Weeks 4-7 Szilvia Linnert

Question 1

Briefly mention the famous names of people in the Nature vs Nurture debate and what their position was.

Answer 1

Nature:
- Franic Galton (1874) - geniuses are born not made.

Nurture:
- Freud; Vygotsky; Skinner’s behaviourism.

Middle ground:
- Piaget/Neuroconstructivism
- The interaction between environment and genetic factors
- (Epigenetics)

Question 2

What are Gottlieb’s (1992) different views of development?

Answer 2

Predetermined development: (BLUE PRINT ANALOGY)
- Genes -> Brain Structure -> Brain function -> Experience.

Probabilistic development:
- Genes <-> Brain Structure <-> Brain function <-> Experiences.
- All interact

Question 3

What is the problem with predetermined development (blueprint analogy)?

Answer 3

In this view, MZ twins should be exactly identical - which they aren’t

Question 4

how long is the gestation period in pregnancy?

Answer 4

38 weeks

Question 5

Outline the key details of prenatal brain development.

Answer 5

First 2 weeks: Cell division

After 2 weeks: Cell specialisation begins - brain begins to develop.

Neural tube formation then begins…

Question 6

What are the key details of neural tube formation?

Answer 6

Neurulation:
- Ectoderm thickens to form the neural plate, which folds to form the neural tube.
- Regions:
Cranial: Forms the brain.
Caudal: Forms the spinal cord.

Closure:
- Begins in the middle and proceeds both cranially and caudally.
- Neural folds elevate and meet at the midline, fusing to form the neural tube.

Question 7

What do many of the structural features of the brain emerge from?

Give 3 examples

Answer 7

Constraints of the brain:

• Folded cortex from having lots of neurons.
• Pattern of gyri/sulci pulled into shape by tension of axon bundles (white matter tract).
• Hebbian Learning: Spontaneous electrical activity pre birth enables networks to form.
• (E.g., Electrical activity pre birth from the retina allows the visual pathways to form)

Question 8

When are the majority of neurons formed?

Answer 8

Prior to birth

Question 9

What are the weights of the newborn and adult brain?

Answer 9

450g Newborn

1400g Adult brain

Question 10

What brain mechanisms cause the postnatal increase in brain size?

(3)

Answer 10

Synaptogenesis

Myelination (adding fatty sheath)

Glial cell profileration

NOT neuron formation - majority formed prenatally

Question 11

Describe the curves showing the relationship between age and synapses per 100um^3 in:
- Auditory cortex
- Visual cortex
- Prefrontal cortex

Explain the changes.

Answer 11

Auditory cortex:
- Peaks at around 1000 days

Visual cortex:
- Peaks at around 600 days

Prefrontal cortex:
- Peaks at 2000 days

They all then decrease to around the 30/40.

This is because fine tuning occurs to make the brain more efficient - removing redundant synapses.

Question 12

What is plasticity? What does it lead to?

Answer 12

Experience dependent change in neuronal functioning.

Leads to increased gray matter:
- New synapses
- Dendrites
- Axon collaterals
- Glial cells

NOT NEW NEURONS!!

Question 13

Briefly state the plasticity study into juggling.

Answer 13

METHODS:
- Scanned gray matter 3 months before learning to juggle
- Then scanned 3 months later once learnt to juggle.
- Then scanned 3 months after learning to juggle.

RESULTS:
- Scan one showed an average of no % change.
- Scan two showed an average of 3% change.
- Scan 3 showed an average of ~1.5%.

Shows that plasticity occurs through learning, then fine tuning occurs once you have learnt the new skill

Question 14

What does the case study of AH show us? Explain the details of the case study too.

(had no right hemisphere)

Answer 14

AH is a case study of a 10 year old girl with no right hemisphere.

As visual information decussates, the left visual field should go right.

Instead they both projected to the left, showing plasticity reorganised her vision to her left visual cortex

Shows that the brain structure is not due solely to genetics and that organisation is a malleable process.

Question 15

What is the significance of spontaneous electrical activity in foetal development?

Answer 15

Enables networks to form intrauterine before the baby is born.

E.g., Firing of the visual system allows it’s development before the child has to begin perceiving the world.

Question 16

What do critical or sensitive periods refer to in functional brain development?

Answer 16

The time-limited opportunities for major reorganisation (via plasticity mechanisms).

Question 17

What is filial imprinting and who discovered it. What are two key points he discovered?

Answer 17

The process by which young animals learn to recognise their parent.

Konrad Lorenz:
- He found that it happens between 15h - 3 days depending on when a parental figure is presented.
- Movement is crucial = they need to follow you to imprint.

