CLPS 0450 Exam 1

reemergence of neuropsychology

- 1960s - not interested in neuropsychology - separated anatomy from cognitive model

modern cognitive neuropsychology (time period)

- 1st golden age (1860s) - 2nd golden age (1960s)

What are the consequences if any of these assumptions are false?

- Fractionation: cognitive disorders wouldn't be selective to one region or another - Universality: findings from a group of patients can't be generalized to anyone else - Transparency: patient data can't be used to learn about cognitive functions and structures in cognitive psychology.

Define each of the underlying assumptions of cognitive neuropsychology

- Fractionation: cognitive system must be modular and cognitive functions are isolated. ex: Can damage face processing independently from word processing - Universality: all individuals share same cognitive system. - Transparency: performance reflects total cognitive system minus subcomponents affected by lesion. lesion can't make new models. New strategies can be made, but only using existing structures

Wernicke + where

- Had patient with oppostie symptoms to Tan. Could speak but not understand - Patient had damage in posterior upper temporal lobe in left hemisphere

How is it possible to infer anything about normal cognition from single-case studies?

- accounting for all reported cases - accounting for all data from cognitive neuropsychology

Franz Joseph Gall

- argued localism aka different cognitive functions assigned to different regions of the cortex - better at ability, more of a trait -> size of brain is bigger and can be read through size of skull

Andreas Versalius

- argued that ventricles couldn't house human soul since animals had them too. - Also made great drawings of cerebral cortex

What are the aims of cognitive neuropsychology?

- can a particular function be spared/impaired relative to other cognitive functions? - address questions about cognitive components - single-case studies - FIND COGNITIVE MODELS which will eventually help neural models

bruce and young person identity node

- can identify specific semantic recognition - that's brad pitt! - that's a familiar face!

overt face recognition

- conscious knowledge of familiarity - prosopagnosics don't have this

bruce and young face recognition units

- contains structural description of a known person's appearance - link between structural encoding of face and person identity - no information about the person it has recorded

Classical antiquity period

- emphasis on localization of soul - heart/diaphgram(aristorle) vs brain (plato) - brain is vessel for substance of thought (cerebrospinal fluid)

prosopagnosia

- inability to recognize faces - very rare - occipital lobe right hemisphere important

residual striate cortex challenge to blindsight

- is there just spared visual cortex? - definitive study on someone with no visual striate cortex proved this challenge null

scattering light challenge to blindsight

- light gets scattered into intact visual field and intact visual field compensates somehow - refuted by projecting light on blind spot and DB sucked. Proves that there is some neural processing in blindspot because if it was just ability to process scattered light, should also be able to process light scattered off blind spot

Transitional or Renaissance Period

- localism/Holism - gall vs flourens

Localism vs. Holism Debate

- localism: different parts of brain control different parts of cognitive function - holism: brain is equipotential. Whole brain manifests all of mind

Describe Bruce & Young's model of face perception along with the neuropsychological evidence in support of the model.

- patient who doesn't see faces as faces - patient who can see faces but not recognize them - precise paring test did not show improvement in true pairings

What neuropsychological evidence is there for hemispheric specialization of different aspects of visual process?

- perceptive vs perceptive + conceptual study - object/picture matching study vs ghent matching study deficits on different sides of hemisphere respond differently

covert face recognition

- physical reaction to familiar faces - ex: skin conductance response

Thomas Willis

- rejected idea of ventricles playing a special role. - used comparative anatomy to argue specific role of cerebral cortex in intellectual abilities

Warrington's shadow rotating test

- rotated shadow of objects - NO DIFFERENCE in amount of rotation needed between principal axis and no principal axis

How is the difference between covert and overt facial recognition accommodated by Bruce & Young's model?

- study with skin conductance response showed that prosopagnosic had covert facial recognition even without overt facial recognition - skin conductance/covert response is at face recognition unit, but NOT person identity node

What are the different explanations proposed for blindsight?

- superior colliculus and other subcortical pathways perform a qualitatively different way of "seeing" - interlaminar cells in lgn are still intact and project to v5 (motion processing) and bypass V1

What is the fundamental problem with simply taking group-averages of performance measures across brain-damaged subjects with similar lesions?

- tough to localize lesions for some forms of brain damage due to tumors and swelling - danger in concluding a function is localized to a region or purpose of a region to to support that function - need to consider if region has multiple functions

What is the ventricular localization theory?

- ventricles hold soul/mind - perception(anterior), reason(middle), and memory in each part of ventricles(posterior)

medieval period

- ventricular localization theory: perception, reason, and memory in each part of ventricles

What is blindsight?

