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The Computing Brain 2021 > Week 2.5 - Animal Behaviour and Cognition > Flashcards

Week 2.5 - Animal Behaviour and Cognition Flashcards

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The Brain flashcards
1
Q

What are Brodmann’s areas?

A

Parcelations (i.e. divisions) of the neocortex based on cytoarchitecture and lesion studies originally proposed by Korbinian Brodmann.

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2
Q

What is the function of the hippocampus?

A

It is the area of the brain normally associated with navigation and episodic memory.

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3
Q

What is transcription?

What is translation?

A

Transcription is the process that sequences RNA on the basis of DNA.

Translation is the creation of a protein from RNA.

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4
Q

What is a Golgi stain?

A

A method of staining entire neurons so that they can be visualized in a microscope.

Only 10% or so of the neurons are stained, it is a stochastic process.

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5
Q

What is fMRI?

A

A method of visualizing the activity of the brain using the BOLD (blood oxygenation level-dependent) signal.

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6
Q

What is cognition?

A

The ability of an animal to meaningfully interact with their environment.

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7
Q

What is studied by the field of epigenetics?

A

The expression or inhibition of particular genes according to environmental and developmental influences.

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8
Q

What is the default network?

A

The network of brain regions that is active when a person is not focused on the outside world.

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9
Q

How can we measure default networks?

A

Using fMRI

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10
Q

What are some of the limitations of using animal models?

A

(1) It is difficult to assess mood changes in animals (if we are studying mood disorders)
(2) Behavioral tests are often not specific enough
(3) Rodents might react differently to medications compared to humans
(4) Mood disorders are polygenic and multifactorial, making it impossible to use the transgenic method to model them

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11
Q

Which cells are thought to produce the most EEG signals from the cerebral cortex?

A

Pyramidal cells

This is because they are well-aligned and fire together

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12
Q

What are some of the medical uses of EEG?

A

(1) It can be used to monitor patients with epilepsy
(2) It can be used to measure the state of consciousness (e.g., comatose state)

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13
Q

Indicate whether each of these sentences is true or false:

(1) The core of each neuromodulatory system has a lot of neurons
(2) Each neuron can influence many others
(3) Neurotransmitters are released into the extracellular space
(4) Neurons that produce modulatory neurotransmitters are mostly in the cortex

A

(1) False
(2) True
(3) True
(4) False

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14
Q

What are the sites of origin of the dopamine system?

A

(1) substantia nigra
(2) ventral tegmental area

(image source: Wikipedia)

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15
Q

What are the main functions of the dopamine system?

A

(1) Motor function
(2) Reward/punishment
(3) Problem-solving
(4) Planning

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16
Q

What is the site of origin of the serotonin system?

A

Raphe Nuclei (in the brainstem)

17
Q

What are the main functions of the serotonin system?

A

(1) Mood regulation
(2) Sleep
(3) Arousal
(4) Sensory processing
(5) Pain modulation

18
Q

Nowadays, we look at emotion in terms of a spectrum.

What are the two dimensions of this spectrum?

A

(1) Valence
(2) Arousal

Ex. Anger would be classified as a combination of negative valence and high arousal

19
Q

Which brain region has been shown to increase its activity in response to fearful faces?

A

Amygdala

20
Q

What is the difference between an instinct and a reflex?

A

An instinct is a sequence of movements.

A reflex encompasses only one movement.

21
Q

Which of the following has the shortest sensitive (critical) period?

(a) Language development
(b) Sight development
(c) Higher cognitive function development

A

(b) Sight development

22
Q

What is cognition (in neuroscience terms)?

A

Cognition is the process by which the sensory input is transformed, stored, recovered, and used.

23
Q

Which school of thought believes that behavior is decided by internal processes?

A

Cognitive Psychology

24
Q

Which school of thought rejects introspection as a method of scientific inquiry?

A

Behaviorism

25
Q

Tolman, Ritchie, and Kalish (1946) conducted an experiment on response vs place learning in rats. They divided the rats into two groups. One group learned the representation of the maze and the other group learned a simple behavioral response (turning to the left).

Which group learned faster?

A

The group that learned the representation was faster than the group that learned the response.

However, if the maze had a roof (the landmarks in the room were not visible to rats), the group that learned a response was faster.

Take-away message: the type of learning that can occur depends on the availability of cues.

26
Q

What do we visualize with the diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) technique?

A

We visualize the diffusion of water, which gives us the orientation of white matter tracts (cortico-cortical connections, cortico-subcortical connections)

27
Q

Damage to which area causes fluent aphasia (fluent but non-sensical language production)?

A

Wernicke’s Area

28
Q

Damage to which area causes non-fluent aphasia (effortful, agrammatical speech production)?

A

Broca’s Area

29
Q

What are some of the limitations of defining brain regions responsible for behavior?

A

(1) Inter-individual variability in functional parcellation
(2) Depending on the technique used, the results of parcellation will be different
(3) Intra-individual variability - the result of parcellation may change from one instance to the next

30
Q

Beta waves on an EEG readout are associated with…

A

wakeful, alert consciousness

31
Q

Delta waves on an EEG readout are associated with…

A

deep sleep

32
Q

Theta waves on an EEG readout are associated with…

A

Deep relaxation and meditation

33
Q

Alpha waves on an EEG readout are associated with…

A

relaxed, calm state

34
Q

What is a connectome?

A

A comprehensive map of neuronal wiring in the brain

35
Q

Why are rodents used in science?

A

homologous system of interest

genetics (and manipulation)

availability

size

cost and maintenance

36
Q

What are the some of the scales with which we can research the brain?

A

Molecular level, synaptic level, physiology of single cells, network level, and behavioral level, cognitive level

The Computing Brain 2021 (19 decks)

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