Midterm 2 Flashcards
(116 cards)
1
Q
Definition of Attention
A
selectively concentrating on some information while ignoring other info
2
Q
What is the metaphor of the “spotlight of attention”?
A
- attending to something makes your spotlight of attention move to that thing
- fringe (periphery) events are outside of the spotlight
3
Q
What is attention often referred to in relation to consciousness?
A
the “gatekeeper” of consciousness
4
Q
Is attention necessary for consciousness?
Why?
A
Yes
For you to be aware of something, you have to attend to it
5
Q
Is attention sufficient for consciousness?
Why?
A
No
Not everything we attend to enters our conscious awareness
6
Q
Attention can either be… (2)
A
- Involuntarily grabbed (e.g. someone walks in & slams the door)
- Intentionally directed
7
Q
Where does involuntary control of attention occur in the brain? (2)
A
mainly in the RIGHT HEMISPHERE, in the VENTRAL ATTENTION SYSTEM
8
Q
what 2 parts of the brain does involuntary control of attention involve?
What are functions of these parts?
A
- Temporoparietal Junction: integrates info from many sites, like the thalamus, visual, auditory
- Ventral Frontal Cortex: involved in detecting unexpected targets
9
Q
Where in the brain does voluntary control of attention occur? (2)
A
the DORSAL attentional system
- bilateral! (both hemispheres of the brain)
10
Q
What 2 parts of the brain does voluntary attention involve?
What are functions of these parts?
A
- Intraparietal Sulcus: perceptual-motor coordination & directing eye movements
- Frontal Eye Field: responsible for saccadic voluntary eye movements
11
Q
What is Ulric Neisser’s Feature Theory?
A
when you process features that are similar, it’s hard to notice differences
(e.g. picking the letter O in a set of letters that are circular is more difficult than picking O from ones that are square)
12
Q
Is directing attention the same as directing the eyes?
A
No, you can look at one thing but be paying attention to another
13
Q
Are there multiple spotlights of attention? (2)
A
- Yes, you can direct your attention to multiple things.
- attention might be limited
14
Q
What did Stephanie A. McMain discover in her experiments on multiple spotlights of attention in the visual cortex?
A
V1 is retinotopically organized (receptive fields that are close in the visual space are also close in the cortex)
15
Q
What is Attentional Blink?
What is it similar to?
A
- when you pay attention to 1 thing, your ability to pay attention to something else directly AFTER “blinks” for a moment
- similar to neuron refractory period
16
Q
Benjamin Libet experimented with how electrode stimulation on the brain surface translated into tactile perception.
What did he find regarding low intensity electrical pulses?
A
person will have no awareness of touch, no matter how long the pulse-train lasts
17
Q
Benjamin Libet experimented with how electrode stimulation on the brain surface translated into tactile perception.
What did he find regarding high intensity electrical pulses?
A
person was aware of touch, but only if pulse-train was greater than or equal to 0.5s
18
Q
What idea did Libet’s experiments on the Half-Second Delay in Consciousness support?
What is this idea called?
A
- idea that it takes about 0.5s.of brain activity before you become aware of something
- Neuronal Adequacy
19
Q
Libet proposed “subjective referral of sensory experience backward in time”; what does this mean?
A
you become conscious 0.5s later, but your brain makes you feel like it happened instantaneously
- brain is playing a trick: moving your consciousness 0.5s back in time
20
Q
What did Libet find regarding tactile experience relative to cortex experience?
Why does this happen?
A
- skin experience actually happens BEFORE cortex experience, even though cortical stimulation starts before touch stimulation
- WHY: touch is perceived instantly
21
Q
What was Libet’s 3-step explanation for why a skin stimulus is felt before the cortical stimulation?
A
- Information travels skin
–> cortex - You need neural activity greater than 0.5s before the stimulus is consciously perceived
- Your perception is moved back in time to match the actual time when the event happened
22
Q
According to Libet, to what point in time is our sensory experience moved back?
A
the experienced is referred back to the primary evoked potential (a very fast neural signal that starts following a stimulus to the skin)
23
Q
what does fMRI (Functional) measure?
What quality is it spatial + temporal resolution?