- visual field defect that causes covert visual ability without overt visual ability - residual visual processing after destruction of primary visual cortex

In neuropsychological studies, describe the different methods (i.e., associations, dissociations) that scientists determine whether two or more tasks utilize different cognitive/neural resources.

1) associations or similarities - Task A and B have same neural resources 2) single dissociations or differences - Task A and B use different neural resources 3) double dissociation -BEST WAY TO TELL - patient X impaired on Task 1 normal Task 2 - patient y impaired on Task 2 normal Task 1

two levels of prosopagnosia

1. Inability to perceive faces 2. inability to recognize faces perceived normally

challenges to transparency

1. is patient's lesion/behavior reflective of a "true" disruption to a specific cognitive module? 2. normal individual variation in performance 3. effects of compensatory operations 4. effects from disruptions of other processes

human face cow face double dissociation

1. patient who can't recognize familiar faces but still able to recognize all individual cows 2. patient can recognize faces but not their individual cows

Characterize the distinction between apperceptive vs. associative agnosia.

Apperceptive Agnosia: - unable to differentiate between visually similar items. - unable to construct accurate 3d percept - can't copy Associative Agnosia: - able to differentiate between visually similar items. - able to construct accurate 3d percept - object lost significance or meaning - can copy but can't identify terms coined by Lissauer

How does residual awareness of visual perception in the blindsight visual field differ from that in the non-impaired visual field?

Blindsight field - can't consciously see things - can see orientation discrimination - can do motion detection - can do crude shape discrimination - as stimulus gets stronger, awareness increases, but accuracy is good no matter what - highly accurate form discrimination at low contrast in BLIND field (controls couldn't do this!) - long lasting afterimage in BLIND field for low contrast drawing

Compare the advantages and disadvantages to the use of brain-damaged patients vs. healthy normal subjects for understanding normal cognitive processes.

Brain Damage Advantages: You can see the actual effect on behavior from brain damage, organic lesions allow subcortical regions to be studied, changes in behavior are more apparent Brain Damage Disadvantages: hard to localize lesions, danger in concluding a function is localized Healthy normal subjects advantages: temporary effects, reversible nature, can investigate functional integration Healthy normal subjects disadvantages: only affects close to the surface brain areas

What are the characteristic features of integrative agnosia (Patient HJA)?

CAN'T GROUP VISUAL ELEMENTS Functional abilities - able to copy drawings of objects that he can't recognize - able to draw objects from memory - able to recognize objects from modalities other than vision Impaired abilities - unable to recognize features as an integrated percept - unable to determine if combined objects (candle doorknob) are real or not Unique skill - did better on silhouettes of combined objects than line drawings

brain pathways for face expertise development

CORTICAL PATHWAY: conlearn retina->LGN-> primary visual cortex not specialized to faces, but conspec forces it to be used on faces SUBCORTICAL PATHWAY: conspec retina->superior colliculus primal, coded ability to recognize human faces

Briefly define and give examples of the different ways of acquiring brain damage.

Cerebrovascular Disorders - strokes - #1 in frequency and importance of neurological disorders - changes in blood supply to brain - rupture or blockage of arteries Craniocerebral Trauma - open and closed head injuries - open head is often more focal deficits because problematic thing leaves - in closed head, cerebrospinal fluid sloshes brain and it causes "contracoup" damage Infections - herpes simplex encephalitis - swelling to fight the infection causes damage too Neurodegenerative Diseases - Alzheimer's, parkinson's, huntington's, ALS - actual cause not always known

How did the approach to understanding mental activity change across each time period (Classical Antiquity through Modern Times) and what factors contributed to those changes?

Classic: began as heart holds soul, greek physicians argued for brain, thought that ventricles were most important Medieval: elaborate on ventricles being most important Renaissance: brain or ventricles/csf Emergence of modern neuropsychology: diagram makers; holism vs localization

Four time periods

Classical antiquity period, medieval period, Transitional or Renaissance Period, modern cognitive neuropsychology

How is transformational apperceptive agnosia different from form/shape agnosia?

Form agnosia: impaired in seeing global form Transformational agnosia: impaired in rotating objects

What were the weaknesses of the diagram makers, and why did this approach fall out of favor?

Four main fronts: 1) inadequate psychological formulation: didn't know the mechanisms behind the centers 2) lack of empirical constraints: only based on case studies, didn't care if model could be generalized fit to patients who don't fit the model 3) lack of empirical support: theory driven, not data driven; only wanted enough data to support it, didn't do enough error checking 4) strictly tied to anatomy: didn't understand the difference between cognition and neural substrate. many areas can cause broca's aphasia even though cognitive model might still be true

How is Gall's functional specialization approach different from that of fMRI studies in modern times?

