Exam 1: Modules 1-4

Question 1

The Mind-Body Problem

Answer 1

How does the mind interact with the body? Dualism vs. Monism vs. Panpsychism

Question 2

Dualism

Answer 2

The belief that the mind and body are made of different things; the mind is something separate from the physical body

Question 3

Monism

Answer 3

The belief that there is only one kind of “stuff”; The mind is a by-product of of physical processes OR the physical world doesn’t really exist and everything is a projection of the mind

Question 4

Panpsychism

Answer 4

Every physical object has a form of consciousness; everything has an experience of their existence

Question 5

“Mary the Color Scientist”

Answer 5

Mary is a scientist that can only see in black and white; She knows everything there is to know about color, but has never actually experienced it herself

Question 6

Qualia

Answer 6

The unique quality of your conscious experience; Language nor neuroscience can explain it

Question 7

Levels of Consciousness

Answer 7

1. Conscious: immediate awareness
2. Preconscious: information that you’re not immediately aware of but could become aware of
3. Unconscious: information that cannot be assessed by conscious awareness

Question 8

Parts of the Neuron

Answer 8

Cell body: contains the nucleus and cellular organelles
Dendrites: branches from the cell body that receive signals
Axon: Extends from the cell body to transmit signals
Nerves: bundles of axons
Synapse: the small gaps with which neurons send chemical messages across

Question 9

Grey Matter vs. White Matter

Answer 9

Grey Matter: where all cell bodies of neurons are most concentrated; these areas of the brain do the processing
White Matter: where axons of neurons are most concentrated; connects different areas of the brain

Question 10

Myelin Sheath vs. Nodes of Ranvier

Answer 10

Myelin Sheath: insulated parts of the axon that allows the neurons to fire faster
Nodes of Ranvier: uninsulated parts of the axon; the signal skips from node to node

Question 11

Steps of Action Potential

Answer 11

1. Resting Potential: axon is “polarized” with a negative charge
2. Depolarization: positive ions enter and creates positive charge
3. Repolarization: Positive ions get kicked out and axon is negative again
4. Hyperpolarization: there is temporarily too much negative charge; the axon is unable to fire again until returning to resting potential

Question 12

Steps of the Simple Reflex Circuit

Answer 12

1. Sensory Neuron: receives information from the environment
2. Interneuron: carries info from sensory neuron to motor neuron
3. Motor Neuron: Stimulate muscle to produce a movement

Question 13

Organization of the Nervous System

Answer 13

Nervous System –> Central OR Peripheral
Central —> Brain and Spinal Cord
Peripheral –> Somatic and Autonomic
Autonomic –> Sympathetic and Parasympathetic

Question 14

Somatic Nervous System

Answer 14

Associated with the voluntary control of body movements and reflexes

Question 15

Autonomic Nervous System

Answer 15

Associated with the regulation of internal functions like heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, etc.

Question 16

Sympathetic Nervous System

Answer 16

Associated with your body’s “fight or flight” response; increased heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing

Question 17

Parasympathetic Nervous System

Answer 17

Associated with the body’s “rest and digest” response; involved in conserving energy for later; decreased breathing and heart rate, and speeds up digestive processes

Question 18

Brain Stem (Medulla)

Answer 18

messages from the spinal cord and peripheral nervous system enter the brain through here

Question 19

Reticular Formation

Answer 19

Inside upper part of brain stem; helps regulate sleep and alertness

Question 20

Cerebellum

Answer 20

Helps process sensory information used to maintain balance

Question 21

Thalamus

Answer 21

“Relay Station” for sensory information; sensory info is then “sorted and shipped out” from here

Question 22

Hypothalamus

Answer 22

Connected to pituitary gland; allows brain to regulate hormones in the body

Question 23

Amygdala

Answer 23

Involved in processing emotional information (fear/anger more than any other emotion)

Question 24

Hippocampus

Answer 24

Involved in creating long-term memories

Question 25

Corpus Callosum

Answer 25

connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain

Question 26

Occipital Lobe

Answer 26

Primary receiving area for vision; association areas for vision

Question 27

Temporal Lobe

Answer 27

primary receiving area for hearing; association areas for hearing

Question 28

Parietal Lobe

Answer 28

somatosensory strip- primary receiving area for touch

Question 29

Frontal Lobe

Answer 29

ability to regulate thoughts, memories, and behavior; your "self" control and regulation

Question 30

Sensation vs. Perception

Answer 30

Sensation: detecting "raw" sensory information from the environment (bottom-up processing) Perception: understanding sensory information as meaningful categories (Top-down and bottom-up processing)