A
- measures blood flow to more active areas of the brain (looks at the activity of the brain)
- GOOD spatial resolution
- POOR temporal resolution
24
Q
what does Structural MRI measure?
A
maps the structure of the brain, but doesn’t show what areas are more active
25
1. what does EEG (electroencephalography) measure?
2. What is the quality of its spatial + temporal resolution?
3. what is it sometimes combined with?
1. brain waves from scalp surface
2. POOR spatial, GOOD temporal
3. fMRI
26
1. what is TMS (transcranial magnetic stimilation)?
2. Is it invasive or non-invasive?
3. What is its function?
1. a coil that emits a magnetic pulse (about 1T), placed near the part of the brain that you want to study
2. non-invasive
3. temporarily disrupts activity of the part of the brain that it's near
27
1. What is ECoG (electrocorticography)?
2. What patients is it often used in?
3. What is the quality of its spatial & temporal resolution?
4. Is it invasive or non-invasive?
1. placing electrode INSIDE or directly ON the surface of the brain
2. epileptic patients, to find where the seizure begins
3. EXCELLENT spatial + temporal resolution
4. Invasive
28
What is unconscious inference (Helmholtz)?
- involuntary reflex-like mechanisms that are part of visual perception
- example: visual illusions - we're unable to consciously convince ourselves that our eyes play tricks
29
- what is the Muller-Lyer Illusion?
- What is the explanation for this?
- 2 lines where the bottom one appears longer, but they're actually the same size
- Sharp edges in western architecture may trick our brains
30
What is the idea of subliminal (unconscious) perception?
something can be below your conscious perception, but still affect your behavior
31
What is evidence that subliminal detection/perception works? (4)
Semantic priming
- a word is flashed on a screen (too fast to read)
- after, test words & nonsense words are flashed
- one of the test words is related to the first word
- the semantically related words are identified faster
32
what did research evaluating effects of subliminal messages on behavior show?
that subliminal messages have no effect on behavior
- changes result from other factors, like expectancy effects
33
Conscious Processing (2)
- slow & controlled
- requires working memory
34
Neurally, what happens in conscious processing? (e.g. when you catch a ball) (5)
1. physical info is transduced in the sensory system
2. nerve firings happen in the visual system
3. turns into conscious experience
4. conscious experience acts back on the brain (e.g. moves arm up to catch the ball)
5. causes more neurons to fire to direct the action
35
Is conscious perception necessary for skilled movements?
No
36
Unconscious Processing
- fast, automatic, effortless
37
- 5 types of Conscious/Unconscious Actions
- brief examples of each
1. Always Unconscious
- e.g. spinal reflexes
2. Initially Unconscious, but can be brought under conscious control
- e.g. biofeedback: can control heartbeat/breathing if you try
3. Initially requires conscious effort (learning), but becomes automatic
- e.g. automation: learning to ride bike
4. Can be done either way (consciously or unconsciously)
- e.g. driving: sometimes you're aware, sometimes you're not
5. Always conscious
- e.g. trying to make a hard moral decision
38
Ungerleider & Mishkin's definitions of the dorsal vs ventral pathway
- Dorsal Pathway, the "where" pathway: processes location, movement, spatial information
- Ventral Pathway, the "what" pathway: processes color, texture, detail, shape, size
39
Milner & Goodale proposed that the divisions between the pathways should be (2)
- vision for action: fast visuomotor control
- vision for perception: less urgent visual perception
40
Patient DF had visual agnosia. What does this mean? (what could/couldn't she do?) (2)
- couldn't name simple line drawings, recognize letters/#s, or objects
- could: draw letters/#s from MEMORY, recognize objects by TOUCH
41
In what region of the brain did Patient DF show NO activity?
Between what 2 functions did Patient DF show dissociation?
1. the ventral pathway
2. motor performance & awareness
42
Milner & Goodale suggested that Patient DF (2) ...
- lost much of the ventral stream
2. retained the dorsal stream (so could do automatic motor control)
43
Lesions to what 2 lobes of the brain result in visual agnosia?
the posterior temporal & occipital lobes
44
What is Prosopagnosia?
What does it result from?
