PY 381 : Cognitive Neuroscience

Exam Review questions

which nervous system division decrease heart rate?

parasympathetic

how does the amygdala enhance memory retention during emotional arousal?

modulates hippocampal memory consolidation

We know that the hierarchical representation of action sequences has three leaves: 1. conceptual level, 2. effector level, 3. execution level. What do each of these levels do specifically in the sequence?

Level 1: defines the goal of action

Level 2 : selects which body part and response method

Level 3 : activates specific muscles for precise action

what motor pathway within the brain is unique to mammals only?

corticospinal

how do alpha motor neurons integrate descending input, peripheral input, and spinal interneuron signals to produce the stretch reflex?

Alpha motor neurons release NT that causes muscle fibers to contract

this cortex is primarily linked to motor intention. Which cortex is it?

Parietal Cortex

which subcortical structure will be activated in order to allow gymnast to get them through a balance beam routine?

The cerebellum

when we reach to pick up an object, for example, low-level mechanisms could automatically make the necessary postural adjustments to keep the body from tipping over as the center of gravity shifts. This is an example of?

Central pattern Generators

which of the following statements best describes hemiplegia?

complete paralysis of contralateral limb s

a patient that presents with Parkinson’s disease shows difficulty with motor skills, begins experiencing a tremor, along with muscle rigidity. What neural change best explains this patients symptoms?

Degeneration of dopamine producing neurons in the substantia nigra

which of the following statements is true in relation to the direct pathway of the basal ganglia?

the direct pathway of the basal ganglia allows movement to proceed

a patient with damage to high-order motor areas can still perform individual movements but struggles with complex multi-step behaviors. Based on the hierarchical organization of action sequences, what was damaged?

high-level control systems that impair organization and sequencing of goal directed actions

a patient was involved in an accident, causing damage to tissue deep in their brain. They now have difficulty properly maintaining posture and balance. Based on the injury location and symptoms, what structure was most likely affected?

Extrapyramidal tract

when deciding to grab an apple, the spinal cord sending signals to your muscles to grab the apple represents which part of the motor system hierarchy?

Lowest level

a patient has a lesion in the indirect pathway of the basal ganglia. Which of the following is most likely true about the patient’s movement?

the patient experiences uncontrollable rapid jerking movements and difficulty walking

Which is NOT an example in the alpha motor neurons are used?

Studying for a test using memory recall

Damage to the primary motor cortex is most associated with which condition?

Hemiplegia

What type of behavior is studying for an exam?

Goal-Oriented Behavior

A patient can reach toward an object accurately but cannot correctly demonstrate how to use it (e.g., cannot mimic using a hammer when no hammer is present). Which neural pathway is most likely damaged?

Ventro-dorsal stream

Which of these is not apart of the three-level hierarchy for action sequences?

Action Level

Lucy sees a spider. She experiences a very intense and unpleasant feeling of fear. This also can be referred to as her having negative valence and high arousal. Which category of emotion is responsible for why her feeling of intense fear can also be referred to as negative valence and high arousal?

Dimensional Theory

How does a high-stress situation typically change a person’s decision-making process?

It shifts decision-making toward habitual, automatic response

A researcher finds that a patient with bilateral amygdala damage can accurately identify faces bust consistently fail to recognize fear in others. Eye-tracking data shows the aptient rarely looks at the eyes of faces. When instructed to focus on the eyes, their fear recognition improves. Which explanation best accounts for this pattern?

The amygdala directs attention to emotionally relevant facial features, particularly the eyes, which are critical for fear recognition

Which of the following situation is an example of cognitive reappraisal?

A person feels awkward in a room of crowded people they don’t know but they begin to think that it is an opportunity to make new friends, and they feel more excited.

What happens to OFC damaged patients during social tasks?

They behaved inappropriately but believe they were appropriate

Which cortex is the hub for interception and integrates sensory, emotional, and bodily awareness signals?

Insular cortex

There are three key categories of emotions. Basic emotions, complex emotions, and dimensional theories. Which of the following describes a bsic emotion?