Question 18

What are the two main features of critical and sensitive periods as stated by Lorenz’s findings?

Answer 18

1. Learning takes place within a limited window.
   - But opportunity can be extended in lack of experience.
2. This learning is hard to reverse by later experinces.
   - Chick imprinted to one object can generalise to similar objects (shape or colour).
   - Preference can be changed after sensitive periods (e.g., if mother dies)

Question 19

What are two possible explanations for critical and sensitive periods?

Answer 19

1. Genetically programmed synaptogenesis (readies brain for learning), followed by reduced plasticity - so that learning is then ‘fosslised’.
2. Closure of window could be initiated by learning itself/an environmental cue.
   - (e.g., particular gene plays a role in filial imprinting, it is switched off after exposure).

Question 20

What are the empiricist and nativist views on innate knowledge?

Answer 20

Empiricism: Newborn mind is a blank slate.

Nativist: We are born with some knowledge.

Question 21

What is the more modern view on innate knowledge?

Answer 21

There is an innate readiness to learn (e.g., imprinting).

AND

There is some knowledge or behaviour that arises in the absence of appropriate experience.
(Preferences of sweet taste or visual patterns)

Question 22

Describe the study into the development of cat visual cortex.

Answer 22

METHODS:
- Two cats, one reared in dark and one which was developed in a usual environment (exposed to light).
- Imaged both at 14, 21 and 45 days to see differences in development of their visual cortex.

RESULTS:
- 14 days and 21 days there was no difference in their cortex, showing that they didn’t need visual experience to form cortex.
- 45 days there was a difference.
- Normal developed cat showed orientations bars developing as well as colour preference.
- Dark -reared cat’s cortex regressed back to 14 day state.

(See slide 22 of ‘The Developing Brain’ lecture)

Question 23

What do prenatal ultrasounds show us? What is it used for?

Answer 23

Structural features:
- Different types of tissue (skull, grey matter, white matter, CSF fluid) as they all have different physical properties.
- Used to create STATIC maps

Question 24

What are the two main methods for imaging prenatal brain development?

Answer 24

Prenatal ultrasound and Prenatal MRI

Question 25

What is the preferential looking paradigm?

Answer 25

A research method used to understand the perceptions and interests of infants and non-verbal individuals.

Involves presenting two stimuli side-by-side (images, videos, objects).

Researchers track how long the participant looks at each stimulus.

Longer looking times at one stimulus suggest greater interest or understanding.

Question 26

What are the potential problems of using fMRI on infants?

Answer 26

Infants won’t perform tasks (which is what fMRI usually requires to measure brain activation).

It’s very hard to make infants lay still.

Question 27

What are the two main functional neuroscience measures that can be used with infants and young children? Give two example methods for each.

Answer 27

Electrophysiological response:
- EEG or ERP

Haemodynaic response (brain blood supply):
- fMRI
- fNIRS

Question 28

What are the benefits of infant EEG?

Answer 28

Allow quick installation that isn’t distressing to infants.

Can use infant friendly stimuli.

More breaks during the study (not as intense as MRI)

Question 29

What is the difference between infant and adult ERP’s?

Answer 29

Some adult ERP peaks are present in infants but delayed.

E.g., Visual ERPs:
- N1 which is N170 in adults is N290 in infants.

Question 30

What is Nc in infant ERPs and why is it significant?

Answer 30

It is only present in infants and toddlers.

Nc = Negative central peak:
- Typically peaks between 300-700ms after stimulus onset.
- Reflects attention.
- Larger peak reflect higher attention.

(E.g., there is a higher peak for Nc when mothers face is presented compared to a strangers face).

Question 31

What are the problems with using fMRI in infants?

Give example(s) of recent attempts to make it more usable with infants.

Answer 31

Highly sensitive to motion artifacts and infants move quite a lot.

Loud, restrictive environment - again not ideal for children.

Recent attempts:
- Custom headphones
- Adjustable 32-channel coil.

Question 32

What is fNIRS? Briefly explain it.

Answer 32

functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

It measures BOLD signal by using the near infrared spectrum of light (~800nm).

Skin, tissue, and bone are mostly transparent to NIR light

Hb and deoxyHb absorb NIR, therefore allowing the measurement of BOLD response.

Measures the concentration changes of oxyHb and deoxyHb related to brain activity

Question 33

What are the pros and cons of fNIRS?

P:2 C:3

Answer 33

Pros:
- Portable.
- More tolerant of movement.

