Cognitive Neuroscience (Chapter 2- Test Questions)

Which of the following statements is the most accurate with regard to specificity coding?

It is unlikely to be correct because there are too many stimuli in the world to have a separate neuron for each.

What is the metabolic center of an individual neuron?

cell body

The __________ lobe of the cortex receives information from all of the senses and is responsible for coordination of the senses, as well as higher cognitive functions such as thinking and problem solving.

frontal

A 10-month-old baby is interested in discovering different textures, comparing the touch sensations between a soft blanket and a hard wooden block. Tactile signals such as these are received by the __________ lobe.

parietal

If kittens are raised in an environment that contains only verticals, you would predict that most of the neurons in their visual cortex would respond best to the visual presentation of a

picket fence

The fusiform face area (FFA) in the brain is often damaged in patients with

prosopagnosia.

The value that stays the same as long as there are no signals in the neuron is known as

resting potential.

When conducting an experiment on how stimuli are represented by the firing of neurons, you notice that neurons respond differently to different faces. For example, Arthur's face causes three neurons to fire, with neuron 1 responding the most and neuron 3 responding the least. Roger's face causes three different neurons to fire, with neuron 7 responding the least and neuron 9 responding the most. Your results support __________ coding.

specificity

Action potentials occur in the

synapse

A synapse is

the gap that separates two different neurons

Edgar Adrian studied the relationship between nerve firing and sensory experience by measuring how the firing of a neuron from a receptor in the skin changed as he applied more pressure to the skin. He found that

the rate of nerve firing increased as he increased the pressure

Groups of interconnected neurons are referred to as

neural circuits.

Before the advent of intercoms, old mansions had a sash in each room. Each sash was connected to a bell on a master board in the servants' office. When someone pulled a sash in a particular room, a bell corresponding to the room would ring on the master board, informing a servant where to go to provide assistance. This system is similar to which of the following?

*Specificity coding

Which of the following statements best describes how neurons communicate with one another?

A chemical process takes place in the synapse.

Josiah is trying to speak to his wife, but his speech is very slow and labored, often with jumbled sentence structure. Josiah may have damage to which area of the brain?

Broca's area

What does the principal of neural representation state?

Everything a person experiences is based on representations in the person's nervous system.

Ramon is looking at photos of athletes in a sports magazine. He is focusing on their body parts, particularly their chest and legs. Which part of Ramon's brain is activated by this viewing?

Extrastriate body area (EBA)

Sarah has experienced brain damage making it difficult for her to understand spatial layout. Which area of her brain has most likely sustained damage?

Parahippocampal place area (PPA)

Which part of the nervous system picks up information from the outside environment?

Receptor

Why is it easier to study brain tissue from newborn animals than brain tissue from adults?

The density of cells in a newborn brain is small compared with the density in an adult brain.

Brain imaging has made it possible to

determine which areas of the brain are involved in different cognitive processes.

The idea that specific cognitive functions activate many areas of the brain is known as

distributed representation.

Neurons that respond to specific qualities of objects, such as orientation, movement, and length, are called

feature detectors.

Barbara has recently been diagnosed with abdominal cancer. Her oncologist wants to determine the best treatment method to eliminate the tumors. Her gastroenterologist is focused on relieving her symptoms and restoring normal digestive functioning. Barbara's psychologist works to help minimize her anxiety and keep her spirits up. The fact that these doctors are considering Barbara's situation with different goals and from different perspectives is similar to the idea of __________ presented in your textbook.

levels of analysis

Paul Broca's and Carl Wernicke's research provided early evidence for

localization of function.