The electrophysiological brain Flashcards
Representations
Properties of the world that are manifested in cognitive systems (mental representation) and neural systems (neural representation).
Single-cell recordings (or single-unit recordings)
Measure the responsiveness of a neuron to a given stimulus (in terms of action potentials per second).
Electroencephalography (EEG)
Measurements of electrical signals generated by the brain through electrodes placed on different points on the scalp.
Event-related potential (ERP)
The average amount of change in voltage at the scalp that is linked to the timing of particular cognitive events (e.g., stimulus, response).
Reaction time
The time taken between the onset of a stimulus/event and the production of a behavioral response (e.g., a button press). Also referred to as response time.
Multi-cell recordings (or multi-unit recordings)
The electrical activity (in terms of action potentials per second) of many individually recorded neurons recorded at one or more electrodes.
Grandmother cell
A hypothetical neuron that just responds to one particular stimulus (e.g., the sight of one’s grandmother).
Rate coding
The informational content of a neuron may be related to the number of action potentials per second.
Temporal coding
The synchrony of firing may be used by a population of neurons to code the same stimulus or event.
Dipole
A pair of positive and negative electrical charges separated by a small distance.
Mental chronometry
The study of the timecourse of information processing in the human nervous system.
Additive factors method
A general method for dividing reaction times into different stages.
N170
An ERP component (negative potential at 170 ms) linked to perceiving facial structure.
Associative priming
Reaction times are faster to stimulus X after being presented to stimulus Y if X and Y have previously been associated together (e.g., if they tend to co-occur).
Exogenous
Related to properties of the stimulus.