Cons:
- fNIRS has lower spatial resolution (usually used on specific regions)
- Only the surface of the cortex can be imaged.
- Often only a few sensors are used above a certain brain area.

Question 34

What is an emotion?

Answer 34

A state associated with stimuli that are rewarding or punishing.

The associated stimuli often have inherent survival value but they can also be learned.

Question 35

What do emotions play a key role for guiding?

Answer 35

Social Behaviour/Social decision making

Question 36

What is Capgras syndrome? How can this be tested?

Answer 36

It is when a person believes that their loved once have been replaced by a identical looking imposter or body double.

Consciously recognise the person but lack emotional response to them.

We have a higher GSR to those we love because of the emotional response.

In Capgras syndrome, there is no significant difference in GSR in strangers or loved ones

Question 37

What are the neural substrates of emotion processing?

Answer 37

Amygdala: learning & memory, fear conditioning.

Insula: disgust & interoception.

Orbitofrontal cortex: current appraisal of emotional stimuli.

Anterior cingulate: Pain, response evaluation & bodily aspects of emotion.

Ventral striatum: Reward.

Question 38

Summarise information about the amygdala.

Answer 38

It is a bilaterally represented, small mass of grey matter in the tip of the left and right temporal lobes.

It receives a lot of sensory input and is suggested to be the central nucleus of fear/fear conditioning.

Close to the hippocampus so likely that they interact.

Important for learning and storing the emotional value of stimuli.

Question 39

Briefly outline the study into the role of the amygdala in fear conditioning in mice.

Answer 39

Mice in a skinners box and are exposed to a tone linked to shock.

Control mice learn the association.

Lesion mice BEFORE learning do NOT learn the conditioned response.

Lesion mice AFTER learning forget the conditioned response - lose the learned emotional value.

Both Lesions still elicit the fear response to shock but not to the conditioned stimulus - shows the role of storing the emotion of fear, not the response

Question 40

Outline the LaBar et al. (1998) study into amygdala and fear in humans.

Answer 40

METHODS:
- Measured the fMRI and GSR.
- Taught participants to associate visual cue with an electric shock.

RESULTS:
- fMRI showed Amygdala activation during the learning process.
- GSR correlated with amygdala activation

Question 41

Describe the double dissociation results from Bechara et al. (1995) in the role of amygdala and hippocampus in fear.

Answer 41

Patients with amygdala damage:
- No conditioned GSR
- Can recall associations (learn it and verbally describe it)

Patients with hippocampal damage:
- Conditioned GSR present
- Cannot recall the association.

Shows that the associations are stored in:
- Amygdala (conditioned fear response)
- Hippocampus (declarative memory of response)

Question 42

Outline the results of Adolphs et al. (1994) and Morris et al. (1996) into the amygdala and its impact on expression recognition of faces.

Answer 42

They found that damage to the amygdala inhibits the ability to recognise fear in others.

Participants could recognise all emotions apart from fearful ones.

Question 43

What are the two routes to the amygdala, explain them.

Answer 43

Fast:
- Goes from eyes, to LGN and straight to amygdala.
- Doesn’t require conscious awarness.

Slow:
- Goes through LGN to visual cortex, then to amygdala via visual pathway.
- Requires conscious awareness.

Question 44

Outline the Ohman & Soares (1994) study into the amygdala. What does it provide evidence for?

Hint - spiders & snakes

Answer 44

METHODS:
- Images of spiders and snakes are subliminally presented to participants with spider or snake phobias.

RESULTS:
- Participants did not report seeing the images.
- SCR was measured so there was an emotional reaction.

Shows that the fast route that circumnavigates conscious attention exists.

Question 45

(Slow Route of emotional processing)

What did the Tamietto et al. (2012) study into amygdala find?

Answer 45

Used fMRI and found that the amygdala was activated by fearful expression in patients with visual cortex damage.

Shows that if the slow route cannot happen (damaged visual cortex) that the amygdala can still be activated.

Question 46

Describe the findings of Morris et al (1998) into the amygdala’s ability to lead to enhanced activity in other brain areas.

Answer 46

Increased activation in:

Visual cortex
Hypothalamus
Anterior cingulate
Orbitofrontal cortex

Affects autonomic system to generate fight or flight response.

Suggests that the amygdala is a hub for the fear circuit, not the centre.

Question 47

Briefly describe the Baxter & Murray (2002) findings about the amygdala.

(what it codes in terms of associations)

Answer 47

It is involved in learning positive associations (e.g., certain food is hidden under a shape).

Amygdala activation to pleasant and unpleasant but not to neutral smells.
- Emotional responses only.

