Thursday, January 22, 2015Holly PorterPsychology 322-02What is cognitive neuroscience? The study of the physiology of cognition. ! ! ! ! "Levels of Analysis- is multiple approaches to study a topic, each different way it is study is contributed to the understanding of the topic."A nerve net is a network of nerve cells working together, it is continuous. A nerve doctrine is individual nerve cells sending and transmitting neural signals, these are not continuous unlike the nerve net."cell body-“metabolic center” keeps the cell alive ex. nucleus."dendrites- receives signals from other neurons, branched out from cell body."axons(nerve fibers)- transmits signals to other neurons."synapse- is the small gap between a nerves axon and dendrite."neural circuit- group(s0 of neurons that do neural processing."Specialized neural cells can be found in the eye, ears, nose, and skin and they have special receptors that pick up information from the environment."A resting potential is the value that is measured where there are no neural signals. The action potential is the measure of the “impulse.”"neurotransmitter-chemical released at the synapse, a response to incoming action potentials."Principle of Neural REPRESENTATION- A persons experience is based on that individuals nervous system." "The Cerebral Cortex is the outer layer of the brain. It is comprised of the sensory, motor, and association areas of the brain. The sensory area receive and process information from our senses. The motor area controls our voluntary movements. And the association area of the cerebral cortex produces the perception of our environment. "visual cortex- found at the back of the brain, receives signals from the eye." "The occipital lobe is found at the back of the brain and is responsible for analyzing information from the eyes. Visual cortex. The temporal lobe is found on the side of the brain and is responsible for language, memory, hearing, and vision.The parietal lobe is found at the top of the brain and contains mechanisms responsible for some visual information but mainly sensations caused by the stimulation of the receptors found in skin. The frontal lobe is found in the front of the brain and serves “higher functions” like language, thought, memory, and motor functions."1Thursday, January 22, 2015Prosopagnosia- is a condition that occurs when there is damage to the temporal lobe. People with this condition can not recognize faces."feature detectors- are specific neurons that respond to visual features like orientation, size, or the more complex features that make-up environmental stimuli."hierarchical processing- progression of processing from lower to higher areas of the brain."Sensory coding is how neural firing represents various changes in the characteristics of the environment whereas Specificity coding is the firing of neurons that only respond to a stimulus, for example when you recognize someones face."Population coding is the pattern firing of a large number of neurons due to a neural representation of a stimulus. Sparse coding is neural coding based on the pattern of activity in small groups of neurons."Broca’s area is a specialized area for speech found in the frontal lobe. Damage to this specific area causes Broca’s Aphasia, people with this condition have difficulty with producing language."Wernicke’s area is another specialized area for speech in the temporal lobe. Damage to this specific area causes Wernicke’s Aphasia. People who suffer from Wernicke’s Aphasia have difficulty comprehending language."MRI- “magnetic resonance imaging” is a technique of brain imaging that makes it possible to create images of the brain and its structures within. fMRI- “functional magnetic resonance imaging” is another technique of brain imaging that has allowed researchers to determine how different types of cognition activate different areas of the brain. It measures the blood flow increase in the area that has been activated by the cognitive task. The blood can be measured by the hemoglobin because it contains iron and iron is magnetic. Colors indicate the location of increased/decreased blood flow and different colors are used to indicate the increase/decrease."fusiform face area FFA- area of the temporal lobe that contains many neurons that responds selectively to faces."parahippocampal place area PPA-area in the temporal lobe that is selectively activated by pictures of indoor/outdoor scenes."extrastriate body area EBA- area in the temporal cortex that is activated by pictures of bodies and parts of bodies but not faces or