Exam #1 Flashcards
(89 cards)
1
Q
What is social neuroscience?
A
Study of how we perceive, interpret, and respond to the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of others using neuroscientific methods
2
Q
2 goals of social neuro
A
- Inform theories of psychological processes
2. Provide info regarding the function of neural systems
3
Q
Why do we read journal articles?
A
- Gain knowledge/info
- Relieve misconceptions
- Develop critical thinking and writing skills
- New directions in field
- Increased informed decision making
- 23% of scientists’ time
4
Q
What is the challenge of journal articles?
A
- Decreased readability because of increased jargon
- Negative implications for reproducibility and broader accessibility to public
5
Q
Types of scientific articles (3)
A
- Original research article
- Review article
- Editorial/opinion/commentary/perspective
6
Q
Original research article (primary literature)
A
Original research/data, ex: case study, clinical trial, replication study, etc.
7
Q
Review article (secondary literature)
A
Summary/synthesis/analysis of other work, ex: qualitative, quantitative (meta-analysis)
8
Q
Editorial/Opinion/Commentary/Perspective
A
Personal point of view or opinion
9
Q
How to do a first pass of an article
A
- Title
- Abstract
- Figures & tables
- Quickly skim article
- No details yet
10
Q
2 stages of cell signaling
A
- Electrical conduction: dendritic input to AP within neuron
- Chemical transmission across synaptic gap between pre- and post- synaptic cell
11
Q
What is the forebrain composed of? (2)
A
- Cerebrum
2. Diencephalon
12
Q
What is the brainstem composed of? (3)
A
- Midbrain
- Pons
- Medulla
13
Q
What do cranial nerves do?
A
- Receive input from cranial sensory ganglia
- Give rise to axons that form cranial motor nerves
14
Q
What is the basal ganglia composed of? (3)
A
- Caudate
- Putamen
(striatum) - Globus pallidus
15
Q
Brain perturbation approach
A
Perturbation–>brain–>cognition–>measure task performance (ex: disease, stroke, TBI)
16
Q
Neuromonitoring approach
A
Measure cognitive process–>cognition–>brain–>measure neural variable
17
Q
Invasiveness
A
Whether the equipment is located internally (invasive) or externally (non-invasive)
18
Q
Spatial resolution
A
Accuracy with which one can measure where an event is occurring
19
Q
Temporal resolution
A
Accuracy with which one can measure when an event is occurring
20
Q
How does TMS work?
A
Strong, rapidly changing magnetic field over scalp, changes electric field in brain tissue that interacts with neural processing
21
Q
What is rTMS?
A
Application of many continuous pulses over extended period of time, effects will outlast stimulation period
22
Q
What is single pulse TMS?
A
Single pulse at specific times, high temporal resolution-useful for evaluating timing of neural processes in cognition
23
Q
What is tDCS?
A
Low amplitude electrical current applied directly to the scalp via simple device with two electrodes to make a circuit, 2 types
24
Q
Anodal (+) tDCS
A
Increases cortical excitability of area being stimulated
25
Cathodal (-) tDCS
Decreases excitability
26
What is the neuromonitoring approach?
- Single neuron electrophysiological recording
- Measures APs produced by single/group neurons
- Extracellularly (outside neurons)
- Intracellularly
27
EEG
Measures electrical brain waves, signal derives from summed dendritic field potentials of groups of neurons firing together
28
ERPs
Small voltage fluctuation in the EEG signal trigger by sensory or cognitive events, very high temporal resolution but poor spatial, small, positive/negative peaks
29
MEG
Measures electrical currents using magnetic fields produced by those currents, sensitive to sulci (not gyri)
30
Neuromonitoring via metabolism/blood flow (2)
1. PET
2. fMRI
Decent temporal resolution and excellent spatial resolution
31
PET
Isotopes injected into bloodstream and go to areas of increased neural activity
32
fMRI
- Oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin have different magnet properties
- BOLD: deoxy-->oxy, can be detected by large electromagnets and radio waves
33
What creates an increase in BOLD signal?
Increase in oxy to deoxy
34
What could BOLD mean in terms of neural activity? (3)
1. Outgoing communications
2. Incoming communications
3. Within region communication
35
Block design
-Many stimulus repetitions from given condition strung together in a block which alternates with many stimulus repetitions
-Higher statistical power
Ex: "Is the person happy?"
36
Event-Related design
- Trials of different experimental conditions are interspersed in a random order rather than being blocked together
- Avoids issue of habituation
- Needs many trials spaced out
37
fMRI analysis of neural activity within regions (4)
1. Whole-brain analysis
2. ROI analysis
3. Multi-voxel pattern analysis
4. Repetition suppression
38
fMRI analysis of neural activity relations between regions (2)
1. Functional connectivity
| 2. Effective connectivity
39
Whole-brain analysis
Look across all voxels in the whole brain for those that are significantly more active for condition A vs B
40
ROI analysis
Select regions of interest, average signal across all vowels in that region
41
MVP analysis
Looks at patterns of activation across voxels that consistently respond to a particular stimulus/event
42
Repetition Suppression
Brain responds less to repeated occurrence of identical stimulus than first presentation
43
Functional connectivity
* Statistical dependencies
- Temporal correlation between spatially remote neurophysiological events
- "seed" region
- Resting-state connectivity vs. psychophysiological interaction (PPI)
44
Effective connectivity
* Causal interactions
- Influence of one neuronal system on another
- Infers directional influences of one region on another
- Structural equation modeling and dynamic causal modeling
45
When was the "Decade of the Brain"?
