Intro to Cognitive Neuro Midterm 1 Terms

Monism

The belief that ignition id produced by physical entities alone, specifically by the flesh and blood brain.

Dualism

The idea that the mind is not the result of of the machinations of the brain and appears from elsewhere.

Phrenology

The study of the physical shape of the human based on the belief that variations in the skull’s surface can reveal specific intellectual personality traits.

Aggregate field theory.

The theory that all individual mental functions are performed by the brain as a whole, not by discrete parts.

Localization.

The idea that brain functions have specific areas/ are localized.

Cytoarchitectonics

The study of the cellular composition of structures in the body.

Synctium

A continuous mass of tissue that shares a common cytoplasm.

Neural doctrine

The concept that the neuron is the fundamental unit f the nervous system, and that the nervous system is composed of billions of neurons connected to process info.

Rationalism

The idea that through “right” thinking and rejection of unsupportable or superstitious beliefs, “true beliefs” can be determined

Empiricism

The idea that all knowledge comes from sensory experience.

Associationism

The theory that the aggregate of a person’s experience determines the course of their mental development.

Behaviorism

The theory that environment and learning are the primary factors in mental development and that people should be studied by outside observation.

Montreal Procedure

A surgical procedure to treat epilepsy in which the neurons that produced seizures are surgically destroyed.

Casual explanation

An explanation wherein C causes E if and only if there is a possible intervention that changes C such that a under that intervention, E would change.

Non-casual explanations

An explanation that does not describe contextually relevant feature of the world’s network of casual relations.

Machine Learning

The branch of computer science tat focuses n the development, use and extension of data informed algorithms that enable machines to imitate the ways in which humans learn.

Mechanism

A complete system that produces a system’s behavior by the intersection of a number of parts, where the interaction between parts can be characterized by direct, invariant, change-relating generalizations.

Pathway

Captures a sequence of steps, where these steps take the flow of some entity through a system, abstract from significant causal detail, and emphasize the “connection” aspect of casual relationships.

Causal constraint

A cause that limits he values of the explanatory target of interest is often conceived as separate from or external to process its limits, is considered relatively fixed compared to other explanatory factors, and structures or guides the phenomenon’s outcome.

Structuring cause

A cause that structures the realization of some phenomenon, such as neural activity patterns.

Triggering cause

A cause that triggers a sequence of events that compose a process.

Neurons

Responsible for processing sensory, motor, cognitive and affective information.

Glial cells

Typically do not conduct signals themselves but without them the functions of neurons would be significantly diminished.

Astrocytes

Large glial cells with round of radially symmetrical forms. Surround neurons and are in close contact with the brain’s vasculature.

Blood-brain barrier (BBB)

A physical barrier formed by the end feet of astrocytes between the blood vessels in the brain and the tissues of the brain. Limits which materials in the brain can gain access to neurons in the nervous system.

Myelin

Increases the effective membrane resistance, extending the distances that ionic currents travel (are shunted) down the axon, speeding up conduction through saltatory conduction.

Soma

The cell body of a neuron.

Dendrites

Tree-like branched of neurons that receive inputs from other neurons @ locations called synapses. Most have specialized protrusions called spines.

Spines

Small, knob-like protrusions that dendrites contain at which they receive synaptic inputs from presynaptic neurons.

Axon

The structure extending away from a neuron don which action potentials travel.

Synapse

Site on the neural membrane where a neuron comes close to another neuron to transmit information.

Axon collaterals

Branches of an axon that can transmit signals to more than one cell.

Presynaptic neurons

Neurons located before the synapse with respect to information flow.

Postsynaptic neurons

The neuron located after he synapse with respect to information flow.

Ion channels

A passageway in the cell membrane, formed by a transmembrane protein that creates a pore through which ions of a particular size and/or change are allowed to pass.

Ion pumps

A protein in the cell membrane of a neuron that is capable of transporting ions against their concentration gradient.

Permeability

The extent to which ions can cross a neuronal membrane.

Ionic concentration gradients

Different concentrations of ions in solution over space.

Electrical gradient

Force that develops when a change distribution across the neuronal membrane is such that the hinge inside is more positive or negative than the one outside result from asymmetrical distributions of ions across the membrane.

Electronic conduction (decremental conduction)

Ionic current that flows passively through the cytoplasm and across the membrane of an activated neuron, diminishing with distance from the site of generation.

Action potential

The active or regenerative electrical signal that is required for synaptic communication. Is propagated along the axon and results in the release of neurotransmitters.

Voltage-gated ion channel

Transmembrane ion channel that changed molecular conformation when the membrane potential changes, altering the conductance of the channel for specific ions such as sodium, potassium, or chloride.

