Perception and Neuropsychology

Question 1

What is sensation?

Answer 1

Registering of sensory information by the brain.

Question 2

What is perception?

Answer 2

Assignment of meaning to sensory information.

Question 3

Are sensation and perception the same or different processes?

Answer 3

They are different processes; sensation is early (eye), perception involves higher-level processing (IT cortex).

Question 4

What are the three neural steps in sensory information processing?

Answer 4

1) Sensory organs absorb energy, 2) Energy is transduced into neural signals, 3) Neural signals are sent to the brain for further processing.

Question 5

What part of the electromagnetic spectrum can humans detect?

Answer 5

The narrow wavelength range called the visible spectrum.

Question 6

What is the function of the cornea?

Answer 6

Transparent outer layer involved in focusing the image on the retina.

Question 7

What role does the choroid play in the eye?

Answer 7

Provides blood supply, nutrients, and waste removal for eye tissues.

Question 8

What structures make up the eye’s inner layer?

Answer 8

Iris (color), pupil (controls light entry), lens (focuses images), and retina (photoreceptors).

Question 9

What are the differences between rods and cones?

Answer 9

Rods (120 million) are for night vision, no color, low time resolution; Cones (7 million) enable color vision, daytime, and high resolution.

Question 10

What causes the blind spot in vision?

Answer 10

The exit point of ganglion cell axons (optic nerve) where no photoreceptors are present.

Question 11

What are the four lobes of the brain?

Answer 11

Frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital.

Question 12

What is the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN)?

Answer 12

A subcortical relay station where half of the fibers from each eye cross and half stay on the same side.

Question 13

Where is the primary visual cortex (V1) located?

Answer 13

In the occipital lobe.

Question 14

What are the two main cortical visual pathways beyond V1?

Answer 14

Ventral stream (WHAT pathway) and dorsal stream (WHERE pathway).

Question 15

What does the ventral stream process?

Answer 15

Pattern vision and object recognition (the WHAT pathway).

Question 16

What does the dorsal stream process?

Answer 16

Spatial vision and location (the WHERE pathway).

Question 17

What do retinal ganglion cells respond to?

Answer 17

Spots of light, using center-surround receptive fields.

Question 18

What is retinotopic mapping?

Answer 18

Point-to-point mapping of the external visual world onto brain areas, present in V1 and earlier stages.

Question 19

How does visual processing complexity change along the visual pathway?

Answer 19

From simple illumination changes (rods/cones) to spots of light (RG/LGN), lines (V1), to complex features (IT cortex).

Question 20

What is lateral inhibition in retinal ganglion cells?

Answer 20

A center-surround architecture that enhances brightness contrast and sharpens edges.

Question 21

How does the brain process visual fields given that only half of retinal fibers cross over?

Answer 21

The right side of the brain processes the left visual field and the left side processes the right visual field because half of the fibers cross at the optic chiasm and half stay ipsilateral.

Question 22

What type of blindness did Patient DB suffer and what caused it?

Answer 22

Left homonymous hemianopia caused by surgical removal of a tumor in the right occipital lobe.

Question 23

What is blindsight?

Answer 23

A condition where patients cannot consciously see objects but can localize or sense movement of objects due to pathways bypassing V1.

Question 24

Which visual stream allows Patient DB to localize unseen objects?

Answer 24

The dorsal stream.

Question 25

Damage to which brain area causes achromatopsia?

Answer 25

V4.

Question 26

What are the symptoms of achromatopsia?

Answer 26

Complete color blindness; seeing only black, white, and shades of gray.

Question 27

Damage to which brain area causes akinetopsia?

Answer 27

V5 (MT).

Question 28

What is apperceptive agnosia?

Answer 28

Failure of object recognition due to fundamental visual perception failure, with preserved basic functions like color and motion perception.

Question 29

What brain area is damaged in apperceptive agnosia?

Answer 29

Bilateral damage to V1, causing multiple blind spots ("peppery mask").

Question 30

What is the difference between dorsal and ventral simultagnosia?

