Don't study - Module 9

Question 1

What is cognition?

Answer 1

Cognition is the process of gaining knowledge and understanding information. It includes attention, perception, learning, memory, decision making, problem solving, planning, and imagination.

Question 2

What is cognitive fitness?

Answer 2

Cognitive fitness refers to an optimized state of cognition, including the ability to focus, learn, recall information, reason, solve problems, plan, and adapt to changes.

Question 3

What are some short-term aspects of brain health and cognition?

Answer 3

Short-term aspects include maintaining attention while learning new information, processing and recalling information quickly, adapting to changes in the environment, and having a sense of emotional and psychological well-being.

Question 4

What are some long-term aspects of brain health and cognition?

Answer 4

Long-term aspects include strong cognitive functioning in old age, capacity for lifelong learning, prevention of age-related cognitive decline, and maintaining emotional and psychological well-being.

Question 5

What are the four domains of lifestyle factors linked to cognitive function according to the DEEP framework?

Answer 5

The four domains are Diet, Exercise, Education, and Purpose.

Question 6

What is the DEEP framework?

Answer 6

The DEEP framework organizes modifiable factors impacting brain health and cognition into four domains: Diet, Exercise, Education, and Purpose.

Question 7

Why might activities spanning multiple domains of the DEEP framework be more beneficial?

Answer 7

Activities spanning multiple domains may be more beneficial because they involve a combination of physical activity, cognitive stimulation, and social connectedness.

Question 8

What are two important considerations regarding lifestyle factors and brain health?

Answer 8

(1) The effects of any one lifestyle factor in isolation are likely to be subtle, and

(2) different lifestyle factors require different amounts of time and energy to manifest noticeable changes in brain health and cognition.

Question 9

Which of the following is defined as the state of being able to effectively encode and recall information, focus on salient stimuli, plan, reason, and adapt to a changing environment?

cognitive flexibility

cognitive fitness

cognitive adaptation

executive function

Answer 9

cognitive fitness

Question 10

Kempermann (2019) organized 50 lifestyle factors and activities linked to brain health into four domains. Which of the following is not one of the four domains in Kempermann’s framework?

diet

exercise

optimism

education

Answer 10

optimism

Question 11

Which of the following terms is related to the long-term benefits of cognitive stimulation with respect to age-related cognitive decline and dementia?

a). hippocampal volume

b), cognitive reserve

c). resilience

d). b and c

Answer 11

d). b and c

Question 12

Which of the following is not a factor linked to optimal brain health and cognition in healthy adults?

quality sleep for 10 hours per night

strong social connections

good emotional health (e.g., low levels of stress and anxiety)

good physical health (e.g., low blood sugar and low cholesterol)

Answer 12

quality sleep for 10 hours per night

Question 13

How does physical exercise promote brain health?

Answer 13

Physical exercise increases the expression of neurotrophic factors, facilitates neurotransmission, enhances waste product clearance, and supports healthy cerebrovasculature.

Question 14

What changes occur in brain regions associated with cognition due to regular physical exercise?

Answer 14

Neuroimaging studies show that brain regions involved in attention, executive processing, and memory, such as the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, are larger in adults who engage in regular physical exercise.

Question 15

What did the systematic review of aerobic exercise studies by Duke University researchers find?

Answer 15

Individuals who engaged in regular aerobic exercise exhibited improved attention, processing speed, executive function, and memory compared to those who did not.

Question 16

How does aerobic exercise affect cognitive performance in older adults?

Answer 16

Aerobic exercise can reduce the risk of age-related cognitive decline and dementia and improve cognitive performance, as shown in a study with women aged 70-80 years.

Question 17

What happens to hippocampal volume with aging and dementia?

Answer 17

Hippocampal volume decreases with age, and the reduction is even greater in individuals with dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Question 18

What effects does physical exercise have on memory in rats?

Answer 18

Physical exercise in rats is associated with improved acquisition and retention in hippocampal-dependent memory tasks, both in young adult and aged rats.

Question 19

How does aerobic fitness correlate with hippocampal volume and spatial memory?

Answer 19

Higher aerobic fitness is associated with greater hippocampal volume and better performance in a spatial memory task, partially mediated by hippocampal volume.

Question 20

How does physical exercise influence emotional and mental health?

Answer 20

Physical exercise is associated with reduced rates and severity of anxiety and depression, even among individuals with a genetic predisposition to depression.

Question 21

What is the relationship between physical activity and depression risk?

Answer 21

Higher levels of physical activity are associated with a lower risk of depression, regardless of genetic vulnerability to depression.

Question 22

What type of physical exercise is most beneficial for brain health and cognition?

Answer 22

Moderate-intensity aerobic exercise appears to be most beneficial, while low and high-intensity exercise may have smaller or even negative effects on brain health and cognition.

(moderate-intensity exercise has been linked to sustained increases in brain levels of chemicals that mediate neuron growth, survival, and plasticity, such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and nerve growth factor (NGF), as well as neuromodulators such as endorphins.)

(high intensity exercise may negatively impact brain health and cognition by increasing circulating concentrations of stress hormones that negatively impact cognition, such as cortisol.)

