Test 2 Flashcards
(119 cards)
1
Q
receptive field
A
Sensory region that stimulates a receptor cell or neuron.
2
Q
optic flow
A
Streaming of visual stimuli that accompanies an observer’s movement through space.
3
Q
auditory flow
A
Change heard as a person and a source of sound move relative to one another.
4
Q
topographic map
A
Spatially organized neural representation of the external world.
5
Q
sensation
A
Registration by the sensory organs of physical stimuli from the environment.
6
Q
perception
A
Subjective interpretation of sensations by the brain.
7
Q
retina
A
Light-sensitive surface at the back of the eye consisting of neurons and photoreceptor cells.
8
Q
photoreceptor
A
Specialized retinal neuron that transduces light into neural activity.
9
Q
fovea
A
Central region of the retina specialized for high visual acuity; its receptive fields are at the center of the eye’s visual field.
10
Q
blind spot
A
Retinal region where axons forming the optic nerve leave the eye and blood vessels enter and leave; has no photoreceptors and is thus said to be blind.
11
Q
rod
A
Photoreceptor specialized for functioning at low light levels.
12
Q
cone
A
Photoreceptor specialized for color and high visual acuity.
13
Q
retinal ganglion cell (RGC)
A
One of a group of retinal neurons with axons that give rise to the optic nerve.
14
Q
magnocellular (M) cell
A
Large visual system neuron sensitive to moving stimuli.
15
Q
parvocellular (P) cell
A
Small visual system neuron sensitive to differences in form and color.
16
Q
optic chiasm
A
Junction of the optic nerves, one from each eye, at which the axons from the nasal halves of the retinas cross to the brain’s opposite side.
17
Q
geniculostriate system
A
Projections from the retina to the lateral geniculate nucleus to the visual cortex.
18
Q
striate cortex
A
Primary visual cortex (V1) in the occipital lobe; shows stripes (striations) on staining.
19
Q
tectopulvinar system
A
Projections from the retina to the superior colliculus to the pulvinar (thalamus) to the parietal and temporal visual areas.
20
Q
retinohypothalamic tract
A
Neural route formed by axons of photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (pRGCs) from the retina to the suprachiasmatic nucleus; allows light to entrain the SCN’s rhythmic activity.
21
Q
ventral stream
A
Visual processing pathway from V1 to the temporal lobe for object identification and perceiving related movements.
22
Q
dorsal stream
A
Visual processing pathway from V1 to the parietal lobe; guides movements relative to objects.
23
Q
cortical column
A
Anatomic organization that represents a functional unit six cortical layers deep and approximately 0.5 mm square, perpendicular to the cortical surface.
24
Q
primary visual cortex (V1)
A
Striate cortex in the occipital lobe that receives input from the lateral geniculate nucleus.
25
extrastriate (secondary visual) cortex (V2–V5)
Visual cortical areas in the occipital lobe outside the striate cortex.
26
blob
Region in V1 that contains color-sensitive neurons, as revealed by staining for cytochrome oxidase.
27
facial agnosia
Face blindness—the inability to recognize faces; also called prosopagnosia.
28
visual field
Region of the visual world seen by the eyes.
29
luminance contrast
Amount of light an object reflects relative to its surroundings.
30
ocular dominance column
Functional column in the visual cortex maximally responsive to information coming from one eye.
31
trichromatic theory
Explanation of color vision based on the coding of three primary colors: red, green, and blue.
32
opponent process
Explanation of color vision that emphasizes the importance of the apparently opposing color pairs: red versus green and blue versus yellow.
33
color constancy
Phenomenon whereby an object’s perceived color tends to remain constant relative to other colors, regardless of changes in illumination. (the dress)
34
homonymous hemianopia
Blindness of an entire left or right visual field.
35
quadrantanopia
Blindness of one quadrant of the visual field.
36
scotoma
Small blind spot in the visual field caused by migraine or by a small lesion of the visual cortex.
37
visual-form agnosia
Inability to recognize objects or drawings of objects.
38
optic ataxia
Deficit in the visual control of reaching and other movements.
39
sound wave
Mechanical displacement of molecules caused by changing pressure that possesses the physical properties of frequency, amplitude, and complexity. Also compression wave.
40
frequency
Number of cycles a wave completes in a given time.
41
hertz (Hz)
Measure of sound wave frequency (repetition rate); 1 hertz equals 1 cycle per second.
