Midterm on EVERYTHING Flashcards
T/F? There is a direct perception/action.
False. There is no direct perception/action since there is internal transformations inherent in processing something before it becomes action.
T/F? Info processing depends on internal representations
True. Inner representations cause and explain behavior. Part of the 2 concepts of cognitive psychology.
T/F? Mental representations undergo transformations.
True.
What are the 4 transformational operations?
- Encode - identify target
- Compare - compare mental rep. with stored memory (see if resembles past experiences)
- Decide - whether target matches memorized items
- Respond
T/F: Word recognition is automatic.
True. “Word superiority effect”
What is phenomenon that people have better recognition of letters presented within word as compared to isolated letters?
Word Superiority Effect. (encode, decide, respond - does not need to compare with mental memory). Word recognition is automatic.
This is when two related mental processes are shown to function independently of each other.
Double dissociation (ex. speech and language comprehension, brain structures that control them independently)
Why can’t we do a double amygdalohippocampectomy?
Lose sense of emotion, can’t process new memories =(
What produces “virtual lesions” disrupting activity in region of brain, can treat depression.
TMS (Transcranial magnetic stimulation)
This can study structure of axon tracts, measure white matter pathways. Also, newest way to analyze brain.
Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DT)
T/F: MRI has higher resolution than CT.
True.
This measures electrical activity of brain, shows internal/external changes.
Electroencephalography (EEG)
This detect changes in blood flow while engaged in task, reveal metabolic changes associated with neural activity.
Functional MRI
Does PTSD cause hippocampal shrinkage, or is it pre-existing condition?
PTSD did not appear to cause hippocampal shrinkage… if you don’t have a robust hippocampal activity… you may experience PTSD easier
Reminders of traumatic experiences activate brain regions that support intense emotion, decrease activation of CNS region involved in sensory input with motor input and modulating arousal, and capacity to communicate experience in words.
PTSD
What is key psychological issue for all organisms?
Control. Opposite is learned helplessness. ex) nursing home study, pick plant and movie night, lived longer.
Key emotional hot spot
Amygdala
Area for speech and key for PTSD
Broca’s
Key to emotional control and attention; DOWN REGULATED in ppl with PTSD, apathy, Alzheimer’s, and schizophrenia
mPFC/ACC (Anterior Cingulate Cortex)
T/F: Theory of Mind is only in the right brain.
False. Bilateral. Related to narrative.
What is related to narrative?
TOM and Interpreter
T/F: Interpreter is only in L brain
False. Bilateral.
What is key to rewards, motor planning, action and execution, dopamine prevalent?
Striatum
T/F: Basal Ganglia is dysregulated with PTSD.
False. Dys-Regulated Striatum found in PTSD.
This area deals with movement, Parkinson’s
Basal Ganglia / Substantia Nigra
What is associated with attention and executive control?
PFC and FC
Re-experiencing trauma BLANK the left brain (language), and BLANK the right brain (emotions.)
Re-experiencing trauma SHUTS DOWN the left brain (language), and ACTIVATES right brain (emotions). Remember that heightened emotions = decrease capacity to communicate.
T/F: Emotion is critical to survival.
True.
T/F: Intense emotions causes increased activation in subcortical brain regions and increase in blood flow in frontal lobe.
False. Intense emotions cause increased activation in subcortical brain regions and REDUCTIONS in blood flow in frontal lobe, challenge control
People with PTSD have challenge with being mindful. Why?
Dysfunction of frontal cortical circuitry.
What is having no words for emotions, inability to express emotions with words, fail to understand other’s feelings, can’t recognize emotion?
Alexithymia.
What are the 3 fundamental physiologic states?
Level 1: Social Engagement
Level 2: Fight or Flight
Level 3: When No escape
In Level 1: social engagement where you have control to cope with situation, what is activated?
VVC (Ventral Vago Complex): process visual info.
What is activated in Level 2, fight or flight mode?
Sympathetic nervous system. It mobilizes muscles, heart, lungs.
What happens in Level 3? Why do we freeze/collapse?
SNS arousal gets so extreme, it’s too much for body to handle and shuts down. Dorsal Vagus (which usually mediates between arousal and relaxation) shuts down entire system.
