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PSY1004 > Neurobiological Foundations > Flashcards

Neurobiological Foundations Flashcards

1
Q

What is the mind?

A

A system that creates a representation of the world so we can act within it and achieve our goals.

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2
Q

What are the functions of the mind? (7)

A

To form and recall memories.
Make decisions, solves problems and consider possibilities.
Responsible for survival and normal functioning.
Symbol of creativity and intelligence.
“top-down” processing.
“bottom-up” processing.
creates and controls mental functions.

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3
Q

What is “top-down” processing?

A

High level, consciously controlled cognitive functions.

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4
Q

What is “bottom-up” processing?

A

Low level, automatic cognitive functions.

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5
Q

What are the cognitive domains controlled by the mind?

A

Perception.
Attention.
Memory.
Emotions.
Language.
Deciding.
Thinking.
Reasoning.

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6
Q

What are Models of the Mind?

A

Representations or processes that help us simplify, visualise, or explain the respective structure or process.

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7
Q

What are structural models useful for?

A

Localisations, visualisations and brain comparison. Good for looking at the structures of the frontal, temporal, occipital and parietal cortexes.

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8
Q

What are process models useful for?

A

Breaking processes down into units and subprocesses, most often use flow diagrams to represent this.

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9
Q

Why are process models useful when looking at stroke patients?

A

We can look at their behaviour and see through a process model, which part of their brain is affected and what the impact is.

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10
Q

What is cognitive neuroscience?

A

the study of the physiological basis of cognition.

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11
Q

Who was Broadmann?

A

A physiologist who strutted and sectioned the brain into regions that have similar micro anatomy, similar neurons, similar neuron density and similar connectivity of neurons.

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12
Q

Why re structural models useful in comparing human and animal behaviour?

A

Comapring the structures of the brain can show relationships between different behaviours and different brain structures.

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13
Q

What does cognitive neuroscience involve?

A

an understanding of both the nervous system and the individual units that comprise that system.

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14
Q

What does levels of analysis mean?

A

for any process or behaviour that we observe there are multiple levels of analysis. these are both parallel and hierarchical.

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15
Q

What are some of the different points of view (levels) in understanding cognitive phenomena?

A

Socio-cultural, phenomenological, cognitive, behavioural, biological.

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16
Q

What does the brain weigh and how many neurons does it have?

A

~3lbs and has about 86 billion neurons.

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17
Q

What is the composition of the brain?

A

~60% fat, the remaining 40% is a combination of water, protein, carbohydrates and salts.

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18
Q

At what age is the brain fully developed?

A

25 +/-2 years

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19
Q

What happens to the brain once an individual turns 25?

A

Fast cognitive reflexes start slowly eroding, but risk management and long-term planning abilities kick into high gear.

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20
Q

What % of an individual’s body weight does the brain account for?

A

just 2%

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21
Q

What % of the body’s energy use does the brain account for?

A

20%.

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22
Q

What four things are absolutely crucial for optimal brain function?

A

Sufficient sleep, hydration, carbohydrates and fatty acids.

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23
Q

What are neurons?

A

cells that are specialised to create, receive and transmit information in the nervous system.

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24
Q

What are nerve nets?

A

A very early idea of how neurons work, which suggests that neurons are continuously interconnected allowing for almost nonstop, continuous communication of signals throughout the network.

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25
Q

Who came up with the neuron doctrine?

A

A physiologist named Ramon y Cajal.

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26
Q

What is the neuron doctrine.

A

Ramon y Cajal discovered that nerve nets are actually not possible. He argued that nerve nets are not continuous hut rather made up of individual cells that transmits in the nervous system. Said that neurons form connection only to specific neurons resulting in groups of interconnected neurons, which together form neural circuits.

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27
Q

What are receptor neurons?

A

Neurons that receive information from outside (“the senses”).

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28
Q

How do we measure how neurons communicate with each other?

A

Using electronic amplifiers that are sensitive to pick up and amplify a single neuron firing.

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29
Q

Who was the first person to record neurons firing?

A

Edgar Adrian in the 1920s with micro electrodes placed near axons - this won him a Nobel Prize.

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30
Q

How do neurons communicate with each other?

A

Through action potentials.

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31
Q

What is a synapse?

A

The space between the axon of one neurons and the dendrite or cell body of another.

32
Q

What happens at the synapse?

A

When the action potential reaches the end of the axon, synaptic vesicles open and release chemical neurotransmitters. Synaptic transmission is not an electrical tranport but a biochemical one.

33
Q

What is the Principle of Neural Representation?

A

Everything a person experiences is based on representations int he persons nervous system. Suggests that everything we experience is reflected/represented somewhere in our neural systems.

34
Q

How is information represented in the neural system.

A

Action potentials.

35
Q

If all action potentials are the same how do we differentiate between different inputs?

A

Feature detectors.

36
Q

What are feature detectors?

A

Neurons which respond best to specific stimuli, the means that multiple feature detectors represent different aspects of objects.

37
Q

Who discovered feature detectors?

A

Hubel & Wiesel (1960s) discovered feature detectors during research with visual stimuli in cats, each neuron in the visual area of the cortex had responded to a specific type of stimulation.

