midterm 4

describe the wisconsin card sorting task

Neuropsychological measure of planning and abstract reasoning Shifting the response strategy is particularly difficult for people with frontal lobe lesions. Pattern of behavior known as perseveration is the tendency to repeat the same verbal or motor response to varied stimuli. 1. The task is to place each card in the pile under the appropriate card in the row, sorting by one of three possible categories. 2. Subjects are never explicitly told what the correct sorting category is—color, number, or form; they are told only whether their responses are correct or incorrect. 3. After subjects have begun sorting by one category, the tester unexpectedly changes to another category

what is split brain

Surgical disconnection of the two hemispheres in which the corpus callosum is cut After the corpus callosum is cut, the hemispheres have no way of communicating with one another

what is cognitive reserve

- Cognitive reserve = ability to have capacity to sustain injury to he brain and still perform at high level - their brain is robust and healthier • If a parkinsons patient has cognitive reserve they will be a better candidate for DBS because the benefits might be worth the risk • People w/ low cognitive reserve are not good candidates for brain surgery b/c they can take a huge hit in cognitive function afterwards

describe sex differences in the connectome

- Greater intrahemispheric connections in males - Greater interhemispheric connections in females

describe knowledge about objects

- Knowledge about what objects are is represented in the temporal association cortex, part of the ventral visual stream. - If the temporal association cortex is destroyed, the person will develop visual agnosia. - He or she will lose all visual knowledge about objects (e.g., what they are and what they are used for). - RECALL: • Knowledge of what things are is temporal • Knowledge of how to grasp things is parietal

what is attention

- Selective narrowing or focusing of awareness to part of the sensory environment or to a class of stimuli • Can be directed inward or outward

describe synaptic organization and epigenesis

- Synaptic organization is partly directed by a person's genes, but it is also epigenetic. • Variations in experiences, coupled with variations in genetic patterns, contribute to observed individual differences in both quantitative and qualitative intelligence.

describe tractography using DTI

- Tractography measures actual neuroanatomical pathways that can be related to specific traits. - Can be done quickly on many living brains, and measurements can be made simultaneously in the entire brain - Hyperconnectivity u Increased local connections between two related brain regions.

describe the evolution of sex-related cognitive differences

- Why do males have better spatial skills? • Perhaps in evolutionary terms males had to tend larger territories than females - Why do females have better language skills? • Perhaps in evolutionary terms females developed good language skills to engage in social interaction. • Females may also have been selected for fine motor skills (e.g., making clothes), which are related to language.

what is an important characteristic of human thought

language

describe functional asymmetry in the visual system

• Right visual field has an advantage for language-related information. • Left visual field has an advantage for nonverbal spatial information.

describe anatomical asymmetry

- A number of anatomical asymmetries are present • Hemispheric differences --> lateral fissure is at different angles, which means the temporal lobes and parietal lobes are not the same size on each side • Regional, cellular, and neurochemical differences (presence of neurotransmitters) • Brain asymmetries are not unique to humans • Human language likely evolved after the brain became asymmetrical

describe synesthesia

- Ability to perceive a stimulus of one sense as the sensation of a different sense, such as when sound produces the sensation of color - Most common form is colored hearing - Most pairings are in one direction only --> Example: in colored hearing, seeing a color does not elicit the sound - Hypotheses regarding neural basis: • Extraordinary neural connections between sensory regions • Increased activity in multimodal areas of the frontal lobes that receive input from more than one sensory area • Particular sensory inputs eliciting unusual patterns of cerebral activation

describe adolescent-onset schizophrenia vs adult-onset

- Adolescent onset of schizophrenia: Imaging studies of childhood-onset schizophrenia suggest that the condition begins in utero and is characterizes by excessive pruning of short-distance cortical connections - Adult onset of schizophrenia: Not all disorders show such obvious loss of tissue, but they may show abnormal blood flow or metabolism - low blood flow in the prefrontal cortex at the top of the PET scan in the brain

describe functional asymmetry in the split brain

- Although split-brain individuals cannot name objects presented to their right hemisphere, they can make correct nonverbal responses. - Using their left hand, these individuals correctly select the object matching the presented one. - The two hemispheres can act independently. • When each hemisphere is shown a different object, the two hands will select different objects as being the correct one. - Studies with split-brain patients show that the hemispheres process information differently. - There is more functional overlap between the hemispheres than was at first suspected. • The right hemisphere does have some language functions. • The left hemisphere does have some spatial abilities. • Nonetheless, the two undoubtedly are different.

