Week 12 Lecture

Question 1

What is social cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 1

understanding how brain function supports the cognitive processes underlying social behaviour

Question 2

Where did Phineas Gage have damage to through the rod going through his skull?

Answer 2

severe damage to the orbitofrontal cortex resulting in major personality changes

Question 3

What are some parts of the brain which are involved in self-referential processing?

Answer 3

prefrontal cortex, lateral partietal cortex, dorsolateral PFC

Question 4

What is a part of the brain which is involved in memory?

Answer 4

temporal cortex

Question 5

What are two parts of the brain involved in the processing of emotions?

Answer 5

insula, orbito frontal cortex

Question 6

What is mindblindness?

Answer 6

inability to properly represent the mental state of others

Question 7

What are some core features of autism?

Answer 7

• mindblindness
• impaired social interaction
• repetitive patterns of behaviour and interests
• symptoms must be present in the early developmental period

Question 8

What are two neurophysiological measurements of autism?

Answer 8

1. eye movements

2. neural activity

Question 9

Schizophrenic patients have what in the prefrontal cortex?

Answer 9

hypo-metabolism

Question 10

In depressed patients, what does the activation look like in the prefrontal cortex?

Answer 10

increased activation (depressed patients are thinking MORE about themselves) hypermetabolsm

Question 11

What is the self reference effect?

Answer 11

enhanced memory for information processed in relation to the self

Question 12

in passive tasks, what regions are most active?

Answer 12

mainly in the prefrontal cortex - relate to self referential processing

Question 13

What is the sentinel hypothesis?

Answer 13

Default network is there to ensure we always have some idea of what is going on around us

Question 14

One reason as to why we have activation in the PFC is because it reflect self referential processing at rest. What does this mean?

Answer 14

thinking about what we might be getting ready to do, evaluating current condition etc.

Question 15

What is one reason as to why in passive tasks, there is mainly activation in the PFC?

Answer 15

Most active when we are inwardly focused, lack of attention on external stimuli

Question 16

In an activity which is associated to rating positive personality traits in comparison to negative personality traits, what happens with interior cingulate cortex activation?

Answer 16

If you think the trait applies to you, there is a big difference between if the trait is positive or negative. if the trait is not related to you, the activation is the same.

Question 17

What happens in damage to orbitofrontal patients, after they have a discussion with the experimenter and they watch that conversation back

Answer 17

They are generally embarrassed after the video . For control patients, they will increase their score.

Question 18

What is the theory of mind?

Answer 18

The ability to infer the mental state of other people

Question 19

What is empathy?

Answer 19

Our capacity to understand and respond to the unique experiences of another person

Question 20

What is empathetic accuracy?

Answer 20

a perceiver’s accuracy in inferring a target person’s thoughts and feelings

Question 21

In developmental milestones, babies are quick to respond to information about faces and use the same neural structures for this as adults, BUT:

Answer 21

it takes much longer before they start incorporating contextual information and understanding what others are thinking (e.g metaphors, jokes, irony)

Question 22

What is the simulation theory?

Answer 22

• when observing another person’s behaviour, we imagine it unconsciously (mirror neurons)
• they have a physiological response that we feel and interpret

Question 23

Do the experience and perception of disgust both activate similar regions within the anterior insula?

Answer 23

Yes

Question 24

Brain machine interface has. been used to do what?

Answer 24

open a simulated emails, operate a television, open and close a prosthetic hand, all with our mind.