42
amplitude
Stimulus intensity; in audition, roughly equivalent to loudness, graphed by the increasing height of a sound wave.
43
decibel (dB)
Measure of the relative physical intensity of sounds.
44
prosody
Melodic tone of the speaking voice.
45
ossicle
Bone of the middle ear; includes malleus (hammer), incus (anvil), and stapes (stirrup).
46
cochlea
Inner ear structure containing the auditory receptor cells.
47
basilar membrane
Receptor surface in the cochlea that transduces sound waves into neural activity.
48
hair cell
Specialized neurons in the cochlea tipped by cilia; when stimulated by waves in the cochlear fluid, the cilia bend and generate graded potentials in inner hair cells, the auditory receptor cells.
49
otoacoustic emissions
Spontaneous or evoked sound waves produced within the ear by the cochlea and escape from the ear.
50
medial geniculate nucleus
Major thalamic region concerned with audition.
51
primary auditory cortex (area A1)
Asymmetrical structures within Heschl’s gyrus in the temporal lobes; receive input from the ventral region of the medial geniculate nucleus.
52
Wernicke’s area
Secondary auditory cortex (planum temporale) lying behind Heschl’s gyrus at the rear of the left temporal lobe; regulates language comprehension. Also posterior speech zone.
53
lateralization
Localization of function primarily on one side of the brain.
54
insula
Multifunctional cortical tissue located within the lateral fissure; contains language-and taste perception–related regions and neural structures underlying social cognition.
55
tonotopic representation
In audition, structural organization for processing of sound waves from lower to higher frequencies.
56
cochlear implant
Electronic device implanted surgically into the inner ear to transduce sound waves to neural activity and allow a deaf person to hear.
57
amusia
Tone deafness—inability to distinguish between musical notes.
58
Broca’s area
Anterior left hemisphere speech area that functions with the motor cortex to produce movements needed for speaking.
59
supplementary speech area
Speech production region on the left frontal lobe dorsal surface.
60
echolocation
Identifying and locating an object by bouncing sound waves off it.
61
orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)
Prefrontal cortex behind the eye sockets (the orbits); receives projections from the dorsomedial nucleus of the thalamus; central to a variety of emotional and social behaviors, including eating; also called orbital frontal cortex.
62
pheromone
Odorant biochemical released by one animal that acts as a chemosignal and can affect the physiology or behavior of another animal.
63
glabrous skin
Skin that does not have hair follicles but contains larger numbers of sensory receptors than do hairy skin areas.
64
nociception
Perception of pain, temperature, and itch.
65
hapsis
Perceptual ability to discriminate objects on the basis of touch.
66
proprioception
Perception of the position and movement of the body, limbs, and head.
67
rapidly adapting receptor
Body sensory receptor that responds briefly to the onset of a stimulus on the body.
68
slowly adapting receptor
Body sensory receptor that responds as long as a sensory stimulus is on the body.
69
deafferentation
Loss of incoming sensory input, usually due to damage to sensory fibers; also loss of any afferent input to a structure.
70
posterior spinothalamic tract
Pathway that carries fine-touch and pressure fibers.
71
ventrolateral thalamus
Part of the thalamus that carries information about body senses to the somatosensory cortex.
72
anterior spinothalamic tract
Pathway from the spinal cord to the thalamus that carries information about pain and temperature.
73
monosynaptic reflex
Reflex requiring one synapse between sensory input and movement.
74
pain gate
Hypothetical neural circuit in which activity in fine-touch and pressure pathways diminishes the activity in pain and temperature pathways.
75
periaqueductal gray matter (PAG)
Nuclei in the midbrain that surround the cerebral aqueduct joining the third and fourth ventricles; PAG neurons contain circuits for species-typical behaviors (e.g., female sexual behavior) and play an important role in the modulation of pain.
76
referred pain
Pain that arises in one of the internal organs but is felt on the surface of the body.
77
vestibular system
Somatosensory system comprising a set of receptors in each inner ear that respond to body position and to movement of the head.
78
apraxia
Inability to make voluntary movements in the absence of paralysis or other motor or sensory impairment, especially an inability to make proper use of an object.
79
dyslexia
Impairment in learning to read and write; probably the most common learning disability.
80
learning
Relatively permanent change in an organism’s behavior as a result of experience.
81
memory
Ability to recall or recognize previous experience.
82
Pavlovian conditioning
Learning achieved when neutral stimulus (such as a tone) comes to elicit a response after its repeated pairing with some event (such as delivery of food); also called classical conditioning or respondent conditioning.
