Week/Chapter 2

Question 1

Action Potential

Answer 1

Propagated electrical potential responsible for transmitting neural information and for communication between neurons. Typically travels down neurons axons.

Question 2

Axon

Answer 2

Part of the neuron that transmits signals from the cell body to the synapse at the end of the axon.

Question 3

Broca’s Aphasia

Answer 3

Condition associated with damage to Broca’s area, in frontal lobe.
Laboured ungrammatical speech, difficulty understanding some types of sentences.

Question 4

Broca’s Area

Answer 4

Frontal Lobe.

Question 5

Cell Body

Answer 5

Part of cell that contains mechanisms that keep cell alive.

Question 6

Cerebral Cortex

Answer 6

3mm thick outer layer of brain that contains mechanisms responsible for higher mental functions - perception, language, thinking, problem solving.

Question 7

Brain Imaging

Answer 7

Technique such as fMRI that results in images of the brain that represent brain activity.

Question 8

Cognitive Neuroscience

Answer 8

Field concerned with studying the neural basis of cognition.

Question 9

Default Mode Network (DMN)

Answer 9

Network of structures that are active when a person is not involved in specific tasks.

Question 10

Cortical Equipotentiality

Answer 10

Popular in 1800’s.

Brain operates as an indivisible whole vs specialized areas.

Question 11

Dendrites

Answer 11

Structures that branch out from the cell body to receive electrical signals from other neurons.

Question 12

Distributed Representation

Answer 12

When a specific cognition activates many areas of the brain.

Question 13

Double Dissociation

Answer 13

When a single dissociation can be demonstrated in one person, and the opposite type of single dissociation can be demonstrated in another.

Question 14

Extrastriate Body Area (EBA)

Answer 14

Temporal cortex - activated by pictures of bodies and parts of bodies but not by faces or other objects.

Question 15

Frontal Lobe

Answer 15

Lobe in front brain, serves higher functions like language, thought, memory, motor functioning.

Question 16

Functional Connectivity

Answer 16

The extent to which the neural activity in separate brain areas is correlated with each other.

Question 17

Feature Detectors

Answer 17

Neurons that respond to specific visual features, like orientation, size, or more complex features that make up environmental stimuli.

Question 18

fMRI

Answer 18

Brain imaging technique that measures how blood flow changes in response to cognitive activity.

Question 19

Fusiform Face Area (FFA)

Answer 19

Temporal Lobe - Contains neurons that respond selectively to faces.

Question 20

Hierarchial Processing

Answer 20

Processing that occurs in progression from lower to higher areas of the brain.

Question 21

Level of Analysis

Answer 21

A topic can be understood by studying it at a number of different levels of a system.

Question 22

Localization of Function

Answer 22

Location of specific functions in specific areas of the brain.

Question 23

Microelectrodes

Answer 23

Small wires that are used to record electrical signals from single neurons.

Question 24

Multidimensional

Answer 24

Even simple experiences involve combinations of different qualities.

Question 25

Occipital Lobe

Answer 25

Back of the brain - devoted primarily to analyzing incoming visual information.

Question 26

Nerve Impulse

Answer 26

Electrical response that is propagated down the length of an axon (nerve fiber). Action potential.

Question 27

Nerve Net

Answer 27

Network of continuously interconnected nerve fibers.

Question 28

Neural Circuit

Answer 28

Group of interconnected neurons that are responsible for neural processing.

Question 29

Neural Network

Answer 29

Groups of neurons or structures that are connected together.

Question 30

Neural Representation

Answer 30

Everything a person experiences is based on representations in the person's nervous system.

Question 31

Neuron

Answer 31

Cell that is specialized to receive and transmit information in the NS.

Question 32

Neuron Doctrine

Answer 32

The idea that individual cells called neurons transmit signals in the NS, these cells are not continuous with other cells as proposed by nerve net theory.

Question 33

Neurotransmitter

Answer 33

Chemical that is released at the synapse in response to incoming action potentials.

Question 34

Parahippocampal Place Area (PPA)

Answer 34

Temporal lobe, contains neurons selectively activated by pictures of indoor and outdoor scenes.

Question 35

Parietal Lobe

Answer 35

Top of brain - mech responsible for sensations caused by stimulation of the skin and some aspects of visual information.

Question 36

Population Coding

Answer 36

Neural representation of a stimulus by the pattern of firing a large number of neurons.

Question 37

Problem of Sensory Coding

Answer 37

Problem determining the neural representation for the senses.

Question 38

Receptors

Answer 38

Specialized neural structures that respond to environmental stimuli such as light, mechanical stimulation, or chemical stimulation.

Question 39

Prosopagnosia

Answer 39

Damage to temporal lobe - cannot recognize faces.

Question 40

Recording Electrode

Answer 40

When used to study neural functioning, a very thin glass or metal probe that can pick up electrical signals from signal neurons.

Question 41

Reference Electrode

Answer 41

With recording electrode. Measure difference in charge between two. Where electrical signal remains constant.

Question 42

Resting Potential

Answer 42

Difference in charge between inside and outside of nerve fiber when the fiber is at rest.

Question 43

Resting State fMRI

Answer 43

fMRI response recorded when a person is at rest.

Question 44

Resting-State Functional Connectivity

Answer 44

Method for determining functional connectivity that involves determining the correlation between resting state fMRI in separated structures.

Question 45

Sensory Code

Answer 45

How neural firing represents various characteristics of the environment.

Question 46

Sparse Coding

Answer 46

Neural coding based on the pattern of activity in small groups of neurons.

Question 47

Subcortical Areas

Answer 47

Areas of the brain below cerebral cortex. Ex: amygdala and hippocampus.

Question 48

Specificity Coding

Answer 48

Representation of a specific stimulus by the firing of neurons that respond only to that stimulus.

Question 49

Synapse

Answer 49

Space between end of an axon and cell body or dendrite of the next axon.

Question 50

Task-Related fMRI

Answer 50

fMRI response that occurs in response to a specific cognitive task.

Question 51

Temporal Lobe

Answer 51

Lobe on side of brain that contains mech for language, memory, hearing, vision.

Question 52

Test Location

Answer 52

Resting-state functional connectivity - activity at test location compared to activity at seed location to determine degree of functional connectivity between the two.

Question 53

Time-Series Reponse

Answer 53

the way the fMRI response changes over time.

Question 54

Track-Weighted Imaging (TWI)

Answer 54

Technique for determining connectivity in brain based on detection of how water diffuses along length of nerve fibers.

Question 55

Visual Cortex

Answer 55

In occipital lobe - receives signals from eyes.

Question 56

Wernicke's Area

Answer 56

Temporal Lobe - understanding language.

Question 57

Voxel

Answer 57

Small cube-shapred areas in the brain used in analysis of data from brain scanning.

Question 58

Wernicke's Aphasia

Answer 58

Damage to Wernicke's area | Difficulty understanding language, fluent grammatically correct but incoherent speech.