Chapter 2: Brain Systems Flashcards
localization of function
One of the basic principles of brain organization is the hypothesis localization of function. It states that specific functions are
served by specific areas of the brain
neuropsychology is the study of ______________.
the behaviour of people with brain damage
Cortical equipotentiality
principle of brain function, the idea that the brain operated as an invisible whole as opposed to specialized areas
Function of the parietal lobe?
responsible for perceptions of touch, pressure, and pain
Function of the frontal lobe?
responsible for coordination of the senses, and higher cognitive functions like thinking and problem solving, movement, social cognition
Function of temporal lobe?
hearing, language, long-term memory
Function of occipital lobe?
visual processing, visual pattern recognition
Gerald is listening to a podcast on his way to class.
Which lobe is most relevant to this activity?
temporal lobe
Broca’s aphasia
loss of normal grammatical structure in speech
What is levels of analysis?
Levels of analysis approach refers to the idea that a topic can be studied in a number of different ways and each approach can contribute in its own way to the understanding of the topic. For example, we can study physiology of cognition at levels ranging from the whole brain to structures within the brain, to chemicals that create electrical signals within these structures.
(SUMMARY: levels of analysis = approaching the problem from several different ways like behavioural, physiological, etc.)
What does the principle of neural representation state?
that everything a person experiences is based on representations in the person’s nervous system
Explain feature detectors
Feature detectors are neurons (or groups of neurons) in the brain that respond to specific type to stimulation (stimuli) like orientation, movement, and length. For example, the feature detectors that responded to visual stimuli would be orientation of an object that was presented as a visual stimulus to a cat.
(SUMARRY: Neurons that fire to specific qualities of a stimulus (like orientation.)
How does the phenomenon called experience-dependent plasticity supports the idea that feature detectors are linked to perception?
Experience-dependent plasticity states that the structure of the brain is changed by experience. If an animal for example, is only exposed to an environment with vertical lines then that animal will only contain feature detectors for perceiving vertical lines. So, the brain of that animal will reshape to only containing neurons (feature detectors) that respond mainly to verticals and had no neurons that responded to horizontals or other orientations. Since kittens are only perceiving verticals, they only have feature detectors for verticals. This was an experiment done by Blakemore and Cooper.
Explain the (brief) methodology, results, and how Blakemore and Coopers experiment (feature detectors) concludes that perception is determined by feature detectors. Include significance of this experiment.
Placed kittens in an environment exposing them to only one type of orientation (vertical).
Results = When kittens introduced to other orientations, they only paid attention to the vertical objects and ignored horizontal objects.
Significance
kittens’ brains revealed that the visual cortex had been reshaped so it contained neurons that responded mainly to verticals and had no neurons that responded to horizontals. This experiment was an early demonstration of experience-dependent plasticity.
Which option below describes experience-dependent plasticity?
A. Neurons that respond to specific type of stimulation
B. Everything a person experiences is based on representations in the person’s nervous system.
C. Problem of neural representation for the senses
D. Representation of a particular object by the pattern of large numbers of neuronal firing
E. Structure of the brain is changed by experience
E, structure of the brain is changed by experience
Neurons in the ________ respond best to complex geometrical stimuli (like faces) and neurons in the visual cortex respond best to __________ (like lines, circles)
temporal lobe, visual cortex
What is hierarchical processing?
Answer = Progression from lower to higher areas of the brain.
Example: Neurons in the visual cortex sending their axons to higher levels of the visual system where signals from many neurons combine and interact. The neurons at this higher level, which respond to more complex stimuli then send their signals to even higher areas combining and interacting further and creating neurons that respond to even more complex stimuli like faces.
How are neurons involved in specificity coding, sensory coding, and population coding?
Sensory code = how neurons represent various characteristics of the environment
Specificity coding = idea that an object can be represented by firing of a specialized neuron that responds only to that object
Example = a particular neuron that only fires for one person’s face and doesn’t respond to any other persons face.
Population coding = representation of a particular object by the pattern of firing of a large number of neurons
Example: large groups of neurons create patterns that of firing that play a role in recognizing all faces
Sparse coding = occurs when a particular object is represented by a small group of firing neurons in a pattern with the majority of neurons remaining silent.
Example: represent face A by a pattern of firing a few neurons and face B represented by firing different neurons but with possibility of overlapping with neurons in face
(SUMMARY: identification of a stimuli (face) by pattern of firing a LARGE number of neurons is population coding, the identification of a stimuli (face) indicated by. The pattern of firing of a SMALL group of neurons, specificity coding = each stimuli (face) causes a different neuron to fire).
The hypothesis that states “different functions of thought are performed in different locations in the brain,” is …
A. Cortical equipotentiality
B. Localization of function
C. Default Mode Network
D. Population coding
E. Experience-dependent plasticity
B, Localization of function
What determined localization of function/where did the evidence for localization of function come from?
A. Neuropsychology – the study of the behaviour of people with brain damage
B. Clinical psychology – the study of individuals by observation & experiments
C. Experimental psychology – carrying out psychological experiments using scientific methods
A, Neuropsychology
Why localization of function a better hypothesis than cortical equipotentiality? Give evidence of previous research.
(1) Paul Broca’s patients with frontal lobe damage. Damage to a specific area of their brains (frontal lobe) caused a specific deficit of behaviour (couldn’t under patient’s speech b/c it was slow and ungrammatical).
(2) Carol Wernicke’s patients with temporal lobe damage caused a behaviour deficit (incoherent speech, not being able to understand others’ speech (can’t match words to meaning).
(3) b/c of Broca and Wernicke, further studies found that damage to occipital lobe of brain where visual cortex is located resulted in blindness and that there was a connection btw the area in the occipital lobe that was damaged and where the blindness occurred.
(4) double association (if you have two functions and damage the certain parts of the brain one or the other function will not work) enables us to conclude that function A and B are served by different mechanisms which operate independently of one another
Broca’s area
frontal lobe area
What was Paul Broca’s research? What was the significance?
conducted study on patients who had suffered brain damage to frontal lobe area due to strokes that damaged the frontal lobe area called Broca’s area.
-Patient called “tan” b/c only word he could say due to frontal lobe damage, other patients could say more words, but words were slow and jumbled.
Significance = provided evidence for localization of function and evidence against cortical equipotentiality
Patients with slow, labored, ungrammatical speech caused by damage to the frontal lobe are diagnosed with having …
A. Distributed representation
B. Prosopagnosia
C. Wernicke’s Aphasia
D. Broca’s Aphasia
D, Broca’s Aphasia
