cognitive neuropsychology Flashcards
(20 cards)
What does cognitive neuropsychology study?
It studies the relationship between brain regions and behaviour, often using evidence from brain-damaged individuals.
What assumption underlies cognitive neuropsychology?
That brain functions are localized or modular, with different regions performing different roles.
What are the four main types of memory?
Episodic (events), Semantic (facts), Working (short-term use), and Procedural (motor skills).
Which brain areas are key for declarative memory?
The hippocampus, amygdala, and medial temporal lobe (MTL).
What memory abilities are usually spared in MTL damage?
Working memory and non-declarative (e.g., procedural) memory.
Who was H.M. and why is he significant?
Henry Molaison had his hippocampi removed to treat epilepsy, resulting in anterograde amnesia. His case showed different memory types rely on different brain areas.
What could H.M. still do after his surgery?
He retained working memory, could learn new motor tasks (like mirror tracing), but could not form new semantic or episodic memories.
What study showed H.M.’s memory loss spanned decades?
Marslen-Wilson & Teuber (1975), using celebrity photos to test retrograde memory.
What is the difference between anterograde and retrograde amnesia?
Anterograde is the inability to form new memories; retrograde is the loss of pre-existing memories.
What is apperceptive agnosia?
A condition where individuals can’t perceive the full shape of objects, despite intact low-level vision.
What is associative agnosia?
A condition where individuals can see and describe objects but can’t recognize or name them using vision.
What is prosopagnosia?
Face blindness, where individuals can’t recognize faces; can be apperceptive or associative.
What did Gauthier et al. (1999, 2000) show about the FFA?
That the Fusiform Face Area is also active when experts look at cars or birds, suggesting it’s involved in expert visual recognition, not just faces.
What did Paul Broca discover?
Broca’s area in the left frontal lobe is essential for speech production. Damage causes Broca’s aphasia.
Who was ‘Tan’ and what did his case demonstrate?
A patient who could only say ‘Tan’; his case helped identify Broca’s area and supported localization of language.
What did Carl Wernicke discover?
Wernicke’s area in the left temporal lobe, where damage leads to Wernicke’s aphasia (fluent but nonsensical speech).
What is conduction aphasia?
Difficulty repeating words or phrases despite fluent speech and good comprehension, caused by damage to the arcuate fasciculus.
What is Wernicke’s model of language processing?
Auditory info is processed in Wernicke’s area → sent via arcuate fasciculus to Broca’s area → motor commands for speech.
What was Franz Gall’s contribution to neuropsychology?
He developed phrenology, which proposed brain function localization based on skull shape (later discredited).
What did Pierre Flourens discover in animal lesion studies?
He found partial recovery of function after brain lesions, suggesting some brain specialization or redundancy.
