PSYC4041 - Exam 1

What is the Dualist perspective?

• the mind and body are separate

• the body is the physical and mortal

• the mind is the non-physical and immortal

What is the Dual-Aspect Theory?

• the mind and body are two sides of the same coin

• mind and body are a single entity comprised of both physical and non-physical properties

What is the Reductionist perspective?

• the mind can be reduced to the parts of the brain

• cognitive or mind-based concepts will eventually be replaced by purely biological concepts

What is the mind-body problem?

questions the relationship between our body, brain, and thoughts

How does Descartes fit into the history of cognitive neuroscience?

• argued for the dualism perspective in the mind-body problem

• argued the mind and body interacted in the pineal gland

• “I think, therefore I am”

How does Spinoza fit into the history of cognitive neuroscience?

• argued for the dual-aspect theory in the mind-body problem

• argued the mind and body were the same thing

How does Aristotle fit into the history of cognitive neuroscience?

• believed the seat of cognition was in the heart

• noticed that more intelligent species had higher brain:body ratios

• believed the brain served as a cooling system for the heart

How does Galen fit into the history of cognitive neuroscience?

• surgeon during Roman Empire

• believed ventricles were the seat of mental experiences

How do Gall and Spurzheim fit into the history of cognitive neuroscience?

• provided some of the first basic realistic drawings of the brain’s surface

• introduced phrenology

How does Broca fit into the history of cognitive neuroscience?

• studied patients with brain damage

• identified damaged frontal lobe region associated with trouble producing speech

• led to creation of cognitive neuropsychology

How does Wernicke fit into the history of cognitive neuroscience?

• studied patients with brain damage

• identified damaged temporal lobe region associated with trouble comprehending speech

• led to creation of cognitive neuropsychology

What are the three key assumptions of phrenology?

• different brain regions are responsible for different functions

• regional brain size distortions on the skull

• sizes and distortions correlated with differences in psychological abilities and personality

What is functional specialization?

some degree of specialization may be found in a particular region

How do modern cognitive neuroscientists approach the study of functional specialization?

• empirical evidence and observations

• does not assume 1:1 relationship between a brain region and cognitive function

How does functional specialization differ from phrenologists’ approach?

functions were inferred from empirical observations of patients with acquired brain damage

What is cognitive neuropsychology?

the study of patients with natural brain damage to inform theories about the brain and cognition

What are the effects of brain damage to Broca’s area?

trouble producing speech, but not comprehending speech

What are the effects of brain damage to Wernicke’s area?

trouble comprehending speech, but not producing speech

What does the dissociation between Broca’s and Wernicke’s tell us about how speech processing is organized in the brain?

language functions in the brain can be independently affected by brain damage

Describe the box-and-arrow models within cognitive psychology.

models of the mind that is thought to take in and process information through series of processing stages

Describe the information-processing movement within cognitive psychology.

arose from the belief that the computer was an analogy for how the mind works

Why are box-and-arrow models considered to be brain agnostic?

brain processes are within a black box

What is top-down processing?

when more complex stages influence information processing in simpler stages

What is bottom-up processing?

passage of information from simpler to more complex stages

What is parallel processing?

multiple inputs are processed simultaneously

What is serial processing?

multiple inputs are processed one at a time

What direction of the brain is this?

caudal

What direction of the brain is this?

posterior

What direction of the brain is this?

dorsal

What direction of the brain is this?

superior

What direction of the brain is this?

rostral

What direction of the brain is this?

anterior

What direction of the brain is this?

ventral

What direction of the brain is this?

inferior

What direction of the brain is this?

medial

What direction of the brain is this?

lateral

What section of the brain is this?

axial

What section of the brain is this?

coronal

What section of the brain is this?

sagittal

What is gray matter?

• neurons in layered/dense collections

• neuron cell bodies

What is white matter?

• long-range connections between brain regions

• axons

• support cells

What are the ventricles?

• large, hollow chambers that help cushion the brain

• produce cerebrospinal fluid

What is the purpose of the ventricles?

helps cushion the brain, especially in small impacts

What are post-synaptic potentials?