describe multidisciplinary research on brain and behavioural disorders

- Behavioral studies by their nature investigate the whole organism. • Understanding the whole organism necessitates understanding its parts—its cells, its chemistry, and its genes (macro → molecular). - Knockout technology is used to build models of human disorders and generate treatments. • Genes related to disordered behavior in fruit flies, fish, and mice are largely the same as those related to similarly disordered behavior in people.

describe mapping the brain

- Brain connectome: Map of the complete structural and functional fiber pathways of the human brain in vivo. - goal is to provide a reference atlas for those seeking to understand human brain function and dysfunction - Two promising imaging tools for mapping the human brain's connectivity are: • diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and • functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging (fcMRI).

describe cognition and the cerebellum

- Cerebellum accounts for 80% of the brain's neurons • extensive neocortex-cerebellum interconnections include prefrontal cortex, Broca's area, and neocortical regions that have sensory or perceptual functions. • Cerebellum appears to be critical in producing fine movements and perception AND be associated with working memory, attention, language, music, and decision-making processes. • Responsible for motor sequences • Significant area of focus for future research

what is deep brain stimulation

- Deep brain stimulation = neurosurgery in which 1+ electrodes implanted in the brain stimulate a targeted area with a low-voltage electrical current to facilitate behavioural change • Used to treat parkinsons, TBI, OCD, depression • Remains an experimental option of last resort • Not a permanent cure: when the stimulation stops, the beneficial effects are reduced • Electrodes implanted in the brain are well tolerated and remain effective for several years. • Electrical stimulation can relieve depression or compulsive behaviors. • Stimulation may also make brain tissue more plastic and receptive to other treatments.

what are pharmacological treatments

- Drugs commonly used for behavioural disorders • Neuroleptics for schizophrenia • Anxiolytics for anxiety • L-dopa for parkinsons - The central goal is developing drugs that can act as magic bullets to correct the chemical imbalances found in various disorders • Research is directed toward making drugs more selective in targeting specific disorders while producing fewer side effects - Pharmacological treatments have significant downsides acute and chronic side effects top the list, and long-term effects may cause new problems - Drugs do not provide the behavioural tools needed for coping: a pill is not a skill

what are the causes of disordered behaviour

- Evidence for brain abnormalities in organic- neurological disorders is straightforward, and the causes are generally known. • Genetic errors (e.g., Huntington disease) • Epigenetic mechanisms • Progressive cell death (e.g., Alzheimer disease) • Rapid cell death (e.g., stroke, traumatic brain injury) • Loss of neural connections (e.g., multiple sclerosis) - Far less is known about the causes of behavioral- psychiatric disorders, but there must be some abnormality in brain structure or activity - Microscopic: genetic error • Tay-Sachs disease and Huntington disease - Intermediate: one-time events • Infections, injuries, toxins - Macro level • Nutrition, stress - ^ Many of these factors interact.

can experience influence intelligence?

- Experience may influence intelligence by increasing the number of synapses and the number of glial cells. - Appropriate postnatal experiences can enhance development of intelligence B in people with lower than average intelligence A. - A poor or under-resourced environment can hinder the development of intelligence B in people with higher than average intelligence A.

describe behavioural treatments

- Focus on key environmental factors that influence how a person acts - as behaviour changes in response to treatment, the brain is affected as well - Since every aspect of behaviour is the product of the brain activity, behavioural treatments do act by changing brain function • Change how a person thinks and feels because talking about problems or resolving a problem alters the way the brain functions • Drug and behavioural treatments have synergistic effects (teamwork)

describe imitation and understanding

- For successful communication, sender and receiver need a common understanding of what counts. - Mirror neurons • Cells in the primate premotor cortex that fire when an individual observes a specific action taken by another individual • Used to be thought to be a key issue with ASD • Rizzolatti: The human capacity to communicate with words may have resulted from evolution of the mirror neuron system. --> controversial to ascribe meaning to a group of neurons like this!!