Spike-triggering zone

The juncture of the soma and axon of a neuron where currents from synaptic inputs on the soma and distant dendrites are summed.

Axon hillock

Part of the cell body of a neuron where the membrane potentials are summed before being transmitted down the axon.

Depolarization

A change in the membrane potential in which the electrical current inside the cell becomes less negative.

Nodes of Ranvier

Location @ which myelin is interrupted between successive patched of axon, and where an action potential can be generated.

Threshold

The membrane potential value to which the membrane must be depolarized for an action potential to be initialized.

Equilibrium potential

The membrane potential @ which a given ion has no net flux across the membrane. The point @ which the number of ion moving outward and inward across the membrane are the same.

Hyperpolarization

A change in the membrane potential in which the electrical current inside the cell becomes more negative.

Refraction period

The short period of tie following an action potential during which a neuron may not be able to generate action potentials.

Saltatory conduction

The mode of conduction in myelinated neurons.

Synaptic cleft

The gap between neurons @ synapses. Most neurons send a signal to the cell across the synapse by releasing chemical neurotransmitters into here.

Vesicles

A small intracellular organelle, located in the presynaptic terminals @ synapses, that contains neurotransmitters.

Neurotransmitters

A chemical substance that transmits the signal between neurons @ chemical synapses.

Glutamate

Released by pyramidal cells of the cortex

Most common cortical neurons

Most prevalent neurotransmitter

GABA

Second most prevalent neurotransmitter and is synthesized from glutamate.

Acetylcholine

Present in synapses between neurons and muscles.

Has an excitatory effect and activates muscles.

Act as a neurotransmitter and neuromodulator, supporting cognitive function.

Dopamine

Mainly produced in the arsenal glands, and a few small parts of the brain.

Serotonin

Released largely by neurons of the raphe nuclei (located in the brain stem).

Norepinephrine (NE)

The sympathetic nervous system’s go-to neurotransmitter. Produced and used by neurons with cell bodies in the locus coeruleus (LC)

Neurosteroids

Steroids synthesized in the brain

Estradiol

Hormone that derives from cholesterol.

Gap junctions

Make the cytoplasms of two neurons essentially continuous.

Isopotential

Electrical charges in one are reflected instantaneously in the other

Microcircuit

A small network of localized interconnected neurons that process specific kin’s of information and contribute to information-processing tasks such as sensation, action, and thought.

Neural networks

A complex network of long-distance connections between various brain regions.

Central nervous system

The brain and spinal cord

Peripheral nervous system

Sensory and motor nerves that lie outside the CNS. Delivers sensory information to the CNS and conducts the motor commands of the CNS to control the body’s muscles.

Automatic nervous system

The body system that regulated heart rate, breathing, and glandular secretions.

Meninges

The three protective membranes that protect the CNS

Ventricles

Any of the four large, interconnected cavities of the brain.

Nucleus

The neuroanatomy, a collection of cell bodies in the CNS.

Layer

A planar organization of neurons in structures in the brain, in particular the cerebral cortex, where neurons are organized into several layers.

Cerebral cortex

The layered sheet of neurons that overlies the forebrain.

Cerebellum

A large, highly convoluted (infolded) structure located dorsal to the brain stem @ the level of the pons.

Gray matter

Rhinos of the nervous system that contain primarily neuronal cell bodies.

White matter

Regions of the nervous system composed of millions of individual axons each myelinated.

Tracts

A bundle of axons in the CNS. They run freely from one cortical region to another within a hemisphere.

Commissures

White matter tracts that cross from the left to the right side, or vice versa, of the CNS.

Corpus callosum

A fiber tract composed of axons that connect the cortex of the two cerebral hemispheres. The largest commissure and white matter structure in the brain.

Brain stem

The region of the nervous system that contains groups of motor and sensory nuclei, nuclei of wide-spread modulators neurotransmitters systems, and white matter tracts of ascending sensory information and descending motor signals.

Medulla

The brainstem’s most caudal portion which is continuous with the spinal cord. contains the prominent dorsal positioned nuclear groups called gracile and eureate nuclei an the ventral pyramidal tracts.

Pons

Region of the brain that contains the pontine tegmental regions on the flood of the fourth ventricle.

Midbrain (mesencephalon)

Consists of the texture, tegmentum, and ventral regions occupied by large fiber tracts from the forebrain to the spinal cord cerebellum and spinal cord.

Thalamus

Group of nuclei, primarily major sensor relay nuclei for somatosensory, gustatory, auditory, visual, and vestibular inputs to the cerebral cortex.

Hypothalamus

Small collection f nuclei forming the floor of the third ventricle.

Pituitary gland

Endocrine gland that synthesized and secretes hormones that aid in the regulation of multiple processes to maintain the normal state of the body (homeostasis).