- face blindness (but can do object recognition)
- damage to the fusiform face area (FFA)
45
What is color agnosia?
Damage to what part of the brain causes this?
Is color vision normal or abnormal in those with color agnosia?
- failure to identify abnormally colored objects (can tell difference between a red & blue strawberry, but can't say which one is red/blue)
- ventral occipital cortex
- normal
46
What is Blindsight?
What does it result from?
- contralateral visual space disappears (e.g. right side damage --> left side disappears)
- damage to one side of V1
47
If a blindsight patient is shown a circle with stripes in the blind hemifield, they often say they don't see anything.
Dr asks them to guess.
What % of the time do patients guess correctly?
90-95% of the time
48
What are blindsight individuals able (& not able) to do? (4)
1. can see afterimages
2. CAN'T read a word on the blind side, BUT a word on that side can influence a semantically related word on the seeing side
3. can track moving stimuli with eyes
4. can grasp objects that they say they can't see
49
Blindseers have...
vision without consciousness
50
Name the 2 pathways taken from the eyes to the brain to allow us to see.
What % of cells take each pathway?
1. Major route through V1: 85% of cells
2. through the Superior Colliculus (brainstem) --> directly to the dorsal area (bypassing V1): 15% of cells
51
what is the Tactile Vision Substitution System (TVSS)? (2)
use of pattern of activity (vibration) on the back, abdomen, thighs, fingertips to convey visual information through sense of touch
- allows blind subjects to "see" through other senses
52
What is one sense that can be used to replace vision
How?
1. Sound
2. Soundscapes: pitch/timing of sounds can be used to indicate whether an object is up/down or left/right
53
Intraoperative Awareness
1 in 1000 patients temporarily regain consciousness during surgery
54
What does anesthesia induce? (2)
- unresponsiveness & amnesia
- not the same as unconsciousness
55
Low dose anesthetics (4)
- similar to drunkenness
- amnesia
- distorted time perception
- increased sleepiness
56
Higher dose anesthetics (2)
- patient can't move in response to commands
- considered clinically unconscious
57
what is the relationship between unconsciousness & unresponsiveness?
they are not synonymous
58
what is the isolated forearm technique (IFT)? (4)
1. tie a tourniquet to arm before anesthesia
2. anesthesia goes everywhere except arm
3. patient under general anesthesia CAN use hand signals
4. when they wake up, they deny ever being awake
59
what % of patients show an IFT response?
approximately 30%
60
When do anesthetics seem to cause unconsciousness?
when they block the brain's ability to integrate information
61
When a TMS signal is sent to the Premotor Cortex, what occurs in the brain activity of a person that is awake vs asleep?
What does this suggest?
- awake: area of the brain close to the signal lights up then shifts to other parts of the brain
- asleep: area of the brain close to the signal lights up, but STAYS in same location
- connection between parts of the brain is essential for conscious awareness
62
How does anesthesia affect thalamic activity?
What does this suggest?
- reduces thalamic activity
- thalamus may serve to turn consciousness on/off
63
What is evidence that the thalamus serves as a consciousness switch?
- GABA agonists (inhibitory) injected into the thalamus causes rats to rapidly fall asleep (like anesthesia)
64
What were Redinbaugh et al. (2020) experiments on the relationship between the thalamus & consciousness? (3)
- while monkeys were under deep anesthesia, they stimulated the thalamus
- monkey INSTANTLY woke up
- shows thalamus is involved in consciousness
65
What is the main question of free will?
are we free to choose our own actions and decisions?
66
What are the 2 main problems associated with free will?
1. Determinism: the universe runs by deterministic laws of physics ; free will is an illusion & everything we do is pre-determined
2. Moral Responsibility: if I am not truly free to choose my actions (bc everything is pre determined) , then I shouldn't be held morally or legally responsible
67
For free will to be possible...
random events must exist
- this doesn't align with determinism
68
What is Epistemic Randomness?
Example?
- uncertainty due to lack of knowledge
- e.g. the roll of a dice
it seems random, but if you use physics to calculate everything there is to calculate, it is no longer random
69
what is ontological randomness? (2) example?
