Cognitive Neuroscience Methods and Neuroanatomy

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering fundamental cognitive neuroscience methods, cellular neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, and functional neuroimaging principles.

Cognition

A variety of higher mental processes.

Dualism

The philosophical position that the mind and body are made up of different substances.

Dual-aspect theory

The theory that the mind and the brain are two different descriptions of the same underlying thing.

Reductionism

The belief that all psychologically and mind-based concepts will ultimately boil down to neuroscience and biology.

Ventricles (historical view)

Brain structures that were originally believed to be the seat of human experience.

Information processing approach

A theoretical approach in cognitive science that looks at different input and output problems.

Temporal resolution

A measurement characteristic describing how long a test takes or how precisely time can be resolved.

Spatial resolution

A measurement characteristic describing how easy it is to tell where the neural activity is located.

Cognitive neuroscience methods

A taxonomy of research techniques characterized by method type (recording vs. stimulation), invasiveness (invasive vs. noninvasive), and the brain property used (electrical, electromagnetic, magnetic, or hemodynamic).

Cell body (Soma)

The central part of the neuron containing the nucleus and other cellular organelles.

Axon

The projection of a neuron that sends signals and can be divided into collaterals.

Dendrites

Neuronal structures that receive signals, bind neurotransmitters, and pass signals along to other neurons.

Synapse

The junction or gap between neurons where chemical neurotransmitters are released.

Resting potential

The baseline electrical charge across a neuronal membrane, typically measured at about $-70\,\text{mV}$.

Depolarization

A shift toward a positive membrane potential ($+\text{mV}$) triggered when $\text{Na}^+$ gates open at $-50\,\text{mV}$.

Hyperpolarization

A shift toward a negative membrane potential ($-\text{mV}$) occurring after reaching $0\,\text{mV}$, when $\text{Na}^+$ channels close and $\text{K}^+$ channels open.

Myelin

A fatty sheath surrounding some axons that speeds up the propagation of action potentials.

White matter

Brain tissue primarily composed of axons and glia.

Gray matter

Brain tissue primarily composed of neuronal cell bodies.

Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)

The protective fluid that fills the brain's ventricles.

Glia

Support cells in the nervous system that provide maintenance and facilitate tissue repair.

Corpus callosum (Corpus collision)

A large white matter tract that connects the two cerebral hemispheres.

Gyri

The raised, outward-curving folds on the surface of the cerebral cortex.

Sulcus

The valleys, grooves, or furrows on the surface of the cerebral cortex.

Cortical gyri and lobules

Anatomical landmarks of the cerebral cortex across lateral and medial views, including the precentral, postcentral, cingulate, paracentral, and temporal gyri.

Subcortex

Collections of gray matter nuclei situated beneath the cerebral white matter.

Basal ganglia

Subcortical nuclei that regulate motor activity in each hemisphere, consisting of the caudate, putamen, and globus pallidus.

Limbic system (Limbis system)

A subcortical network that includes the cingulate gyrus, hippocampus, olfactory bulb, mamillary bodies, amygdala, septum, and fornix.

Diencephalon

A subcortical division comprising the thalamus and hypothalamus.

Superior colliculi

Midbrain structures involved in processing vision, hearing, and touch.

Inferior colliculi

Midbrain structures specialized for auditory processing.

Pons

A hindbrain structure serving as a link between the cerebellum and the cerebrum.

Medulla oblongata (Medulla oblongs)

A hindbrain structure that regulates vital autonomous functions such as breathing and heartbeat.

Representations

Properties of the outside world that are manifested within cognitive systems.

Single-cell recordings

An invasive electrophysiological recording technique that directly measures the action potentials of individual neurons.

Grandmother cell

A theoretical neuron that exhibits connectivity responding exclusively to a specific stimulus.

Rate coding

A neural coding mechanism where a specific stimulus is linked to a corresponding change in the firing rate of a neuron.

Temporal rate

A measure of how synchronized a population of neurons is over time.

Electroencephalography (EEG)

A noninvasive recording method that measures electrical synaptic dendritic currents and neural oscillations.

Oscillation

A rhythmic electrical pattern used to measure the synchronization of a population of neurons.

Event-Related Potential (ERP)

A noninvasive electrophysiological measure reflecting summed activity from all parts of the brain that does not directly peak onto pure excitation or inhibition.

Dipole

A pair of positive and negative electrical charges separated by a small distance.

Mental chronometry

The study of the time course of information processing within the human nervous system.

N170

An ERP component specifically linked to the perceptual processing of facial structure.

Exogenous ERP components

ERP components that depend directly on the physical properties of an external stimulus.

Endogenous ERP components

ERP components that reflect cognitive tasks and processing demands rather than physical stimulus properties.

Structural imaging

Neuroimaging modalities that measure the physical spatial configuration and structural layout of the brain.

CT limitations

Inability to distinguish well between white and gray matter and the inability to be adapted for functional imaging.

fMRI acquisition sequence

A procedure where an external magnetic field aligns brain protons, radio wave pulses tip them at a $90^\circ$ angle to produce a measurable signal, and protons then relax back.

T1

An MRI relaxation measurement reflecting the relaxed state of protons.

T2

An MRI measurement reflecting the magnetic state of protons.

Voxel-based morphometry (VBM)

An analytical method that divides the brain into tens of thousands of volumetric units (voxels) to measure the raw amount of white matter.

Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI)

A neuroimaging method used to measure structural white matter connectivity.

Functional Anisotropy

A diffusion measurement quantifying the extent to which water diffusion takes place in some directions preferentially over others.

Blood-Oxygen-Level Dependent (BOLD)

A hemodynamic signal that measures the concentration of deoxyhemoglobin in local blood flow.

Hemodynamic response function (HRF) stages

The three-stage temporal profile of blood flow following neural activity, consisting of the initial dip, overconsumption, and undershoot.

Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS)

A noninvasive hemodynamic recording technique that is limited to measuring surface-level brain activity.

Cognitive subtraction

An experimental technique comparing tasks where the activity in a control task is subtracted from the activity in an experimental task to isolate the specific activity of interest.

Spatial smoothing

An imaging preprocessing step that redistributes brain activity across neighboring voxels.

Stereotactic normalization

The mathematical process of mapping an individual's unique brain anatomy onto a standard reference brain template.

Functional imaging vs. Lesion-deficit analysis

A framework contrasting experimental paradigms: functional imaging uses task performance/behavior as the independent variable and brain regions as the dependent measure, whereas lesion-deficit analysis manipulates brain regions as the independent variable and measures task performance/behavior as the dependent measure.