Deck 12: Identifying Stimuli and Stimulus Objects

Question 1

Stimulus (or object) identification is primarily accomplished by which cortical circuitry?

A) the ventral stream from the occipital cortex to the frontal cortex
B) the ventral stream from the visual cortex to the inferior temporal cortex
C) the dorsal stream from the visual cortex to the posterior parietal cortex
D) the dorsal stream from the occipital cortex to the motor cortex
E) none of the above

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Sparse coding that neurons that sensory neurons employ to reduce the number of action potentials necessary for a sense organ to get information to the sensory processing areas of the brain. This is analogous to what technique used in digital processing?

A) high resolution data processing where each data point is treated with equal processing
B) data compression where multiple data points with the same value are treated as one or two points
C) data compression where multiple data points are just averaged to give one uniform value
D) all of the above

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Which of the following is the best explanation for the efficient sensory coding neurons employ?

A) analysis of sensory data focuses on unique features that focus on natural stimuli
B) analysis of sensory data focuses on all of the features coded in the data such as texture, color, and direction of movement
C) analysis of sensory data only focuses on the most unique features compared to back ground stimuli
D) analysis of sensory data happens as quickly as possible with the first stimuli being weighted more heavily than subsequent stimuli

Answer 3

A

Question 4

What are the main differences between the grandmother coding scheme and the population coding scheme? Provide an argument as to which one seems more likely.

Question 5

Which of the following is a possible ordering of the projections from the retina to the higher ordered visual processing centers?

A) lateral geniculate nucleus of thalamus $\rightarrow$ V1 $\rightarrow$ middle temporal area $\rightarrow$ V4 $\rightarrow$ inferior temporal cortex
B) lateral geniculate nucleus of thalamus $\rightarrow$ V1 $\rightarrow$ V2 $\rightarrow$ V3 $\rightarrow$ V4 $\rightarrow$ inferior temporal cortex
C) lateral geniculate nucleus of thalamus $\rightarrow$ V1 $\rightarrow$ V3 $\rightarrow$ middle temporal area $\rightarrow$ posterior parietal cortex
D) lateral geniculate nucleus of thalamus $\rightarrow$ V1 $\rightarrow$ V4 $\rightarrow$ inferior temporal cortex
E) all of the above

Question 6

Which of the following is true of the visual cortical hierarchy?

A) visual information usually flows from the striate cortex to the extrastriate cortex
B) visual information cannot flow from the extrastriate cortex to the striate cortex
C) visual information is completely reciprocal along every available pathway in the visual cortical circuits
D) visual information from striate cortex always flows to the extrastriate cortex

Question 7

When you spot a bright light in the middle of a dark room on center/ off center (circle one) retinal ganglion cells are activated, however when that light suddenly disappears and on center/ off center (circle one) retinal ganglion cells are activated.

Question 8

In the figure presented above, what best describes the activity of off center retinal ganglion cells.

A) they are being excited by an inhibitory surround
B) they are being inhibited by an excitatory surround
C) they are being excited by an excitatory surround
D) they are be inhibited by an inhibitory surround

Question 9

Which of the following statement is not true of surround inhibition in the retina?

A) surround inhibition helps to localize visual stimuli, similar to how lateral inhibition in the somatosensory system localizes tactile stimulus
B) surround inhibition is conducted via horizontal cells which are excited by cone cells
C) surround inhibition is only necessary for on-center bipolar cells
D) surround inhibition is conducted via horizontal cells which are inhibited by cone cells
E) all of the above

Question 10

Are you able to determine which of the above circles is brighter than the other? Explain in your own words what mechanism of your visual processing center enables or inhibits this visual discrimination.

Question 11

Refer to figure 12.7 In the text , what is the best explanation for the difference in LGN spatial receptive fields in a young ferret as compared to an adult?

