Week 5 p2 - Cognitive Neuroscience

Optic ataxia

being able to recognize objects but being unable to guide their actions with visual information > associated with lesions of the parietal cortex

repetition suppression effect

the BOLD response is lower in its second presentation compared to the first

Multistable perception

being able to see two things in a picture and switching between them

Gnostic unit (theory)

type of neuron that can recognize a complex object

Grandmother cell

cells in the inferior temporal gyrus and the floor of the superior temporal sulcus that are selectively activated by faces, like it becomes excited only when you see your grandmother

Fusiform face area

area where there is a strong BOLD response when looking at faces. It is located along the ventral surface of the temporal lobe in the fusiform gyrus

Face patches

face-selective cells

parahippocampal place area

area where there is a strong BOLD response when looking at places

Extrastriate body area

region in the visual cortex that is important for recognizing parts of the body. This is located at the border of the occipital and temporal cortices

Fusiform body area

area that shows a preference for looking at body parts. Located next to the fusiform face area

Apperceptive visual agnosia

Problems developing a coherent percept, the basic components are there, but they can’t be assembled. Like only seeing lego blocks instead of lego cars.

Integrative visual agnosia

problems with perceiving a coherent whole, but they do see parts of the object. Like seeing walls and doors in legoland, but not seeing a house

Associative visual agnosia

perception without recognition. Someone can perceive objects but cannot understand them or assign meaning to them. Someone can see the houses and draw a picture of one, but cant tell what a house is for

Prosopagnosia

impairment in face recognition, mostly found in people with lesions in the ventral pathway, especially the occipital regions associated with face perception

Congenital prosopagnosia

lifetime impairment in face recognition that cannot be attributed to a known neurological condition. Most of the time, people don’t have general recognition problems, but have problems discriminating faces or recognizing famous faces. Has been shown that they have normal activation in the fusiform face area

Alexia

loss of reading ability