Question 48

What are two syndromes that show the role of the amygdala in encoding the emotional value of stimuli.

Answer 48

Kluver-Bucy Syndrome (in monkeys):
- Tameness, emotional blunting, hyperorality (testing objects with mouth)
- Objects lost their emotional value.

Capgrass syndrome (in humans):
- Thinking loved ones have been replaced with imposters.
- Disconnect between face recognition part of brain and the emotional processing of the amygdala

Question 49

Summarise the insula.

(structure, location, associated emotions, perceptions involved in)

Answer 49

It is an island of cortex lying bilaterally underneath the temporal lobes.

Implicated in the creation of bodily feelings and associated with emotions.
- Disgust
- Interoception.

Involved in pain and taste perception.

Question 50

What are the results of expression recognition tasks in relation to the Insula?

Answer 50

Those with damage cannot identify disgusted faces.

Those with healthy insula will see activation in it in response to feeling disgusted or seeing someone else disgusted.

Also activated in response to moral disgust.

Question 51

What is interoception? Summarise it.

Answer 51

Monitoring the internal state of the body.

Interoceptive signals from receptors in the skin, muscles, organs are sent to the Insula along the spinal cord.

This bodily monitoring process can be conscious and unconscious.

Question 52

Summarise the orbitofrontal cortex.

Answer 52

Found as the ventral layer of the frontal cortex (imagine directly above the slope of your nose, the downwards facing layer of cortex).

Is involved in computing the current value of a stimulus, emotion and memory.

Calculates how rewarding the stimulus is within the current context.

Important for social interactions, new learning and regulation of emotions.

Question 53

Briefly summarise the results of the PET study by Small et al. (2001).

OFC activation due to rewarding or punishing stimuli

Answer 53

Initially chocolate was rewarded to participants wanted to have it:
- Activity in the medial regions of the OFC = pleasant, reward

Then chocolate became less pleasant, and participants were less motivated to eat it:
- Activity in the lateral regions of the OFC = unpleasant, punishment.

Question 54

State the results from Kringelback & Rolls (2003) into how the OFC is involved in processing social stimuli.

Answer 54

Lateral orbitofrontal cortex activity when participants expected a smile and were presented with an angry face.

Question 55

Summarise the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC). (Structure + 2)

Answer 55

Lies above the corpus callosum on the medial surface of each hemisphere.

Dorsal region implicated with executive functions = monitoring errors and response conflicts.

Ventral region implicated in emotional processing = determining motivations and the cost and benefits of actions.

Question 56

Outline response evaluation in the ACC. (Lesion monkey example)

Answer 56

Can be rewarding or punishing depending on the environment and context.

Processes the value of the action.

LESION:
- Monkeys with ACC lesion unable to adapt behaviour and therefore do not base actions based on their previous ones.
- E.g., will attempt to take food from dominant monkey (bad idea).

Question 57

Outline the role of the ACC in bodily responses.

Answer 57

Processing bodily signals that characterise emotions:
- Outputs bodily responses
Lesion interrupts skin conductance response, changes in blood pressure and heart rate (fight or flight response changes)
- Inputs from the Insula.

Regulating the feelings of pain:
- fMRI activity in the ACC for physically painful stimuli.
- Activity in the ACC for watching somebody else in pain = responds to the perception of pain in others.

Question 58

Outline the relationship between the ACC and social pain.

Answer 58

ACC responds to perception of pain in others BUT the response can be affected by cognitive processes.

Pain sensitive activity is modulated if the other person is perceived to “deserve” the pain.

Question 59

Describe the Eisenberger et al. (2003) into social pain and the ACC.

Answer 59

Ball toss task with two confederates

METHODS:
- Inclusion condition, they were involved in game of catch
- Exclusion condition, the other two players do not pass to participant.
- Justified condition, there is a reason not to be passed.
- Asked participants about their distress:
- Not stressed
- Stressed
- Slightly distressed
- (Respectively)

RESULTS:
- Activity of ACC correlated with subjective distress.
- The justified condition shows it’s not exclusion that causes it, it’s the personal effect of being excluded.

Question 60

Summarise the Ventral Striatum.

(location, speciality)

Answer 60

Part of the basal ganglia:
- Dorsal striatum has sensorimotor properties (role in habit formation)
- Ventral striatum specialise in emotions.

Part of the reward-based learning loop aka ‘the limbic circuit’ which is a dopaminergic system linked to compulsive behaviours such as subject abuse.

Question 61

Outline the role of ventral striatum in monetary reward.