Evolutionary, universal, facially expressed

which part of the brain is NOT responsible for emotional processing deficits in ASD and schizophrenia?

Occipital lobe

Which of the following best demonstrates how emotion influences attention and perception?

Fearful stimuli can be processed even when a person is not consciously paying attention to the stimuli

which of the following is NOT involved in the conditioned stimulus (CS0 pathway?

Somatosensory cortex

A student vividly remembers where they were and how they during a frightening event, even years later. Which mechanism best explains why this memory is so strong?

Activation of the amygdala during emotional arousal enhances hippocampal memory consolidation

A patient has amygdala damage and can recognized faces but cannot identify when someone displays fearful expressions. Why would the patient have this problem?

The patient does not focus on the eye region of people’s faces

Research on romantic love suggests that early-stage romantic attachment strongly activates dopamine-rich reward circuits. Which brain regions are mostly associated with this dopamine-driven response?

Ventral tegmental area (VTA) and caudate nucleus

Which of the following is true based on damage to the “visual Word Form Area?”

Damage causes pure alexia

A patient has damage to the posterior superior temporal gyrus. The patient is able to speak clear, full sentences but what the patient says does not make sense and they are not able to understand others. What conditions is the patient most likely experiencing?

Wernicke’s Aphasia

Which of the following best describes how neural models of speech production operate?

Speech production requires both psycholinguistic processes and motor control to transform ideas into spoken output

A patient being seen for a suspected stroke presents with difficulty speaking, sounding robotic, and missing functioning words. However, he is able to fully comprehend what is being said to him. What form of aphasia is this patient likely presenting?

Broca’s Aphasia

Jordan is talking with a friend who recently had a stroke. The friend speaks in full, grammatically correct sentences and understands conversations. However, when Jordan makes a sarcastic comment like “wow, great job” after the friend drops something, the friend takes it literally and seems confused. What hemisphere might be damaged?

Right hemisphere, because it plays a role in understanding tone and nonliteral meaning

which of the following does NOT provide evidence for gradualist adaption position on the evolution of language?

Chomsky’s perspective

A patient can understand spoken language and produce fluent speech but often makes errors when asked to repeat sentences they just hear. Which neural pathway best explains this pattern?

The pathway connection wernicke’s area to broca’s area

Which statement is correct regarding syntactic parsing?

Syntax and semantics are separable processes

James is able to understand the meaning of words but is unable to repeat a word or say it back. James most like has damage where?

Dorsal pathway

A participant in a lexical decision task is faster to recognized the word “nurse” after being shown the word “doctor” compared to an unrelated word like “table.” ASWhich explanation best accounts for this effect?

The mental lexicon is organized as a network in which related concepts activate one another

Which of the following best explains what a larger N400 response indicated during language comprehension?

Greater semantic incongruity or unexpected meaning in a word

Which statement best shows a key difference between the Pandemonium model and the Interactive activation model?

The interactive model allows bidirectional processing between word and letter
levels

Someone who perceives words/sounds as overlapping with neighboring sounds, without any clear gaps, could be experiencing ________?

Coarticulation

In which area of the brain does the distinguishing between speech and non-speech sound?

Superior temporal sulcus

How do modular models of word comprehension function?

word identification completes BEFORE context influences processing

Hagoort’s MUC model includes three core operations. Which best describes memory?

Long-term storage of word knowledge

A patient with damage to the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) is given a task where they must ignore a habitual response and instead follow a new rule to receive a reward. Which outcome is most likely?

They will struggle because the LPFC is critical for rule-guided behavior and
overriding habits

A patient with a lesion to the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is given a choice between a small immediate food reward and a larger delayed reward. Despite verbally expressing a preference for the larger reward, the patient consistently selects the smaller immediate option. Which of the following best explains this behavior?

The OFC tracks the current value of rewards, and without it the patient cannot
translate a stated preference into a value-based choice in the moment

What part of the brain is mostly associated with inhibitory control and the ability to suppress impulsive or automatic responses?

Prefrontal cortex

What are the key values that motivate your decision making?

Reward level, probability, and costs

Which of the following scenarios best illustrates the concept of temporal
discounting?

