+ BIOL 372 > COMPLEX FUNCTIONS > Flashcards

COMPLEX FUNCTIONS Flashcards

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1
Q

What were Charles Darwin’s contributions to emotions, arousal, and motivated behaviour?

A

noted similarities in facial expressions between animals

  • idea that many expressions of emotions in humans (ie. baring teeth) are vestigial action patterns
  • set of basic emotions (including anger, fear, surprise, sadness) are evolutionarily ancient and conserved across species and cultures
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2
Q

What do facial expressions reveal?

A

specific emotional states

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3
Q

Mouse facial expressions reflect emotional state. Describe the experiment.

A
  • mice were head-fixed on a rotating ball and given different taste stimuli or subjected to tail shocks
  • their facial expressions were monitored by video, and then analyzed with machine learning
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4
Q

Is language unique to humans? Name a non-human animal that people claim uses “language.”

A
  • parrots – Alex the parrot = Avian Learning EXperiment
  • whales – discrete set of sounds/calls
  • primates
  • unicorns
  • prairie dogs
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5
Q

What are the two sides of the brain connected by?

A

corpus callosum (tract that runs between two hemispheres of the brain)

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6
Q

How do birds learn their songs?

A

by comparing their own song to a stored template of a tutor song, and then adjusting when mismatch is detected

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7
Q

Do adults continue to use a template song?

A

yes – adult birds continue to compare their song to the template, and make adjustments in response to mismatch

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8
Q

What does prior experience do for memory?

A

provides a framework for memory

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9
Q

What can shape memory capabilities?

A

internal state (ie. motivation)

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10
Q

Why is memory not very accurate most of the time?

A

because you are inferring things based on assumptions and previous constructions in the brain

RECALL VISION: when you see things, you are not perceiving them on a blank state – it is interpreted within frameworks in the brain that have developed to interpret visual information

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11
Q

What are the two types of human memory?

A
  • declarative memory
  • non-declarative memory
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12
Q

What is declarative memory?

A

memory available to consciousness (aware that you know)

  • daily episodes
  • words and their meanings
  • history
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13
Q

What is non-declarative memory?

A

memory generally not available to consciousness

  • motor skills
  • associations
  • priming cues
  • puzzle-solving skills
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14
Q

What are the three types of temporal memory?

A
  • intermediate memory
  • short-term memory
  • long-term memory
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15
Q

What is immediate memory?

A

fractions of a second to seconds

ie. existing in the world, remembering what someone just said

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16
Q

What is short-term memory?

A

seconds to minutes

ie. remembering two-factor authentication codes

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17
Q

What is long-term memory?

A

days to years

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18
Q

What is forgetting? Why is it important?

A

passive degradation of memories

important process for limiting amount of info that you can sort in your brain – problematic if you remember everything

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19
Q

Describe the memory encoding of the three types of temporal memory.

A

each memory type is encoded separately in different brain areas – BUT memory can transfer between types

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20
Q

What is working memory?

A

similar to immediate memory – committing for short time to complete tasks

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21
Q

What is anterograde amnesia?

A

remember things that occurred a long time ago prior to surgery, but unable to form new long-term memories

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22
Q

Describe the Morris water maze experiment.

A

test for declarative (spatial) memories in rodents

  • conducted in room with ample visual cues, pool with platform hidden underneath
  • mice will remember where platform is based on visual cues
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23
Q

What is the hippocampus necessary for?

A

formation of new declarative (spatial) memories

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24
Q

Animals that can fly exhibit what kind of place fields? What does this tell us?

Study These Flashcards
A

exhibit 3D place fields – the need for a cognitive ‘map’ extends to other lifestyles

25
What do Kenyan cells (KC) do?
encode odours
26
What is the mushroom body?
where memories of odours are formed – analog to piriform cortex
27
What is a conditioned stimulus?
emotionally neutral stimulus that can be paired with something that has value (ie. tone/sound)
28
What is an unconditioned stimulus?
stimulus that has intrinsic value (ie. aversive, fear-inducing shock)
29
Do humans and mice have similar areas associated with specific emotional states?
optogenetic activation of areas known to be associated with specific emotional states in humans produced the expected facial expression in mice
30
What are the three components of emotions?
- behaviour - feeling - physiology
31
What are the two early theories of emotion? What differed between them?
- Lange - Cannon-bard debated emotion processing sequence
32
What is the Lange theory of emotion?
stimulus --> autonomic response --> conscious feeling ie. I feel afraid because I tremble
33
What is the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion?
(more correct) stimulus --> subcortical brain activity --> conscious feeling and autonomic response ie. dog makes me tremble and feel afraid
34
What are the two pathways of emotional motor control?
- voluntary control of facial movements - emotional control of facial movements
35
What is voluntary facial paresis?
- when asked to show teeth, one side of face has paralysis - when shown something funny, can smile normally (no paralysis)
36
What is emotional facial paresis?
- when asked to show teeth, can smile normally - when shown something funny, one side of face has paralysis
37
How does the frontal cortex (FC) contribute to emotions?
(most notably prefrontal and cingulate) cognitive function, attention, and “top-down” control of emotions
38
How does the ventral hippocampus (HP) contribute to emotions?
cognitive function, memory
39
How does the hypothalamus (Hyp) contribute to emotions?
autonomic nervous system control – sleep, hunger, etc.
40
How does the nucleus accumbens (Nac) contribute to emotions?
reward and aversion
41
How does the amygdala (Amy) contribute to emotions?
important for response to emotional stimuli
42
How does the ventral tegmental area (VTA) contribute to emotions?
sends dopaminergic projections to other areas, and mediates reward
43
What is the appraisal model for the number of existing emotions?
involves many descriptive elements (dimensions) - is it expected, safe - is there a change in knowledge based on what is happening
44
What is the valence/arousal model for the number of existing emotions?
two parameters determine all emotional states – positive or negative - how strong the feeling is
45
What is the AMPA/NMDA ratio?
measure of input synaptic strength
46
What is vocalization/speech?
movement of vocal structures (such as larynx, pharynx, and lungs) to produce audible noises used for communication
47
What is communication?
conveyance of information from one being to another
48
What is language?
ability to assemble arbitrary symbols (including audible sounds) into a structure that conveys complex meaning (with essentially infinite possibilities)
49
What are song motor nuclei?
motor nuclei that produce song – areas of brain that produce motor signals that control larynx and production of song
50
Fundamental Characteristics of Language What is productivity?
potential for unique word combinations and sentence meanings is infinite
51
Fundamental Characteristics of Language What is displacement?
it can communicate ideas or events not present in the current environment/situation
52
Fundamental Characteristics of Language What is arbitrariness?
words/symbols used to denote objects are not intrinsically related to what they represent
53
Fundamental Characteristics of Language What is discreteness?
elements (words) each have their own distinct meaning
54
Fundamental Characteristics of Language What is duality?
sounds (letters) that compose words can be combined in different ways to convey different ideas (ie. meat and team)
55
Fundamental Characteristics of Language What is cultural transmission?
language is acquired through culture
56
Birdsong is produced by two connected circuits. What are they?
- motor pathway - anterior forebrain pathway
57
What does the motor pathway for birdsong project to? What does it receive input from?
- project to lower motor pools that control vocal structures - receive input from HVc
58
Where does language processing occur?
implicated in a wide range of areas in the brain
59
What are conspecifics?
unrelated individuals from the same species
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