Week 2.5 - Animal Behaviour and Cognition Flashcards
What are Brodmann’s areas?
Parcelations (i.e. divisions) of the neocortex based on cytoarchitecture and lesion studies originally proposed by Korbinian Brodmann.
What is the function of the hippocampus?
It is the area of the brain normally associated with navigation and episodic memory.
What is transcription and translation?
Transcription is the process that sequences RNA on the basis of DNA. Translation is the creation of a protein from RNA.
What is the golgi stain?
A method to stain the shape of neurons so that they can be visualized in a microscope. Only 10% or so of the neurons are stained, it is a stochastic process.
What is fMRI?
A method to visualize activity of the brain using oxygenation in cells as a proxy.
What are place cells?
Cells in the hippocampus that are active when the mouse (or other mammal) occupies a particular place in space.
What are grid cells?
Cells in the entorhinal cortex (entrypoint to the hippocampus) that encode a ‘metric’ that is ‘distances’ in the world.
Below you see firing rate maps of a place cell (left) and grid cell (right). Maps correspond to an overhead view of the chambers. Dark pixels represent high average firing rate; yellow pixels are 0 spike/sec firing rates. Cylinder 3 ft diameter; rectangle 4ft x 5 ft. Grid Cell data courtesy of EunHye Park.
What is cognition?
The ability of an animal to meaningfully interact with their environment.
What is studied by the field of epigenetics?
The expression of inhibition of particular genes according to environmental and developmental influences.