Question 31

Top-Down Processing

Answer 31

Perception influenced by prior knowledge and expectations

Question 32

Bottom-Up Processing

Answer 32

Senses detect stimuli in the environment; stimulus features identified (shape, color, motion, etc)

Question 33

Transduction

Answer 33

converting information from the environment into neural impulses

Question 34

Visual Transduction

Answer 34

Light enters the eye and light receptors fire when light is absorbed

Question 35

Auditory Transduction

Answer 35

Sound waves move tympanic membrane, which moves ear bones, which sends ripples through the ear that cause receptors to move at different frequencies

Question 36

Taste Transduction

Answer 36

Taste buds detect chemicals in food

Question 37

Smell transduction

Answer 37

Receptors in nasal cavity detect chemicals in the air

Question 38

Tactile Transduction

Answer 38

Shape and design of receptors detect changes in pressure, vibration, and temperature; receptors are getting stretched, squished, deformed, etc.

Question 39

Absolute Threshold vs. Difference Threshold

Answer 39

Absolute Threshold: absolute limit of sensory activity Difference Threshold: smallest detectable difference in sensory activity

Question 40

Proprioception & Interception (Sixth Senses)

Answer 40

Proprioception: sensing the location of your body and its parts Interception: sensing of your internal organs

Question 41

Light from above heuristic

Answer 41

the assumption that light is coming from above; can influence how we view 3D objects that are illuminated

Question 42

Size Constancy

Answer 42

An object size seems constant despite the size of the raw visual image

Question 43

Shape Constancy

Answer 43

Object shape appears to remain the same even though visual age changes

Question 44

Sin Wave Speech

Answer 44

Distorted versions of speech that can be understood if given prior expectations

Question 45

Gestalt Psychology

Answer 45

perception involves how the mind organizes patterns of sensations

Question 46

McGurk Effect

Answer 46

altered perception of speech sounds when the component of speech conflicts with the visual component

Question 47

Attention

Answer 47

The process of concentrating on specific features of the environment, or on specific mental activities Attention can only attend to a certain amount of stimuli at a time Attention is selective; you pay more attention to some stimuli than others

Question 48

Overt vs. Covert Attention

Answer 48

Overt: conscious and intentional attending to a scene or stimulus; directed attention Covert: when attention is "grabbed" by something that you weren't directly paying attention to

Question 49

How does attention relate to perception?

Answer 49

Attention is needed for sensations to become perceptions; many perceptual errors and illusions are due to limitations of attention

Question 50

Dichotic Listening and its results

Answer 50

Dichotic listening is listening to two things at once (one message to each ear) Results: When told to pay attention to one message, they couldn't pay attention to what was being said in the other ear; They could only perceive sensory information like change in tone but not change in language or topic

Question 51

Cocktail party effect

Answer 51

People can immediately hear their own name when said amongst other auditory stimuli

Question 52

Attentional Spotlight

Answer 52

Attention functions like a spotlight because it can heavily focus on one thing or weakly on multiple things

Question 53

Inattentional Blindness vs. Change Blindness

Answer 53

Inattentional: lack of attention to an obvious stimulus; stimulus is clearly visible but goes unseen Change: Can be blind to changes between scenes; If details change while objects are out of view, we may not notice the difference

Question 54

Divided Attention

Answer 54

Attention is limited but can be divided between tasks, especially when the tasks become more autonomic

Question 55

The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat (Ch 1) Symptoms? Cause of symptoms? Treatment?

Answer 55

Symptoms: cannot recognize whole objects, only features; confuses objects with each other (his shoe and his foot); could only perceive the buildings on the right side when walking down the street. Diagnosis: Visual agnosia; unilateral neglect Treatment: No treatment given; sacks encourages Dr. P to keep living through his love of music

Question 56

The Disembodied Woman (Ch3) Symptoms? Cause of Symptoms? Treatment?

Answer 56

Symptoms: nightmares of losing control of her body; collapsing; couldn't stand on her feet without looking at them; couldn't hold things in her hands; slack jaw Diagnosis: Christina had lost her proprioceptive sense; she had no sense of where her limbs were without looking at them Treatment: Sacks describes a "functional" recovery through intense and varied therapy; when doing anything she needed to be solely focused on one task at a time

Question 57

Hands (Ch. 5) Symptoms? Cause of Symptoms? Treatment?

Answer 57

Symptoms: congenitally blind; cerebral palsy; spasticity; involuntary movement of both hands; can not identify objects with her hands; Diagnosis: Lack of perception in identifying objects with her hands; a neurological affliction that created the illusion that she has no control over her hands Treatment: Sacks had the nurse leave Madeleine's food right out of reach, which prompted her to use her hands to pick up her food and eat it; she started exploring more with her hands after that and perceiving the world this way.