A) the patterns of excitation in the LGN on and off center sides as well as surround inhibition do not change much during development
B) pruning of the neurons during development in the LGN makes the on and off center sites of excitation smaller and the surround inhibition larger
C) pruning of the neurons during development in the LGN makes the on and off center sites of excitation smaller and the surround inhibition smaller
D) pruning of the neurons during development in the LGN makes the on and off center sites of excitation smaller and the surround inhibition smaller

Question 12

The majority of synaptic inputs to the lateral geniculate nucleus are from the ____________.

Question 13

Design an experiment using primates where you test if the descending inputs to the LGN contribute more to the on and off center target sites or the antagonistic surrounding inhibition sites.

Question 14

Which of the following is not a characteristic of a simple cell?

A) they are located in the primary visual cortex
B) they respond prefer flashing or moving stimuli
C) they receive input from multiple lateral geniculate neurons
D) they respond to lines
E) they respond to spots

Question 15

Match each cell with the stimulus it responds to:
-_____bright spots in their visual field

A) on center cell
B) off center cell
C) simple cell
D) complex cell.

Question 16

Match each cell with the stimulus it responds to:
-_____line-shaped stimuli from multiple locations in their visual field

A) on center cell
B) off center cell
C) simple cell
D) complex cell.

Question 17

Match each cell with the stimulus it responds to:
-_____dark spots in their visual field

A) on center cell
B) off center cell
C) simple cell
D) complex cell.

Question 18

Match each cell with the stimulus it responds to:
-_____line shaped stimuli from a particular location in their visual field

A) on center cell
B) off center cell
C) simple cell
D) complex cell.

Question 19

Which of the following experimental questions and models would be appropriate for using intrinsic signal optical imaging (ISOI)?

A) using rats to identify patterns of LGN neuron activity in response to different intensities of light
B) using primates to map neural activity patterns in V1
C) using primates to map neural activity patterns in retinal ganglionic cells
D) imaging the damage to the neocortex in human patients that have suffered a stroke
E) all of the above

Question 20

Orientation preference of straight-line stimuli across the primary visual cortex is arranged in a _______________ pattern.

Question 21

Which of the following of Hubel and Wiesel's discoveries support the idea that when looking at an object, the V1 primarily code for the outline of an object?

A) simple and complex cells primarily respond to dark and bright lines in a particular orientation in space
B) orientation sensitivity varies across V1 in a detectable, systematic manner
C) direct input of retinal ganglionic cells to V1 is always in arrays of straight lines that overlap to form a contour
D) a and b
E) a-c.

Question 22

The rhythmic depolarization and hyperpolarization of a lamprey's spinal column persists even in the presence of TTX. How does this support the central pattern generator hypothesis?

A) action potentials between neurons are eliminated
B) hyperpolarization is inhibited
C) depolarization is inhibited
D) NMDA receptors are irreversibly inhibited
E) all of the above

Question 23

Which stimuli directionality would you expect to elicit the response of the above V1 neuron recording below?

A)
B)
C)

Question 24

Which of the following are not proposed models of direction sensitivity in the primary visual cortex?

A) stimulus from one region in space arrives in faster or slower than in another region of space
B) cortical neurons inhibit each other when they are on one side, but not the other of their receptive field
C) eye saccades only move in one direction and there for input from the LGN, via the retinal cells is directional
D) all of the above

Question 25

Write a hypothesis as to why you think the human visual system has evolved to be more responsive to moving stimuli than static images? How could you test this hypothesis?

Question 26

Refer to figures 12.16 and 12.17 In the text , what is the take home message from these awake brain stimulation experiments of the middle temporal area (MT)?

A) because of aperture bias, monkeys can only perceive motion in the rightward direction
B) stimulation of the MT reverses the directionality of perceived motion
C) monkeys fail to perceive direction of movement when the stimulated MT neurons are oriented in the opposite direction
D) the perception of movement is only encoded in the MT and determination of movement direction is in higher-ordered cortical structures
E) all of the above

Question 27

Which of the following is true of retinal color opponent cells?

