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PSYC2020 > Week 1 > Flashcards

Week 1 Flashcards

1
Q

SUPERIOR

A

above

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2
Q

INFERIOR

A

below

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3
Q

ROSTRAL

A

towards the head

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4
Q

CAUDAL

A

towards the tail

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5
Q

CONTRALATERAL

A

other side

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6
Q

IPSILATERAL

A

same side

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7
Q

BILATERAL

A

both sides

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8
Q

UNILATERAL

A

one side

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9
Q

PROXIMAL

A

close to the main body mass

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10
Q

DISTAL

A

far from the main body mass

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11
Q

Other meanings of below

A

Inferior
Sub
Hypo
Infra

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12
Q

Fibre bundles or neural pathways in the CNS

A

Tract
Fasciculus
Funiculus
Lemniscus

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13
Q

Pupillometry

A

Pupils respond to three distinct kinds of stimuli:
constrict in response to brightness
constrict in response to near fixation
dilate in response to increases in arousal and mental effort
Loud noise -> BLINK
Brainstem reflex for protection
The fear-potentiated startle - amplitude of is increased when presented with a cue that has been previously paired with an aversive stimulus
Measure fear conditioning

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14
Q

Electrodermal Activity (EDA)

A

Skin conductance response (SCR) or galvanic skin response or electrodermal response (EDR) or psychogalvanic reflex (PGR) or sympathetic skin response (SSR)
Fight or flight response
Index of autonomic activity – measure of emotional arousal
Skin momentarily becomes a better conductor

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15
Q

Acquired brain injury

A

Any brain damage after birth – stroke, alcohol/drugs, TBI
Pierre Paul Broca – Patient Tan
Could only say ‘tan’ (initially at least, no other problems)
Autopsy revealed a large legion in the posterior inferior frontal gyrus
Broca’s area

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16
Q

Lesion studies

A

removing or disabling a portion of the brain and observing the resulting behaviour.
Aspiration lesion
Radio frequency lesion
Knife cuts
Rarely administered with 100% accuracy.
Some neighbouring tissue is lesioned.
Functions are inadvertently attributed to the target structure that are actually carried out by the neighbouring tissue.
Sometimes a portion remains - as well as some function.

17
Q

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation

A

Small current between anode and cathode
Transiently disrupt neural activity
Neurons under anode become depolarised – more likely to fire
Neurons under cathode become hyperpolarised – less likely to fire
Changes in behavioural performance – general – anodal improves, cathodal hinders

18
Q

Drug Blocks

A

Injection of local anaesthetics
Wada test
Prior to ablative surgery – determine lateralisation of vital functions (e.g. speech)
Inject left or right internal carotid then assess

19
Q

Cryogenic Block

A

Cryoprobe cools neurons near tip so they stop firing – virtual lesion
Invasive

20
Q

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

A

Single magnetic pulses are applied to specific locations on the scalp at specific times during a behavioural task; or repetitively prior to task performance (rTMS).

Magnetic activity causes neurons to fire – focal stimulation - cognitive or behavioural consequences are then observed.
Stimulation effects (e.g. motor or visual activation)
Disruption effects - synchronised discharge interferes with normal activity – timing important (e.g. disrupt letter recognition)
rTMS – longer effects – maybe related to LTP/LTD but unclear
Permits causal inference about the necessity of a specific brain region for performing a given task.
rTMS in clinical – depression and neuropathic pain

21
Q

Magneto-encephalography (MEG)

A

Electric currents generate small magnetic fields
Measure at the scalp
Very high temporal resolution
Relativity direct measure of activity
But … no good for subcortical, hard to model sources, very expensive equipment

22
Q

Electroencephalography (EEG)

A

Electrical activity generates electric fields which can be measured
Scalp – measures gross electrical activity of the brain
Sum of electrical events – action potentials, postsynaptic potentials, muscle activity, etc
Measured electrical activity correlates with underlying neural activity
Idiosyncratic waveforms associated with different states of consciousness
Relaxed – alpha (8-12 Hz)
Deep sleep – delta (<4 Hz)
Focussed – beta (16-31 Hz)
Clinical
e.g. epilepsy

23
Q

Electroencephalography (EEG)

Event Related Potentials (ERPs)

A

Research – waveforms that accompany an event (onset of a stimulus or response – evoked)
Time lock to the event
Small signal embedded in noise – so average lots of trials to clean and extract signal
Best for time course of events rather than location (but can do source modelling)
Name peaks based on polarity – N (negative) or P (positive)
But note – weird convention that N is up!

