Unit 2 Study Guide: Core Behavioral Systems

These flashcards cover key definitions and concepts from lectures on perception, movement, learning, and memory, emphasizing the physiological and psychological aspects of behavior.

Sensation

The process of detecting physical energy from the environment through sensory receptors.

Perception

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information to understand it.

Transducer

A device that converts one form of energy into another; sensory receptors are biological transducers.

Bistable Perception

A perception that can be interpreted in two different ways depending on the viewing context.

Receptor Cell

Cells that respond to specific types of stimuli and convert them into neural signals.

Action Potential

An electrical signal that travels along a neuron and conveys information about the strength, duration, and location of a stimulus.

Receptive Field

The specific area or range that a sensory neuron responds to (brain maps!)

Center-Surround Receptive Field

center responds one way, surround responds the other way, great for contrast but not objects

how are simple v1 cells built from LGN cells

several LGN neurons lined up in a row, and if they activate tg, v1 neuron fires

Neuromuscular Junction

The synapse or connection point between a motor neuron and a muscle fiber.

Motor Plan

A set of coordinated muscle contractions with 1 goal in mind

motor unit

neuron + muscle fibers

low innervation ratio

fine control

high innervation ratio

powerful movement

muscle contraction mechanism

filaments slide together, don’t shorten

steps in muscle contraction

1. motor neuron fires

2. ACh released

3. muscle membrane depolarizes

4. Ca2+ released from sarcoplasmic reticulum

5. Ca2+ binds

6. myosin pulls actin towards it —> contraction

Extrapyramidal System

support system that helps choose and refine movement, involuntary and automatic control of muscles

basal ganglia in extrapyramidal system

selects actions

cerebellum in extrapyramidal system

coordination and error correction

Pyramidal system

motor cortex to spinal cord, voluntary movement

role of primary motor cortex neurons

encode intention and direction of movement

role of non-primary motor cortex

plans movement before execution

monkey reaching experiment findings

motor cortex codes movement intention and direction, not just a muscle, brain organized movement by actions and not isolated muscles

Efference Copy

turns motor signal into expected acoustic consequence

Cognitive Maps

Mental representations of physical locations, allowing for navigation and understanding of spatial relationships.

Patient HM injury and problem

removed hippocampus and amygdala, lost ability to form new memories

declarative memory brain areas

medial temporal lobe areas, hippocampus/limbic system

what serial recall test shows

primacy effect and LTM, recency effect and STM

stages of memory in order

sensory (attention), STM, working (encoding + consolidation), LTM (retrieval)

brain regions essential for encoding, consolidating, retrieving long term declarative mems

medial temporal lobe regions (hippocampus)

Long term potentiation

persistent increase in synaptic strength following high frequency stimulation of chemical synapse, higher EPSP

Long term depression

lowered connection from reversing order of activation

Synaptic Plasticity

The ability of synapses to strengthen or weaken over time, in response to increased or decreased activity.

Long-Term Memory

A more permanent storage of information that can last from days to a lifetime.

Hippocampus

A brain region crucial for the formation of new memories and spatial navigation.

Active Sensation

A process where sensory information is gathered in a dynamic, interactive way, often requiring movement.

Dendritic Branching

The development of new dendrites in neurons, often associated with learning and experiences in enriched environments.

Synaptic Strengthening

An increase in the efficacy of synaptic transmission, often due to repetitive stimulation.

Neural Engram

The physical trace of a memory in the brain.

labeled line

each neuron/pathway is labeled for specific type of info, individual visual features that are cleanly coded, V1/V2 (ex red and round)

binding

merging multiple features into one object, with attention, in cerebral cortex, V2—>V4/MT (ex red apple)

V1 primary visual cortex

neurons detect basic visual features like edges, lines, orientation, contrast, location in space

V2

secondary visual cortex, starts grouping features that belong together

V4

helps bind color and form

V5/MT

helps bind motion to objects

what causes touch receptors to transduce somatosensory signals?

change in temp, ion channels opening for Na to come in

role of hair cells in cochlea for transducing auditory signals

Part of cochlear determines frequencies, sound waves bend hairs and open ion channels, hair cells release NTs w depolarization 

general hierarchy of sensory areas

periphery, early CNS, thalamus, primary cortex, higher order cortex

primary output of NS

muscle contraction

inverse model (sensory to motor)

touch encoded by neurons in primary sensory cortex (stimulus) and premotor cortex (perception/action)

forward model (motor to sensory)

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