Answer 61

fMRI showed task with greater monetary reward lead to greater activity in the VS (Knutson et al., 2001)

Question 62

Provide an example of the role of ventral striatum in social reward.

Answer 62

Activity is greater when monetary reward is obtained via cooperation with another human compared to non-cooperation or computer (Rilling et al., 2002)

Question 63

Outline the role of ventral striatum in predicted vs actual reward.

Answer 63

It is not involved in simple reward coding, activity is greater when the reward is better than expected.

Shows that it calculates difference between expectation and reality.

Question 64

Briefly outline ASD and its relation to social reward.

Answer 64

(Autism Spectrum Disorder)

Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction.

Restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests or activities.

Symptoms are present in early childhood.

“Social brain” network is functionally/structurally different in ASD.
- including ventral striatum, orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala.

Question 65

What is the social motivation hypothesis in ASD?

Answer 65

Those with ASD have deficits in representing the reward value of social stimuli.

Children with ASD do not actively attend to the social environment because they do not find it intrinsically rewarding, leading to reduced cortical specialisation.

Question 66

Summarise the social brain hypothesis.

Answer 66

Humans and Primates have unusually large brains for their body size.

The brain is one of the most energy ‘expensive’ organs in the body.

It is suggested that the brain has evolved to deal with the complex information we are presented with in a largely social world.

Computational demands of living in large, complex societies have selected for large brains:
- Graph shows a relationship between social network size and the neocortex (90% of cerebral cortex) ratio of the brain
- (Slide 5 Lecture 6)

Question 67

What is Social Cognition? Give examples.

Answer 67

It focuses on how people process, store and apply information about other people and social situations.

It is the process by which we infer, interpret, encode and decode social information and social situations.

Examples:
- Perception of emotions and facial expressions.
- Perception of eye gaze direction of others.
- Prediction of the thoughts underlying the behaviour of others.

Question 68

Why is reading faces important? Gives examples.

Answer 68

Faces are not only a subject of visual perception, they are also social objects that provide information about:
- Another person’s emotional states.
- Intentions (eye-gaze)
- Membership in social categories (race, gender)
- Disposition (Trustworthiness)

Question 69

Why is there a bias for face processing?

Answer 69

People will preferentially identify face like patterns in objects which are clearly not faces (e.g., side of a mountain, a door bell in the right position)

This portrays how faces are important social stimuli for us and as such we perceive them a lot quicker.

Question 70

What did Johnson et al. (1991) find in newborn face processing?

Answer 70

Newborns prefer face-like patterns and are sensitive to the structure of the human face.

(Method on slide 10, lecture 6)

Question 71

What did Reid et al. (2017) find in foetal face processing?

Answer 71

At around 34 weeks of gestation, foetuses are more likely to engage with stimuli featuring an upright face-like configuration than one with an inverted configuration.

Therefore this shows that postnatal experience is not necessary for the emergence of preference of face-like stimuli.

Question 72

Outline the study by Di Lorenzo et al. (2019) into facial processing at 5 months.

Answer 72

METHODS:
- Use 5 month olds.
- fNIRS study that imaged the cortex in areas known to be involved in face and facial expression processing in adults.
- Presented baseline stimuli of houses.
- Then presented happy faces for 5 secs, then houses for 10 secs, then fearful faces for 5.
- (long presentation due to slow haemodynamic response).

RESULTS:
- Right occipital area selectively responds to faces = the face processing network is activated at 5 months.
- No differences between happy and fearful faces = sensitivity to facial emotion immature at this age.

Question 73

Describe the Sorce et al. (1985) facial expression processing study in 12 month olds.

Answer 73

Visual cliff experiment.

METHODS;
- Visual cliff table and put the child on the ‘safe’ side.
- Mothers displayed joy/interest or fear/anger.
- Tested to see whether infants would cross the ‘cliff’.

RESULTS:
- Joy/Interest = infants crossed.
- Fear/Anger = infants didn’t cross.
- No depth = infants crossed irrespectively of mother’s expression.

CONCLUSION:
- By 1 year of age infants are able to process facial expressions and use them for decision making.

Question 74

What is social referencing?

Answer 74

It is the use of perceiving someone else’s expression to mediate your decision making (e.g., infants in visual cliff experiment)

Facial expressions regulate behaviour most clearly in contexts of uncertainty.

Caregiver’s facial expression of emotion influences the infant’s decision.

Question 75

Why is eye gaze important in social cognition?

Answer 75

Information from the eye region is a key social cue for understanding others.

Because:
- It distinguishes between emotions
- Establishes dyadic communication
- Orients attention to critical objects
- Gives clues about intention

Question 76

Describe the Farroni et al, 2002 study into whether eye-gaze detection is innate or not.