Question 23

Which of the following is a growth factor that is increased by moderate-intensity physical exercise?

a). brain-derived neurotrophic factor

b). nerve growth factor

c). Acetylcholine

d). both a and b

Answer 23

d). both a and b

Question 24

Which of the following structural and functional changes has not been observed in learning and memory-associated neural circuits following physical exercise in young adult animals?

increased dendrite length

increased spine density

decreased spine density

increased functional connectivity

Answer 24

decreased spine density

Question 25

Researchers at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health recently showed that daily running and walking significantly reduced the risk of developing which of the following disorders?

generalized anxiety

major depression

anhedonia

seasonal affective disorder

Answer 25

major depression

Question 26

Which of the following behavioural tests was used by Vilela et al. (2016) to examine spatial memory in aging rats following exercise training?

the Barnes maze

the Morris water maze

the Hebb-Williams maze

the radial arm maze

Answer 26

the Barnes maze

Question 27

What method did Alan Rechtschaffen use to study the effects of chronic sleep deprivation in rats?

Answer 27

The disk-over-water method, where rats are placed on a moving disk suspended over shallow water, with one rat undergoing sleep deprivation and the other serving as a control.

Question 28

How does the disk-over-water method control for physical activity during sleep deprivation experiments?

What stressors are controlled for in the disk-over-water method?

Answer 28

Both rats must walk at the same speed and for the same amount of time to avoid falling into the water whenever the platform begins to rotate, ensuring they receive the same forced physical activity.

Both rats undergo handling, surgery for EEG electrode implantation, and are placed in small enclosures suspended over water, ensuring they experience similar levels of stress during the experiment.

Question 29

What pathologies did sleep-deprived rats exhibit in Rechtschaffen’s experiments?

Answer 29

Sleep-deprived rats showed ungroomed or discolored fur, skin lesions, paw swelling, motor impairments, impaired balance, temperature dysregulation, and changes in brain activity detected by EEG.

Most rats died or were euthanized because death seemed imminent after no more than 21 days of sleep deprivation.

Question 30

What functions does sleep support in the brain?

Answer 30

Sleep supports neurogenesis, structural and functional neuron plasticity, neuron repair, and waste clearance.

Question 31

How does sleep facilitate the clearance of toxic proteins like β-amyloid from the brain?

Answer 31

During sleep, changes in the circulation of cerebrospinal fluid aid in the clearance of toxic proteins like β-amyloid from the brain.

Question 32

What did a cross-sectional study using PET imaging find regarding sleep duration and β-amyloid build-up in the brain?

Answer 32

Short sleep duration and poor sleep quality were associated with greater β-amyloid build-up in the brains of adults aged 53-91 years old.

Question 33

What did a study on young adults find regarding one day of total sleep deprivation and β-amyloid build-up?

Answer 33

One day of total sleep deprivation was associated with increased β-amyloid build-up in memory-associated brain regions, such as the hippocampus, in healthy young adults aged 22-27 years old.

Question 34

How does sleep influence cognitive processes like attention, memory, creativity, problem solving, and decision making?

Answer 34

Sleep contributes to these cognitive processes, improving attention, memory consolidation, creativity, problem solving, and decision making.

Question 35

What were the results of Van Dongen and colleagues’ experiment on the effects of cumulative partial sleep loss on neurocognitive performance?

Answer 35

Participants who were totally sleep deprived for 3 days performed the worst on the Psychomotor vigilance task and had the highest sleepiness scores.

Question 36

What brain regions show reduced activity following sleep deprivation?

Answer 36

Reduced activity in cognition-associated brain regions like the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the posterior parietal cortex is associated with deficits in attention and working memory following sleep deprivation.

Question 37

What was the objective of the incentive-based behavioral intervention designed by researchers in 2018?

Answer 37

The objective was to increase the percentage of undergraduate students obtaining 8 hours of sleep per night and to assess the impact of increased sleep duration on final project performance.

Question 38

Did participating in the sleep challenge negatively impact students’ project performance?

Answer 38

No, participating in the sleep challenge did not negatively impact students’ project performance. Both participants and non-participants performed equally well on the final project.

Interestingly, changes in sleep duration and quality leading up to the final project deadline did appear to influence final project performance.

Conclusion: Even when preparing for stressful end-of-term assessments, students can invest into obtaining optimal amounts of high-quality sleep to improve their academic performance.

Question 39

Which of the following behavioural tests was developed by Alan Rechtschaffen to study the effects of chronic, total sleep deprivation in rats?

Barnes maze

Morris water maze

disk-over-water maze

forced swim test

Answer 39

disk-over-water maze

Question 40

In the study by Van Dongen and colleagues (2003), which of the following was true about the relationship between sleep deprivation and attention?

Performance on the attention task decreased as a function of sleep deprivation

Performance on the attention task increased as a function of sleep deprivation

Only total sleep deprivation negatively impacted attention

Attention was unaffected by sleep deprivation

Answer 40

Performance on the attention task decreased as a function of sleep deprivation

Question 41

Regarding “The 8‐Hour Challenge: Incentivizing Sleep during End‐of‐Term Assessments”, which of the following was not observed?

Over 80% of students participated in the sleep challenge

Students who participated in the challenge were more likely to sleep 8 hours per night

Students who had more consistent sleep performed better on their final project

Students who participated in the challenge performed better on their final project

Answer 41

Students who participated in the challenge performed better on their final project