An individual chooses to receive $50 today rather than waiting six months for
$100

Which effect are lesions in the occipital frontal cortex most likely to have on a
person's decision between receiving a $50 reward today or returning for a $100 reward
later?

The person would be willing to wait up to two weeks for the $100 reward

What sequence properly illustrates the procedure for goal planning?

identify main goal → develop subgoals → anticipate consequences → determine resources

A student checks their phone repeatedly while studying because they feel a strong urge to see new notifications. Which explanation best describes the role of dopamine in this behavior?

Dopamine creates a sense of anticipation that motivates the student to check for possible rewards

Which of the following tasks relies most heavily on working memory?

solving 26 + 27 in your head without writing anything down

During a task that requires adapting to changing rules, such as switching strategies when one approach stops working, individuals with frontal lobe damage are most likely to:

Perseverate on the same ineffective strategy despite negative feedback

The dopaminergic neurons originate in the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) project through two pathways: the ________ pathway travels to structures important for emotional processing, and the _________ pathway travel to the neocortex important for higher-order cognitive processing.

mesolimbic; mesocortical

which lesion would cause the most difficulty solving abstract problems?

Anterior PFC / frontal pole lesion

A student is taking an exam and realizes they selected the wrong answer just after moving on to the next question. They feel a sense of internal “error detection” and quickly go back to fix it. Which function of the anterior cingulate cortex best explains this experience?

Detecting errors and signaling the need to adjust behaviors

Dynamic filtering uses the prefrontal cortex to enhance what as a mechanism of
goal based selection?

Task relevant information

You choose to eat a very tasty but very unhealthy dessert. Which area is most active in this decision?

Orbitofrontal cortex

Patients with frontal lobe damage may have all of the following deficits EXCEPT?

reduced IQ score when compared to before damage

Anna lives in Tuscaloosa with her roommates (background) but wants to move to her own apartment (mental state), and she finds out that the apartment she wants is open to rent (life event). In this scenario, the right temporoparietal junction would significantly activate when presented with which piece of information?

Mental State

During a cognitive psychology experiment, participants are asked to study a list of adjectives. One group is asked to determine whether the word has a positive or negative meaning. A second group is instructed to decide whether each adjective accurately describes their own personality. Which group will do better when tested?

Group Two

If someone were to be at rest or doing passive task and then switch to doing self-referential tasks, which brain region be constantly active during each tasks

MPFC

Your friend is having a hard day, she breaks down and tells you that she has a lot going on at home right now, which is making it impossible to keep up with school. As you listen, you notice that you are beginning to feel a sense of sadness yourself, even though your own circumstances haven’t changed. Which of the following is primarily responsible for this experience of "emotional contagion"?

mirror neurons

which of the following is true regarding pain for others?

the perception-action model states that perceiving another persons emotional state activates a similar state in yourself

Which of the following sets of brain regions are most consistently involved in mental state attribution?

Superior temporal sulcus, Medial prefrontal cortex, and Temporoparietal junction

What are the structures of the brain related to self-perception bias and what are
their purposes?

The ventromedial PFC and ACC filter and amplify positive self-relevant information

Choose the option that most correctly describes the relationship between children with autism (ASD) and social cognition in relation to Theory of Mind.

The superior temporal sulcus exhibits reduced activation when a child with ASD observes and draws conclusions about false beliefs

The MPFC is directly involved in which theory?

Theory of mind

What is one consequence of the brain both being the perceiver and what is
perceived when practicing introspection?

The brain can overinflated your own competence at certain tasks

What is theory of mind and when is it first developed?

The ability to understand that other people have their own thoughts, beliefs, and feelings. Development begins in early childhood

What is it called when you are observing another person’s emotions and then you start to feel the same within, leading to shared feelings with one another?

perception-actin model

Which best describes the amygdala’s role in social processing?

It helps evaluate the emotional and social relevance of stimuli and supports social cognition through connections with other brain regions

A student is more likely to remember the names and personal details of people in their own cultural organization than those in other campus groups. Which concept does this best illustrate?

in-group vs out-group processing