Answer 76

METHODS:
- Newborns (within first 5 days of life).
- 4 month olds (EEG study)
- Presented with direct or averted gaze stimuli
- Response gaged.

RESULTS:
- Newborns also prefer faces with eyes open than eyes closed.
- Newborns also prefer to look at faces that engage in mutual gaze.
- 4 month olds show enhanced neural processing of direct gaze (infant N170 ERP)

Question 77

Which part of the eye is key for gaze following?

Answer 77

The white of the eye is key to being able to follow gaze, as it provides contrast between pupil and the rest of the eye.

Question 78

Describe the relationship between ASD and eye gaze detection.

Answer 78

They have intact perception of eye gaze (e.g., can discern where someone is looking)

However, they have difficulty in using eye gaze information to predict behaviour (They cannot infer intention in ways that might seem simple to us - slide 20, lecture 6 for example)

(ASC = autism spectrum conditions)

Question 79

What are the brain bases of eye gaze detection? Describe their role.

Answer 79

Superior Temporal Sulcus (STS)
- Activated in eye gaze detection task.
- Involved in changeable features.
- Lesion impair the ability to detect gaze direction

Fusiform Face Area:
- Activated in face identity tasks.
- Processing of unchangeable features of facial features.

IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER

Question 80

Describe the Hoffman & Haxby (2000) fMRI study into the brain bases of eye-gaze detection.

Answer 80

METHODS:
- Two different tasks:
- EYE GAZE: presented with different faces and had to identify eye gaze and remember if it was the same or different as the last eye gaze.
- IDENTITY: presented different faces and had to remember whether the face was the same or different (didn’t have to focus on gaze)
- Stimuli same, attentional task was different.

RESULTS:
- STS activated in eye gaze
- Involved in changeable features of face
- FFA activated in identify task
- Processes the unchangeable structural features of the face.

Question 81

Outline the Pelphrey et al. (2005) study into the brain bases of eye-gaze detection in ASC.

Answer 81

METHODS:
- ASC and typical sample compared
- An animated face was presented.
- Target would appear and the eyes would either look at the target, or look somewhere else.
- Task was to press a button when the eyes move regardless of their location.

RESULTS:
- They found that there was STS activity for both groups.
- However, there was a difference between incongruent versus congruent trials in controls - not ASC participants.
- This shows that ASC patients were not reading the intentions of the goal direct looking so they weren’t processing the difference in mental frame work of the stimuli.

Question 82

What is empathy?

Answer 82

An emotional reaction to or understanding of another person’s feelings.

It is the ability to infer emotional experiences.

Question 83

What are the two components of empathy? Define them.

Answer 83

Affective:
- Emotionally responding to someone else’s experience.

Cognitive:
- How we can understand what others are thinking or feeling.
(The cognitive understanding/theory of mind)

Question 84

What are the theories associated with each component of empathy?

Answer 84

Mirroring (simulation theory):
- Affective component.

Mentalising (Theory of Mind):
- Cognitive Component.

Question 85

What does mentalising and Theory of Mind (ToM) refer to?

Answer 85

The ability to infer mental states (desires, feelings) and intentions of others.

Concerned with cognitive aspects of empathy
- Reasoning about mental states.
- Attributing mental states.

Question 86

Describe the Vollm et al (2005) study into the neural bases of empathy and ToM.

Answer 86

METHODS:
- Theory of Mind Condition: What will the character do next?
- Empathy Condition: What will make the main character feel better?
- Slide 26, Lecture 6 for stimuli.

RESULTS:
Empathy and ToM activated:
- Medial Prefrontal Cortex.
- Temporoparietal Junction.
- Temporal Poles.

ToM specific activity:
- Orbitofrontal Cortex

Empathy specific activity:
- Amygdala

Question 87

What did Frith & Frith (2003) identify about the neural basis of ToM? (3 Areas and Their Roles)

Answer 87

Identified more widespread roles of the below areas in processing:

The Temporal Poles:
- Language and semantic memory
- Possible role: Representing/activating semantic schemas that specify current social and emotional context.

Temporoparietal Junction:
- Perception of biological motion, eye-gaze, moving mouth and living things.
- Possible role: detecting other agents.

Medial Prefrontal Cortex:
- Activated more by thinking about people than objects, about minds than physical characteristics.
- Metaphors, irony - intention needs to be derived in order to understand.
- Possible role: Binding together different kinds of info: actions, agents, goals, beliefs etc.