Answer 30

Dorsal: can see one object at a time due to parietal lobe damage; Ventral: can see multiple objects but not clearly due to ventral stream damage beyond V4.

Question 31

What is Bottom-Up processing in pattern perception?

Answer 31

Analysis starts with low-level features (dots, lines) and builds up to complex images; relies on sensory info.

Question 32

What evidence supports Bottom-Up processing?

Answer 32

We confuse letters with similar features more often (e.g., E and F) than dissimilar ones (E and A).

Question 33

What is Top-Down processing in pattern perception?

Answer 33

Recognition relies on knowledge and experience, involving hypothesis testing and faster recognition.

Question 34

Why does top-down processing explain faster recognition against a background?

Answer 34

Because experience helps predict and interpret complex scenes quickly despite more information.

Question 35

What are ambiguous and reversible figures used to demonstrate?

Answer 35

Application of both Bottom-Up and Top-Down processing in perception.

Question 36

What are binocular cues for depth perception?

Answer 36

Retinal disparity and eye convergence/divergence, signaling differences for depth perception.

Question 37

What is retinal disparity?

Answer 37

The difference in images between the two eyes caused by viewing objects at different depths.

Question 38

Name three monocular cues for depth perception.

Answer 38

Interposition, relative size, linear perspective (also height in plane, texture gradient, light/shadow).

Question 39

What is the Young-Helmholtz Trichromatic Theory?

Answer 39

Three types of cones in the retina each sensitive to a primary colour; explains colour perception.

Question 40

What limitations does the Young-Helmholtz theory have?

Answer 40

It struggles to explain why colour blindness occurs in pairs and why colour aftereffects happen.

Question 41

Who was Rene Descartes and what was his contribution to brain localization?

Answer 41

Recognized brain symmetry and proposed the pineal gland as the uniting structure of both hemispheres.

Question 42

What is phrenology and who developed it?

Answer 42

Gall and Spurzheim’s pseudoscience linking skull bumps to personality traits; early localization attempt.

Question 43

Why did phrenology fail as a scientific theory?

Answer 43

Because skull bumps don’t correspond to brain anatomy and it was rejected due to disbelief in brain localization.

Question 44

Who was Paul Broca and what did he discover?

Answer 44

Identified language output localized to left frontal lobe after studying patient Tan with Broca’s aphasia.

Question 45

What is Broca’s aphasia?

Answer 45

A language disorder causing difficulty in speech production but with preserved comprehension.

Question 46

What did Karl Wernicke contribute to localization?

Answer 46

Found language comprehension localized to left temporal lobe, identifying Wernicke’s aphasia.

Question 47

How do Broca’s and Wernicke’s aphasias demonstrate localization of function?

Answer 47

Double dissociation: Broca’s affects speech output, Wernicke’s affects comprehension.

Question 48

What did Fritsch and Hitzig discover about the motor cortex?

Answer 48

Stimulating motor cortex causes contralateral body movements, showing organized topography and brain’s electrical nature.

Question 49

What is the current view on brain organization?

Answer 49

The brain is modular with detailed localization of function within sensory modules.

Question 50

What does the discovery of the brain as an electrical structure imply?

Answer 50

That brain functions can be mapped by electrical stimulation, supporting localization of function.

Question 51

What behavioural effects result from damage to the occipital lobe?

Answer 51

Blindness, blindsight, and apperceptive agnosia.

Question 52

What are the main anatomical divisions of the temporal lobe?

Answer 52

Lateral surface (superior, middle, inferior temporal gyrus) and medial surface (medial temporal lobe).

Question 53

What behavioural effects occur with damage to the superior temporal gyrus?

Answer 53

Deafness, Wernicke’s aphasia, and auditory agnosia.

Question 54

What disorders result from damage to the middle and inferior temporal gyrus?

Answer 54

Achromatopsia, akinetopsia, ventral simultagnosia, and associative agnosia.

Question 55

What are the effects of damage to the right medial temporal lobe?

Answer 55

Visual memory impaired but copying ability remains intact.

Question 56

What are the effects of damage to the left medial temporal lobe?

