Cognitive neuroscience: week 2

Question 1

Field concerned with studying the neural basis of cognition

Answer 1

Cognitive neuroscience

Question 2

A topic can be understood by studying it at a number of different levels of a system.

Answer 2

Levels of analysis

Question 3

A network of continuously interconnected nerve fibers (as contrasted with neural networks, in which fibers are connected by synapses).

Answer 3

Nerve net

Question 4

The idea that individual cells called neurons transmit signals in the nervous system, and that these cells are not continuous with other cells as proposed by nerve net theory.

Answer 4

neuron doctrine

Question 5

Part of a cell that contains mechanisms that keep the cell alive. In some neurons, the cell body and the dendrites associated with it receive information from other neurons.

Answer 5

Cell body

Question 6

Structures that branch out from the cell body to receive electrical signals from other neurons.

Answer 6

Dendrites

Question 7

Part of the neuron that transmits signals from the cell body to the synapse at the end of the axon.

Answer 7

Axons

Question 8

Space between the end of an axon and the cell body or dendrite of the next axon.

Answer 8

Synapse

Question 9

Group of interconnected neurons that are responsible for neural processing.

Answer 9

Neural circuits

Question 10

Specialized neural structures that respond to environmental stimuli such as light, mechanical stimulation, or chemical stimuli.

Answer 10

Receptors

Question 11

Whos idea of individual neurons that communicate with other neurons to form neural circuits was an enormous leap forward in the understanding of how the nervous system operates.

Answer 11

Cajal’s

Question 12

In the 1920s, ____ was able to record electrical signals from single sensory neurons, an achievement for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1932

Answer 12

Edgar Adrian

Question 13

Small wires that are used to record electrical signals from single neurons.

Answer 13

mocroelectrodes

Question 14

Difference in charge between the inside and outside of a nerve fiber when the fiber is at rest (no other electrical signals are present).

Answer 14

resting potential

Question 15

An electrical response that is propagated down the length of an axon (nerve fiber). Also called an Action potential.

Answer 15

Nerve impulse.

Question 16

Propagated electrical potential responsible for transmitting neural information and for communication between neurons. Action potentials typically travel down a neuron’s axon.

Answer 16

Action potential

Question 17

Chemical that is released at the synapse in response to incoming action potentials.

Answer 17

neurotransmitter

Question 18

Rate of neural firing is related to the intensity of___

Answer 18

Stimulation.

Question 19

Everything a person experiences is based on representations in the person’s nervous system

Answer 19

principle of neural representation

Question 20

the idea of neurons that respond to specific qualities was brought to the forefront by a series of papers by ____________, which would win them the Nobel Prize in 1981.

Answer 20

David Hubel and Thorsten Wiesel,

Question 21

Neurons that respond to specific visual features, such as orientation, size, or the more complex features that make up environmental stimuli.

Answer 21

feature detectors

Question 22

A mechanism that causes an organism’s neurons to develop so they respond best to the type of stimulation to which the organism has been exposed.

Answer 22

experience-dependent plasticity

Question 23

Area in the occipital lobe that receives signals from the eyes.

Answer 23

visual cortex

Question 24

The lobe on the side of the brain that contains mechanisms responsible for language, memory, hearing, and vision.

Answer 24

temporal lobe

Question 25

Processing that occurs in a progression from lower to higher areas of the brain.

Answer 25

hierarchical processing

Question 26

How neural firing represents various characteristics of the environment.

Answer 26

sensory code

Question 27

The representation of a specific stimulus by the firing of neurons that respond only to that stimulus. An example would be the signaling of a person’s face by the firing of a neuron that responds only to that person’s face.

Answer 27

specificity coding

Question 28

Neural representation of a stimulus by the pattern of firing of a large number of neurons.

Answer 28

Population coding.

Question 29

Neural coding based on the pattern of activity in small groups of neurons.

Answer 29

sparse coding.

Question 30

Location of specific functions in specific areas of the brain. For example, areas have been identified that are specialized to process information involved in the perception of movement, form, speech, and different aspects of memory.

Answer 30

localization of function

Question 31

The 3-mm-thick outer layer of the brain that contains the mechanisms responsible for higher mental functions such as perception, language, thinking, and problem solving.

Answer 31

cerebral cortex

Question 32

the study of the behavior of people with brain damage.

Answer 32

neuropsychology

Question 33

The idea, popular in the early 1800s, that the brain operates as an indivisible whole, as opposed to operating based on specialized areas.

Answer 33

cortical equipotentiality

Question 34

An area in the frontal lobe associated with the production of language. Damage to this area causes Broca’s aphasia.

