Textbook

Specificity coding

How the brain uses specific neurons to respond to specific stimuli, such as one neuron for recognizing a face.

Grandmother cell hypothesis

A theory suggesting that individual neurons are highly specialized and respond to very specific stimuli, like a single neuron firing for a grandmother's face.

Sparse coding

A way the brain represents information using only a small number of active neurons at a time for efficiency and precision.

Population coding

When information is represented using patterns of activity across a large group of neurons, allowing for more complex and accurate processing.

Broca's Area

Located in the left frontal lobe, responsible for speech production; damage causes Broca's aphasia.

Wernicke's Area

Located in the left temporal lobe, responsible for speech comprehension; damage causes Wernicke's aphasia.

Ommatidia

The individual, lens-like units of the compound eye in insects that collect visual information.

Purkinje Shift

The shift from cone-mediated color vision to rod-mediated vision as light decreases, altering color perception.

Rod Monochromats

Individuals with only rods in their retinas, resulting in color blindness and poor bright light vision.

Visual Evoked Potential (VEP)

An electrical response recorded from the brain in response to visual stimuli, assessing visual pathway function.

Refractive Errors

Problems with how the eye focuses light, leading to blurry vision issues like myopia and hyperopia.

Preferential Looking Technique

A method to assess visual preference in infants by measuring gaze duration at stimuli.

Rod-Cone Break

The point in dark adaptation when rod cells begin to dominate vision, changing visual sensitivity.