what is the concept of general intelligence

- General intelligence: g factor - Einstein's brain: • Average size and weight • Lateral fissure is short; both left and right lateral fissures take a particularly striking upward deflection. • Investigations imply that cerebral connectivity and high glia-to-neuron ratio may play important roles in intelligence. Example: high glia-to-neuron ratio in inferior parietal cortex contributes to mathematical reasoning. Certain types of intelligence could be related to differences in cell structure in localized brain regions.

describe stem cell therapy

- If a brain region is functioning abnormally or if it is diseased/dead, as occurs in TBI or after stroke, it should be possible to return this region to the embryonic state and regrow a healthy region • In lab rates stem cells can be induced by neurotrophic factors to generate new cells that can migrate to the site of an injury • Using appropriate manipulations, any cell can potentially be returned to a stem cell state. • Advantage is that the patient's own cells are not rejected by the immune system. • Extract stem cells, place them in a special culture medium to generate millions of cells, and place these stem cells in the damaged brain. • Cells would be instructed to differentiate appropriately and develop the correct connections.

how can we reduce drug side effects?

- Improved drug chemistry will reduce side effects, as will improved delivery modes that bring a drug to a target system with minimal effects on other systems. • Liposomes consisting of a synthetic vesicle with a homing peptide on the surface can carry a drug across the blood-brain barrier and deliver it within the nervous system

what is the neural basis of consciousness?

- In some conditions people can process information without being aware of that information. • Blindsight, form agnosia, visual neglect, amnesia - In some conditions people have conscious awareness of imaginary events. • Phantom limbs, hallucinations in schizophrenia - The representation of a visual object is likely distributed over many parts of the brain, and part of this neural circuit must produce awareness. - Consciousness is presumably a process that emerges from neural circuits rather than from individual neurons. • The greater the complexity in neural circuitry, the greater the degree of consciousness. - Consciousness is likely a product of all cortical areas, their connections, and their cognitive operations.

what is intelligence A what is intelligence B

- Intelligence A: Hebb's term for innate intellectual potential, which is highly heritable and cannot be measured directly - Intelligence B: Hebb's term for observed intelligence, which is influenced by experience as well as other factors in the course of development and is measured by intelligence tests

what are the 2 types of personal intelligence

- Intrapersonal aspect is awareness of one's own feelings - Interpersonal aspect entails recognizing others' feelings and responding appropriately - Both refer to the frontal and temporal lobe operations required for success in a highly social environment

describe language and thinking

- Language gives humans an edge in thinking • Language provides the brain w/ a way to categorize info • Language provides a means of organizing time (ex. Monday at 3 pm) • Language has syntax Sets of rules for putting words together to form meaningful utterances Proposed to be a unique characteristic of human language Allows humans to have a language that moves beyond the concrete world of here and now - Human predisposition to sequence movements may have encouraged language development --> a crucial characteristic of human motor sequencing Is our ability to form novel sequences with ease

describe neurosurgical treatments

- Largely reparative, as when tumors are removed or arteriovenous (AV) malformations corrected: typically successful - Advances include improved imaging of a target for surgery and methods to destroy diseased tissue without opening the skull.

describe mirror neurons

- Many "movement" neurons located in the inferior frontal and posterior parietal cortex discharge when a monkey sees other monkeys make the same movements - also discharge when the monkey sees the experimenter make the movements - Mirror neurons could provide the link between the sender and the receiver of a communication - used both for imitating others' actions and for understanding their meanings - Previously thought critical in the basis of understanding actions. Now more understood as a action monitor (which improves speed and accuracy of movements).