What part of brain mediates decision making, self reflects, theory of mind, modulate/monitor emotions?
mPFC
What coordinates emotions, assigns emotion to internal/external stimuli?
ACC (anterior cingulate cortex)
What is part of median strip/midline of brain and has little activation in those with PTSD?
Posterior and anterior cingulate cortex, mPFC, insula, parietal lobes.
T/F: In PTSD, median strip in brain shut down, takes away horror of past and takes away capacity to feel in present, taking away one’s sense of purpose.
True. That was an easy one!
What is disconnect from self and own feelings?
Depersonalization.
T/F: Depersonalization occurs in temporal lobe.
True.
What happens when you inhibit amygdala?
Detachment, hypo emotional
Depersonalization is mediated by increased activity in which part of the brain?
Right Lateral Frontal Lobe. Accompanied by inhibitory effect on sympathetically controlled autonomic activity.
T/F: ACC is active in PTSD
False. Reduction of activity in ACC (anterior cingulate cortex)
What is damaged when you can’t recognize facial expression/nonverbal communication related to fear?
Amygdala. Normally activated during recall of emotionally charged memories. *ACC (anterior cingulate cortex) is interconnected to Amygdala.
T/F: ACC activated during focused attention by trying to inhibit distracting stimuli.
True. Also inhibits response during vigilant attention.
T/F: Basal Ganglia play role in affective response to harmful stimuli. Those with lesions show indifference.
False. This is the ACC (anterior cingulate cortex).
These two parts of brain co-activate during emotional states, key to generation of autonomic responses.
Amygdala and ACC (anterior cingulate cortex).
ACC is BLANK during vigilant attention and BLANK during focused attention.
ACC (anterior cingulate cortex) HYPOACTIVE during vigilant attention but ACTIVATED during focused attention and when trying to inhibit distracting stimuli.
Why do patients with depersonalization experience relief from self mutilation?
They struggle with focused attention (ACC/mPFC not activated) so having self inflicted pain gives them something to focus on/feel.
What are most effective treatments for people with depersonalization?
Yoga and Mindfulness.
T/F: We respond actively to threats by directing flow of information from amygdala to striatum for active coping.
True. Striatum = motor planning, motor circuit.
What are some ways people with PTSD can take action, increase activation of striatum?
Improv, model mugging, any interventions involving physical action.
Low heart rate variability can lead to…
anxiety and depression, coronary vascular disease, increased mortality.
T/F: High HRV (heart rate variability) equates to positive emotions and resistance to stress.
True that. Double true.
Hyperarousal, low HRV, increased SNS, decreased PNS, less vagal control over heart rate. What disorder has these fundamental dysregulation of arousal modulation?
PTSD.
You knew this!
What therapies/methods help with PTSD?
Yoga (decrease hyperarousal), meditation. Any activity with breath and physical movement, increase mindfulness.
T/F: Arousal dysfunction in PTSD due to increase activation of mPFC.
False. Decrease activation of mPFC contributes to PTSD. (*includes ACC part of system that integrates emotion and cognition, orchestrates autonomic, neuroendocrine, behavioral expression of emotion)
Agency begins with BLANK, which is knowing what and why we feel.
Agency begins with INTEROCEPTION, knowing what and why we feel; mediated by the MPFC which is strengthened by mindfulness and meditation.
What can cause part of brain to shut down aside from lesion?
Behaviors, genes, experiences, neuroplasticity
Would you expect individuals with L brain damage to perform better in visual perceptual problem solving?
No. Both L and R brain damage struggle. Can’t damage one part of brain without the other at least initially.
T/F: Right Hemisphere outperforms Left in facial recognition.
True.
T/F: Right Hemisphere can’t predict random event.
True
T/F: Right hemisphere produces BOTH voluntary and involuntary expression
False. Left brain is only side that produces voluntary expression. Right produces only involuntary.
(Both L and R produce involuntary expression.)
T/F: Theory of Mind is involved in both, but more on right hemisphere.
Hard to say. Appears lateralized to R brain, but actually appears to be a network including mPFC, posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS), precuneus, and the amygdala-temporopolar cortex.
What hemisphere can predict random event better?
Left.
