Cog Psy ch 2
Resting potential/action potential in millivolts:
-70 and +40
Grandmother cell:
A neuron, according to Lttvin, that responds only to a specific stimulus
Extrastriate body area:
Activated by pictures of bodies and parts of bodies (but not faces)
Broca's area. If damaged
Area in the front of the brain responsible for Broca's aphasia who could not process connecting words like "was" and "by" and therefore makes it difficult to determine order. Not simply a problem with rpducing language
Who is recognized as "the person who made this cellular study of mental life possible"?
Cajal
Feature detectors:
Early research on the nature of representation led to the proposal that this representation could involve neurons called feature detectors that respond to features that make up objects.
How did Ramon y Cajal accurately investigave the nature of the nerves in the brain?
Golgi stain which stained only some of the cells in the slice of brain tissue
Recording electrode:
connected to a recording device and another electrode
Prosopagnosia:
the inability to recognize faces
Nerve net. What did it believe about the network of nerves?
It was believed to be continuous
Q: Groups of interconnected neurons are referred to as what?
Neural circuits
Localization of function:
Neurons serving different cognitive functions transmit signals to different areas of the brain
Event-related potential (ERP). Recorded how? How has it helped cog psy?
Recorded with small disc electrodes on a person's scalp and measures signals from roups of neurons that fire together. Useful for investigating a process such as understanding a conversation. Rapid response (34)
Fisiform face area
Responds to faces
Distrubuted coding. One advantage?:
The code that indicates a specific object is distributed across a number of neurons. The firing of a single neuron can cause a cascade.
For the senses, what does quality refer to?
The different experiences associated with each of the senses
Primary receiving areas:
The first areas of the cerebral cortex to receive signals from each of the senses.
Neuron docrine:
The idea that individual cells ransmit signals in the nervous system, and that these cells are not continuous with other cells as proposed by nerve net.
Distributed processing:
The idea that specific functions are processed by many different areas of the brain
Specificity coding. Proposes what about neuron specificity?:
The representation of a specific stimulus, such as a particular person's face, by the firing of very specifically tuned neurons. Proposes that there are neurons that are tuned to respond just to one specific stimulus.
Cognitive neuroscience:
The study of physiological basis of cognition
Neural code:
The way patterns of neural firing represent environmental stimuli
Problems with the grandmother cell idea?
Too many faces and objects to assign one neuron to each one.
Parahippocampal place area:
activated by pictures representing indoor and outdoor scenes
Module of brain:
an areas specialized for a specific function
Wernicke's area. If damage?:
area responsible for Wenicke's aphasia. Patients are unable to understand speech and writing and also produce meanlingless speech, but speak fluently and grammatically correct, but tend to be incoherent.
Subtraction technizue:
brain activity is measured first in a control state before stimulation and then again while the stimulus I presented
What technique was used to determine the areas of the brain such as fusiform face area?
fMRI
Positron emission tomography (PET):
images the blood flow to the brain by injecting a low dose of radioactive tracers into the blood stream.
Reference electrode:
located outside of the nerve tissue
Frontal lobe's role in senses:
receives signals from all the sense and plays an important role in perceptions that involve the coordination of information received through tow or more senses.
