior to the final solution

Question 14

What do practical solutions require?

Answer 14

at least some degree of practical creativity / some imagination

Question 15

What is required to appreciate the properties of objects and materials?

Answer 15

you need to have a semantic scheme for these, and a map of their use and applicability (a conceptualization of tools)

Question 16

What is BA 45 involvement known to be activated in?

Answer 16

object naming (area 47 is also active during tool naming)

Question 17

What is Broca’s area capable of?

Answer 17

organises not just language, but similarly organizes body movements in relation to motor learning and communication

Question 18

What is area 47 associated with?

Answer 18

the symbolic potential of objects - what could they do, what functions does their form imply etc

Question 19

What does semantic knowledge of hammers suggest?

Answer 19

the handle grasp, which allows effective tool use

Question 20

What is tool use interrelated with?

Answer 20

gesture and language (in some way)

Question 21

What is the last area of the brain to mature?

Answer 21

the function of Brodmann area 46

Question 22

What is the role of BA 46?

Answer 22

ideates space and time and other abstractions (e.g. atomic structure and the existence of gods)

Question 23

What happens at about 12 years of age?

Answer 23

children become able to perform the logical operation and abstract conceptualizations to form and integrate a personal set of constructs (beliefs)

Question 24

What is the “Theory of Mind”?

Answer 24

ability to conceptualise the motivations of others

Question 25

What ability does most of our skilled learning rest upon?

Answer 25

our ability to incorporate (to absorb) our cultural inheritance - most of our learning is by copying

Question 26

What does the metabolically regulated enzyme sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) modulate?

Answer 26

monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) levels to link mood and behavior to energy consumption

Question 27

What does variability in the SIRT1 gene contribute to?

Answer 27

human susceptibility to anxiety disorders

Question 28

How do hungry mice act in comparison to well-fed mice?

Answer 28

anxious, vigilant and careful in comparison to being careless and procreating

Question 29

What is the effect of endogenous brain state regulators and recreational drugs?

Answer 29

shift brain function from one coherent state to another

Question 30

What do perturbations in brain design and operation result in?

Answer 30

doesn’t cause a total failure, but a shift in the range of operation which manifests in such ways as a change in orientation to the environment