Lecture #2

Question 1

cognitive neuroscience

Answer 1

the study of the physiological
basis of cognition.

Question 2

Levels of analysis

Answer 2

refers to the idea that a topic can be studied in a number of different
ways, with each approach contributing its own dimension to our understanding

Question 3

neurons

Answer 3

create and transmit information about what we experience and know

Question 4

nerve net

Answer 4

a mesh-like structure of nerve cells that are connected to each other.

Question 5

Camillo Golgi (1843–1926)

Answer 5

Italian anatomist who developed a staining technique in which a thin slice of brain tissue was immersed in a
solution of silver nitrate.

Question 6

Ramon y Cajal (1852–1934)

Answer 6

Spanish physiologist who used two
techniques to investigate the nature of the nerve net.

Question 7

2 techniques to investigate the nature of the nerve net

Answer 7

Golgi stain, which
stained only some of the cells in a slice of brain tissue.

study tissue from the brains of newborn animals, because the density of cells in the newborn brain is
small compared with the density in the adult brain.

Question 8

neuron doctrine

Answer 8

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

Question 9

cell body

Answer 9

the metabolic center of
the neuron; it contains mechanisms to keep the cell alive.

Question 10

dendrites

Answer 10

that branch out from the cell body is to receive signals from other neurons

Question 11

Axons

Answer 11

(also called nerve fibers) are usually long processes that transmit signals to other neurons.

Question 12

synapse

Answer 12

a small gap between the end of a neuron’s axon and the dendrites or cell body of another neuron

Question 13

neural circuits

Answer 13

a network of neurons that are connected by synapses and work together to process and send information in the brain

Question 14

receptors

Answer 14

are similar to brain neurons in that they have an axon, but they have specialized receptors that pick up information from the environment.

Question 15

microelectrodes

Answer 15

small shafts of hollow glass filled with a conductive salt solution that can pick up electrical signals at the electrode tip and conduct these signals back to a recording device

Question 16

2 types of electrode

Answer 16

-recording electrode
-reference electrode

Question 17

recording electrode

Answer 17

shown with its recording tip inside the neuron

Question 18

reference electrode

Answer 18

located some distance away so it is not affected by the electrical signals

Question 19

resting potential

Answer 19

stays the same as long as there are no signals in the neuron

Question 20

nerve impulse

Answer 20

an electrical signal that travels along a nerve fiber in response to a stimulus and serves to transmit a record of sensation from a receptor or an instruction to act to an effector

Question 21

action potential

Answer 21

a rapid sequence of changes in the voltage across a membrane, lasts about 1 millisecond

Question 22

neurotransmitter

Answer 22

chemical messengers that your body can’t function without. Their job is to carry chemical signals (“messages”) from one neuron (nerve cell) to the next target cell. The next target cell can be another nerve cell, a muscle cell or a gland.

Question 23

principle of neural representation

Answer 23

states that everything a person experiences is based on representations in the person’s nervous system

Question 24

feature detectors

Answer 24

responded to specific stimulus
features such as orientation, movement, and length.

Question 25

experience-dependent plasticity

Answer 25

the structure of the brain is changed by experience.

Question 26

visual cortex

Answer 26

the part of the brain that processes visual information from the eyes. It's located in the occipital lobe at the back of the brain.

Question 27

temporal lobe

Answer 27

part of the brain that processes sensory information, stores memories, and helps with language and emotions. It's located in the forebrain, behind the ears, and near the temples.

Question 28

hierarchical processing

Answer 28

the idea that information is processed in a hierarchical manner, with higher levels of processing controlling lower levels. This process allows the brain to detect increasingly complex patterns in stimul

Question 29

problem of sensory coding

Answer 29

the challenge of determining how neural activity carries information about stimuli from the external world. It's a central issue in sensory physiology.

Question 30

sensory code

Answer 30

refers to how neurons represent various characteristics of the environment.

Question 31

specificity coding

Answer 31

the idea that memory retrieval is improved when the encoding context is the same as the retrieval context

Question 32

Population coding

Answer 32

the representation of a particular object by the pattern of firing of a large number of neurons

Question 33

Sparse coding

Answer 33

occurs when a particular object is represented by a pattern of firing of only a small group of neurons, with the majority of neurons remaining silent.

Question 34

Three types of coding:

Answer 34

(a) Specificity coding (b) Population coding (c) Sparse coding

Question 35

localization of function

Answer 35

the idea that specific parts of the brain control specific functions

Question 36

cerebral cortex

Answer 36

which is a layer of tissue about 3 mm thick that covers the brain; The cortex is the wrinkled covering you see when you look at an intact brain

Question 37

subcortical areas

Answer 37

the regions of the brain that are located below the cerebral cortex.