Gall's approach fell out of favor because it was not scientifically supported, unlike fMRI studies that can demonstrate changes in blood flow during certain tasks and associate certain functions with certain areas.

Paul Broca

Had patient Tan who was able to understand speech but not express himself. Found very specific legion in patient Tan

macular sparing

Sparing of the central or macular region of the visual field, Results from a lesion in visual cortex but still get macular due to extra blood supply

What neuropsychological evidence did Marr use to support the necessary "principal axis extraction" computation in the model?

In Humphrey & Riddoch's foreshortened principal axis vs minimized distinctive features test, agnosics preformed poorly on foreshortened axis and well on minimized distinctive features

distinctive features vs principal axis

Is ease of determining an object about the principal axis/foreshortening of whether or not the distinctive features are present? answer: probably distinctive features

Results of damage to blood supply

Ischemia: of blood supply Anoxia: loss of oxygen infarction: ischemia so severe neurons are killed

What types of damage/trauma provide ideal conditions for neuropsychological investigations?

Localized damage is ideal for neuropsychological investigations

Damage for perceptual and perceptual + conceptual posterior damage

Perceptual: Left -, Right + P+C: L +, R +

Briefly describe the different stages of Marr's computational model of visual object recognition

Primal Sketch -> -- line copying in clinical sketch -- 2.5D sketch -only know depth for viewer's angle -> 3D model representation - know depth of object at any angle -> Semantic System - know what object is and info about it

What are the different ways of grouping patients? and why is each one useful?

Syndrome: multiple cognitive impairments grouped together. Useful for investigating neural correlates of disease pathology Behavior symptom: identify multiple regions implicated in a behavior Lesion Location: useful for testing causal predictions derived from functional imaging

Dual-aspect theory

The belief that mind and brain are two levels of description of the same thing

How does residual awareness affect the ability of blindsight patients to discriminate visual information in the blind visual field?

They are more aware of stronger stimuli, but their accuracy is good no matter what the awareness. also they still aren't conscious of what they are seeing even with awareness

How is the brain topographically organized at different levels (areas of the brain, projections across areas, laminar structure)?

Topographically Visual: posterior occipital Auditory: superior temporal gyrus Somatosensory: postcentral gyrus in the parietal lobe Motor: precentral gyrus in the frontal lobe Primary sensory areas: receive information about a particular sensory modalityPrimary motor areas: final exit points for neurons controlling movement of body's muscles

Describe Warrington & Taylor's model of object recognition

Visual analysis - sensory visual analysis - visual cortex in occipital lobe "pseudo-agnosia": can't perceive object -> --post sensory -- perceptual categorization -3d object recognition -posterior right "apperceptive agnosia": inability to perceive integrated object -> semantic categorization - what object is recognition - posterior left hemisphere - "associative agnosia": inability to name/recognize object

What are the various arguments described in class for why faces are or are not special?

Yes special: - are patients who are object agnosic but not prosopagnosic - controls are worse on glasses than faces. prosopagnosic is normal on glasses but impaired on faces, so it can't just be that faces are difficult - faces are so special and dedicated that system mandatorily grabs faces, even in it is damaged Not special: - faces are just difficult - faces are very similar to each other and its difficult to discriminate between them - simply expertise specific

Plato

believed that soul resided in brain and it controlled voluntary movement

In the context of model of Lichtheim, how did the diagram makers explain a variety of language syndromes exhibited by different types of patients (e.g., Broca's aphasia)?

aphasias are based on which areas are damaged or disconnected

Hippocrates

argued cause of epilepsy was found in the brain, not supernatural or divine

Pierre Flourens

argued for holism against Gall

Rene Descartes

argued that interaction between cerebral spinal fluid and brain tissue, esp in pineal gland

What are the benefits and problems associated with using single-case studies?

benefits: - no confounds between different subjects - each case is a separate, replicated experiment over time - good for establishing cognitive models disadvantages: - individual ability can change overtime (deficit heals, ability fades) - cognitive impairments aren't stable - not as good for linking to specific brain structures

What distinguishes the field of cognitive neuropsychology from that of classical neuropsychology?

classical neuropsychology: - what functions are disrupted by damage to area X? - address questions about functional specialization - link cognitive and neural models - tends to use group study methods cognitive neuropsychology: - can a particular function be spared/impaired relative to other cognitive functions? - address questions about cognitive components - single-case studies

What constraints do the brain's evolutionary origins place on the development of cognitive models?

cognition evolved over time before humans, so any proposal that does not follow other brain structures/the evolution pattern must be wrong