Answer 34

Broca’s area

Question 35

A condition associated with damage to Broca’s area, in the frontal lobe, characterized by labored ungrammatical speech and difficulty in understanding some types of sentences.

Answer 35

Broca’s aphasia

Question 36

Area in the temporal lobe associated with understanding language. Damage to this area causes Wernicke’s aphasia.

Answer 36

Wernicke’s area

Question 37

A condition, caused by damage to Wernicke’s area, that is characterized by difficulty in understanding language, and fluent, grammatically correct, but incoherent speech.

Answer 37

Wernicke’s aphasia

Question 38

The lobe at the back of the brain that is devoted primarily to analyzing incoming visual information.

Answer 38

Occipital lobe

Question 39

receives signals from the skin and is responsible for perceptions of touch, pressure and pain.

Answer 39

somatosensory cortex

Question 40

receives signals from the ears and is responsible for hearing.

Answer 40

The auditory cortex

Question 41

Where is the auditory cortex located

Answer 41

Upper temporal lobe

Question 42

Where is the somatosensory cortex located

Answer 42

in the Parietal lobe.

Question 43

The lobe at the top of the brain that contains mechanisms responsible for sensations caused by stimulation of the skin and also some aspects of visual information.

Answer 43

parietal lobe

Question 44

The lobe in the front of the brain that serves higher functions such as language, thought, memory, and motor functioning.

Answer 44

frontal lobe

Question 45

Condition caused by damage to the temporal lobe that is characterized by an inability to recognize faces.

Answer 45

prosopagnosia

Question 46

A situation in which a single dissociation can be demonstrated in one person and the opposite type of single dissociation can be demonstrated in another person (i.e., Person 1: function A is present, function B is damaged; Person 2: function A is damaged, function B is present).

Answer 46

double dissociation

Question 47

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

Answer 47

A brain imaging technique that measures how blood flow changes in response to cognitive activity.

Question 48

Small cube-shaped areas in the brain used in the analysis of data from brain scanning experiments.

Answer 48

voxels

Question 49

The fMRI response that occurs in response to a specific cognitive task.

Answer 49

task-related fMRI

Question 50

An area in the temporal lobe that contains many neurons that respond selectively to faces.

Answer 50

fusiform face area (FFA)

Question 51

An area in the temporal lobe that contains neurons that are selectively activated by pictures of indoor and outdoor scenes.

Answer 51

Para hippocampal place area (PPA)

Question 52

An area in the temporal cortex that is activated by pictures of bodies and parts of bodies, but not by faces or other objects.

Answer 52

extrastriate body area (EBA)

Question 53

The multidimensional nature of cognition refers to the fact that even simple experiences involve combinations of different qualities.

Answer 53

multidimensional

Question 54

Occurs when a specific cognition activates many areas of the brain.

Answer 54

distributed representation

Question 55

memories for events in a person’s life, like remembering what you did yesterday

Answer 55

Episodic memories

Question 56

memories for facts, like knowing that the capital of California is Sacramento

Answer 56

Semantic memories

Question 57

Groups of neurons or structures that are connected together.

Answer 57

Neural networks

Question 58

There are complex structural pathways called ___ that form the brain’s information highway.

Answer 58

networks

Question 59

brain’s “wiring diagram” created by nerve axons that connect different brain areas.

Answer 59

Structural connectivity

Question 60

A technique for determining connectivity in the brain that is based on detection of how water diffuses along the length of nerve fibers.

Answer 60

track-weighted imaging (TWI)

Question 61

structural description of the network of elements and connections forming the human brain” or wiring diagram of neurons in the brain.

Answer 61

connectome

Question 62

The extent to which the neural activity in separate brain areas is correlated with each other.

Answer 62

functional connectivity

Question 63

If the responses of two brain areas are correlated with each other, this means that they are?

Answer 63

Functionally connected

Question 64

The fMRI response recorded when a person is at rest (not involved in any cognitive tasks)

Answer 64

resting-state fMRI

Question 65

A method for determining functional connectivity that involves determining the correlation between the resting-state fMRI in separated structures.

Answer 65

resting-state functional connectivity

Question 66

The procedure for measuring resting-state functional connectivity was introduced by

Answer 66

Bharat Biswal and coworkers (1995).

Question 67

The area of the brain associated with carrying out a specific cognitive or motor task that serves as the reference area the resting-state functional connectivity method.

Answer 67

seed location

Question 68

The way the fMRI response changes over time.

Answer 68

time-series response

Question 69

When measuring resting-state functional connectivity, the activity at the test location is compared to the activity at the seed location to determine the degree of functional connectivity between the two locations.

Answer 69

test location

Question 70

Network of structures that are active when a person is not involved in specific tasks.

Answer 70

default mode network (DMN)