describe handedness and cognitive organization

- Most R-handed people have language localized in their L hem - The opposite is not true of L-handed people • About 70% also have language localized in their left hemisphere. • About 15% have language localized in their right hemisphere. • About 15% have bilateral representation of language - Anomalous speech representation • Condition in which a person's speech zones are in the R hemisphere or in both hems - Some research found that the cross-sectional area of the corpus callosum was 11% greater in L-handed or ambidextrous people --> could be due to a greater # of fibres, thicker fibres, or more myelin

explain executive functioning and bilingualism

- Neuropsychological studies using tests of executive (frontal lobe) function show an advantage for bilingual speakers relative to monolinguals. • Difference hypothesized to reflect bilinguals' consistent need to select language-appropriate words and to inhibit language-inappropriate words. • Increased gray matter volume in the frontal lobe of adults who learned two languages before age 6 reflects this behavioral advantage.

describe sex differences in cognitive organization (i.e. tasks)

- On average, females are better than males at shortterm memory tasks and verbal fluency tasks. - On average, males are better than females at spatial relation tasks and mental rotation tasks

describe alien hand syndrome

- One hand will be acting without conscious knowledge until it enters the visual field - Can talk to your hand to fix this --> creates a makeshift corpus callosum because you're giving auditory info to the side that is controlling the alien hand

describe deficits of attention following damage to the parietal association cortex

- Parietal association cortex • Damage can produce contralateral neglect Ignoring a part of the body or world on the side opposite to that of the brain injury Neglect is particularly severe in R hem damage --> b/c R hem has more cortical space devoted to spatial processing, while L hem is more devoted to language

describe functional asymettry in neurological patients: R vs L parietal damage

- Patient GH had an injury to the right parietal lobe, caused difficulties in copying drawings, assembling puzzles, and finding their way around a familiar city - Patient MM had an injury to the left parietal lobe, caused difficulties in language, copying movements, reading, and generating names of objects or animals - Left parietal lobe damage: • Aphasia: impairment in the use of language • Apraxia: general impairment in making voluntary movements in the absence of paralysis or a muscular disorder Inability to complete a plan of action accurately

describe challenges to diagnosis

- People are seldom objective observers of their own behavior or that of a loved one. • The patient and loved ones may be selective in what they notice. - People are seldom specific in identifying symptoms. - Evaluators have their own conceptual biases, which may influence the questions they ask and the information they gather. • Behavioral information may be interpreted differently by general physicians, psychiatrists, neurologists, psychologists, social workers, and others

describe freudian views of the mind

- Primitive functions, including "instinctual drives" of sex and aggression, arise in the id (unconscious). - Rational part of the mind is the ego. • Believed to be unconscious, although experience (to Freud, our perceptions of the world) is conscious - The superego acts to repress the id and to mediate ongoing interactions between the ego and the id

describe spatial cognition

- Refers to a range of mental functions, from the ability to navigate from point A to point B to the representation of complex visual arrays - The ability to mentally manipulate things likely evolved in parallel with our ability to navigate in space. - The dorsal visual stream in the parietal lobes is important in spatial cognition. --> makes sense because this stream handles motor aspects of responding to objects - Dorsal stream in the parietal lobes is central in controlling vision for action - Evolutionary development provided a neural basis for such spatial cognitive skills as mentally rotating objects. - People with damaged parietal association regions, especially in the right hemisphere, have deficits in processing complex spatial information, both in the real world and in their imagination

describe cerebral asymmetry and thinking

- Returning to and extending Broca and Wernicke's research - Different ways to examine cerebral asymmetry • anatomical asymmetry (how are they physically different) • Function asymmetry in neurological patients (look at difference in brain function) • Functional asymmetry in the healthy brain • Functional asymmetry in the split brain

describe the split brain experiment

- Split-brain subject fixates on dot in the centre of computer screen while an image is projected onto the L or R visual field. He is asked to identify verbally what they see • If spoon is presented in the R visual field, the subject answers • If the spoon is presented in the L visual field, the subject reports seeing nothing • Conclusion: when the L hem, which can speak, sees the spoon in the R visual field, the subject responds correctly. When the R hem, which cannot speak, sees the spoon in the L visual field and the subject does not respond • ^because the part that would have language cant see anything

