Quiz 8

Question 1

what is the role of the motor system in object recognition

Answer 1

• sensorimotor areas assist in object recognition

- sometimes motor action (kinesthetic cones) help in identifying objects, even with agnosia

Question 2

what is category specific deficits

Answer 2

• major categories that can be selectively impaired, inability to recognize certain categories of objects
  ex. living v nonliving
• deficits are related to how information is stored in memory

Question 3

what is prosopagnosia

Answer 3

the selective inability to recognize the identity of faces

-the ability to correctly identify other objects is retained

Question 4

why are faces “special”

Answer 4

faces are process in the fusiform face area (FFA)

• region takes overall configure information
• may be an expertise region

Question 5

what is experience dependent plasticity in humans

Answer 5

brain imaging experiments show areas that respond best to letters and words

• fMRI experiments show that training results in areas of the FFA responding best to
  1) Greeble stimuli
  2) cars and birds for experts in these areas

Question 6

what are the three kinds of neural coding

Answer 6

sparse coding, population coding, grandmother cell theory

grandmother -> sparse -> population
smallest number of neurons to largest #

Question 7

what is sparse coding

Answer 7

few neurons code for specific objects

Question 8

what is population coding

Answer 8

many neurons code for specific objects

Question 9

what is grandmother cell theory

Answer 9

specific neuron codes for specific objects

Question 10

what is grandmother cell evidence

Answer 10

• in human epileptic, single cell responds to Jennifer Anniston but not other people ( you can record the firing of single cell with people with epilepsy)
• grandmother is not fully supported

sparse coding is the most supported with evidence, but also evidence for population coding

Question 11

what are the specialized areas in the brain

Answer 11

-areas for faces, places, and bodies in human brain

fusiform face area (FFA) responds best to faces
parahippocampal place area (PPA) responds best to spatial layout
extrastriate body area (EBA) responds best to pictures of full bodies and body parts

Question 12

what is auditory agnosia

Answer 12

can only perceive “pure” tones (most sounds are complex tones)

Question 13

what is verbal auditory agnosia

Answer 13

cant perceive words but has normal linguistic processing

Question 14

what is nonverbal auditory agnosia

Answer 14

words are intact but nonverbal sounds are not (car horn)

Question 15

what is mixed auditory agnosia

Answer 15

combination of verbal and nonverbal forms, can heat yet not recognize sounds

Question 16

what is the tactile domain

Answer 16

• also called somatosensory agnosia, tactile agnosia and tactical asymbolia
• can use other modalities to recognize objects, but can’t recognize them using touch alone

Question 17

what are some examples of double dislocations in object recognition

Answer 17

• object recognition v. localization (what v. where)
• objects v. faces (fMRI, single cell recordings, patients)
• faces v. bodies (fMRI)
• faces v. places (fMRI)
• vision v. audition v. touch (patients)
• verbal sounds v. nonverbal sounds (patients)

Question 18

explain imagery and perception

Answer 18

imagery may be perception in reverse

• visual imagery tasks involve same regions as perception tasks
• TMS disrupts both perception and imagery tasks

Question 19

explain object recognition across senses

Answer 19

• may be special link between touch and vision (alarm clock, most common adaptation for blind is using touch)
• voice and vision: familiar voices activate FFA more than unfamiliar faces
• what and where pathways are distinct for non-visual modalities as well

Question 20

imagery vs. perception

Answer 20

perception is how the brain organizes sensory information into meaningful representation of objects

imagery is visual things that the brain sees