Cognitive Neuroscience Chapter 1

Front 1

Cognitiv Neuroscience founding

Back 1

recieved name in late 1970's

cognition- process of knowing

Neuroscience - study of neurosystem

Front 2

Cognitive neuroscience definition

Back 2

understanding function of physical brain in terms of its ability to creat thoughts and ideas

Front 3

Soren kierkegaard quote page 3

can't understandmind through simply looking through

Back 3

you need to know both hard and soft sciences in order to truely understand the moind just becaus eyou know mechanisms you then have to understand what those mechansims do to behavior they have to be applied which is where soft science comes in

Front 4

Brain as a city

Back 4

built of parts but looks like a single unit from afar

Front 5

Phrenology

Back 5

brain organised 35 or more specific functions

Introduced the concept of localization, or the idea that brain function could be narrowed down to distinct area's of the brain

founded by Franz Joseph Gall

Front 6

anatomical personology

Back 6

created from the idea that
if one function was used omre the part represnitng that function woud grow causing bump in skull

and Franze Joseph Gall believed you could read bumps to read peronality

Front 7

Aggregate field theroy

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jean pierre flourens in 1824

expeirments showed lesions in birds didn't result in loss of behavior

argument against localization

whole brain participated in behavior

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Paul Broca

Back 8

in 1861 Broca treated man who after suffering a stroke could understand language but not speak (only said word tan):

patient damaged left inferior frontal lobe (broca's area)

specific region contorled specific speach

Front 9

Carl Wernicke'

Back 9

in 1876 studied a stroke victim who could speak but didn't make sense and couldn't undrstand writen or spoken language

due to leasion in posterior region of left hemispher (wernicke's area)

Front 10

Double Disassociation

Back 10

described in 1955 by H.-L Teuber

the idea that two experimental manipulations can effect two dependent variables.

premits one to make inferences about structure and function

This was supported by boca and wernicke as they showed that lesions in brain structure A impairs one brain function but not the other, but lesions in brain structure B impairs the other brain function but not the first. I.e. lesions in inferior frontal lobe caused inability to speak but able to understand language whereas lesions in posterior region of left hemispher caused inability to understand langugage but ability to speak

Front 11

Camillo Golgi

Back 11

italian developed a stain that allowed visualization of single neurons

Also believed brain was syncytium or continuous mass of tissue

Front 12

difference betweeen golgi and cajal idea

why they were both right

Back 12

Golgi believed in the net theory that neurons were a continuous network or reticulum and thats how they communicated

Cajal believed that neurons communicated through distinct contacts (i.e. dendrites synapses etc.)

while cajal is right golgi is still kinda of right as there are cells that communicate in that netlike mannor

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Ramon y cajal

Back 13

developed neuron doctrin that neurons are basic building blocks of nervous system

Front 14

Rationalism vs. Empiricism

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Empiricism believes that we are dependent on sense experience to gain knowledge
however rationalismists believe this knowledge can be gained without sense experience and is the work of reason

Front 15

Nativists

Back 15

theorize that children are born with innate cognitive systems devleoped over long evolutionary time contrasts empiricism

Front 16

lesions method benifits weakness

Back 16

finds correlations between loss of function (behavior) and brain area

disadvantage - you have to cause distruction unethical to induce lesion on person

Front 17

fMRI advantages

Back 17

can non invasivly record brain signals.
can record spatial resolution in region of 3-6 millimeters

disadvantge poor temporal resolution

Front 18

Fransiscus Donders

Back 18

a dutch optomologits who used differences in human reaction time to measure cognitive procesing, makes inferences about learning, memmory and attention, precurseor to subtraction method

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spike point

Back 19

action potential

Front 20

Neural representation

Back 20

1. everything is represented as a number. has a value, i.e. brightness of a color each stimulus has some value

2. encoding is non-linear and noisy (i.e. tuning curve not straight linear line)

3. encoding impleented by tuning curves

3. error is minimized by populatyion coding (i.e. since many neurons are firing at once)

5. decoding invovles summing up allt he population vectors

Front 21

tuning curve

Back 21

response rate (number of spike points per sec vs. direction of movemetn

Front 22

Grandmother Neurons

Back 22

when you look at grandmother one neuron in the medial temporal lobe fires in response to that stimulus

This single neuron's activity represents your grandmother

goes against nueral representation using multiple cells for encoding

Front 23

Grandmother Neuron advantages/disadvantages

Back 23

Easy to form assosiations and mediate appropriate behavior

disadvantage: need as many neruonsa as objects in world, also if neruon dies than ability to recognize grandma goes as well