what is epidemiology

- Study of the distribution and causes of diseases in human populations - Epidemiologists categorize psychiatric disorders by 3 general types: 1. psychoses 2. Mood - personal experience 3. Affect - how you present

what is a downside to pharmacological treatments

- Tardive dyskinesia • Inability to stop the tongue from moving • Motor side effect of neuroleptic drugs • Can last long after person stops taking the drug

describe the association cortex in different lobes

- Temporal association regions tend to produce cognition related to visual and auditory processing. - The parietal cortex is closely related to somatosensation and movement control. - The frontal cortex coordinates information coming from the parietal and temporal association regions with information coming from subcortical regions

describe planning

- To plan, you need to recognize objects (an occipital and temporal lobe function) and to make appropriate movements with respect to them (a parietal lobe function). - In this case, the frontal lobes as acting like an orchestra conductor. - The frontal lobes make and read a motor plan to organize behavior in space and time—a kind of score, analogous to the musical score a conductor uses. - People with frontal lobe injuries are simply unable to organize their behavior. - Frontal lobes • Performance on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test exemplifies the deficits frontal lobe injury causes.

describe the left hemisphere, language, and thought

- Unlike in other animals, the speaking left hemisphere in humans acts as an interpreter: it is able to infer relationships among stimuli. - The language capability of the left hemisphere gives it a capacity for interpretation that the right hemisphere lacks. - Language may label and express the products of other cognitive systems. - Humans are a believing species: we make inferences and have beliefs about sensory events.

how do we use fcMRI in brain mapping

- Uses resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) to measure functional correlations between brain regions - Identifies consistent patterns of connectivity, or nerve tracts, in the brain - Does not measure static anatomical connectivity but rather uses temporal (time- based) correlations between neurophysiological activity in different regions to infer functional connectivity

describe multisensory integration

- What is the binding problem? How is sensory info from different system bound together into a uniform perception? • Philosophical question focused on how the brain ties single and varied sensory and motor events together into a unified perception or behavior. • One solution: regions of the association cortex are multimodal. These neurons respond to information from more than one sensory modality. • Evidence: synesthesia - you have sensory information trigger other sensory responses (hear the note C, and see the colour blue)

explain cerebral asymmetry

- Why is the L hem specialized for language? • The left hemisphere helps to control fine movements, and fine movements are necessary for the production of language - Why is the R hem specialized for spatial abiltiies? • The right hemisphere plays a role in the control of actual movements in space and in mental images of such movements (elaboration of the functions of the dorsal stream).

describe sex differences in brain volume

- Women have a larger volume of dorsal prefrontal and associated paralimbic regions. - Men have a larger volume of more ventral prefrontal regions

describe the neural bases of sex differences

- Women have relatively high cortical gray matter concentration in many regions of the cerebral cortex. - Men's gray matter concentration is more uniform across the cortex. - Gonadal hormones: • influence the structure of neurons on the rat prefrontal cortex. • Medial frontal cortex Neurons in male rats have larger dendritic fields. • Orbitofrontal cortex Neurons in female rats have larger dendritic fields. • These differences are not seen when the rats have had their gonads or ovaries removed. - Investigation of people who had sustained cortical strokes in adulthood • Found that men and women were almost equally likely to be aphasic subsequent to left-hemisphere lesions of some kind. • Men were more likely to be aphasic and apraxic after damage to the left posterior cortex. • Women were far more likely to be aphasic and apraxic after lesions to the left frontal cortex.

what are multiple intelligences

1. Linguistic 2. Musical 3. Logical-mathematical 4. Spatial 5. Bodily-kinesthetic 6. Intrapersonal 7. Interpersonal

what are the 4 types of treatment categories for brain and behaviour disorders

1. Neurosurgical = The skull is opened and some intervention is performed on the brain. 2. Electrophysiological = Brain function is modified by stimulation through the skull. 3. Pharmacological = A chemical that affects the brain is either ingested or injected. 4. Behavioral = Treatment manipulates the body or the experience, which in turn influences the brain.