83
eyeblink conditioning
Experimental technique in which subjects learn to pair a formerly neutral stimulus with a defensive blinking response.
84
conditioned stimulus (CS)
In Pavlovian conditioning, an originally neutral stimulus that after association with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) triggers a conditioned response (CR).
85
unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
A stimulus that naturally and automatically (unconditionally) triggers an unconditioned response (UCR).
86
unconditioned response (UCR)
Unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), such as salivation when food is in the mouth.
87
conditioned response (CR)
In Pavlovian conditioning, the learned response to a formerly neutral conditioned stimulus (CS).
88
fear conditioning
Conditioned emotional response between a neutral stimulus and an unpleasant event, such as a shock, that results in a learned association.
89
operant conditioning
Learning procedure in which the consequences (such as obtaining a reward) of a particular behavior (such as pressing a bar) increase or decrease the probability of the behavior occurring again; also called instrumental conditioning.
90
implicit memory
Unconscious memory: subjects can demonstrate knowledge, such as a skill, conditioned response, or recall of events on prompting but cannot explicitly retrieve the information.
91
amnesia
Partial or total loss of memory.
92
explicit memory
Conscious memory: subjects can retrieve an item and indicate that they know the retrieved item is the correct one.
93
declarative memory
Ability to recount what one knows, to detail the time, place, and circumstances of events; often lost in amnesia.
94
procedural memory
Ability to recall a movement sequence or how to perform some act or behavior.
95
learning set
Rules of the game; implicit understanding of how a problem can be solved with a rule that can be applied in many different situations.
96
priming
Using a stimulus to sensitize the nervous system to a later presentation of the same or a similar stimulus.
97
episodic memory
Autobiographical memory for events pegged to specific place and time contexts.
98
entorhinal cortex
Located on the medial temporal lobe surface; provides a major route for neocortical input to the hippocampal formation; often degenerates in Alzheimer disease.
99
parahippocampal cortex
Cortex located along the dorsal medial temporal lobe surface.
100
perirhinal cortex
Cortex lying next to the rhinal fissure on the ventral surface of the brain.
101
visuospatial memory
Use of visual information to recall an object’s location in space.
102
neuritic plaque
Area of incomplete necrosis (dead tissue) consisting of a central protein core (amyloid) surrounded by degenerative cellular fragments; often seen in the cortex of people with dementias such as Alzheimer disease.
103
Korsakoff syndrome
Permanent loss of the ability to learn new information (anterograde amnesia) and to retrieve old information (retrograde amnesia) caused by diencephalic damage resulting from chronic alcoholism or malnutrition that produces a vitamin B1 deficiency.
104
retrograde amnesia
Inability to remember events that took place before the onset of amnesia.
105
anterograde amnesia
Inability to remember events subsequent to a disturbance of the brain such as head trauma, electroconvulsive shock, or neurodegenerative disease.
106
consolidation
Process of stabilizing a memory trace after learning.
107
reconsolidation
Process of restabilizing a memory trace after the memory is revisited.
108
emotional memory
Memory for the affective properties of stimuli or events.
109
associative learning
Linkage of two or more unrelated stimuli to elicit a behavioral response.
110
long-term potentiation (LTP)
Long-lasting increase in synaptic effectiveness after high-frequency stimulation.
111
long-term depression (LtD)
Long-lasting decrease in synaptic effectiveness after low-frequency electrical stimulation.
112
nerve growth factor (nGF)
Neurotrophic factor that stimulates neurons to grow dendrites and synapses and in some cases promotes the survival of neurons.
113
behavioral sensitization
Escalating behavioral response to the repeated administration of a psychomotor stimulant such as amphetamine, cocaine, or nicotine; also called drug-induced behavioral sensitization.
114
metaplasticity
Interaction among different plastic changes in the brain.
115
traumatic brain injury (TBI)
Damage to the brain that results from a blow to the head.
116
epidermal growth factor (EGF)
Neurotrophic factor; stimulates the subventricular zone to generate cells that migrate into the striatum and eventually differentiate into neurons and glia.
117
habituation
Learned behavior in which the response to a stimulus weakens with repeated presentations.
118
sensitization
Learned behavior in which the response to a stimulus strengthens with repeated presentations.
119
posttraumatic stress disorder (PtsD)
Syndrome characterized by physiological arousal associated with recurrent memories and dreams arising from a traumatic event that occurred months or years earlier.