- an event that is truly random
- only known cases are in quantum physics
- e.g. Shrodinger's Cat: what state it ends up in (dead/alive) is completely random
70
what is the relationship between randomness & free will?
Ontological Randomness is a REQUIREMENT for true free will
71
what 2 areas of the brain are active during externally triggered (involuntary) actions, such as being startled by a loud sound?
- cerebellum
- premotor cortex
72
What are 3 brain areas + their functions that are involved in Voluntary Action (volition)?
what area do they converge on?
1. Supplementary Motor Area (SMA): involved in sequencing + planning motor actions
2. Anterior Cingulate Cortex: involved in emotion, pain, selection of info for action
3. Broca's Area: motor output for speech
- they all converge on the Primary Motor Cortex (carries out motor commands)
73
Phineas Gage had damage to 2 parts of his frontal lobe which changed his personality.
What are the names of these 2 areas, & what does damage to these areas result in?
1. Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC): reduces cognitive flexibility & inhibition (increases stereotypic behavior)
2. PreSMA: prone to automatic action in response to environmental triggers (e.g. starts eating apple placed in front of them)
74
Benjamin Libet conducted an experiment on free will. What was one result that he found? (2)
Voluntary actions are preceded by a "readiness potential" (RP)
RP: slow negative shift in electric potential, starting about 0.5s before an action takes place
75
Libet also conducted an experiment on "will to act". What did he find regarding what comes first? (2)
What does this finding mean?
- readiness potential comes about 500 ms before the action
- "will" comes 200 ms before the action
- Consciousness comes too late to cause the action.
76
4 objections to Libet's finding on "will to act"
1. the results are obvious: if consciousness came before RP, that would be magic
2. "Will" is too subjective to accurately measure
3. Results might not generalize to more complex actions (like morals)
4. deciding to take an action is not instantaneous
77
What was Libet's final conclusion on free will?
Consciousness CAN play a role by allowing the motor action to proceed, or by stopping it
78
Who was Erasmus Darwin? (2)
- Darwin's grandfather
- had already questioned whether living things are fixed prior to Darwin
79
What did Sir Charles Lyell do?
discovered that geological forces slowly change landscapes (e.g. volcanoes are gradually built up)
80
What did Darwin provide?
a mechanism to EXPLAIN how evolution worked, NOT the idea of evolution itself
81
What was Darwin's idea? (4)
Natural Selection:
1. over a long period of time, creatures vary
2. and, there is a struggle for life
3. so, some variation in structure/habits MUST happen that gives a creature a little bit of an ADVANTAGE in the struggle for life
4. these individuals will have the best chance of survival & will produce offspring
82
Who co-published with Darwin on the theory of evolution?
Alfred Russel Wallace
83
What are 2 forces in evolution (+ explanations of each) that are coupled with natural selection?
1. Genetic Drift: by CHANCE, some characteristics might become more frequent in a population
2. Genetic Flow: geographically separated species that migrate will result in mixed variants (migration)
84
3 step algorithm that results in evolution
1. Variation (e.g. in size, color....)
2. Selection (e.g. green bugs are more visible to predators, so beige bugs survive more often)
3. Heredity
85
what is Lamarckism? (3)
- idea of inheritance of acquired characteristics
- ALL species improve with time
- there are simple creatures at one end of evolution, & intelligent humans at the other end
86
what is directed evolution? (2)
what leads to it?
- part of Lamarckism
- you can direct evolution with conscious efforts
- improvements in acquired characteristics leads to directed evolution
87
how did Lamarck define Evolution?
what is evolution ACTUALLY like?
- a line of every improving creatures, leading to the most perfect & intelligent of them all: humans (evolutionary ladder)
- ACTUALLY like a branching tree
88
what was August Weismann's experiment & the result?