what is transcranial magnetic stimulation

a type of electrophysiological therapy • A magnetic coil placed over the scalp induces an electrical current in underlying brain regions. • Can be applied to local brain regions (focal areas) thought to be implicated in specific disorders • Manipulation of the magnetic field can stimulate an area of cortex as small as a quarter—the cortical surface only or deeper layers of brain tissue. • Studies report positive effects treating depression, but the required duration of treatment and the duration of beneficial effects remain under investigation. • Promising studies have extended the possible benefits of TMS to schizophrenic auditory hallucinations, anxiety disorders, hemiparesis, neurodegenerative diseases, and pain syndrome.

what is ECT

an electrophysiological treatment • Uses electrical current to produce seizures as a treatment for severe depression • Stimulates production of neurotropic factors that in turn restore inactive cells to a more active mode • Problems? Need to medicate person to avoid the massive convulsions caused by the electrical stimulation ECT leads to memory loss that can show a cumulative effect w/ repeated treatments

describe neuropsychological therapy

behavioural therapy • Aim to retrain people in the fundamental cognitive processes they have lost • Neurocognitive programs are being developed to improve functional outcomes following TBI and stroke

describe real-time fMRI therapy

behavioural therapy • Individuals learn to change their behaviour by controlling their own patterns of brain activation First used to treat intractable pain • Form of neural plasticity in which the individual learns new strategies guided by brain activation information

people with damage to which area of their brain have more difficulty generating novel solutions to problems? what does this mean

frontal lobes; means that the frontal lobes are important for not only organizing behaviour, but also for thinking

ignore

ignore

unlike thought in other animals, humans have the added advantage of:

language, which adds flexibility to thought

what are the foundation of cognitive processes and thoughts?

neurons

what are the only elements in the brain that combine evidence and make decisions?

neurons

the combination of _________ into _____________ produces complex mental representation

neurons; novel neural networks

describe phenylketonuria

• A behavioral disorder caused by elevated blood levels of the amino acid phenylalanine resulting from a defect in the gene for the enzyme phenylalanine hydroxylase • Major symptoms: intellectual impairments, seizures • PKU can be treated by restricting intake of foods high in protein (beef, fish, cheese) • Unlike PKU, most disorders do not involve a single genetic abnormality, and the underlying causes are largely conjectural.

describe self-regulation

• Ability to control our emotions and impulses as a means for achieving long-term goals • Prefrontal regions are critical in self-regulation. Children are often poor at self-regulation, which probably reflects the slow development of prefrontal regions responsible for impulse control. Expectations can alter our feelings

what is cognition

• Act of process of knowing or coming to know • For behavioural neuroscientists, cognition usually entails the ability to pay attention to stimuli, and to plan meaningful responses to them

what is convergent thinking

• Applying knowledge and reasoning skills to narrow the range of possible solutions to a problem, then zeroing in on one correct answer • Form of thinking that searches for a single answer to a question (such as 2 + 2 = ?) • Measured in traditional intelligence tests • People with temporal and parietal lobe lesions perform poorly on these types of tests

why would humans need consciousness

• As the amount of information about an event increases, it becomes advantageous to produce a single complex representation and make it available for a sufficient time to the parts of the brain. This is consciousness.

describe alex the parrot and what his case suggests about thinking

• Birds do not possess a neocortex (instead, they evolved specific brain nuclei that function much as the layers of the human cortex do) • Alex displays complex thinking including vocabulary with meaning, abstract ideas (colour, shape, material relative size), integration of concepts, and comprehension - Thinking must be an activity of complex neural circuits, not of some particular brain region

describe a study about motor behavior and conscious awareness

• Dissociation b/w motor behaviour and conscious awareness • Subjects made movements before they were actually aware of them • Conscious ventral stream is needed to discriminate among particular stimuli and respond differentially to them

how is compensatory plasticity a research challenge

• Even the best technology produces uncertain relationships. • Consider multiple sclerosis: brain lesions do not always produce behavioral symptoms and are not always linked to obvious neuropathology. • Meaning: people can change their behavior to adapt to neural change, just as they can display disordered behavior without obvious brain pathology.

