Module 1 Psych 110

Cognition

The study of how the brain processes, stores, and uses information; topics include perception, attention, memory, social cognition, cognitive control, and consciousness. [Lecture 1]

Model (in cognitive science)

A simplified representation that helps researchers understand and predict cognitive processes. [Lecture 1]

Black box problem

The brain's internal processes cannot be observed directly, so researchers infer them from observable environmental inputs and behavior. [Lecture 1]

Behavioral paradigm

A controlled cognitive task used to infer mental processes by measuring behavior such as response time, accuracy, or eye movements. [Lectures 1-2]

Case study

An in-depth study of a person, often with brain damage, used to examine whether a brain area is necessary for a cognitive function. [Lectures 1-2]

Brain stimulation

Manipulating activity in a brain region to test whether it causally contributes to a function. [Lectures 1-2]

Brain imaging

Methods used to observe brain anatomy or activity; functional imaging usually identifies correlations rather than causation. [Lectures 1-2]

Mind-body problem

The question of how physical brain tissue can give rise to thoughts, feelings, emotions, and awareness. [Lecture 1]

Dualism

Descartes's view that the nonphysical, immortal mind and the physical, mortal brain are separate but interacting substances. [Lecture 1]

Dual-aspect theory

Spinoza's view that mind and brain are subjective and objective aspects of the same underlying thing. [Lecture 1]

Emergent property

A property that arises from interactions among simpler components but is not found in the components individually. [Lecture 1]

Reductionism

The view that the mind can be explained entirely in biological terms, such as neuronal firing patterns and neurotransmitters. [Lecture 1]

Thomas Willis

Seventeenth-century physician called the father of clinical neurology; linked brain damage to cognitive dysfunction through long-term observation and postmortem dissection. [Lecture 1]

Localism (localizationism)

The view that particular brain regions support particular functions. [Lecture 1]

Holism

The view that the whole brain participates in each behavior or function. [Lecture 1]

Phrenology

Early nineteenth-century practice claiming that use enlarged specific brain regions and created skull bumps that revealed mental traits; scientifically invalid but helped popularize localization. [Lecture 1]

Franz Gall

Leader of phrenology and an early advocate of the localizationist view. [Lecture 1]

Pierre Flourens

Supported holism after finding that birds with brain lesions could recover regardless of lesion location. [Lecture 1]

Paul Broca and patient Tan

Broca linked Tan's inability to produce speech to a lesion in the left anterior brain, supporting localization of speech production. [Lecture 1]

Broca's aphasia

Impaired speech production associated with damage to Broca's area. [Lectures 1-2]

Carl Wernicke

Linked loss of language comprehension to a lesion in a posterior brain region. [Lecture 1]

Wernicke's aphasia

Impaired language comprehension associated with damage to Wernicke's area. [Lectures 1-2]

Wilder Penfield

Neurosurgeon who stimulated brain tissue in epilepsy patients and mapped movements, sensations, and memories, helping develop the motor homunculus. [Lecture 1]

Motor homunculus

A topographic map of body movement represented along the motor cortex; cortical space reflects degree of use, not body-part size. [Lecture 1]

Somatosensory homunculus

A topographic map of body sensations represented along the somatosensory cortex. [Lecture 1]

Modern view of localization versus holism

Simple processes may be localized, while complex functions depend on networks of multiple brain regions working together. [Lecture 1]

Ganglia

Clusters of nerve cells. [Lecture 1]

Cerebrum

The brain other than the cerebellum; includes all four cerebral lobes. [Lecture 1]

Neuron

A nerve cell; a canonical neuron receives input through dendrites and sends output through an axon. [Lecture 1]

Dendrites

Branching neuron structures that primarily receive input. [Lecture 1]

Soma (cell body)

The main part of a neuron containing the nucleus and much of the cell's machinery. [Lecture 1]

Axon

The neuron structure that carries output away from the cell body. [Lecture 1]