Question 88

What is a method of measuring ToM?

Answer 88

False-Belief tests:
- Other person holds belief that differs from ours & reality.
- One must decouple the state of someone’s mind from the state of the world.
- Participants typically have to predict a person’s behaviour based on the person’s false belief whilst ignoring their true belief.

Question 89

Outline the Sally-Anne task.

Answer 89

Question: Where will sally look for her ball.

Correct answer: In the basket.

Typically developed children until 4-5 years will say: In the box.

Shows they cannot yet form a representation of other persons mental states.

Question 90

What are the criticisms of the Sally Anne tasks?

Answer 90

False belief tasks not only involve representing other’s mental states.

They involve inhibition of own true belief and requires problem solving.

What if ToM is present earlier but this isn’t a good paradigm to measure it?

Question 91

Describe Repacholi & Gopnik’s (1997) alternative method to explore ToM.

Answer 91

METHODS
- They used a food-request procedure on 14-18 month year olds.
- Children observed an experimenter expressing disgust as she/he tasted 1 type of food and happiness when she/he tasted another type of food.
- Then experimenter asked for some food and tested to see if the child took into account their preference.

RESULTS:
- 14 month olds: 54% gave the preferred food to the experimenter (not significant).
- 18 month olds: 92% gave the preferred food to the experimenter

CONCLUSION:
- Even 18 month olds can take into account others perspectives and preferences.

Question 92

Describe the Kovacs, Teglas & Endress (2010) study into infants ability to process an agent’s belief.

Answer 92

Video with methods are on slide 38, lecture 6.
- Used 7 month olds.

RESULTS:
- Surprise reaction when the outcome was not in line with the smurfs belief (but in line with the infants belief)

CONCLUSION:
- The beliefs of the agent influenced the infants looking behaviour, even though they clashed with the infant’s own beliefs.
- Therefore they were able to compute the agents (smurfs) belief.

Question 93

What are the famous examples of non-human animals having language?

Answer 93

Washoe the Chimp:
- Learned about 200 manual signs.
- Evidence of overgeneralisation of symbols.

Koko the Gorilla:
- Learned 1,000 signs which she was able to combine in complex ways.

Kanzi the Chimp:
- Learnt 200 symbol arbitrary lexigrams.
- Mainly communicated for food not for conversation.

Question 94

What is the Chinese room problem? (Searle, 1980)

Answer 94

It is the thought experiment that shows that having syntax can seem like communication but it doesn’t suffice for semantics.

In order to really use language, you have to understand the meanings or the thought contents.

Question 95

Summarise semantic memory.

Answer 95

Semantic memory represents our conceptual knowledge of the world including the meaning of words and objects, and factual knowledge.

Has a central role in human cognition - it lies at the interface of language, memory and perception.

Neural bases in the temporal lobes.

Question 96

Describe the Kutas & Hillyard (1980) study into semantics.

Semantically appropriate or inappropriate ending

Answer 96

METHODS:
- Participants read sentences on the screen presented word-by-word.
- Semantically appropriate ending: ‘He took a sip from the glass’
- Semantically inappropriate ending: ‘He took a sip from the transmitter’
- Tested the ERP elicited by these two outcomes.

RESULTS:
- Participants anticipated the last word of the sentence.
- When the incorrect ending was presented, it elicited a much larger N400 component.

Question 97

What is N400?

Answer 97

ERP component that is elicited when an outcome is different to what we expected.

Can be used to investigate semantic representations in the brain and does not depend on the presentation modality.

E.g., a sentence is ended in a random word, not the one we expected.

Question 98

What is the infant N400 useful in researching?

Answer 98

The development of semantic representations.

Question 99

Detail the Parise and Csibra (2012) study into infant N400.

( hint - look at the …)

Answer 99

METHODS:
- Audio saying ‘look at the duck’ plays.
- A stimulus which uncovered either a duck (congruent) was shown, or a cat (incongruent) was shown.
- Tested to see if the incongruent elicited N400.

RESULTS:
- Large N400 in incongruent image.
- 9 month old infants detect the mismatch between an object appearing from behind an occluder and a preceding label.
- Shows that infants understand the meaning of some words and that they were primed by the label.

Question 100

What is a concept?

Answer 100

A cognitive structure that represents classes of things, events or ideas.

They unite qualities, occurrences and things based on the similarity of characteristics.

Organised in a network and activation of one concept will activate associated ones.

(Collins & Loftus, 1975)

Question 101

What did ERPs show about spreading activity across semantically different concepts?

Answer 101

N400 was modulated by the semantic connection between the expected and presented word.

