People

Question 1

Phineas Gage

Answer 1

Iron rod was driven through his head; personality changed from mild to irritable. Allowed researchers to investigate the hypothesis that the frontal lobe is involved in emotion regulation, planning, and decision making. Able to understand how the amygdala, hippocampus, and related brain structures interacted within the cerebral cortex.

Question 2

Roger Sperry

Answer 2

Conducted experiments in split brain patients, showing that the hemispheres are specialized for certain kinds of tasks. Left hemisphere = language. Right hemisphere = selecting.

Question 3

Hubel & Wisel

Answer 3

Used a technique in which they inserted electrodes into the occipital lobes of cats and observed the patterns of action potentials of individual neurons. Discovered neurons in the primary visual cortex are activated whenever a contrast between light and dark occurs in part of the visual field. Shown that neurons in the primary visual cortex represent particular features of visual stimuli such as constraint, shape, and color.

Question 4

D.F.

Answer 4

Suffered permanent damage to a large region of the lateral occipital cortex, an area in the central stream. Ability to recognize objects by sight inspired, but by touch her ability was normal. Suggests her visual representation of objects, not her memory for objects, was damaged.

Question 5

R.M.

Answer 5

Studied by Treismann and others, suffered from strokes that destroyed both his left and right parietal lobes. Had problems attending to spatially distinct objects, experienced a large number of illusory conjunctions.

Question 6

Edgar Rubin

Answer 6

Developed the Rubin Vase, or more generally a reversible figure ground relationship, illusion.