Golgi stain

A cell-staining method that reveals neuron cell bodies and processes, helping researchers study cytoarchitecture. [Lecture 1]

Cytoarchitecture

The organization of tissue based on cell types and their arrangement. [Lecture 1]

Brodmann's areas

Cortical subdivisions identified from differences in cell types and cytoarchitecture in postmortem brains. [Lecture 1]

Gray matter

Brain tissue made primarily of cell bodies and dendrites. [Lecture 1]

White matter

Brain tissue made primarily of axons. [Lecture 1]

Gyrus (plural: gyri)

A ridge or protrusion on the cerebral cortex. [Lecture 1]

Sulcus (plural: sulci)

A groove or invagination on the cerebral cortex. [Lecture 1]

Corpus callosum

Large bundle of axons connecting the brain's left and right hemispheres. [Lecture 1]

Frontal lobe

Anterior cerebral lobe involved broadly in planning, decision-making, cognitive control, and motor functions. [Lecture 1]

Parietal lobe

Superior-posterior cerebral lobe involved broadly in somatosensation and spatial processing. [Lecture 1]

Temporal lobe

Lateral-inferior cerebral lobe involved broadly in audition, memory, object recognition, and language. [Lecture 1]

Occipital lobe

Posterior cerebral lobe involved primarily in vision. [Lecture 1]

Precentral gyrus

Cortical ridge anterior to the central sulcus that contains primary motor cortex. [Lecture 1]

Postcentral gyrus

Cortical ridge posterior to the central sulcus that contains primary somatosensory cortex. [Lecture 1]

Dorsal / superior

Toward the top of the brain. [Lecture 1]

Ventral / inferior

Toward the bottom of the brain. [Lecture 1]

Anterior / rostral

Toward the front of the brain. [Lecture 1]

Posterior / caudal

Toward the back of the brain. [Lecture 1]

Lateral

Toward the outside or away from the brain's midline. [Lecture 1]

Medial

Toward the inside or the brain's midline. [Lecture 1]

Sagittal plane

A vertical plane dividing the brain into left and right portions. [Lecture 1]

Coronal plane

A vertical plane dividing the brain into anterior and posterior portions. [Lecture 1]

Axial plane

A horizontal plane dividing the brain into superior and inferior portions. [Lecture 1]

Limbic system

A group including the hippocampus, hypothalamus, parts of the thalamus, amygdala, and parts of the basal ganglia; involved in emotion, behavior, learning, and memory. [Lecture 1]

Sternberg short-term memory task

Participants decide whether a target item appeared in a memorized set; response time across set sizes tests serial versus parallel memory search. [Lecture 2]

Serial processing

Items are processed one at a time; in Sternberg's task, response time rises linearly as memory-set size increases. [Lecture 2]

Parallel processing

Multiple items are processed simultaneously; predicts a relatively flat response-time function as set size increases. [Lecture 2]

Sternberg task slope

The increase in response time for each additional memory item; the slides illustrate about 50 ms per item as evidence of serial scanning. [Lecture 2]

Self-terminating search

A search that stops as soon as the target is found; target-present trials should vary with target position. [Lecture 2]

Exhaustive search

A search that scans every item before responding, even after the target is found. [Lecture 2]

Sternberg experiment conclusion

Short-term memory items were scanned serially and exhaustively during memory search. [Lecture 2]

Lesion

Any damage to the brain. [Lecture 2]

Necessary brain region

A region is necessary for a function if damage to it impairs that function. [Lecture 2]

Sufficient brain region

A region is sufficient for a function if activating that region alone can produce the function; lesion evidence by itself does not establish sufficiency. [Lecture 2]

Common causes of human brain lesions

Stroke, cerebral hemorrhage, aneurysm, anoxia, head injury, tumors or tumor removal, and neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer's. [Lecture 2]

Focal lesion

Damage concentrated in a particular brain area, used to relate that area to impaired and spared cognitive processes. [Lecture 2]