38
Q

What are highly specialise feature detectors and where are they?

A

Highly specialised feature detectors don’t just recognise orientation and movement but also detect complex things such as faces, places, objects, words, shapes, bodies etc. Located in the fusiform gyrus in the temporal cortex.

39
Q

How are feature detectors dependent on development?

A

Th structure of the brain changes with experience (experience-dependent elasticity) which means that if we don’t see something during our development those feature detector don’t development.

40
Q

What is face blindness?

A

When you simply just don’t recognise faces when they are among a crowd. This can be as a result an impairment in the fusiform gyrus or it may be due to late diagnosis is some level of blindness in one eye which means the individual has never developed the feature detectors that allow them to map faces.

41
Q

How does feature detector development affect our ability to speak languages?

A

Any baby can produce all the sounds required to speak any language however, the older we get, the harder it is to produce sounds that are not in our own language due to not having developed these feature detectors.

42
Q

What does Hierarchical Processing mean?

A

When we perceive stimuli, we do so in a specific order that moves from lower to higher areas of the brain. This corresponds to perceiving stimuli that range from lower levels of complexity to higher levels of complexity.

43
Q

What are the levels (in order) of spoken language comprehension?

A
  1. Auditory cortex (all sounds)
  2. Speech sound recognition.
  3. Recognising words and combining their meaning.
  4. Processing word order and syntax.
  5. Putting the meaning of the words and syntax into context.
44
Q

What is sensory coding?

A

The problem of neural representation or the senses, refers to how neurons represent various characteristics of the environment.

45
Q

What are the three types of sensory coding?

A

Specificity coding.
Population coding.
Sparse coding.

46
Q

What is specificity coding?

A

representation of a stimulus by the firing of specifically tuned neurons specialised to respond only to specific stimulus - grandmother cells/neurons.

47
Q

What is population coding?

A

representation of a stimulus by the pattern of firing of many neurons.

48
Q

What is sparse coding?

A

representation of a stimulus by a pattern of firing of only a small group of neurons, with most neurons remaining silent.

49
Q

What does localisation of function mean?

A

Specific functions are served by specific ares of the brain.

50
Q

What does the cerebral cortex contain?

A

Mechanisms responsible for most cognitive functions.

51
Q

What does anterior mean?

A

In front of.

52
Q

What does superior mean?

A

Above.

53
Q

What does posterior mean?

A

Behind.

54
Q

What does inferior mean?

A

Below.

55
Q

What are the functions of the frontal lobe? (3)

A

Motor Cortex.
Executive Control.
Abstract thinking & Problem solving.

56
Q

What is the motor cortex responsible for? (3)

A

Motor control.
Action knowledge.
‘Muscle Memory’.

57
Q

What does executive control refer to? (3)

A

Focus / conscious attention.
Knowledge coordination.
Evaluation of information.

58
Q

Where is the frontal lobe located?

A

Anterior to the parietal cortex and superior to the temporal cortex.

59
Q

What are the functions of the parietal lobe? (4)

A

Sensory Cortex.
Attention.
Imagination & Creativity.
Knowledge integration.

60
Q

Where is the Parietal Lobe located?

A

Posterior to the frontal cortex and superior to the temporal and occipital cortex.

61
Q

What is the function of the Occipital lobe?

A

Visual Cortex.

62
Q

What is the visual cortex responsible for? (2)

A

Visual Perception.
Categorisation.

63
Q

Where is the Occipital lobe located?

A

Posterior and inferior to the parietal cortex and posterior to the temporal cortex.

64
Q

What are the functions of the temporal lobe?

A

Memory and remembering.
Language.
Hearing.

65
Q

What is involved in memory and remembering?

A

Knowledge categories.

66
Q

What is involved in Language?

A

Auditory perception & parsing.

67
Q

Where is the temporal lobe located?

A

Anterior to the occipital lobe and inferior to the parietal and frontal lobes.

68
Q

What are the functions of the cerebellum?

A

Movement coordination.
Balance.
Rhythm.
Proprioception.

69
Q

Where is the Cerebellum located?

A

Inferior to the temporal and occipital cortex.

70
Q

What are the functions of the brain stem?

A

Basic biological functions - breathing and heart rate.

71
Q

What are the three primary receiving areas for the senses and which senses do they receive?

A

Occipital lobe - vision.
Parietal lobe - touch, temperature, pain.
Temporal lobe - hearing, taste, smell.

72
Q

What area of the brain coordinates the information recieved from all of the senses?

A

Frontal lobe.

73
Q

Example of a function not localised to one area?

A

Language.

74
Q

What are the two main areas specialised for language?

A

Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area.

75
Q

Where is Broca’s area and what is impaired by damage to this area?

A

Frontal lobe - language production is impaired by damage to this area.

76
Q

Where is Wernicke’s area and what is impaired by damage to this area?

A

Temporal lobe - language comprehension is impaired by damage to this area.

77
Q

What does Double Dissociation mean?

A

When one area of the brain is damaged it causes function A to be absent while function B is present, or vice versa, this allows us to identify the specific functions controlled by different parts of the brain.

PSY1004 (4 decks)

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