Lecture 5

Question 1

In Neuro psych what 2 approaches are their to investigate the neural correlation of WM

Answer 1

Sing studies

Group studies

Question 2

Explain how single case studies investigate the neural correlation of WM

Answer 2

A lot of studies of single cases primarily responsible for function in the brain of a particular area

• Accumulate evidence across single cases and see if you get similar patterns instead of averaging their data

Question 3

What are the major areas of the brain and what are they “functional” for?

Answer 3

Frontal lobe - personality, emotions, problem solving

Parietal lobe - language, touch, perception

Temporal lobe - hearing and sequencing and understanding

Occipital lobe - vision

Cerebellum - coordinate muscle movements, maintain posture, and balance.

Question 4

What are the names to indicate top/bottom/back/front in the brain?

Answer 4

Top - dorsal
Bottom - ventral
Front - rostral
Back - Posterior

Question 5

What are Brodmann’s areas?

Answer 5

regions of the cerebral cortex, in the brain defined by their cytoarchitecture, or histological structure and organization of cells.

Question 6

Who studied patient KF and what happened to him?

What effect did it have on memory and span

Answer 6

Warrington and Shallice, (1969). Head injury from
motorbike accident. Left parietooccipital fracture.

Long-term memory was normal, short-term recall of verbal sequences very poor. Visual largely unaffected.

Auditory digit span 1.7

Question 7

Who studied patient PV and what happened to him?

What effect did it have on memory and span

Neuropsychological evidence for what?

Answer 7

Vallar & Baddeley, (1984)
Stroke causing damage to left temporal and parietal cortex. Long-term memory and most everyday function normal, could speak fluently. Short term poor.

Auditory Digit Span = 2.5
Visual Digit Span = 3.6

His verbal short term memory was impaired - couldn’t use the phonological loop

Clear phonological similarity effects when verbally presented sequences, but no effect when visually presented. Cannot use subvocal rehearsal which is a crucial part of the PL, relies on his visual storage.

Question 8

Who studied patient HM and what happened to him?

What effect did it have on memory and span

Answer 8

Wickelgren, (1968)

Severe epilepsy – controlled by surgery
but with damage to hippocampi.

Severe long-term memory impairment
but intact short-term memory

Question 9

What did Milner, Corkin; Teuber, 1968 show about HM

Answer 9

jigsaw doing it more quickly even though they aren’t aware of doing it before (short term memory loss)

Intact perception and general intelligence
and intact ‘implict learning’ – e.g. mirror drawing or movements

Question 10

What were the initials of the patient with a

visual feature binding impairment?

Answer 10

Patient ES

Question 11

What was the name of the main researcher to study patient ES and when was the research published?

Answer 11

Parra et al. (2009)

Question 12

Where was the lesion in patient ES and

what caused it?

Answer 12

Diagnosed with a meningioma pressing
against her left temporal lobe. This was surgically removed. E.S. performed well on a large battery of standard neuropsychological test.

Question 13

What was impaired for patient ES and

what was not impaired?

Answer 13

Shape only pretty similar, colour similar
Shape colour binding dramatic difference

Binding issues?

No problems at all with binding when using the verbal names

• Only issues when it was abstract objects, difficult to name

Question 14

Who studied Patient Jon

Answer 14

Baddeley, Allen, & Vargha-Khadem (2010)

Question 15

Where was patient Jon damaged in the brain?

Answer 15

Damage to both hippocampi

Question 16

What was impaired in patient Jon and

what was not impaired? What does this show?

Answer 16

Episodic LTM damage, little difficulty on stm tests.
Baddeley Allen, & Vargha-Khadem (2010) studied if hippocampi is required for stm binding, Jon had no deficits in colour and shape binding, the hippocampus is not needed for this.

Question 17

What is Perceptual Neglect?

Answer 17

Failure to report one half of the visual field,
or to be aware of half of the visual field in
the absence of primary visual deficits

Question 18

What is Representational Neglect?

Answer 18

Failure to report one half of a familiar

scene being recalled from memory

Question 19

ADD Explain the Bisiach & Luzzatti (1978) experiment and their findings

Answer 19

Asked to imagine the Milan Cathedral Square

• failed to report half of the square when recalling from memory

Question 20

Can Perceptual neglect occur without Representational neglect and visa versa

Answer 20

Yes

Question 21

Who Studied Patient NL after the second injury

Answer 21

Beschin, Cocchini, Dela Salla Logie (1997)

Question 22

What happened to patient NL

Answer 22

Stroke resulting in lesion in the right parietal lobe

Also left-sided hemiparesis

Question 23

When asked to draw a familiar scene from memory what did patient NL do and why?

What was this evidence for?

Answer 23

Draws details on right but cannot recall details on left

Representational neglect but not perceptual

Not a single unitary system

Question 24

What combination of impairments was observed in the patient studied by Beschin, Basso, & Della Sala (2000)?

What was he evidence for?

Answer 24

Signor Piazza, a patient with a left parieto-occipital haemorrhage and a right thalamic stroke.

right perceptual neglect and left representational neglect

Signor Piazza’s pattern of performance suggests dissociation between imagery and perception within the neglect syndrome.

