NEUR1020 complete summary notes

Flashcards for NEUR1020 Modules 1-5

Paradigm

Framework for understanding/investigating phenomena within a discipline.

Behaviorist

Behaviors are determined by environment

Cognitive Paradigm

Mental events cause thought and behavior and inputs are processed and transformed into outputs (behavior).

Biological Paradigm

Explaining cognition and behavior in terms of biological reasoning. Questions how mental processes are physically realized in the brain and how such functionality evolved.

The Scientific Method

Facts about the world, seek to explain why data occurred, predictions tested to show consistency.

Introspection

Looking inward on own mind - Very variable amongst individuals.

Naturalistic Observation

Typical behavior, objective not subjective.

Surveys/self- report

Structured case study of introspective method.

Correlation design

Quantify strength between variables but cannot be used to make inferences on causality.

Experimental design

Tests for correlation design, introduce single systematic difference. Participants randomly allocated (control and measurement group)

Features of science

Grounded in observation, cumulative, self-correcting, achieves explanation and understanding, can be falsified.

Falsification

Choosing competing theories, accept theories in till proven wrong, therefore all theories have a fail case (not subjective).

Critical thinking

Trustworthy data, explanation general, alternative explanations ruled out.

Reliability

How repeatable/consistent a measure is

Validity

Degree to which a measure assesses the thing it wants to

Correlation vs Causation

Because 2 variables are related, does not mean 1 causes the other.

Sampling bias

Study sample does not represent population.

Placebo effect

People believing they consumed alcohol acting “drunk”.

Hawthorne effect

Individuals performance changing because they know they are being watched.

Stereotype threat

Stereotypes influence how an individual may perform (complacent/stress factor).

Demand effect

Participants “helping” to achieve “goals”. They need to be unaware.

Rosenthal effects

Experimenter interprets data according to expectations.

Single blind experiment

Restricts participants knowledge.

Double blind

Research can restrict experimenter knowledge of participant groups.

Operational definitions

Defining variables in terms of “operations” (methods) used to measure/observe/manipulate them. Are not all equally valid.

Brainstem

Interconnects spinal cord and cerebral hemispheres.

Cerebrum

2 cerebral hemisphere.

Corpus callosum

Allows brain communication between hemispheres.

Grey matter

Contains most cell bodies/neurons.

White matter

Wiring, Axons of neurons connecting to spinal cord

Frontal Lobe

Execution - primary motor cortex, Motor planning - premotor area, Motor speech area, Reasoning, planning, problem solving, inhibitory control, working memory - Prefrontal area.

Parietal lobe

Perception of touch, Taste area, Sense of space and location, spatial attention, Linking vision to action.

Occipital lobe

All visual perception. Different regions process shape, colour, orientation, motion.

Temporal lobe

Sound perception ,Language comprehension.

Medial temporal lobe

Learning/memory

Amygdala

Fear, arousal, alerting system.

Hippocampus

Learning/memory, forming new episodic memories, damage = anterograde amnesia (can’t form new memories).

Phrenology

Different functions localized to different regions of the brain based by observing patients with brain damage in different areas.

Broca’s aphasia

Slow speech, not fluent, difficult finding appropriate words (anomia), still carries meaning, comprehension mostly unaffected.

Wernicke’s aphasia

Unable to understand language, speech is fluent/normal rhythm and enunciation (prosody) but carries no meaning.

Homunculus

Body map/representation across motor and sensory areas on brain.

Medulla

Controls heart rate, respiration, regulation of blood pressure, body temp (homeostasis maintain balanced internal environment), Reflex centers.

Sympathetic nervous system

Emotional, arousal, stress, fear, flight or flight.

Parasympathetic nervous system

Rest and digest  increased stomach/intestine activity

Persistent vegetative state

Severe damage to upper brain (hemisphere/cortex),Brainstem not damaged = ANS functions remain, No conscious awareness.

Locked-in syndrome

Loss of motor neurons to spinal cord, Intact cerebellum/brainstem just disconnected from spinal cord, Normal cognitive functions, patients cannot move.

Cerebellum

Sense of balance and co-ordination of complex movement, Motor-learning- - fine adjustments of movement based on feedback, Automatic to maintain balance (unconscious)

Sense of agency

Brain automatically links sensory events and our own actions to infer causality. Why you can’t tickle yourself

Dendrites

Receives signals – input zone, many per neuron, receives input from other neurons through synapses.