How does classical neuropsychology relate to the field of cognitive psychology?

cognitive neuropsychology finds cognitive models (using mostly single case studies) and classical finds neural models (using mostly group studies). These models are able to inform and check each other

conduction aphasia

damage to the pathway connecting the two language centers Understand language intact (sensory center intact) Speak fluently (motor center intact) Poor repetition

Define the various terms used to navigate and provide relative locations of structures within the brain.

dorsal: scalp ventral: feet caudal: back rostral: face

Where in Marr's model is the damage? - poor object recognition - could name verbal description of function - could copy line drawings, but laboriously - able to match identical stimuli and match felt stimuli to visual stimuli by turning object to correct orientation - could not do unconventional views test

error between 2.5D sketch and 3D representation

To what degree do experimental investigations support or refute explanations for blindsight?

evidence for going to V5/other V areas - patient that has same activation in V5 in blind and sighted field even though no residual V1 activity - In patient, V5 resembled V1 activation in motion coherence test because it's doing double duty as both V5 and V1

Alcmaeon

first to argue that brain was source of all mental activity

evidence for and against faces simply being expertise specific processing

for - dog breed judges had inversion effect similar to faces - greebles are easier than faces; training for a few weeks isn't the same as training since birth against -prosopagnosics can learn greebles but not faces - prosopagnosic patient was a car expert over lifetime but still couldn't process faces - WJ became a sheep face expert but still couldn't process faces

Aristotle

heart/diaphragm - cardiocentric view Argued that source of consciousness was heart and brain was coolant system to maintain temperature

Describe the model of Lichtheim

linked centers for motor patterns, auditory images, and concepts

What is the mind-body problem?

how does brain create our mental world? Does brain or heart make mental experiences

Reductionism

human behavior can be explained by breaking it down into smaller components

Ghent overlapping figures test

identify objects in overlapping images shows posterior right damage

task-resource artifact

impaired task because was simply more difficult than other task

task-demand artifact

impaired task was performed sub optimally because participant was distracted, misunderstood task, or fatigued

transcortical (motor or sensory) aphasia

lesion between concepts and (sensory or motor) patterns

Agnosia

the inability to recognize familiar objects.

What was novel about the approach of the diagram makers to understanding the cognitive function of brain-damaged patients?

localism became much more popular than holism

picture object matching test

match 10 colored photos to 10 objects on desk shows posterior left damage

How do factors that contribute to the behavioral performance of a patient influence our conclusions about the underlying cognitive processes?

may lead us to believe a particular area is responsible for a deficit when it is actually a patient's performance or other areas that are damaged

To what degree do the perceptual deficits of patients with agnosia support or refute Marr's model or Warrington's distinctive-features model?

more so support warrington and refute marr Challenges: - overlapping figures test - Gollin figures - changes in lighting - warrington's shadow rotating test Above tests minimize distinctive features but keep principal axis intact, but agnosics still perform poorly Also difficult to know how much distinctive features are minimized

What factors contribute to the behavioral performance of a patient?

normal indiv variation in performance effects of compensating operations effects from disruption of other processes

Why did Gall's functional specialization approach fall out of favor in the scientific community?

phrenology was weird

dualism

position that mind and body are in some categorical way separate from each other, and that mental phenomena are, in some respects, non-physical in nature - Descartes

Where is brain damage to not pass unconventional view of object?

posterior right hemisphere

Phineas Gage

railroad worker who survived a severe brain injury that dramatically changed his personality and behavior; case played a role in the development of the understanding of the localization of brain function. originally supported holists because brain still worked without a big chunk. Then supported localization because they realized some functions were impaired

Galen

rejected convolutions and put emphasis on ventricles and cerebral spinal fluid

How is the brain's organization both parallel and serial?

serial: things project to each other (primary -> secondary -> tertiary) parallel: things happen at the same time (motion happens at same time as what object is processing)

laminar structure

stratified into 6 layers in neocortex. Distinct levels project to other distinct areas

What is phrenology?

the detailed study of the shape and size of the cranium as a supposed indication of character and mental abilities.

What is the significance of the face inversion effects and the Thatcher illusion?

there is something "special" about how we process faces

developmental perspective on face expertise

two processes cause curve. one system decreases while another increases early process is tracking task later process is looking task

object orientation agnosia

unable to say what the canonical view of an object is despite knowing what the object is

Herophelius and erisstraus

ventricular system and argued that the brain was convoluted and different areas of the brain were respective to consciousness

How does Marr's model different from Warrington's model?

visual analysis = primal sketch/2.5 perceptual categorization = 3d model representation semantic = semantic