Question 25

Describe what was wrong with Della Sala et al. (2004) patients

Answer 25

Right-sided brain damage and contralateral representational neglect

Question 26

Describe how Della Sala et al. (2004) patients were tested (2 parts)

Answer 26

Shown a window with 4 fruits, had to recall objects as shown (standard) or from the opposite perspective (reversed)

Also verbally presented material, there is a banana, on the right is an apple and pear, omit the fruit on the left side still with verbal presentation

Question 27

Why do studies of patients with perceptual neglect and representational neglect cause a problem for the Atkinson and Shiffrin theory of working memory?

Answer 27

If perception is intact, then representation should also be intact. So, representational neglect without perceptual neglect should be impossible.

Sensory - memory

Question 28

Findings of Della Sala et al (2004)

Answer 28

Patients with representational unilateral neglect were impaired in immediate recall of novel material on the neglected side as presented.

they successfully mentally rotated the images using the information available to them from their impoverished side. Not purely a result of an attentional deficit

Suggested that the disorder arises from damage to temporary storage functions of visuo-spatial working memory.

Question 29

What do patients with alzheimer’s struggle with?

Answer 29

Experience difficulties when they have to perform two tasks concurrently (e.g. walk and talk, or typing and talking).

Question 30

What tasks did Logie (2004) get alzheimer’s patients to do for their dual task vs single task design?

Answer 30

tracking and digit span

Question 31

What did Logie et al (2004) find with regard to dual task capacity of Alzheimer’s patients?

Answer 31

Alzheimers patients really struggle to do 2 things at once comparatively to health adults and elderly adults

No effect of ageing

Question 32

Why does Logie et al (2004) experiment cause an issue for Cowan’s (2005) model

Answer 32

He would argue general attention impairment is why Alzheimers’ patients do worse

However if this is the case it is a drop with ageing why do older people not show this too

Question 33

How does the multicomponent model explain the Alzheimers’ results?

Answer 33

Impairment of communication between WM components, not of individual components themselves

Question 34

What do patients with alzhiemers’ struggle with?

Answer 34

Easily forget the name of people during conversations and what they said

Question 35

Who and how did Para, Logie, & Della Salla (2010) test whether Alzheimer patients had feature binding issues?

Answer 35

Compared 30 healthy controls, 30 carries of the gene and 22 AD sufferers caused by gene mutation.
Undertook neuropsychological test batteries and visual STM test –> Presented with coloured shapes, then taken away and presented with a colour swap of 2 shapes

Question 36

What did Para, Logie & Della Salla (2010) find?

Answer 36

AD patients and gene carriers dramatic drop in performance in feature binding tasks compared to healthy controls
However - no difference between gene carriers and healthy control neuropsychological test battery result tests

Question 37

What else did Para et al (2010) find with regard to predicting Alzhiemers’?

Answer 37

AD and gene carriers have a large deficit in feature binding tasks. This is seen 10 years before diagnosis of AD.
Suggestion here that short term binding impairments can not only diagnose but predict

Binding combines sensitivity and specificity diagnosis and prediction Patients and carriers have visual STM deficits, which can be a preclinical marker of AD.

Question 38

What is a limitation to Para et al (2010) that short term binding impairments can not only diagnose but predict

Answer 38

The study may be insensitive to effects of normal ageing? (Sample ranged from age 24 - 58)

Whether it will predict disease much later in life in people who don’t have this gene mutation

Have to wait for longitudinal study results to confirm

Question 39

What are some of caveats about using brain imaging techniques to study human cognition? (4)

Answer 39

1. Assumptions regarding link between cognitive function and activation patterns. Conceptual models might work to explain cognition, but not
   map directly onto brain areas. Recruitment of additional areas. (Nijboer et al., 2014)
2. People can do tasks in different ways depending on the nature of their cognitive functions (Logie et al., 2011).
3. Physical environment (noise, anxiety, posture) may change cognitive
   activity (Hommel et al., 2012)
4. Imaging might be informed by cognition, but might add little or nothing to what we already know about cognition. (Coltheart, 2013)

Question 40

What is generally agreed among researchers on
working memory?

(3)

Answer 40

1. Supports temporary memory and moment-to-moment monitoring and processing in a wide range of everyday tasks
2. Conceptual model of on-line cognition
3. Accounts for aspects of:
   - temporary memory, memory development, cog ability, memory loss with brain damage, thinking, problem solving

Question 41

What remain as the main sources of disagreement among working memory
researchers?

(8)

Answer 41

1. Representations, Encoding and Retrieval
2. Monitoring and control
3. A single general system or a collection of specialist
   systems
4. The nature of its limitations
5. Role in complex cognition
6. Relationship with long-term memory and
   prior knowledge
7. Relationship with attention and consciousness
8. Link with brain organisation

Question 42

Can you think of how the sources of disagreement might be resolved – or is a
resolution not possible?

Answer 42

TIE IT TOGETHER!

Question 43

Discuss fMRI

Answer 43

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Maps blood flow to areas of the brain, when a task is completed - the region in the brain required for it increases oxygenation.

NEGATIVES:
However, require patients to be restrained and sitting in a tube - will effect hydrostatistics. Biological and physical constraints
Naturalisitic? No
Reflects mass neural activity
White noise - influences cognitive control and results

POSITIVES:
Non-invasive
Widely avaliable
Used to monitor the entire brain network with a particular activity
Can ‘read minds’ better than behavioural tests