Week 5 p1 - Cognitive Neuroscience

Percept

the mental representation of that original stimulus, whether it accurately reflects the stimulus or not

Acuity

how well we can distinguish among stimuli within a sensory modality

Saccades

rapid eye movements, occur about 3 to 4 times a second

Olfactory epithelium

odor receptors embedded in the mucous membrane of the roof of the nasal cavity. These receptors can discriminate amongst odorants

Proprioception

specialized nerve cells for information about the body’s position

Rods

contains photopigment rhodopsin, most useful in low levels of light

Cones

contains photopigment photopsin, most useful in intense levels of light. Three types of cones; for shorter wavelengths (blue). medium wavelengths (green). Long wavelengths (red). they are densely poached in the fovea

Achromatopsia

seeing the world without color, has something to do with V4. This doesn’t have to be the whole visual field since it depends on where the problem is in V4

Dichromate

people with only two photopigments, red-green color-blind if they are missing either the medium or long wavelength, and blue-yellow color blind if they are missing the short wavelength photopigment

Anomalous trichromats

people with all photopigments but one has abnormal sensitivity

Akinetopsia

selective loss of motion, seeing movement in snapshots rather than moving continuously. Has something to do with V5

Synesthesia

senses are mixed, so for example a word can have a taste, hear music or words as colors

Congenitally blind

being born without vision

Object constancy

our ability to recognize an object in countless situations. We have to be able to recognize it when having different viewing position, illumination of the object and the context

Agnosia

the inability to process sensory information even though the sense organs and memory are not defective > object recognition

Visual agnosia

a deficit in recognizing objects even when the processes for analyzing basic properties such as shape, color, and motion are intact. Not being able to name an object when seeing it but being able to describe it or recognize it using other senses

Anomia

problem with naming objects