Key Terms and Concepts – Chapter 2 Cognitive Neuroscience
Structure of the Neuron (pg 25)
Cell body, Dendrites, Axon and Axon Terminals
-Know functions of thesestuctures
Excitatory and Inhibitory signals (Neurotransmitters).
Action Potential
The fluid inside and outside of the axon membrane contains ionic charged chemicals (sodium Na+, potassium K+ and chlorine Cl-) which are known as electrolytes.
`During resting potential, the ionic charge inside the axon is ______compared to outside.
During Action potential the ionic charge becomes more ______.
Know the all or none rule
Synapse
Neurotransmitters
-Clearing neurotransmitters from the synaptic space (reuptake, enzymes)
-Ways drugs can alter the message at the synaptic space.
-Functional and neural networks
Hormones
Similarities and differences compared to neurotransmitters
-Neurotransmitters are delivered by the axon terminal to a very local and specific sight.
-Hormones are released into the blood system and thus have a wide reaching and longer lasting effect.
Psychoneuroimmunology
The Cerebral Cortex
-Localization of function
-Lateralization of brain function
-Corpus collosum
Four lobes of the cerebral cortex and their functions
Distributed Processing
Assumption of Modularity
Dissociations and Double Dissociations
Measuring Brain Activity
- Single-Cell Recording
Hubel and Wiesel Cat Experiment
Feature detectors (“grandmother cells”)
Mirror Neurons
- Electroencephalography (EEGs)
- direct measure of neural electrical activity but from the surface of the scalp so it has - Poor spatial resolution –but excellent temporal resolution.
- Event Related Potentials (ERPs)
Magnetoencephalography (MEG)
-better location accuracy than EEG, but still measures from the surface so also has problems with spatial resolution. Can measure ERPs so excellent temporal resolution.
Brain Imaging
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRIs)
– good spatial resolution but because it is an indirect (measures hydrogen atoms) it has poor temporal resolution
Positron Emission Tomography (PETs)
-similar to MRIs, PETs give an indirect measure of neural activity (radioactively tagged O2) so good spatial resolution of blood flow - but poor temporal resolution
- Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRIs)
-similar to a MRI except it captures information every 2 to 3 seconds forming a real-time video of changes in neural activity over time. Spatialresolution very good. Temporal Resolution is not great for learning about many cognitive processes. It is too slow and is still and indirect measure of cognitive activity (oxygen usage)
ZekiRomaya (2010)- what does love look like for males and for females? Straights and Gays?
Magnetoencephalography (MEG)
-uses Superconducting Quantum Interference Device (SQUID)
-basically combines the advantages of direct measures of neural firing with the spatial advantages and real-time advantages of fMRI
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)(p. 31)
- allows for observation of effects of inhibition or excitation of neurons.
- researchers can conduct experiments by stimulating or inhibiting specific brain areas.
- has been used as last resort treatments for depression
Recording activity in the Living Brain
Barron, Riby Greer & Smallwood (2011) - tested a hypothesis about attention duringvigilance task (participants asked to respond to some stimuli and ignore others) concluded based on neural activity that those who reported high levels of mind wandering during the task, were in fact not attending to the presented stimuli. Their attention was directed toward their off-task mind wanderings.
Segaert, Menenti, Weber, PeterssonHagoot (2012) – asked if the same brain areas are used for producing and for comprehending syntactic structure (e.g., grammar) or are there two areas, one for production of grammar and one for comprehension of grammar. Concluded, based on neural activity that the same brain activity contributes to both production of syntactic structure when speaking a sentence and to comprehension of syntactic structure when comprehending a sentence.
Can All Mental Processes Be Explained in Terms of Brain Activity?
Libet (1985) study of intentional actions. (similar to the Hanes study on intentional choices shown in the 60 Minutes video (slide 39).
Just and Mitchell “Mind reading” study – (also in the video to slide 39)
Problems
-the behaviors being studied are too simple and say little about complex, real-life neural processes.
-Mind-body problem – the mind may not be reducible to study simply by understanding the machinery in which it is housed.
Famous Neurocognitive Scientists
Oliver Sacks – mentioned earlier in chapter
- R. Luria
V. S. Ramachandran