Typical ERPs
Sensory processes within less than 100ms
100ms modulated by attention – N100 and P100 selective attention
N200 – mismatch negativity – stimulus physically deviates from previous
P300 – attended stimulus appears
P400 – unexpected stimulus (surprise)
Or compare conditions

Attended versus unattended stimulus

24
Q

Electroencephalography (EEG)

Advantages

A

High temporal resolution
Measure of activity
No drugs, tracers - non invasive
Relatively low cost

25
Q

Electroencephalography (EEG)

Disadvantages

A

Low spatial resolution (although source modelling possible)
Poor for activity below superficial layers (cortex – gyri)
Low signal to noise and signals easily contaminated – need lots of trials and lots of subjects – time consuming

26
Q

X-Rays

A

Not effective in imaging the brain

27
Q

Contrast X-rays

A

Inject a contrast substance to accentuate the difference between the target tissue and surrounding tissue.

Invasive – dye injected

28
Q 
Computed Tomography
CT Scan (or CAT Scan)
A

Computer assists in reconstructing 3-D structure of the brain from many individual “slices”.

Non invasive (although radiation issues)
Older lesions resulting in loss of brain tissue (e.g. stroke) result in that area being filled in with fluid that is less dense than brain tissue.
Shows up as darker regions.
Recent trauma that fill with blood (e.g. hematoma), which is denser than brain tissue show up as lighter regions.

29
Q

Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

A

Radioactive tracer coupled to biologically active molecule
Inject a radioactive isotope e.g. 2-deoxyglucose (2-DG).
Inhale C15O2 (a radioactive isotope of CO2)
Isotope is taken up by active portions of the brain but not broken down - accumulates
Radioactivity is short-lived. Half life of the isotopes is less than 3 hours.
Apply tracer / do some activity / scan
Overlay radioactivity image with brain image
High specificity, non-invasive functional imaging
But … radiation exposure risky, low spatial resolution, long acquisition times, costly and inconvenient (onsite cyclotron to generate tracers)
Familiar versus unfamiliar face categorization
Paired image subtraction method

30
Q

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

A

Hydrogen atoms line up in a strong magnetic field
Perturb with a RF pulse and detect EM waves emitted as they return
Additional magnetic fields permit 3D imaging
High spatial resolution structural imaging
Variant of MRI
Measures density and motion of water molecules – restricted movement along axon fibres
Measure diffusion anisotropy

31
Q

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

A

Measures neural activity (indirectly)
Active neurons – blood flow increases bringing oxyhemoglobin
Oxyhemoglobin increase greater than oxygen consumption increase so increased ratio oxy to deoxy in veins
Oxy and deoxy different magnetic properties
Less deoxy relative to oxy – MR signal increased intensity – BOLD – blood oxygen level dependent contrast
Time course of the fMRI signal form the onset of a stimulus

32
Q

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

Advantages

A

Compared to PET - no tracers, better temporal and spatial resolution, faster acquisition.
No known health risks.
Structural and functional information in the same image.
3-D images of activity over the whole brain.

33
Q

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

Disadvantages

A

Low temporal resolution
Indirect measure of neuronal activity – correlated but relationship between BOLD and neural activity complex and variable
2-3 seconds to create an image
Not causal

34
Q

Key Learnings

A

Directions, orientations, and reference planes
A number of involuntary physiological responses reflect psychological responses
ABIs can tell us about human brains and lesioning can tell us about animal brains
Various ways to stimulate or disrupt neural activity
Especially important in research is TMS – virtual lesioning
Various ways to measure neural activity
Especially important is EEG
ERPs reflect activity in response to events
Various ways to image the brain
Especially important is fMRI
A range of research methods all with strengths and weaknesses in terms of invasiveness, spatial and temporal resolution, whether they measure directly or indirectly, whether they reflect structure or function, whether they are causal or correlative
There are many other important methodologies

35
Q

Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI)

A

Variant of MRI
Measures the density and motion of water molecules- restricted movement along axon fibres
Measure diffusion anisotropy

PSYC2020 (14 decks)

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