Spatial memory

Memory for where an object was located. [Lecture 2]

Object memory

Memory for what an object was. [Lecture 2]

Dissociation

Evidence that one cognitive function is impaired while another is spared. [Lecture 2]

Single dissociation

Damage to one brain area impairs Function 1 but spares Function 2; may be explained by task difficulty or a general deficit. [Lecture 2]

Double dissociation

Area A damage impairs Function 1 but not Function 2, while Area B damage shows the opposite pattern, supporting independent processes. [Lecture 2]

Cross-over interaction

Opposite impairment patterns across two lesions and two tasks; evidence that process independence is not merely due to uncontrolled task factors. [Lecture 2]

Temporal-versus-parietal memory double dissociation

Temporal-lobe damage selectively disrupts object memory, while parietal-lobe damage selectively disrupts spatial memory. [Lecture 2]

Broca-Wernicke double dissociation

Broca's-area damage selectively impairs language production, while Wernicke's-area damage selectively impairs language comprehension. [Lecture 2]

Two single dissociations without a double dissociation

If Area A damage impairs both functions and Area B damage spares both, the results do not show opposite selective deficits and therefore are not a double dissociation. [Lecture 2]

Limitations of neuropsychology

Damage may be widespread, neural plasticity may mask deficits, and impairment may result from broken connections rather than the damaged area's own function. [Lecture 2]

Neural plasticity

The brain's ability to reorganize or adapt, which can compensate for damage and mask a deficit. [Lecture 2]

Brain stimulation and causal inference

If manipulating a brain region changes a function, researchers can infer a causal relationship between the region and that function. [Lecture 2]

Invasive brain stimulation

Stimulation delivered directly to exposed brain tissue through an open skull. [Lecture 2]

Noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS)

External methods such as TMS, tDCS, and tACS that alter brain activity without surgery. [Lecture 2]

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)

A noninvasive, highly localized magnetic pulse that reaches only a few centimeters into the brain. [Lecture 2]

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)

Noninvasive electrical stimulation that can reach deeper structures but affects many brain areas and is therefore less localized. [Lecture 2]

Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS)

Deep, nonlocalized alternating-current stimulation used to manipulate brain oscillations. [Lecture 2]

Temporal resolution

Precision in determining when an event or neural process occurs. [Lecture 2]

Spatial resolution

Precision in determining where an event or neural process occurs. [Lecture 2]

Single-unit recording

An electrode records the activity of an individual neuron under different conditions; provides high spatial and high temporal resolution. [Lecture 2]

Electroencephalography (EEG)

Scalp electrodes measure changes in electrical field potentials produced by neural activity; high temporal but low spatial resolution. [Lecture 2]

Brain oscillation

A rhythmic pattern of neural electrical activity described by its frequency. [Lecture 2]

Delta band

EEG activity around 1-3 Hz, associated in the slides with slow-wave sleep. [Lecture 2]

Theta band

EEG activity around 4-7 Hz, associated in the slides with non-REM sleep. [Lecture 2]

Alpha band

EEG activity around 8-12 Hz, associated with being awake and relaxed or zoning out. [Lecture 2]

Beta band

EEG activity around 12-25 Hz, associated with being mentally active. [Lecture 2]

Gamma band

EEG activity above about 25 Hz, associated in the slides with local synchrony. [Lecture 2]

Event-related potential (ERP)

EEG activity averaged and time-locked in relation to a specific event. [Lecture 2]

ERP component

A positive or negative waveform deflection associated with an underlying cognitive process; names describe polarity and approximate timing. [Lecture 2]

P1 component

A positive ERP wave occurring at approximately 100 ms. [Lecture 2]

N2 component

A negative ERP wave occurring at approximately 200 ms. [Lecture 2]

Feature-based attention ERP finding

Attended colors produce larger P1 and N1 responses than unattended colors, suggesting attention boosts color perception. [Lecture 2]