Axon

Sends signals to output from axon hillock at cell body to axon terminals, 1 per neuron, wrapped in myelin for effective transmission of signals along axon.

Axon terminals

Form synapses with other neurons, secrete neurotransmitters to send signals across synapses to other neurons.

Oligodendrocytes

Produce myelin sheath that wraps around axon.

Astrocytes

Supply nutrients from bloody to neurons and maintain “blood- barrier  blocks certain substances from bloody entering the brain.

Microglia

Brains immune system, cleans up foreign or toxic substances

Action potential

Electrical impulses carry signals of neurons and rely on flow of ions or salts in water that sits around neurons.

Reuptake pump

Clears neurotransmitters from synaptic cleft back to pre-synaptic terminal.

Neurotransmitter receptors

Each receptor only binds to a specific type of neurotransmitter.

Ligand-gated ion channels

Neurotransmitter receptors open ion channels when neurotransmitter binds.

Excitatory signal

Depolarization = less negative.

Inhibitory signal

Hyperpolarization = more negative.

Neuroplasticity

“Strength” of synapse changes as you learn.

Brain lesions

Examines normal brain functions by examining changes when particular parts of the brain is damaged.

Single neuron reading

Places a thin electrode into animals’ brain to record action potential “firing” from a single electrode.

EEG

Summed activity from action potentials cause electrical activity change of scalp. Constant oscillations (waves).

ERP

Brain activity related to a specific event or stimulus.

PET

Position emission tomography uses radioactive substances injected into blood stream. Maps neurotransmitters and receptors.

fMRI

Functional magnetic resonance imaging measures change in blood-oxygen levels. Studies brain function

MRI

Studies brain anatomy

Grandmother cells

Neurons could represent a specific concept - theoretical.

Neurogenesis

Growing new brain cells from stem cells as neurons can never repair/regenerate

Synaptogenesis

Generation of new synapses/brain connections

LTP – long-term potential

Change in structure in synapses for a stronger signal.

Reorganization

Motor cortex can re-organize with use to recover function.

Troxler fading

Enhanced salience of new input causes past inputs to fade because of adaptations as we stare.

McGurk effect

Our brains create perceptual experiences which is a sum of all available sensory info.

Sense organs

Transduce environmental energy into electrochemical signals sent to your brain.

Hearing

Alternations in pressure on air molecules creates a sound wave with frequency and amplitude.

Cochlea

Hair cells.

Photoreceptors

Contain light sensitive chemicals called pigments which absorb photons of light.

Blind spot

Must pass through surface of retina to carry signal, No photoreceptors here, Perception filling.

Naïve realism

Mistaken notion veridical images reach retinae.

Colour vision

Humans rely on 3 cones – trichromats, Short – 430nm (blue), Medium – 530nm, Long – 570nm (red).

Primary visual cortex

Problem specific info in 1 eye = eye 1 side of visual space regardless of which eye = damage to brain.

Blindsight

People think they are blind when they are not, Damage to primary visual cortex V1

Perimetry

Determining extent of blindness following damage to visual systems.

Signal detection theory

To measure sensitivity, you measure hit rate and false alarm rate.

Response selectivity

Type of input to which cell will respond.

Functional Modularity

Refers to the fact our brains contain multiple regions that are specialized for processing different visual properties.

Human vision

Processing hierarchy wherein cells at progressive stages of processing respond to increasingly complex features.

Facial recognition

Temporal lobe, Superior temporal sulcus (STS), Optical face area (OFA), Fusiform face area (FFA).

Prosopagnosia

Face blindness

Cerebral akinetopsia

Means without motion vision

Lateralised functions

Some brain functions rely more on one side than the other.

Crossed (contralateral - opposite) functions

Movement, sensation, vision.

Left hemisphere

Language, comprehension, speech, reading.

Right hemisphere

Tone of voice/prosody, face perception, perceptual grouping.

Corpus callosum

Connects hemispheres through axons of nerve fibres and allows transfer of info.

Hippocampus

Limbic system, Medial temporal lobe, Memory forming new episodic memories, Spatial navigation.

Declarative memory

Conscious recall.

Procedural memory

Not for conscious recall- skills.