describe dichotic listening

• Experimental procedure for simultaneously presenting a different auditory input to each ear through stereophonic earphones • Right-ear advantage for verbal information • Left-ear advantage for musical information

what are cell assemblies

• Hypothetical group (network) of neurons that become functionally connected via common sensory inputs • Proposed by hebb as the basis of perception, memory, and thought - Connections among neurons are not random, but rather are organized into systems and subsystems --> thinking must result from the activity of these complex neural circuits - Cell assemblies provide the basis for cognition --> difference assemblies come together, much like words in language, to produce coherent thoughts - Cell assemblies may be distributed over fairly large regions of the brain or confined to smaller areas, such as cortical columns

what are psychological constructs?

• Ideas that result from a set of impressions • Mental processes such as thought, language, memory, emotion, and motivation • Difficult to localize constructs in the brain

describe extinction

• In neurology, neglect of info on one side of the body when it is presented simultaneously w/ similar info on the other side of the body • Patients w/ contralateral neglect exhibit this symptom as they begin to recover • Patients who have it fail to pay attention to not only one side of the physical world around them, but also to one side of the world represented in their mind • Can pay attention to the neglected side when it is just on its own, but if forced to pay attention to both sides, he can only pay attention to one side at a time • Also show neglect for info presented to his left responds differently depending on whether objects in the left and right visual fields are similar or different --> can see 2 different objects, but cant see 2 of the same objects

describe neuroeconomics

• Interdisciplinary field that seeks to understand how the brain makes decisions • Combines ideas from economics, psychology, and neuroscience, in attempt to explain decision making processes by studying patterns of brain activity as people make decisions • Reflective system: deliberate, slow, rule-driven, and emotionally neutral( lateral prefrontal, medial temporal, and posterior parietal cortex) • Reflexive system: fast, automatic, emotionally biased (ventromedial prefrontal cortex and ventral striatum (nucleus accumbens)

how is modelling simplicity a research challenge

• Investigating the causes of disorders using animal models • For example rats with specific lesions of the nigrostriatal dopamine system are used to model Parkinson disease. • Meaning: the view of the neurobiology behind behavioral disorders that animal models provide can be oversimplified

what is consciousness

• Level of responsiveness of the mind to impressions made by the senses • Consciousness may provide an adaptive advantage - Consciousness allows us to select behaviours that correspond to an understanding of the nuances of sensory inputs

how is modelling limitations a research challenge

• Modeling human disorders is complex. • Critical thinking is imperative for evaluating studies using animal models that point toward possible cures for human behavioral diseases. • Meaning: objectively identifying any cognitive processes mimicked by a laboratory model is difficult.

how is systemic complexity a research challenge

• Multiple receptor systems serve widely varied functions. • For example, when people ingest a GABA agonist, such as a benzodiazepine, multiple effects on behavior become apparent. • Meaning: most drug treatments may improve a target behavior but at the same time produce varied side effects

describe exercise and music as therapy

• Music affects arousal and activates the motor and premotor cortices Can improve gait in parkinsons and stroke patients • Physical activity, including playing sports, combined w/ other therapies Counteracts effects of depression

describe the association cortex overall

• Neocortex outside the primary sensory and motor cortices (1/3 of cortex); produces cognition (2/3 of cortex) • One of the key differences b/w association cortex and primary cortex is the info that is coming into those areas aka the pattern of connections • Info goes up from the brainstem into the thalamus, out to primary cortices, then back to thalamus, then to association cortices Association cortices receives info that is more highly processed than info received by the primary cortices Contains knowledge either about our external or internal world or about movements

how is organizational complexity a research challenge

• Nervous system far outstrips other body systems in complexity. Brain has a wider variety of cell types than does any other body organ. • Nervous system cells and their connections are plastic: they change with experience. Features add a whole new dimension to understanding healthy and disordered functioning

