Sensory Systems, Perceptions and Attention Flashcards

1
Q

How is the sensory system organized?

A

A hierarchical organization

Flows through brain structures in order of increasing anatomical complexity

Apparent from a comparison of the effects of damage to various levels

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2
Q

What is functional segregation in the sensory system organization?

A

Different parts specialize in different kinds of analysis

Each of the 3 levels: primary, secondary, association

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3
Q

What is parallel processing in the sensory system organization?

A

Organization so that information flows between structures, simultaneously along multiple pathways

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4
Q

What is the function of the auditory system?

A

The function of the auditory system is the perception of sound

Sounds are vibrations of air molecules that stimulate the auditory system - your ears perceive someone talking as a vibrations

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5
Q

What parts of the ears are apart of outer ear?

A

Tympanic membrane (ear drum)

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6
Q

What parts of the ears are apart of the middle ear?

A

Ossicles (3 small bones)

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7
Q

What part of the ears are apart of the inner ear?

A

-Oval window
-Organ of Corti
-Hair cells of basilar membrane
-Tectorial membrane

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8
Q

What is the tonotopic organization?

A

The organization of the organ of Corti is tonotopic

Different frequencies produce maximal stimulation of hair cells at different points along the basilar membrane

Higher frequencies excite receptors closer to the oval window

Lower frequencies producing greater activation ay the tip of the basilar membrane

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9
Q

What is the order of the pathway from the inner ear to the primary auditory cortex?

A
  1. Hair cells synapse on neurons
  2. Axons enter metencephalon
  3. Synapse in ipsilateral cochlear nucleus
  4. Travel to superior olives
  5. Travel to the inferior colliculus via the lateral lemniscus
  6. Signals from each ear are combined at a low level (in the superior olives)
  7. Fibers ascend to the medial geniculate nucleus of the thalamus
  8. Fibers ascend to the primary auditory cortex in the lateral fissure
  9. Projections from each ear are bialateral
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10
Q

What is the auditory cortex?

A

Recieves input from medial geniculate nucleus (thalamus)

Core region (primary auditory cortex and 2 adjacent areas)

Belt surrounds the core

Parabelt areas - areas of the secondary auditory cortex but just on the outside of the belt

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11
Q

What is the organization of primate auditory cortex?

A

Tonotopically organization - responds to similar frequencies are close together

Contains functional columns - responds to similar frequencies

Poorly understood compared to vision

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12
Q

How does the auditory cortex integrates information?

A

Auditory signals are processed by two large areas of association cortex: prefrontal cortex and posterior parietal cortex

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13
Q

What are the two streams of the auditory cortex?

A

Anterior auditory pathway: identifies sound

Posterior auditory pathway: identifies where sound is

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14
Q

What is involved within the auditory-visual interactions

A

Integral part of sensory processing

Occurs in associations areas but also in primary areas (recent fMRI studies)

Some posterior parietal neurons have visual receptive fields and auditory receptive fields (work in monkeys)

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15
Q

What is the auditory cortex damage

A

Bilateral lesions do not cause deafness

Loss of the ability to process the structural aspects of sound

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16
Q

What occurs when their is damage to the anterior (“what”) pathway?

A

Difficultly identifying sounds

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17
Q

What occurs when their is damage to the posterior (“where”) pathway?

A

Difficulty localization sounds

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18
Q

What are some facts towards deafness in humans

A

Hearing impairment can lead to social isolation

Total deafness is rare (1% of hearing-impaired individuals)

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19
Q

What are two types of deafness within humans

A

Conductive deafness: damage to ossicles

Nerve deafness: damage to cochlea or nerve, loss of hair cell receptors

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20
Q

What is age-related hearing loss?

A

Part of the cochlea is damaged, results in a deficit in percieving high frequencies

High frequencies helped by hearing aids or cochlear implant

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21
Q

What is apart of the exteroceptive cutaneous system made up of

A

Mechanical stimulation: touch

Thermal stimulation: temperature

Nociceptive stimuli: surface pain

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22
Q

What is the proprioceptive system?

A

Body position

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23
Q

What is the interoceptive system?

A

Within body

24
Q

What are the four types of receptors?

A

Free nerve endings: pain and temperature
Pacinian corpuscles: deep fast-adapting, skin displacement

Merkel receptors: slow-adapting

Ruffini corpuscles: Slow-adapting

25
Q

What are the cutaneous perception?

A

All cutaneous receptors respond to stimuli with ion flow across membrane

26
Q

What is the stereognosis?

A

Identification of objects by touch use both fast and slow-adapting receptors

Tactile sensations produced by multiple receptor mechanisms

Think getting dressed

You feel the shirt being put on - fast-activating receptors

Throughout the day, you don’t feel the shirt unless you think about it - slow-activating receptors

27
Q

What is the dorsal-column medial-lemniscus system - one of the two major somatosensory pathways?

