Week 2: Cognitive Neuroscience: Is it all About the Brain?

Question 1

Caradini (a realist/pessimist) thinks

Answer 1

Even though we understand which parts of the brain are active when we engage in certain activities, we are far from being able to program humans to do certain predetermined activities

Question 2

Central Nervous System (CNS)

Answer 2

-brain and the spinal cord (transmits signals)
-takes in information through senses and sends it out to parts of the brain so that a behavior can result
-only electric and chemical signals
-gets sent to PNS

Question 3

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

Answer 3

-neurons with long axons and dendrites
-branches out from spinal cord and brain to reach the extremities

Question 4

Neuron

Answer 4

A cell that receives electrical and chemical information throughout the body through the CNS and the PNS. The basic element/cell of the brain. Its function is to send/receive signals to communicate with parts of the body – cognitions.

Question 5

Cell body

Answer 5

-Coordinates all incoming information
-Signals received: electric and chemical

Question 6

Axon

Answer 6

-Transmits electrical signal that gets received from the cell body
-coordinates and sends the electric, NOT chemical, signal through axon

Question 7

Think of the axon as

Answer 7

a wire (Sometimes a wire doesn’t work)

Question 8

Myelin Sheath:

Answer 8

-Conduction
-The outer covering of the axon
-The more insulated the axon is, the more effectively the electric signal is conducted
-makes the process of conducting electric signals to other neurons more efficient.

Question 9

Symptoms of a worn-out myelin sheath

Answer 9

Multiple sclerosis/MS, cannot coordinate their fine and their gross motor movements (Difficulty walking, cannot grasp objects, etc.)

Question 10

Nodes of Ranvier

Answer 10

-Saltatory conduction
-Nodules along the axon that expedite the transfer of electric signals from one neuron to another.

Question 11

The electric single rather than going through the axon…

Answer 11

will hop from one Node to another Node to send more efficiently

Question 12

Glial cells function

Answer 12

Develop new neurons and to repair broken neurons

Question 13

Glial cells outnumber

Answer 13

the number of neurons ten to one (constitute half of the brain’s mass)

Question 14

The richer the connection of glial cells

Answer 14

the more efficiently we transmit information in the brain

Question 15

Dendrites

Answer 15

-Receive and relay electric information
-Web-like structures at the end of the axon
-Where the chemical signals are being relayed from neuron to neuron

Question 16

There are around ? neurons in the brain

Answer 16

87 billion neurons in the brain

Question 17

Neurons firing

Answer 17

when neurons are sending and relaying information (they appear light and “fire-y” in imaging).

Question 18

Sensory neuron(s) Function

Answer 18

Relay information from the environment to the brain and through the spinal cord. These neurons are primarily in the CNS and relay information to the PNS

Question 19

Sensory neuron(s) Appearance

Answer 19

-big white structure in the cell body
-axon is the structure that hangs off the cell body (and is connected to other neurons)
-end of the axon is the dendrite

Question 20

Interneurons Function

Answer 20

Connect sensory, the motor, and other networks of neurons together. They are the gatekeepers that connect other neurons with other kinds of neurons

Question 21

Interneurons Appearance

Answer 21

For their function, it makes sense that they have a small cell body and long dendrites to make connections with neurons that are far from each other

Question 22

Motor neurons Function:

Answer 22

Relay information from the brain to the muscles
like when you’re doing a workout, on the last rep

Question 23

Motor neurons Appearance

Answer 23

Their cell body is larger than interneurons because for the muscles to receive information from the brain, they require a larger mass area. There is much more coordination that needs to be done.

Question 24

Purkinje cell Function

Answer 24

Relays information in parts of the brain that are highly active when you are trying to do any kind of coordination

Question 25

Purkinje cell Function Example

Answer 25

When trying to parallel park, trying to coordinate what you see with your hand as you turn the steering wheel while estimating when you have to turn the wheel back.

Question 26

Purkinje cell appearance

Answer 26

has many webs of roots because it has to branch itself along connecting with various many cells to do anything

Question 27

Neurons do not

Answer 27

fire randomly

Question 28

Action potential

Answer 28

When you send an electric signal through the axon

Question 29

mV

Answer 29

A nano-sized unit charge of an electric charge that is very small.

Question 30

Resting state

Answer 30

When you are not doing anything, i.e. sleeping, resting with eyes closed, doing yoga).

Question 31

Resting potential

Answer 31

When you are in a resting state, relative to the outside of the axon is –70 mVs.

Question 32

once you start a surge

Answer 32

it cannot be stopped

Question 33

All-or-nothing rule (of action potential)

Answer 33

The only thing that could slow it down is if the dendrite or the myelin sheath is somehow compromised. But, once you start you can’t slow it down, and you cannot stop the surge. You cannot make it go faster; you can however send multiple impulses at a quicker rate, one after another, very rapidly

Question 34

Refractory period

Answer 34

When the surge does a “double-dip” and it goes less than –70 mVs briefly before going back up to –70 mVs.