Which side of brain where 96% of humans have specialization for language?
Left.
Too easy!
This side of brain produces both voluntary and involuntary expression.
Left.
T/F: Interpreter is given cue on right hemisphere, and on left, interpreter asks why.
True. Left = language, so asking why is left hemisphere.
Which side has more involvement with theory of mind?
Right. Appears more lateralized to R, but is actually a network.
What side has better visual inferences?
Right.
T/F: Consciousness is a unified experience.
True.
What is it called to have feeling for another person?
A crush! Yes, and also Theory of Mind (the ability to understand that we have different perspectives than others and being able to attach those different beliefs to yourself and others
Why is reading fiction important?
Helps create theory of mind - integral to understanding stories and each other.
This crafts narrative, ability to make causal interpretations about the world and create a continuous sensible narrative
Interpreter
What was the example about dementia adults saying they’re okay and they know where they live, when in fact they don’t?
Interpreter. They craft answers to make sense in their mind, make sense of what is going on because confusion is scary.
T/F: Emotion and its regulation (Amygdala and mPFC) are key areas in narrative.
True. Stories created by BOTH sides of brain working together.
Which side of brain is active in narrative?
BOTH! Language, theory of mind, emotions, cognitive element all work together.
Why do we need to make sense of things? Why is narrative so important?
It’s fundamental in our need to CONTROL. Fosters self efficacy.
T/F: Choice is related to amygdala.
False. Choice is related to STRIATUM. Increase activation in those who are happy because they make best choices.
T/F: Depressed people overestimate level of control.
False. Healthy people overestimate, less accurate in how much control they have. Depressed people are more accurate in their level of control.
Animals in captivity get right food but don’t live as long as wild animals. Why?
They don’t have control or choice. If you can’t choose, it inhibits arousal, suppress immune system, accuse stress hormone release. Just a lot of bad things.
What two parts of brain involved in reward processing? Choice?
Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) and striatum. Choice is inherently rewarding.
Depressed people fail to recruit portions of mPFC. Why?
mPFC involved in mediating stress response with perception of control. mPFC down regulates limbic system (amygdala) so stuck in negative process. Reduced activity in mPFC leads to apathy.
What are 3 main themes of story telling?
Choice, Destiny’s child, Chance
Why is fiction more persuasive than nonfiction? What are benefits?
Increased empathy, poetic justice of society, increase group identity and cultural values. Pass tradition through communication via stories.
What is it called when once you see someone in a good light, you seem them more positively for everything else?
I can see your halo halo “HALO Effect.”
BLANK is the tendency to judge a decision by its eventual outcome instead of judging it based on the quality of the decision at the time it was made.
Outcome bias. Can lead to risk aversion.
People make poor decisions but turn out well. So we get lucky.
BLANK is knew-it-all-along effect, a tendency to view events as more predictable than they really.
Or, when things go badly, and choices don’t work out, you start to think “oh sh!t, I shouldn’t have done that.”
Hindsight bias.
T/F: Without clear sensation, motor function is affected.
True. Sensorimotor system important! Sensory + Motor work together.
Where in the brain does multi sensory integration take place?
Thalamus
T/F: Visual perception is linked to visual cortical areas, not higher cognitive activity.
False. Visual perception is linked to higher activity rather than part of visual cortical areas.
What is gatekeeper of movement with inhibitory and excitatory pathways?
Basal Ganglia
T/F: Huntingtons attacks inhibitory pathways in amygdala causing uncontrolled movement
False. Huntington’s attacks inhibitory pathways in STRIATUM causing uncontrolled movements
For motor learning, when does someone reach mastery?
When they’re able to recognize patterns a novice cannot.
T/F: Development is practice and perception, pattern recognition.
True.
What structure in brain is key to forward models, takes in info from motor cortex and sensorimotor system?
Cerebellum.
T/F: Stimulation is enough for neuroplasticity.
False. Stimulation is not enough, we need to pay attention.
In 1998, what did scientists find with humans injected with BrdU?
Growth in hippocampus. First proof of neurogenesis in humans.
What do we mean when we say “Use it or lose it?”
All natural systems tend toward energy conservation system, adaptability is inherent. Immobolized joints scar down, unused muscles atrophy.