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Cognitive Science
Readings 8-12
42
Other
Undergraduate 3
11/02/2008

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Term
Describe a pop-out test to determine if synesthesia for number-color synesthesia is true or false.
Definition
A pop-out or segregation test is used where many of look-alike numbers (such as 2's and 5's) are jumbled together, but with a pattern among one of the numbers.  For example in the text they use a triangle of 2's amongst the 5's (all the numbers are the same color) and the synesthesics are excellent at picking out the pattern, or triangle in this example because they see them in a different color.
Term
What happens when the angular gyrus, a part of the temporal, parietal and occipital junction (TPO) is damaged by a stroke.
Definition
The patient can still identify numbers, but they cannot subtract or divide.  (Multiplication is usually still ok.)
Term
What is the difference between cross-wiring and cross-activation.
Definition

Cross wiring is when actual connections are made incorrectly in the brain.

 

Cross-Activation is when the number of connections are fine, but the balance of chemicals traveling between regions is skewed.

Term
Describe the perceptual effect of "crowding".
Definition
When you cannot usually discern a number when starting at a hatch mark a small distance away from said number surrounded by other numbers; however, people with synethesia an discern it because it is a different color.
Term
What evidence is there for the claim that for some of the synethetes tested, their color-number synesthesia is likely to be due to cross-activation within the fusiform gyrus itself, rather than at the higher levels of number concept?
Definition
When shown a Roman Numeral in the crowding experiment synesthetics saw no color.
Term
The authors speculate that higher level synesthesia has its routes in cross-activation problems between _______ and the angular gyrus (or TPO) (as opposed to the fusiform and V4)
Definition
V4
Term
What are the 2 most common types of synethesia?
Definition
numbers & colors

tones & colors
Term
The main characteristic of mirror neurons is that they discharge both when a monkey performs an action and when the monkey....
Definition
sees someone else perform the same action
Term
Because these neurons are found in important areas of the brain including pre-motor cortex, the authors couldn't adopt one common strategy for establishing the function of the neurons. What strategy was this?
Definition
?????
Couldn't eliminate lesions, not good enough to grasp information.

I SAID: assessed neurons' responses when the monkeys could comprehend the meaning of an action without really seeing it
Term
Instead, they approached the problem in a series of two experiments that were aimed at determining if mirror neurons would respond based on ______ alone.
Definition
understanding the action through sounds or sufficient non-visual clues
Term
To determine if something like mirror neurons might exist in the human brain, the researchers turned to techniques that allowed them to observe neuronal activity in the human brain, including EEGs and ______. One region of the human brain that responded in their experiments was the _______, which is known to respond to moving body parts.
Definition
fMRIs

Superior Temporal Sulcus (STS)
Term
Which brain structure was active in the observers when they saw someone experience disgust as a result of inhaling a foul odor? Were the emotional responses in the observer and the participant similar?
Definition
Anterior Insula

Yes
Term
Briefly describe the "pain context" experiment done by Singer and colleagues at the University of London. What was the conclusion?
Definition
????? Electrodes put on hands, told that they were going to shock the other person and that it would be painful. Humans may comprehend emotions through direct mapping involving parts of the brain that generally are associated with visceral motor responses.
Term
Which area of the brain became active as the participant observed and imitated the expert guitarist?
Definition
parietofrontal mirror neuron systems
Term
What are the chief signs of autism?
Definition
Social isolation, lack of eye contact, poor language capacity, absence of empathy
Term
Name one of the less well-known signs of autism.
Definition
Difficulty miming other's actions
Term
Anatomists have shown characteristic anomalies in the __________, a brain structure when it comes to autism.
Definition
Cerebellum
Term
What major deficit is posited as the basis of autism in the "theory of many minds" account of the disorder?
Definition
Inability to put together detailed hypotheses about the inner workings of someone else's mind
Term
A more concrete embodiment of the theory of other minds is that autism is characterized by the breakdown of the ________________ system.
Definition
mirror neuron
Term
To test this, Ramachandran made use of the well-established finding that ____ waves in EEG are blocked when a person makes a voluntary motor muscle movement.
Definition
MU
Term
State the primary finding for autistic children when the children produced a voluntary muscle movement and when they observed another person performing the voluntary muscle movement.
Definition
MU wave suppressed when they performed, not when they watched
Term
According to Ramachandran, autistics often have difficulty grasping ___________ such as the kiki/bouba demonstration.
Definition
metaphors
Term
Non-autistic people with damage to the ____________, a brain region at the cross-roads of hearing, vision, and touch centers, have difficulty grasping the kiki/bouba demonstration.
Definition
angular gyrus
Term
Name one technique Ramachandran suggests might provide helpful therapy for autistics.
Definition
Correcting chemical imbalances that disable mirror neurons.
Term
Where is Broca's area located? According to these authors, why is that a sensible place for it?
Definition
Next to the motor cortex that controls lips and mouth, because it involves problems in speech production.
Term
Where is Wernicke's area located? According to these author's why does this make sense for it to be there?
Definition
By the auditory cortex, which receives signals from the ears. Makes sense because it involves problems in speech comprehension
Term
Why do these authors hypothesize that sign language might be lateralized in the right hemisphere?
Definition
Because signs are visio-spatial signals, which is what the right brain is known for.
Term
Do deaf signers with brain damage show dissociation deficits of language production (like Broca's aphasia) and language understanding (like Wernicke's aphasia)?
Definition
Yes
Term
Damage to the (right/left) hemisphere in signers underlies most acquired impairments in sign language use.
Definition
LEFT
Term
What aspect of language is most sharply restricted to the left hemisphere?
Definition
the production of language
Term
An alternative way to look at language lateralization in deaf and hearing people is that language at the "local" level (word deciphering, etc.) is lateralized to the (left/right) whereas the more global aspects of putting together discourse is lateralized by the (left/right)
Definition
LEFT / RIGHT
Term
What do these authors conclude about the relationship between the sign language abilities of life-long signers and their non-linguistic spatial skills?
Definition
sign language is more closely related to spoken language than non-linguistic spatial skills
Term
An area of the basal ganglia called the ________ hosts a population of well-connected cells with "long arms and between 10,000 and 30,000 spines that collect info from cells in other locals."
Definition
Striatum
Term
The interval time theory proposed my Meck posits that spiny neurons learn the unique time stamps using a set of cells firing at different rates. According to Meck, in response to an event, all of these cells fire simultaneously causing a sharp "attentional spike", and then (resume/alter) their regular firing rates.
Definition
RESUME
Term
According to Meck, dopamine plays an important role in framing a time interval. Drugs that increase the availability of dopamine (slow down/speed up) the interval time.
Definition
SPEED UP
Term
The interval timer is a highly precise mechanism for timing short intervals. (True/False).
Definition
FALSE
Term
_____________ Is the brain locus of the circadian clock.
Definition
Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)
Term
The _____________ has long been thought (from animal studies) to control the daily fluctuations in blood pressure, body temperature, activity level and alertness.
Definition
Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN)
Term
The recently discovered "clock genes" exist in (the hypothalamus/all cells) in the body.
Definition
ALL CELLS
Term
The mismatch between day length and daily life is probably responsible for the syndrome called _____________.
Definition
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
Term
The ________ clock keeps track of cell divisions and may be involved in the aging process.
Definition
mitotic
Term
The division of cells causes a loss of a chunk of ______, which biologists suggest may be an important part of the aging process.
Definition
telomeres
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