Question 38

neuropsychology

Answer 38

the study of the behavior of people with brain damage.

Question 39

cortical equipotentiality

Answer 39

the idea that the brain operated as an indivisible whole as opposed to specialized areas

Question 40

Broca's area

Answer 40

a region in the brain that controls speech production and articulation

Question 41

Tan

Answer 41

what Broca's patients were called as

Question 42

Broca’s aphasia

Answer 42

Frontal lobe damaged- a language disorder that makes it difficult for people to speak fluently

Question 43

Wernicke’s area

Answer 43

a region in the brain that is responsible for understanding written and spoken language

Question 44

Wernicke’s aphasia

Answer 44

Temporal lobe damaged- a type of aphasia that makes it difficult for people to understand spoken and written language

Question 45

occipital lobe

Answer 45

the part of the brain that processes visual information.

Question 46

parietal lobe

Answer 46

is a region of the brain that processes sensory information, including touch, pain, and temperature. It's located at the top rear of the head, between the frontal and occipital lobes.

Question 47

frontal lobe

Answer 47

receives signals from all of the senses and is responsible for coordination of the senses, as well as higher cognitive functions like thinking and problem solving.

Question 48

prosopagnosia

Answer 48

an inability to recognize faces. People with prosopagnosia can tell that a face is a face, but they can’t recognize whose face it is, even for people they know well such as friends and family members.

Question 49

double dissociation

Answer 49

echnique that compares the effects of brain lesions on different mental functions. It's used to determine which areas of the brain are responsible for specific mental functions

Question 50

brain imaging

Answer 50

a noninvasive procedure that uses energy to create images of the brain. The images can show the structure and function of the brain, and are used to diagnose conditions

Question 51

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

Answer 51

takes advantage of the fact that neural activity causes the brain to bring in more oxygen, which binds to hemoglobin molecules in the blood

Question 52

task-related fMRI

Answer 52

the change in brain activity that can be linked specifically to the task. The results of these calculations for each voxel are then displayed as colorful activation patterns

Question 53

fusiform face area (FFA)

Answer 53

a part of the human brain that is especially responsive to faces.

Question 54

parahippocampal place area (PPA)

Answer 54

a region of the brain that processes visual information about scenes and places.

Question 55

extrastriate body area (EBA)

Answer 55

a part of the brain that helps people see and understand human bodies and body parts.

Question 56

multidimensional

Answer 56

that different areas respond to different features of humans—illustrates a central principle of cognition: most of our experience

Question 57

distributed representation

Answer 57

It's the fact that looking at a face activates many areas of the brain

Question 58

Episodic memories

Answer 58

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

Question 59

Semantic memories

Answer 59

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

Question 60

Neural networks

Answer 60

are interconnected areas of the brain that can communicate with each other

Question 61

Structural connectivity

Answer 61

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

Question 62

track-weighted imaging (TWI)

Answer 62

based on detection of how water diffuses along the length of nerve fibers, shows nerve tracts determined by this technique

Question 63

connectome

Answer 63

Pictures of the brain’s pathways obtained by these new techniques to indicate the “structural description of the network of elements and connections forming the human brain” or more simply, the “wiring diagram” of neurons in the brain

Question 64

functional connectivity

Answer 64

a measure of how different regions of the brain are statistically dependent on each other. It's a way to study how brain regions interact and exchange information.

Question 65

resting-state fMRI

Answer 65

a type of brain imaging that measures spontaneous brain activity without requiring a task or stimulus. It's used to study how brain regions interact with each other when a person is resting or not actively engaged in a task

Question 66

resting-state functional connectivity

Answer 66

- Bharat Biswal and coworkers (1995) -a technique that measures how brain activity correlates when a person is at rest.

Question 67

seed location

Answer 67

the location of a region of interest (ROI) that is used to identify patterns of connectivity in the brain.

Question 68

time-series response

Answer 68

indicates how the response changes over time.

Question 69

test location

Answer 69

response of the test location Somatosensory, which is located in an area of the brain responsible for sensing touch

Question 70

Six Common Functional Networks Determined by Resting-State fMRI:

Answer 70

Visual Somato-motor Dorsal Attention Executive Control Salience Default mode

Question 71

Visual network - Function

Answer 71

Vision; visual perception

Question 72

Somato-motor network- Function

Answer 72

Movement and touch

Question 73

Dorsal Attention- Function

Answer 73

Attention to visual stimuli and spatial locations

Question 74

Executive Control- function

Answer 74

Higher-level cognitive tasks involved in working memory and directing attention during tasks

Question 75

Salience- function

Answer 75

Attending to survival-relevant events in the environment

Question 76

Default mode -function

Answer 76

Mind wandering, and cognitive activity related to personal life-story, social functions, and monitoring internal emotional states