Lecture 4 Flashcards

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1
Q

What two things do we need to know about the brain?

A

Structure and function

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2
Q

What are the two ways of observing the brain?

A

Invasive and non invasive

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3
Q

What are examples of invasive observation?

A

Autopsies and brain dissection

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4
Q

What is an example of non invasive brain observation?

A

Magnetic resonance imaging

(MRI)

Diffusion Tensor Imaging

(DTI)

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5
Q

Methods of studying brain function

A

Non invasive

Electroencephalography (EEG/ERP) fMRI (functional MRI
MEG (magnetoencephalohraphy)

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6
Q

What are the advantages and disadvantages of EEG/ERP

A

Pro: Excellent temporal resolution

Con: Less spatial precision

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7
Q

FMRI (Functional MRI)

Advantages and disadvantages

A

Con: poor temporal resolution

Pro: excellent spatial precision

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8
Q

MEG (Magnetoencephalography)

Not invasive technique to measure function of the brain

Advantages and disadvantages?

A

Advantages: pretty good spatial precision and pretty good temporal precision.

No real cons

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9
Q

Action potentials are all of none, they do not change in their:

A

Size or strength

They can however happen more or less frequently

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10
Q

What system provides the biological basis of substrate, for psychological experience with

A

Nervous system

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11
Q

What system carries information to and from the central nervous system?

A

Peripheral nervous system

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12
Q

What system directs psychological and basic life processes, responds to stimuli

A

Central nervous system

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13
Q

The central nervous system can be subdivided, what are the two official subdivisions?

A

Spinal cord - receives sensory input, sends information to the brain, responds with motor output

Brain - directs psychological activity; processes information; maintains life supports

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14
Q

Peripheral nervous system has two subjections

A

Somatic nervous system

(Conveys sensory information to the central nervous system and sends motor messages to muscles)

Autonomic nervous system

(Serves basic life functions, such as the beating of the heart and response to stress)

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15
Q

Autonomic nervous system can be divided into two subsystems:

A

Sympathetic nervous system

(Readies the bus in response to threat; activates the organism)

Parasympathetic nervous system

(Calms the body down; maintains energy)

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16
Q

What nervous system passes sensory information to the central nervous system and carries out motor commands?

A

Somatic nervous system

17
Q

What nerve fibres carry information from periphery (e.g sensory organs) to the central nervous system?

A

Afferent nerve fibres

18
Q

What nerve fibres carry information from the central nervous system to the periphery?

A

Efferent

19
Q

Laterality of brain function

The two different hemispheres of the brain show different dominance for different functions.

Sensory information received on left side of body is processed by what hemisphere? And vice versa

A

Information received on left side of body is processed by right hemisphere and vice versa

  • same for motor contro
20
Q

The left side of the brain is responsible for things like:

A
Speech 
Reading
Language 
Arithmetic
Visual memory 
Language 
Sounds 
Complex movement 
Right visual field 
Right side of body/motor movements
21
Q

Right brain is responsible for:

A
Emotional content 
Direction, distance 
Nonverbal memory 
Faces/patterns 
Music, non language 
Movement in spatial patterns
Left visual field 
Left side of body/motor movements
22
Q

Corpus callosum

A

Allows right and left brain to work together

23
Q

4 lobes of the brain

A

Frontal lobe Involved in some of the high order tasks like planning, social skills, abstract thinking and attention involved in some aspects of personality.

Occipital lobe (visual information - damage to certain parts of this area can lead to partial or complete blindness and spreads over left and right hemisphere)

Parietal lobe (processes tactile information (touch) Egocentric space, integrates visual information and damage to this area causes something called ‘neglect’ which is where suffers neglect one side of body including not shave certain side of face, put makeup on one side etc. usually damage to the right parietal lobe causes left side neglect

Temporal lobe processes auditory information and is important for speech and language. Common symptoms of temporal lobe damage:

Disturbances of auditory, sensation and perception and a whole lot of other stuff you should find out.

24
Q

Who is phineas gage

A

Someone who ended up with an iron bar through his brain including frontal lobe. His personality changed, he couldn’t plan, had less social skills, couldn’t control his emotions etc

25
Q

Language in the brain. We generally indentify two primary areas as working together to enable language. These areas are called?

A

Broca’s area

And

Wernick’s area

26
Q

Broca’s area and wernicks area are connected via nerve fibre bundles called the:

A

actuate fasciculus and work together to enable language

27
Q

Broca’s area is located where and what is it responsible for?

A

Left frontal lobe and is responsible for speech production, use and understanding of grammar, language comprehension

28
Q

Wernickes area is located where and involved in what?

A

Left temporal lobe and responsible for language comprehension and producing meaningful speech. As in a word salad, no difficulty saying words but not saying them in correct order.

29
Q

Broca’s aphasia is what?

A

Where there is damage to broca’s area and person can’t string sentences together properly although she can comprehend everything that’s being said

30
Q

Fluent aphasia

A

A type of aphasia (language disorder after stroke) poor comprehension but speech is effortless. Meaning of sentences are then impaired, meaningless rambling but words are easily attained.

31
Q

Nearoplasticity

A

The brain is a constantly evolving structure that changes structirally and functionally in response to its environment, stimulation and condition

32
Q

After injury to the brain, there are two mechanisms whereby functional improvement may occur

What are these mechanisms?

A

Recovery:

relates to Restoration of neural tosssje (neural
Level)

Restoration of movement exactly as it was performed prior (activity level)

Compensation:

Refers to recruitment of new neural circuits (neural level)
Training of new movement sequences (behavioural level)
Training of activity a new way after injury (activity level)

33
Q

Consciousness

A

An ambiguous term

  • general state of mind (awake vs asleep, under anaesthesia)
  • contents of consciousness
  • being aware vs unaware of information or actions
34
Q

Definition of consciousness

A

A state of Awarenesss of internal (mental) events and the external environment

35
Q

Contents of consciousness

A

Ordinary waking consciousness includes

Thoughts

Perceptions

Feelings

Images

Desires in your current focus of attention

Your subjective sense of self

36
Q

Perspectives on consciousness

A
  1. Structuralism - Wundt, tichner studied the contents of the conscious mind
  2. Functionalism
    William James view consciousness as a constantly moving stream of thoughts, feelings and emotions
  3. Psychodynamic view (Freud)
    3 systems:
  • Conscious (mental events of which you are aware)
  • Preconscious (mental events that can be brought into awareness)
  • Unconscious
    (Mental events that are inaccessible to awareness; events that are actively kept out of awareness)
  1. Cognitive
    Dual process models: information processing mechanism operate
    - outside of awareness
    (Priming, implicit memory, procedural knowledge
    Requires awareness
    (Working memory)

Unconscious processes are fast and efficient, supports adaptive responses to external stimuli, can operate simultaneously, can influence behaviour

Conscious processes are slower, more deliberate and more effortful

37
Q

Functions of consciousness

A
  1. Monitoring mental events (self, environment)
  2. Regulating thought and behaviour

(Consciousness May have evolved to direct or control behaviour in adaptive way)

38
Q

Neural basis of consciousness.

Consciousness is distributed throughout the brain. Where?

A

Hindbrain and midbrain are important for arousal and sleep

Damage to the reticular formation can lead to coma

Prefrontal cortex is key for conscious control of information processing