1990
46
Forward inference
Present experimental conditions that differ in some cognitive process regions that show difference in activation are inferred to take part in that mental process
47
Reverse inference
Inferring a cognitive process from the presence of brain activation (not OK, logical fallacy)
48
Formal reverse inference
Accurately classifying mental states (cognitive processes) across individuals from patterns of brain activity
49
Associations
Experimentally associate a specific cognitive function with the neural structures that underlie them
50
Dissociation
Showing that a cognitive function is not associated with a neural process/region
51
What is selectivity?
Difference between association and dissociation
52
Double dissociation
Functional relationship in which one area of the brain is experimentally associated with a particular cognitive process and dissociated from another, while another brain region is opposite
53
Domain specificity
Cognitive process is specialized for processing only one particular kind of info, origins in modules or modularity
54
Domain generality
Brain is not uniquely specialized for social processes, but instead is also involved in non-social aspects of cognition
55
Hybrid models
Some degree of neural specialization within a network that interacts and communicates with domain general processes
56
Other accounts (Mitchell, 2009)
Certain regions process concepts that are less stable and less definite than those involved in perception and action, social brain is special
57
Reductionism
Instance in which one type of explanation for a complex phenomenon will be replaced with another, more basic type of explanation
58
Why is the brain/neuroscience so seductive?
- Bias for reductionism
| - Brain images/neuro explanations provides tangible physical explanations for unobservable cognitive process
59
Historical self definition
Broad range of processes related to: self-reflection, self-knowledge, personality, emotion, motivation, and self-regulation
60
Current self definition
Refers to self-reflection and indicates a person's capability and awareness of paying the role of a perceiver and the object of that perception
61
Evidence for the self not being special
"Silent" frontal lobes, could remove large portions of PFC without severe changes
62
Frontal-Lobe personality
Phineas Gage, changed personality, self is special
63
Self in memory
Items that are encoded in reference to oneself are better remembered
64
Patient WJ
- 18 year old with TBI
- Amnesia for 6-7 mo prior to injury
- Accurate self-description
65
Patient KC
- TBI from motorcycle
- Couldn't remember anything
- Described personality with great accuracy
66
Patient DB
- 78 year old male with memory post heart attack
- Couldn't remember anything
- Tested high for self-trait knowledge
67
Medial Prefrontal Cortex (MPFC)
- Larger than any other prefrontal region
- MPFC and PCC cover most of cortex
- Greater density of dendritic spines and smaller density of cell bodies
- MPFC receives inputs from multiple sensory areas and shares connections with PCC
- Engaged while thinking of self and similar others
68
MPFC and PCC: which one is more abstract and which one is more concrete?
MPFC: abstract
PCC: concrete
69
Evidence for the self as a default
MPFC and PCC had highest baseline metabolic activity at rest
70
Does neural activity in MPFC at rest prime self-referential thinking?
YES, reflexively engaged MPFC at rest nudges self-referential thinking (like a prime)
71
Face specialization account
Face processing is specialized (domain specific)
72
Face expertise account
Face processing is a domain general process in which we have particular experience and expertise
73
What is not affected by face inversion?
Detecting changes in individual features (eg. shape of nose, color of face)
74
Face recognition similar to whole-part effect
Superior identification of object features (eg. nose) when presented within context of whole object, disappears when stimulus inverted
75
Acquired prosopagnosia
- Results from brain damage usually to occipitotemporal cortex
- Damage near OFA in inferior occipital gyrus
- TMS produces deficit (not configurable) face processing
76
Developmental prosopagnosia
- Mechanism less clear
| - Normal levels of neural activity in visual areas in response to faces
77
Kanwisher (1997) results on faces
- Faces>objects activates right fusiform gyrus
- Objects>faces activates bilateral parahippocampal region
- Double dissociation
- Support for face specialization account
78
Gauthier (1999) results on faces
- FFA activity reflects expertise, not a specialized process for face processing
- Expertise=individuation fine-tuned by experience
79
FFA
- Specialized for faces (not bodies or objects)
- Processes invariant/stable aspects of faces (face parts and configuration)
- Important for computing unique identity based on faces
80
OFA
- Specialized for faces
| - Codes the physical aspects of facial stimuli (face parts and expression) but NOT configuration between face parts
81
pSTS
Sensitive to changeable aspects of faces (eye gaze, expression, lip movement)
82
Damage to occipitotemporal cortex
- Deficit in recognition of facial identity
| - NOT facial expression
83
Damage to ventral frontal lobe
- Deficit in recognition of facial expression
| - NOT identity
84
Simulation Theory (ST)
We internally simulate the somatomotor responses associated with the observed emotion, which facilitates our recognition and understanding of the other person's emotion
85
Embodied cognition
Cognitive processes are grounded in states of the body, and is influenced/biased by states of the body
86
Behavioral evidence for ST
- Exposure to facial expressions produces corresponding expression-relevant changes in our own facial musculature
- Biting a pen disrupts recognition of happiness
87
What does somatosensory representation play a critical role in?
Recognizing facial expressions of emotion, can occur through internal simulation
88
What is facial expression discrimination dependent on?
rOFA and rSC
89
rOFA vs. rSC
- rOFA: processes info at earlier stages in face processing stream
- rSC: processes info at later stages for longer time