Semantically related words elicited smaller N400 compared to semantically unrelated words.

Question 102

What are features?

Answer 102

They are properties of, or facts about, a concept.

They are linked together via a network and allow us to generalise.

All models propose that concepts are comprised of a constellation of constituent features.

Question 103

What are Amodal representations of semantic memory?

Answer 103

Amodal representations:

• Features are represented as abstract knowledge.
• Not tied to sensory or motor information.
• The are independent of input or output modality.

Brain converts association to abstract code.

Question 104

What is an example of a model that assumed semantics to be amodal? Why?

Answer 104

Hierarchical model: Collins & Quinlan (1969)

Semantic memory can be accessed from multiple kinds of sensory input (spoken or written word, sight of an object etc).

Question 105

What is the problem with amodal representations of semantics?

Answer 105

The symbol grounding problem:
- Each word needs to be defined by other words.
- If using a lexicon, it is impossible to understand/learn new words/concepts without understanding some words/concepts in advance.

How can you learn concepts…

based on concepts…

if you have an abstract knowledge of…

…those concepts?

Question 106

What is a possible solution to the symbol grounding problem?

Answer 106

Grounded models of semantic memory

Question 107

What is the symbol grounding problem?

Answer 107

• Each word needs to be defined by other words.
• If using a lexicon, it is impossible to understand/learn new words/concepts without understanding some words/concepts in advance.

Question 108

What are grounded concepts/features?

Answer 108

Concepts not defined in terms of each other, but in terms of our experiences and interactions with the world - how we perceive them.

Concepts of ‘green’ and ‘kick’ are linked to sensory and motor experiences rather than abstract/amodal representations.

Question 109

Describe the Chao et al. (2002) study into animals and tools in the brain.

Answer 109

METHODS:
- fMRI study attempting to find the neural correlates of certain categories.
- Participants were either shown an animal or a tool.
- Looked for activation linked to these.

RESULTS:
- They found category specific activity in the ventral occipito-temporal cortex.
- Object representations are not limited to a discrete area, but rather are widespread and overlapping (= grounded cognition)
- Category-related activations reflect the retrieval of information about category specific features and attributes.

Question 110

Describe the results of Chao et al. (1999) study into answering questions referring to animals and tools.

Answer 110

• Category-related patterns of activation for images of animals and tools in the occipital and posterior temporal lobes
• Similar patterns of category-related activity occurred when subjects read the names of or answered questions about animals and tools.
• Shows irrespectively if you see the object or read the name of the object, there is some kind of universal representation of category specific info will be activated in response to certain objects.

Question 111

Outline the Mahon & Caramazza (2009) study into picture naming performance.

Animate versus inanimate

Answer 111

METHODS:
- Participants presented with pictures of living animate things or non-living things.
- Asked to name them.

RESULTS:
- Some patients are able to name man-made objects but not animals.
- Due to brain damage they lose part of the category specific knowledge.

CONCLUSION:
- It is possible to lose specific categories.
- This means that it is NOT random how these categories are organised in the brain (because you are able to lose specific ones).

ANDDDD…

• It’s not just a visual deficit, they might not have the concept associated with the object and therefore are unable to access the semantics.

Question 112

Describe the theory that ‘category specific semantics are an emergent property’.

Answer 112

Categories emerge based on our experiences with their features.

Different categories of different types of characteristics.
- Animals: Sensory characteristics are more important.
- Tools/man-made objects: functional characteristics are important.

Question 113

What are the two theories of category specificity of semantics?

Answer 113

They are emergent (based on experiences)

They are innate

Question 114

Describe the evidence for category specificity being innate.

Answer 114

Prenatal face processing (Reid et al., 2017)

Newborns prefer biological motion (Simion, Regolin, & Bulf, 2008)

Question 115

What is congenital blindness and what can it tell us about category specificity?

Answer 115

Is blindness present from birth.

Visual stimuli elicit category specific activity in the VTC in sighted individuals,

Natural sounds representing these different categories elicit similar discriminatory responses in VTC in individuals who are congenitally blind.

THEREFORE, visual areas have some sort of innate category specificity.

Question 116

Outline the case study by Farah and Rabinowitz (2003) into Adam.

Answer 116

Damage to the posterior brain areas at the age of 1 day.

Selective impairment in knowledge of living things:
- Naming of pictures of living things.
- Retrieving verbal information about living things.

Could name and answer questions about inanimate objects.

CONCLUSION:
- Brain damage sustained too early for experience to have contributed to the organisation of semantic memory.
- Innate basis for the living-non living distinction in semantic memory.