A

Carries information about touch and proprioception - the body

28
Q

What is the anterolateral system - one of the two major somatosensory pathways?

A

Mediates pain and temperature

29
Q

In order, how does information get carried through the dorsal-column-medial-lemniscus?

A
  1. Receptors enter spinal cord and ascend ipsilateral dorsal columns to the dorsal column nuclei
  2. Dorsal column-nuclei decussate and ascend medial lemniscus
  3. Travels to ventral posterior nucleus
  4. Axons of the ventral posterior nucleus ascend to the somatosensory cortex
30
Q

In order, how does information get carried through the anterolateral system?

A
  1. Axons synapse as soon as they enter the cord
  2. Second-order axons decussate and travel up three pathways

Spinothalamic tract
- projects to ventral posterior nucleus of thalamus

Spinoreticular tract
- projects to reticular formation and then to parafascicular and intralaminar nuclei of thalamus

Spinotectal tract
- Projects to mesencephalic tectum

31
Q

What is neuropathic pain?

A

Severe/chronic pain from no known stimulus

Develops after an injury

Microglia may trigger hyperactivity in pain pathways

32
Q

What are the chemical senses: smell and taste.

A

Monitor the chemical content of the environment

33
Q

What is olfaction as a chemical smell?

A

Airborne chemicals

34
Q

What is gustation as a chemical smell?

A

Chemicals in solution

35
Q

How are adaptive roles of the chemical senses as a humans and other species?

A

Humans
- chemical senses evaluate potential foods

Other species
- Chemical senses detect pheromones
- Pheromonses regulate social interactions

36
Q

What is the olfactory system?

A

Smell is responsible to airborne chemicals

Human have 300 different olfactory receptors

Chemotopic mapping occurs

Olfactory receptor cells are produced across the lifespan and constantly replaced

37
Q

What are the five primary tastes in gustatory system?

A

Sweet
Sour
Bitter
Salty
Umami

38
Q

Where are taste receptors located?

A

Taste receptors are located in the tongue and throughout the gastrointestinal tract

Survive only a few weeks and are constantly replaced

39
Q

What is taste transduction in the gustatory system?

A

For sweet, umami and bitter is mediated by metabotropic receptors (G-protein linked)

Salty and sour activate ionotropic receptors

40
Q

What is anosmia as a brain damage disorder?

A

Inability to smell
- Caused by damage to olfactory nerves as they pass through cribriform plate
- Linked to elilepsy, down syndrome, parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, and other degenerative disorders

41
Q

What is ageusia as a brain damage disorder?

A

Inability to taste
- Rare
- May be caused by damage to facial nerve

42
Q

What is the role of prior experience have on perception?

A

Prior knowledge has a major influence on how we perceive the world

43
Q

What is perceptual decision making?

A

Mental models of the world based on predictable and recurring sensory events

Perceptual decision making consumes a large proportion of the energy used by the brain

44
Q

What is the phantom limb syndrome?

A

Amputees brains believe that their missing limb is still there, pain may occur - tricking the brain using a mirror to make it think the missing limb is still there, which relieves the pain

45
Q

What is the Charles Bonnet syndrome?

A

When individual is losing vision, they tend to start seeing visual hallucinations

The brain is not getting much information from the visual system, but its used to that info. Brain works on the visual system which activates these hallucinations

46
Q

What is the binding problem

A

Addresses how complex stimuli can be percieved as integrate wholes

How does the brain combine these complex, multiple stimulus into one simple perception?

47
Q

What are some characteristics of selective attention?

A

Improves the perception of the stimuli that are its focus, interferes with the perception of the stimuli that are not its focus

48
Q

What is endogenous attention?

A

Focused on internal cognitive processess

Believed to be top-down (from higher to lower levels)

49
Q

What is exogenous attention?

A

Focused on external events

Believed to be bottom-up (from lower to higher levels)

50
Q

What is the cocktail-party phenomeon?

A

Happens in very loud environment

How do you pay attention to one person?

You drown out everything else to focus on whats important to you in that moment

Someone calls you
- you will be able to hear them

51
Q

What is change blindness?

A

Classic example of selective attention

Demonstrated by showing people two photographs identical in every aspect but one

If allowed a brief delay, people have difficulty seeing change

52
Q

Where does the top-down processing originate?

A

Prefrontal lobe and posterior parietal cortex

53
Q

What does face identity activate?

A

Ventral visual pathway

54
Q

What does the position of the face activate?

A

Dorsal pathway

55
Q

What does selective attention strengthens?

A

Representation of attended-to stimuli

56
Q

What does selective attention weakened?

A

Representation of external stimuli

57
Q

What is visual simultanagnosia?

A

Difficultly attending to more than one object at a time

Occurs due to damage to the posterior parietal cortex