What are action potentials?

electrical impulses that allow neurons to communicate

How are post-synaptic potentials different from action potentials?

What is the result of passive conduction?

dendrites receive input from many pre-synaptic neurons

What is the result of active conduction?

action potential travels from cell body and down the axon

What is an excitatory post-synaptic potential?

makes an action potential more likely to fire

What is an inhibitory post-synaptic potential?

makes an action potential less likely to fire

What is happening to the voltage during a resting potential?

remains at -70mV

What is happening to the voltage during depolarization?

an action potential occurs and rises to +40mV

What is happening to the voltage during repolarization?

an action potential starts lowering to -70mV

What is happening to the voltage during hyperpolarization?

What is the cell body? What role does it play?

contains the mechanisms to keep the cell alive

What is the axon? What role does it play?

long branching structure that transmits information to other neurons

What are the dendrites? What role do they play?

branches from cell body that receive information from other neurons

What are the neurotransmitters? What role do they play?

What are the synapses? What role do they play?

where information is transmitted

What is the membrane potential? What role does it play?

What are the ion channels? What role do they play?

What are relevant distinctions of the cerebrum?

What are relevant distinctions of the diencephalon?

• thalamus

• hypothalamus

What is the thalamus?

• processing relay between all of the sensory organs and cortex

• does not include smell

What is the hypothalamus?

• regulates bodily functions/status

• responsible of the four Fs

  • fighting

  • fleeing

  • feeding

  • fornication

What are relevant distinctions of the midbrain?

super colliculus

What is the super colliculus?

involved in quick, reflexive eye movements in response to stimuli

What are relevant distinctions of the hindbrain?

• cerebellum

• medulla

What is the crebellum?

• important for coordination and smooth execution of movements

• interacts with motor system

What is the medulla?

connects spinal cord and regulates low-level functions

What is a mental representation?

sense in which aspects of the external world are manifested in the mind

What is a neural representation?

way in which response properties of neurons and brain regions correspond to aspects of the world and mental representations

What is the methodology of single-cell recordings?

What information is being directly measured from the brain in single-cell recordings?

electrical activity

What is rate coding?

greater rate of responses per unit of time used to code information

What is temporal coding?

greater synchrony of responses among neurons over time to code information

What are local representations? What type of evidence does it find?

all information about a stimulus or event conveyed via one neuron

What are fully distributed representations? What type of evidence does it find?

all information about a stimulus or event carried by all neurons

What are sparse distributed representations? What type of evidence does it find?

all information about a stimulus or event carried by a subset of neurons

What is the physiological basis of scalp recorded EEG?

• non-invasive procedure

• electrodes are placed on different points on the scalp

What is the role of EEG in postsynaptic potentials and dipoles?

What conditioned must be met in order for the activity of a particular set of neurons to be visible at the scalp?

What is the international 10-20 system?

What do the letters and numbers in the international 10-20 system signify about the location of each electrode?

Which event-related potentials are extracted from EEGs?

Why is it necessary to average over many trials to detect ERP components? What is the value of averaging?

What is a reference electrode?

What are common sources of noise/artifacts that tend to contaminate EEG recordings?

Are there any steps we can take to avoid noise in EEGs?

What is mental chronometry?

How do exogenous and endogenous ERP components differ?

What does it mean to say that ERPs have excellent temporal resolution but poor spatial resolution?

What factors limit the spatial resolution of ERPs?

What is the structural brain imaging?

creates images of the structures of the brain

What is functional brain imaging?

creates images of where activity is happening in the brain

What is computerized tomography?

image mapping based on how much x-ray absorption each tissue has

What is positron emission tomography?

radioactive tracer compound is injected to measure a change in blood flow in the brain

What is magnetic resonance imaging?

difference in magnetic properties in the brain

What advantages does MRI scanning have over CT scanning?

contrast allows better visualization of white and gray matter

What advantages does MRI scanning have over PET scanning?

non-invasive and does not require an exogenous compound