Answer 56

Verbal memory impaired but hearing is intact.

Question 57

Who was patient H.M. and why is he significant?

Answer 57

A patient with medial temporal lobe damage showing severe retrograde and anterograde amnesia, important for memory research.

Question 58

What types of amnesia did patient H.M. experience?

Answer 58

Retrograde amnesia (loss of past memories) and anterograde amnesia (inability to form new memories).

Question 59

Despite medial temporal lobe damage, what types of memory can be spared?

Answer 59

Procedural memories, such as mirror-drawing and Tower of Hanoi tasks.

Question 60

What concept is illustrated by patient H.M.’s case about memory systems?

Answer 60

There are multiple memory systems with some types of memory spared despite profound amnesia.

Question 61

What are some behavioural effects of damage to the parietal lobe?

Answer 61

Impairments in sensory integration, movement control, guiding movements in space, abstract concepts, and attention directing.

Question 62

What impairments result specifically from left parietal damage?

Answer 62

Agraphia, acalculia, right/left confusion, dyslexia, and difficulty in drawing detailed parts.

Question 63

What impairments result specifically from right parietal damage?

Answer 63

Difficulty recognizing unfamiliar views of objects, difficulty drawing overall shapes, and contralateral neglect.

Question 64

What is contralateral neglect?

Answer 64

A condition where patients fail to attend to or respond to stimuli on the side opposite to the brain lesion.

Question 65

Name three clinical tests used to assess contralateral neglect.

Answer 65

Line cancellation, letter cancellation, and line bisection tests.

Question 66

Is contralateral neglect a pre-perceptual or post-perceptual deficit?

Answer 66

There is debate, but evidence suggests aspects of both, depending on the task.

Question 67

What does the “Burning House Anecdote” illustrate about neglect?

Answer 67

Patients may neglect the contralateral side of a scene even when it contains threatening or meaningful stimuli.

Question 68

What are ego-centered and object-centered neglect?

Answer 68

Ego-centered neglect is neglect of one side of the patient's own space; object-centered neglect is neglect of one side of individual objects regardless of their position.

Question 69

What did the Milan Piazza Experiment demonstrate about neglect?

Answer 69

It showed that neglect patients ignore the contralateral side of visual scenes in real-life settings.

Question 70

What question did Driver, Baylis, Goodrich, & Rafal (1994) investigate regarding neglect?

Answer 70

They studied whether neglect patients can identify the orientation of shapes (e.g., triangles pointing at different “clock” positions) on the neglected side.

Question 71

What are the main anatomical regions of the frontal lobe?

Answer 71

Motor cortex, premotor cortex, prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex.

Question 72

What motor impairments can result from frontal lobe damage?

Answer 72

Loss of fine movements, reduced speed, and decreased strength.

Question 73

What type of aphasia is associated with frontal lobe damage?

Answer 73

Broca’s aphasia (difficulty with language production).

Question 74

What effect does frontal lobe damage have on IQ tests?

Answer 74

Possible impairments in divergent thinking but not necessarily in convergent thinking.

Question 75

What is the difference between convergent and divergent thinking?

Answer 75

Convergent thinking involves finding a single correct answer; divergent thinking involves generating many possible solutions.

Question 76

Which test assesses verbal divergent thinking after frontal lobe damage?

Answer 76

Word Fluency Test.

Question 77

Which test assesses non-verbal divergent thinking after frontal lobe damage?

Answer 77

Design Fluency Test.

Question 78

What kind of cognitive impairment is shown by poor performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test?

Answer 78

Impairment in response inhibition and cognitive flexibility.

Question 79

What does poor performance on the Stroop Interference Test indicate?

Answer 79

Impairment in response inhibition and selective attention.

Question 80

What is Environmental Dependency Syndrome and its symptoms?

Answer 80

A syndrome caused by frontal lobe damage characterized by imitation behaviour and utilization behaviour, where patients respond excessively to environmental cues.

Question 81

Who is a famous historical example of personality changes due to frontal lobe damage?

Answer 81

Phineas Gage.