Lecture 4

Question 1

What two things do we need to know about the brain?

Answer 1

Structure and function

Question 2

What are the two ways of observing the brain?

Answer 2

Invasive and non invasive

Question 3

What are examples of invasive observation?

Answer 3

Autopsies and brain dissection

Question 4

What is an example of non invasive brain observation?

Answer 4

Magnetic resonance imaging

(MRI)

Diffusion Tensor Imaging

(DTI)

Question 5

Methods of studying brain function

Answer 5

Non invasive

Electroencephalography (EEG/ERP) fMRI (functional MRI
MEG (magnetoencephalohraphy)

Question 6

What are the advantages and disadvantages of EEG/ERP

Answer 6

Pro: Excellent temporal resolution

Con: Less spatial precision

Question 7

FMRI (Functional MRI)

Advantages and disadvantages

Answer 7

Con: poor temporal resolution

Pro: excellent spatial precision

Question 8

MEG (Magnetoencephalography)

Not invasive technique to measure function of the brain

Advantages and disadvantages?

Answer 8

Advantages: pretty good spatial precision and pretty good temporal precision.

No real cons

Question 9

Action potentials are all of none, they do not change in their:

Answer 9

Size or strength

They can however happen more or less frequently

Question 10

What system provides the biological basis of substrate, for psychological experience with

Answer 10

Nervous system

Question 11

What system carries information to and from the central nervous system?

Answer 11

Peripheral nervous system

Question 12

What system directs psychological and basic life processes, responds to stimuli

Answer 12

Central nervous system

Question 13

The central nervous system can be subdivided, what are the two official subdivisions?

Answer 13

Spinal cord - receives sensory input, sends information to the brain, responds with motor output

Brain - directs psychological activity; processes information; maintains life supports

Question 14

Peripheral nervous system has two subjections

Answer 14

Somatic nervous system

(Conveys sensory information to the central nervous system and sends motor messages to muscles)

Autonomic nervous system

(Serves basic life functions, such as the beating of the heart and response to stress)

Question 15

Autonomic nervous system can be divided into two subsystems:

Answer 15

Sympathetic nervous system

(Readies the bus in response to threat; activates the organism)

Parasympathetic nervous system

(Calms the body down; maintains energy)

Question 16

What nervous system passes sensory information to the central nervous system and carries out motor commands?

Answer 16

Somatic nervous system

Question 17

What nerve fibres carry information from periphery (e.g sensory organs) to the central nervous system?

Answer 17

Afferent nerve fibres

Question 18

What nerve fibres carry information from the central nervous system to the periphery?

Answer 18

Efferent

Question 19

Laterality of brain function

The two different hemispheres of the brain show different dominance for different functions.

Sensory information received on left side of body is processed by what hemisphere? And vice versa

Answer 19

Information received on left side of body is processed by right hemisphere and vice versa

• same for motor contro

Question 20

The left side of the brain is responsible for things like:

Answer 20

Speech 
Reading
Language 
Arithmetic
Visual memory 
Language 
Sounds 
Complex movement 
Right visual field 
Right side of body/motor movements

Question 21

Right brain is responsible for:

Answer 21

Emotional content 
Direction, distance 
Nonverbal memory 
Faces/patterns 
Music, non language 
Movement in spatial patterns
Left visual field 
Left side of body/motor movements

Question 22

Corpus callosum

Answer 22

Allows right and left brain to work together

Question 23

4 lobes of the brain

Answer 23

Frontal lobe Involved in some of the high order tasks like planning, social skills, abstract thinking and attention involved in some aspects of personality.

Occipital lobe (visual information - damage to certain parts of this area can lead to partial or complete blindness and spreads over left and right hemisphere)

Parietal lobe (processes tactile information (touch) Egocentric space, integrates visual information and damage to this area causes something called ‘neglect’ which is where suffers neglect one side of body including not shave certain side of face, put makeup on one side etc. usually damage to the right parietal lobe causes left side neglect

Temporal lobe processes auditory information and is important for speech and language. Common symptoms of temporal lobe damage:

Disturbances of auditory, sensation and perception and a whole lot of other stuff you should find out.

Question 24

Who is phineas gage

Answer 24

Someone who ended up with an iron bar through his brain including frontal lobe. His personality changed, he couldn’t plan, had less social skills, couldn’t control his emotions etc

Question 25

Language in the brain. We generally indentify two primary areas as working together to enable language. These areas are called?

Answer 25

Broca’s area And Wernick’s area

Question 26

Broca’s area and wernicks area are connected via nerve fibre bundles called the:

Answer 26

actuate fasciculus and work together to enable language

Question 27

Broca’s area is located where and what is it responsible for?

Answer 27

Left frontal lobe and is responsible for speech production, use and understanding of grammar, language comprehension

Question 28

Wernickes area is located where and involved in what?

Answer 28

Left temporal lobe and responsible for language comprehension and producing meaningful speech. As in a word salad, no difficulty saying words but not saying them in correct order.

Question 29

Broca’s aphasia is what?

Answer 29

Where there is damage to broca’s area and person can’t string sentences together properly although she can comprehend everything that’s being said

Question 30

Fluent aphasia

Answer 30

A type of aphasia (language disorder after stroke) poor comprehension but speech is effortless. Meaning of sentences are then impaired, meaningless rambling but words are easily attained.

Question 31

Nearoplasticity

Answer 31

The brain is a constantly evolving structure that changes structirally and functionally in response to its environment, stimulation and condition

Question 32

After injury to the brain, there are two mechanisms whereby functional improvement may occur What are these mechanisms?

Answer 32

Recovery: relates to Restoration of neural tosssje (neural Level) Restoration of movement exactly as it was performed prior (activity level) Compensation: Refers to recruitment of new neural circuits (neural level) Training of new movement sequences (behavioural level) Training of activity a new way after injury (activity level)

Question 33

Consciousness

Answer 33

An ambiguous term - general state of mind (awake vs asleep, under anaesthesia) - contents of consciousness - being aware vs unaware of information or actions

Question 34

Definition of consciousness

Answer 34

A state of Awarenesss of internal (mental) events and the external environment

Question 35

Contents of consciousness

Answer 35

Ordinary waking consciousness includes Thoughts Perceptions Feelings Images Desires in your current focus of attention Your subjective sense of self

Question 36

Perspectives on consciousness

Answer 36

1. Structuralism - Wundt, tichner studied the contents of the conscious mind 2. Functionalism William James view consciousness as a constantly moving stream of thoughts, feelings and emotions 3. Psychodynamic view (Freud) 3 systems: - Conscious (mental events of which you are aware) - Preconscious (mental events that can be brought into awareness) - Unconscious (Mental events that are inaccessible to awareness; events that are actively kept out of awareness) 4. Cognitive Dual process models: information processing mechanism operate - outside of awareness (Priming, implicit memory, procedural knowledge Requires awareness (Working memory) Unconscious processes are fast and efficient, supports adaptive responses to external stimuli, can operate simultaneously, can influence behaviour Conscious processes are slower, more deliberate and more effortful

Question 37

Functions of consciousness

Answer 37

1. Monitoring mental events (self, environment) 2. Regulating thought and behaviour (Consciousness May have evolved to direct or control behaviour in adaptive way)

Question 38

Neural basis of consciousness. Consciousness is distributed throughout the brain. Where?

Answer 38

Hindbrain and midbrain are important for arousal and sleep Damage to the reticular formation can lead to coma Prefrontal cortex is key for conscious control of information processing