Midterm 1 Flashcards
What are the 3 major divisions of the brain?
Cerebral Cortex (outer; ridges), Subcortical Structures (inner; hippocampus, thalamus, hypothalamus), and Brain Stem and Cerebellum
What are the 4 lobes of the brain?
Frontal, Temporal, Occipital, and Parietal Lobe
What does the Frontal lobe do?
High-level functions; reasoning, planning, override and control, social responses, motor control, emotions, problem solving
What does the Temporal lobe do?
Perceptual/Memory interface; auditory perception/sensation, auditory recognition, visual recognition, and long-term memory`
What does the Occipital lobe do?
Visual processing
What does the Parietal lobe do?
Body/World interface; touch, integrating sensory information across senses, spatial processing, and attention
What is the Insula?
Awareness of bodily state, empathy, gustatory, disgust, pain perception - located INSide lobes
What does the Cingulate Cortex do?
Cognitive control, error detection, conflict monitoring
What does the Hippocampus do?
Long-term memory and spatial navigation
What does the Thalamus do?
Relay station for all the senses; regulation of sleep and arousal
What does the Amygdala do?
Emotion processing and memory for emotive stimuli
What does the Cerebellum do?
Integrates sensory input, tracks timing of events, coordinates muscle movements, and motor control
What does the Superior Colliculus do?
Visual processing
What does the Inferior Colliculus do?
Auditory processing
What does the Medulla Oblongata do?
Relays signals (brain-spinal cord) and controls autonomic functions (heartbeat, breathing, etc.)
What are the 3 type of Neurons?
Sensory, Interneurons, and Motor
What do Sensory neurons do?
Vision, touch, audition, taste, and olfaction
What do Interneurons do?
Computations that involve perception, memory, thinking, emotion, and consciousness
What do Motor neurons do?
Eye and body movements
Describe the input stage (stage 1)
Many signals come in at the dendrites
Describe the processing stage (stage 2)
Signals summate, adding and cancelling, possibly reaching critical threshold within the cell body
Describe the output stage (stage 3)
If input is strong enough (exceeds threshold), then the neuron passes the signal along via its axon
What is the synapse, and what stage does it belong to?
Where the axon of one neuron connects to the dendrite of another neuron - input stage (stage 1)
Why is experimental control important?
To differ between Correlation vs Causation
What is Correlation?
Linear relationship between two variables
What is Causation?
Producing an effect (a “cause” is something that produces a particular effect)
What are two reasons why Correlation DOES NOT equal Causation?
Wrong direction and third variable
What is Wrong Direction?
Even if one causes the other, you cannot say whether A causes B or vice-versa
What is Third Variable?
Always possible that there’s an unmeasured 3rd variable that is actually the underlying cause for both variables
What is phrenology?
(Franz Gall) detailed study of the shape and size of the cranium as a supposed indication of character and mental abilities - considered a case study in bad science
Why was phrenology important?
The idea of localization of function is important
What is memory?
Neurocognitive capacity to encode, store, and retrieve information
What are the two examples of Declarative/Explicit long term memory?
Events (episodic) and Facts (semantics)
What are the four examples of Nondeclarative/Implicit long term memory?
Procedural (how to do certain things), Perceptual priming,` Classic conditioning, and Nonassociative
Who was Patient HM?
H.M suffered from epilepsy and required removal of the hippocampus and medial temporal lobe, producing severe memory loss
What is Miller’s Magic Number #7?
A study that showed there was a limited capacity for short term memory - STM could hold 7 (plus or minus 2) items. Also, it showed that there is no long term memory capacity
What are the 3 key features of the Modal Model?
1) Rapid decay is STM, slower decay in LTM 2) STM relies on acoustic/phonological codes, while LTM relies on Semantics
3) STM is gateway to LTM - stresses the importance of actively reviewing encountered material in order to move it to LTM
Who is Patient KC?
Fell off a bike at age 17 and damaged a region of the parietal-temporal lobes around the sylvian fissure, which led to severely impaired STM, but normal LTM
Why is Patient KC important?
Opposed the modal model, and proved that STM is not the gateway to LTM
Working Memory
The small amount of information that can be held in mind and used in the execution of cognitive tasks; wanted to emphasize the functions of STM in supporting various aspects of performance
What is Phonological Loop, and why is it important?
The phonological loop is a component of working memory model that deals with spoken and written material. PL is used for short-term rehearsal, but not critical for transferring information to LTM
What is encoding?
How we perceive/interpret our experiences, which has a large influence on retention
What is retention?
Benefits from semantic encoding; when we meaningfully associate new information to what we already know
What is Anterograde Amnesia?
Impaired memory for experiences that occur after incident/lesion that caused amnesia
What is Retrograde Amnesia?
Impaired memory for experiences that occurred prior to incident/lesion that caused amnesia
What is recollection?
Remembering specific details and context of source
What is familiarity?
Knowing or feeling that item/object/person is “old” without remembering specifcs
What is the hippocampus’ role in recollection and familiarity?
The hippocampus plays a role in recollection, it is less clear whether it also plays a role in familiarity
What is Ribot’s Law?
Recent memories are more affected than remote memories
What is rapid consolidation?
New memories (episodic and somewhat semantic) seem to be stored in a hippocampal-dependent way
What is slow consolidation?
Older memories become hippocampal-independent
What is Standard Consolidation Theory (SCT)?
Memories initially depend on hippocampus, and are gradually transferred from and to cortex - time-limited role for hippocampus in declarative memory