- cut off tails of rats & mated them for 22 generations
- rats were still born with long tails; evidence AGAINST Lamarck
89
According to Darwin... (3)
1. there is no in-built direction
2. no guarantee of improvement
3. species go extinct when conditions dictate
90
What was a second finding of Weismann regarding cells & evolution? (3)
- traits are transmitted through germ cells (sperm/egg)
- changes to the phenotype CANNOT affect the genotype
- evidence AGAINST Lamarck's idea of soft inheritance
91
ONLY genotypes are inherited, NOT phenotypes.
why does evolution work like this? (2)
- many harmful things happen to phenotypes (e.g. injuries to body)
- we don't want this to be passed on
92
the selfish gene theory
- the GENE benefits most from natural selection, not the species, group, or individual
93
what does gene-centered theory NOT imply?
- rather...
(3)
that our goal as humans is to spread our genes
- rather, genes spread themselves by creating phenotypes that are more successful in our environment
- e.g. you like good food (behavior/phenotype) bc our ancestors that liked good food were successful at passing their genes on
94
what is the only way in which consciousness can have an effect on evolution?
only if there is a behavioral/phenotypical difference (something observable), because then, it could provide a survival advantage
95
what is an alternative view on the connection between consciousness & evolution?
- what is the problem with this view?
- consciousness is an epiphenomenon (has no effect on behavior)
- qualia inversion: why aren't some subjective experiences reversed? (why doesn't sound become less loud as its intensity is increased?)
96
what is congenital insensitivity to pain?
what causes it? (2)
what is this condition evidence of?
- individuals who can't feel physical pain; often die due to unnoticed illness/injury
- mutation on chromosomes 1,2,9
- caused by endorphin production increase in the brain, blocking pain perception
- evidence that pain qualia serves a function (to keep us alive)
97
Trichromats (2)
- three kinds of color vision cones (red,green,blue)
- humans
98
Dichromats (3)
- 2 types of cones
- usually nocturnal
- some animals
99
who is red-green color blindness more common in? why?
- males
- gene is on X chromosome
100
Tetrachromats (5)
- 4 types of color cones
- can see UV range
- some humans (very rare)
- more common in females
- e.g.: goldfish
101
3 ways of categorizing consciousness in animals
1. Consciousness vs. Unconsciousness (Dichotomy): you're either/or
2. Degrees of Consciousness: consciousness is on a continuum
3. Different kinds of consciousness: a space with many discontinuities
102
relationship between brain size & consciousness
- brain size doesn't determine consciousness, but the complexity of the networks of the brain are relevant
103
relationship of ratio of brain to body size + evidence of this
- not an accurate depictor of consciousness
- e.g. Marmoset has a small body but large brain
104
encephalization quotient (EQ)
the ratio of brain mass & predicted brain mass between 2 animals that have similar body size
105
involvement of brain organization in organism consciousness
- brainstem is involved in maintaining consciousness
- thalamo-cortical complex: determines the content of consciousness; activity is widespread, fast, & low amplitude
106
conscious mammals share which circuit of the brain?
the thalamo-cortical complex
107
what is the "rich club" in the brain? (3)
- highly connected "hubs" in neocortex that have many neurons
- play role in global info processing
- accept only pre-processed, high-order information, NOT raw incoming sensory data
108
what 2 aspects of consciousness are some hubs of the "rich club" involved in? what 2 parts of the brain are these seen in?
1. self-awareness
2. self-reflection
- often seen in the insula & precuneus in the back of the brain
109
what are 4 potential criteria for consciousness?
1. intelligence
2. pain/suffering
3. self-recognition
4. sense of fairness/inequality
110
what did Gordon Gallup's experiments with the mirror self-recognition (MSR) test on animals show?
- chimpanzee can recognize itself
111
who is Koko the gorilla? (3)
- taught American Sign Language
- shown mirror and asked "what do you see?"
- Koko signed "Me, Koko"
112
what is evidence of WHEN self-recognition evolved? (2)
- Magpies are the last common ancestors of mammals + birds, over 300 MILLION years ago, but they still pass the MSR test
- this means that self-recognition must have evolved before that point
113
is the MSR test proof of consciousness?
no, but it shows a certain type/level of consciousness
114
what is theory of mind?
what is a 2nd aspect of it?
- ability to attribute mental states to others; to know they can have fears, beliefs, desires
- knowing that someone else can have a false belief
115
relationship between language + communication
ALL language is communication.
NOT all communication is language
116
overall relationship between language and consciousness
language is NOT the basis of consciousness