Question 35

Ions

Answer 35

Electric particles

Question 36

Sodium (Na)

Answer 36

A positive electric particle, often found inside the axon

Question 37

Potassium (K)

Answer 37

A positive electric particle, often found inside the axon

Question 38

Once the electric charge passes

Answer 38

the charge inside of the axon resumes resting potential

Question 39

Sodium ion channels

Answer 39

Sodium exclusively goes through these channels.

Question 40

Potassium ion channels

Answer 40

Potassium exclusively goes through these channels.

Question 41

Set of behavior

Answer 41

Cognition

Question 42

Edgar Adrian, 1932

Answer 42

(Nobel Prize winner) found out how to measure the electrical activity of a single neuron and record it by having a microelectrode measure the action potential and resting potential

Question 43

STIMULATE

Answer 43

microelectrode to inject current

Question 44

RECORD

Answer 44

microelectrode to measure membrane potential

Question 45

Terminal button

Answer 45

-looks like a bulb on the diagram. -located at the end of the dendrite. -where the above chemical processes happen.

Question 46

Synaptic vesicles

Answer 46

Sacks that contain chemicals called neurotransmitters.

Question 47

Neurotransmitter (NTs)

Answer 47

Chemical(s)

Question 48

Reuptake

Answer 48

Recycled

Question 49

Synaptic gap

Answer 49

Sodium enters into the receiving neuron as a part of an action potential

Question 50

Steps of an action potential

Answer 50

1) Synaptic vesicles are at the tip of the dendrite. An action potential starts when calcium enters the terminal button, which initiates the process. 2) The synaptic vesicles then start the action potential, they migrate down to the terminal button. 3) The terminal button opens and deposits neurotransmitters that linger in the synaptic gap until doing their job. 4) They open up the receiving neuron’s ion channel, allowing sodium ions (exclusively) to enter the receiving neuron. When sodium rushes in, it starts an action potential. This is the main part of an action potential (electricity measure: -70 mVs → +40 mVs) 5) After that, the reuptake process begins and the synaptic vesicles move back up to the top of the vesicle. Once the neurotransmitters are done with an action potential, they go back to close the receptor. Neurotransmitters will close the receptors before migrating up to their homeland (the tips of the vesicle). 6) They stay there until there’s a sensing of an action potential reaching the end of a dendrite from calcium ions.

Question 51

If there is no sensing of the action potential and no sodium

Answer 51

there is no signal

Question 52

Neurotransmitters function

Answer 52

Their only function is to open up the ion channels (They do not get sent anywhere)

Question 53

Agonist

Answer 53

Mimics or enhances neurotransmitter effects (Increase production, release of NT Block reuptake)

Question 54

Antagonist

Answer 54

Blocks effects and production of neurotransmitters

Question 55

Frontal lobe

Answer 55

Intelligence Personality Voluntary muscles

Question 56

Parietal lobe

Answer 56

Spatial location Attention Motor control

Question 57

Temporal lobe

Answer 57

Neurons firing in the temporal lobe are often associated with memory. Hearing Language processing Memory

Question 58

Occipital lobe

Answer 58

Vision

Question 59

Middle fusiform location

Answer 59

in the ventral (underside) temporal lobe

Question 60

Parahippocampal Place Area (PPA)

Question 61

Motor cortex

Answer 61

Areas of the brain are firing anytime we are doing anything that requires motion (fine or gross motor functions)

Question 62

Broca’s Aphasia

Answer 62

-A result of when Broca’s Area is damaged and neurons are not firing -People with this can communicate but the way that they do is delayed or impaired

Question 63

Wernicke’s Aphasia

Answer 63

-Impaired comprehension. Intact speech production -Someone with this can communicate but it is not comprehensible

Question 64

ERPs reflect

Answer 64

the summed, simultaneously occurring, postsynaptic activity of large groups of neurons in the brain

Question 65

P400 effect (Semantic)

Answer 65

If you hear something that does not have any meaning and makes no sense

Question 66

N600 effect (Structure)

Answer 66

If you hear a sentence that has incorrect tenses or other grammatical errors

Question 67

Phonological (fip, sop)

Answer 67

Words that do not have any meaning but are recognized by the phonics or the sound

Question 68

Lexico-semantic (living Y/N)

Answer 68

Example: Do you live in the DMV area? You would respond yes or no.

Question 69

Text-processing (Black Lives -----)

Answer 69

Filling in the blank, and doing top-down processing (because it requires familiarity and some sort of an understanding of previous knowledge).