L4 Flashcards
What is Cognitive Neuroscience?
• Cognitive neuroscience is a branch of neuroscience that focuses on brain function and brain dysfunction (neuropsychology) on a cognitive level.
what do Cognitive Neuroscientists do
• Cognitive neuroscientists relate behaviour to brain function.
Eg what cognitive functions each bit of the brain is responsible for
What is Cognitive Psychology?
• Cognitive psychology is a branch of psychology that focuses on complex mental processes, such as
perception, learning, and memory.
what do Cognitive psychologists do
• Cognitive psychologists study mental processes (e.g., how people focus their attention) and information-processing problems (e.g., bottlenecks and limitations).
what are some Tools used in Cognitive Neuroscience
• Brain lesion analysis (neuropsychology research)
• Electroencephalography (EEG)
– Event-related potentials (ERPs)
• Functional brain imaging
– Positron emission tomography (PET)
– Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
• Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
what is the aim of Brain Lesion Analysis
• This method of research aims to uncover how the brain normally functions by investigating the behaviour of a patient with a brain lesion in a specific region.
what does Brain Lesion Analysis
involve
• Brain lesion analysis involves comparing people with a brain lesion in the region of interest (ROI) with people in which the ROI is intact.
eg
– Experimental Group: Participants are selected based on having a brain lesion in the ROI.
– Control Group: Participants are selected based on not having a brain lesion in the ROI.
what would you expect to find from Brain Lesion Analysis
• If a specific brain structure is hypothesized to perform a particular mental operation, then damage to that brain structure should be associated with deficits in performing tasks that rely on the mental
operation.
what is cognition
Cognition = thinking processes
what are 2 examples of information processing problems that cognitive psychologists might study
bottlenecks (when you are focusing on one thing and then a second thing happens but you won’t process it properly because you weren’t paying attention to it)
limitations (eg 7+-2 in lists)
in what ways do neuroscientists and psychologists overlap
There is a lot of overlay between cognitive neuroscientists and psychologists in terms of the techniques they use
what is the posterior part of the thalamus
Most posterior part of the thalamus is the pulvinar
in terms of resolution which is better, MRI or computer tomography
MRI
what could you use structural neuroimaging for
You can use structurally neuro imaging to identify damage within your region if interest and then form your experimenta root
what does EEG stand for
Electroencephalography (EEG)
what does an EEG provide
• EEG provides a recording of the brain’s electrical activity.
(not individual neurons but large pools of neurons particularly if they are positions close to the surface of the brain)
how do you get an EEG recording
- Electrodes are attached to the surface of the scalp.
* The signal detected by each electrode is amplified and recorded.
how can EEG’s be used to detect abnormalities
• Predictable EEG patterns occur during different behavioural states.
• Because normal EEG patterns are consistent across individuals, EEG recordings can detect
abnormalities in brain function (e.g., seizure activity).
what are Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) based on/what is an ERP
• ERPs are based on electroencephalography (EEG).
- The EEG recording is time locked to an event.
- The EEG trace that is elicited by an event is called an ERP (i.e., a signature of the electrical activity that occurred in the brain in response to a specific event).
how do you get a clear reading of ERP
there are always things going on the the brain will pick up on, to get rid of this noise you….
• The EEG traces associated with each event are averaged across many trials such that the background
noise is removed and the electrical response to the event can be observed.
• The averaged EEG traces are then compared (e.g., averaged EEG activity when Stimulus A occurred
vs. when Stimulus B occurred).
• ERP research considers electrical activity in response to an event in terms of:
– Latency (when)
– Amplitude and Polarity (positive or negative)
– Scalp Topography (in space/where)
why is the spatial resolution of ERPs is not very accurate.
• Because ERPs are recorded from the scalp, when electrical activity is generated from a central brain
structure, it is difficult to determine which structure was active.
what are ERPs good at providing information about
ERPs provide a good account of the timing of brain activity (i.e., the temporal resolution is quite accurate)
• Neuroimaging falls into two broad categories. what are these
structural imaging and functional imaging.