describe a study on selective attention

• Neurons in areas V4 could be trained to respond selectively to info in their receptive field • Each animal was trained to attend to stimuli presented in one particular area of the visual field and to ignore stimuli in any other area In this way, the same visual stimulus could be presented to different regions of a neuron's receptive field to test whether the cell's response varied w/ stimulus location • Attending to specific parts of the sensory world is a property of single neurons: more evidence that the neuron is the computational unit of cognition • Before training, the neurons corresponding to all stimuli fired, but when trained to ignore certain stimuli, the neuron actually stopped firing

describe living in a social world

• Our understanding of our "self " and our social interactions link together as a single mental action. • When we express attitudes (including prejudices) toward ideas or human groups, brain imaging shows activation in prefrontal, anterior cingulate, and lateral parietal regions. cultural information biases brain systems, which in turn biases attitudes

describe virtual reality therapy

• Participant can experience sights, sounds, and even smells that mimic situations related to the behavioural disorder (i.e. PTSD) • In modified virtual reality therapy the patient interacts w/ a virtual world like a character in a computer game • Can also use this to help prevent PTSD before soldiers go out

describe deficits of attention following damage to frontal association cortex

• People w/ frontal lobe injuries tend to be overly focused on environmental stimuli • They seem to selectively direct attention to an excessive degree or to have difficulty shifting attention

describe the correlation b/w performance on IQ tests and memory

• Performance speed correlated with increased activation in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and with an increase in the interaction between the prefrontal cortex and right posterior parietal cortex. • Gray matter volume in the right dorsolateral prefrontal region correlated with the participant's accuracy in working memory tasks.

how is technological resolution a research challenge

• Resolution of a tool may not show sufficient detail to detect subtle neuronal change. • Consider behavioral problems after a brain trauma in a patient showing no obvious signs of brain damage on an MRI. • Meaning: given the current diagnostic methods for both behavioral disorders and neuropathology, identifying disorders and their causes is seldom easy.

what can we learn from patients GH and MM (recall functional asymmetry)

• Right hemisphere contributes to controlling spatial skills --> drawing, assembling puzzles, navigating space • Left hemisphere contributes to controlling language functions and cognitive tasks related to schoolwork --> reading and math Role in controlling voluntary movement sequences differs from the right hemisphere's role

describe social science and brain activity

• Social cognitions running the gamut from understanding ourselves to understanding others clearly are associated with activation of specific brain regions, especially prefrontal regions. • The obvious conclusion is that prefrontal activity produces our social cognitions, just as activity in visual regions produces our visual perceptions. • McLure et al. (2004) attitudes towards cola-flavored sodas experiment Expressing prejudice toward one or the other changes the way the brain activates, particularly the anterior cingulate cortex

describe emotional therapy

• Talking about emotional problems, enabling people to gain insights into their causes, may also serve as treatment • Address the unwanted behaviours directly (by acquiring a skill rather than taking a pill) • Effective treatment for depression or anxiety

describe theory of mind

• The attribution of mental states to others • We infer the minds of other animals in part by observing their behaviors and, in the case of people, by listening to their words. • Understanding that others may have feelings and beliefs that are different from our own • Empathy is correlated with increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex. --> sociopaths and psychopaths often have abnormal activity in the prefrontal areas, can behave like a sociopath after prefrontal brain damage

how is neuronal plasticity a research challenge

• The nervous system can adapt to extreme stress or injury. • For example, only when the loss of dopamine neurons exceeds about 60 percent to 80 percent do investigators see clinical signs of Parkinson disease. • Meaning: the brain's compensatory plasticity is considerable; the brain has a remarkable capacity for adapting

describe behavioural modification

• Therapists apply the principles developed from lab studies of learning by reinforcement, including operant and classical conditioning • Systematic desensitization: form of habituation that allows an individual to adapt to a repeatedly presented stimulus (treatment of phobias)

describe cognitive therapy

• Thoughts intervene b/w events and emotions • Challenge a person's self-defeating attitudes and assumptions • Important for people w/ brain injuries

what is divergent thinking

• reaches outward from conventional knowledge and reasoning skills to explore new, more unconventional solutions to problems. • Form of thinking that searches for multiple solutions to a problem (such as, how many ways can a pen be used?) • People with frontal lobe lesions perform poorly on these tests