Perception and Neuropsychology Flashcards
Sensation
Process by which sense organs receive and transmit information
Perception
Brain’s processing and interpretation of information
Absolute threshold
Lowest intensity at which a stimulus is detected 50% of the time
Neural implementation
- Sensory organs absorb energy
- Energy is transduced into a neural signal
- The neural signal is sent throughout the brain, where further processing takes place
Cornea
Outer area of the eye, focuses the image
Choroid
Middle area of the eye, transports waste away from the eye
Iris
Inner area of the eye, controls the pupil; amount of light let in
Lens
Inner part of the eye, focuses image onto the back of the retina; contracts and expands as needed to look close or far away
Congenital cataracts (born with cataracts)
Even after removing faulty cataracts, people remain blind (critical period for vision)
Vitreous humor
Inner part of eye, provides nutrients and removes waste
Retina
Inner part of eye, transduces electromagnetic energy into a neural signal
Cones (photoreceptors)
High-resolution system, daytime, found on the fovea
Rods (photoreceptors)
Low-resolution system, nighttime, situated peripherally; MORE NUMEROUS THAN CONES AND MORE SENSITIVE TO LIGHT !!
Gyrus
Ridge on the surface of the brain, surrounded by fissures known as ‘sulci’
Occipital lobe and vision
Serves one sensory modality (vision), while frontal, temporal, and parietal lobes are all multi-modal
Mishkin & Undergleider 1982
Double dissociation; temporal lobe damage resulted in impaired object discrimination, while parietal lobe damage resulted in impaired landmark discrimination
Ventral stream pattern perception
Lets you know what things are
Dorsal stream spatial location
Where things are
Parietal lobe
Helps us orientate ourselves
Temporal lobe
Helps us to interpret information
What activates retinal ganglion cells?
Spots of light or dark maximally activate the retinal ganglion cells
Lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN cells) are activated by:
Spots of light
What activates V1 cells?
Lines activate V1 cells
What activates beyond V1 (far reaches of the ventral visual stream)?
Jagged features
Area TE/IT (situated in far reaches of visual system) is activated by…?
Activated by facial profiles, processes complex features
Retinotopic mapping
Point-to-point mapping of the external world onto the retina, lateral geniculate nucleus, and V1 (cells have a highly specific function that they do not work outside of); NO retinotopic mapping beyond V1 !!
Where in the visual system is retinotopic mapping present?
Before and in V1
Receptive field of the retina
Area of the retina which, when stimulated by light, causes a change in the neural activity of the cell
Centre-surround architecture
Enhances contrast/ view of image
Lateral inhibition
Visual process in which the firing of a retinal cell inhibits the firing of surrounding retinal cells
Temporal retina
Temporal retina fibres come out of the eye and ‘swap’ sides (example: temporal retinal fibres of the left eye look at the right visual field)
Nasal retina
Fibres come out of the eye and ‘stay’ on their side (example: nasal retina fibres from the right eye look at the right visual field)
What side of the brain looks at the left visual fields of both eyes?
Right side
What side of the brain looks at the right visual fields of both eyes?
Left side
Right-monocular blindness
Result of a severed optic nerve of the right eye, blind in the right eye
Bitemporal hemianopia
Result of a severed optic chiasm, both outer temporal visual fields are damaged
Left-homonymous hemianopia
Result of severed optic track, blindness in both left fields; any cut after the optic chiasm and up to the primary visual cortex will cause left-homonymous hemianopia
What does damage to the primary visual cortex result in (vision)?
Left-homonymous hemianopia and macular sparing (central vision is spared)
Patient D.B. (blindsight)
5% of visual information goes directly from the eyes to the dorsal pathway on the way to the parietal lobe; this is why D.B. can tell you where something is, although he cannot identify what the object is
Area V5
Visual motion area (function of cells in that area is to tell the next station in the visual system that something is moving)
Achromatopsia
Absence of colour vision, occurs as a result of damage to V4 (involved in colour perception and situated laterally on the outside area of the cortex) and nothing else
Akinetopsia
Absence of motion vision, occurs as a result of damage to V5