A) opponent cells are important detectors of color contrast
B) if blue-yellow opponent cells are excited by S-cones, they are inhibited by M-cones
C) if blue-yellow opponent cells are excited by S-cones, they are inhibited by L-cones
D) if red-green color opponent cells are excited by M-cone activation, they are inhibited by L-cone activation

Question 28

A double opponent cell will have (the) __________responses to L- and M-cones and (the)____________color preferences for their center and surround.

A) same, same
B) opposite, opposite
C) same, opposite
D) opposite, same

Question 29

Compared to V1 simple cells, double opponent cells have a ___________degree of selectivity to the orientation of stimulus and are usually located in the __________ of orientation pinwheels.

Question 30

Refer to figure 12.19 In the text , which of the following statements is true regarding the results of these imaging experiments?

A) color sensitivity is localized to the V1 and V2 regions of the cortex
B) color sensitive globs only fire when colors are at a specific luminosity
C) color sensitivity is localized to the V3 and V4 regions of the cortex
D) color sensitivity is scattered throughout the extrastriate cortex and independent of hue
E) none of the above

Question 31

Which of the following is not a rationale for monkeys being more sensitive to the red end of the color spectrum?

A) young leaves that are part of the monkey's diet are usually red in color
B) monkey's have more red-sensitive cones in their retinas
C) many fruits that are part of the monkey's diet have a red color to them
D) the presence or absence of red in the skin can denote mood and vitality for mating preferences

Question 32

Compare and contrast the neural activity in the visual cortex when looking at a black and white image as compared to a colored image.

Question 33

Explain the neuronal mechanisms and process that allow you to determine the direction of travel of traffic when you approach a stoplight.

Question 34

Why might an infant prefer to look at large rather than small finely detailed objects and also seem to have little to no preference for colored over black and white objects?

Question 35

Place in order the activity from a face-selective neuron in the temporal cortex of a monkey from low neural activity (1) to highest neural activity (5) for the visual stimuli listed below.
_____human face
_____cartoon of a human face
_____scrambled image
_____monkey face with no eyes
_____piece of fruit

Question 36

Similar to experiments that verified the MT in the perception of movement, stimulation of neurons in the inferior temporal cortex _____________the bias of monkeys for perceiving face from non-face stimulus when image noise is ______________.

A) increased, high
B) decreased, high
C) increased, low
D) decreased, low

Question 37

Oliver Sack's famous essay The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat details an account of a patient with a very specific case of prosopagnosia. Assuming that there is no overt neuronal death, such a disorder might benefit the most from which treatment?

A) oral administration of GABA receptor agonists
B) deep brain stimulation of the extrastriate cortex
C) deep brain stimulation of the inferior portion of the temporal lobe
D) oral administration of glutamate receptor agonists

Question 38

Which statement is true regarding the distribution of face-sensitive and category-sensitive neurons in the brain?

A) face-and object-sensitive neurons are found in the neocortex but category-sensitive neurons are found in the hippocampus
B) face- and category-sensitive neurons are both found in the temporal cortex
C) face- and category-sensitive neurons are both found in the prefrontal cortex
D) face-sensitive and object-sensitive neurons are in highest density in the inferior temporal cortex, while category-sensitive neurons are primarily found in the prefrontal cortex

Question 39

The largest density of face-selective neurons in the inferior temporal lobe is in the_________________.

Question 40

Describe an experiment you could conduct in a monkey to determine if stimulation of the prefrontal cortex improved category-sensitive neurons from distinguishing similar stimuli.

Question 41

What is a major different between olfactory and visual or somatosensory projections?

A) the area of the cortex dedicated to olfaction is much larger than visual or somatosensory inputs
B) they are very specifically mapped from the olfactory bulb to the olfactory cortex
C) they are non-topographic and highly divergent
D) pyramidal neurons of the olfactory cortex are more sensitive than that of the visual or somatosensory cortex

Question 42

The type of coding scheme utilized by the glomeruli of the olfactory system is ____________, and the olfactory cortex uses___________.

A) population cell, grandmother cell
B) grandmother cell, population cell
C) population cell, population cell
D) grandmother cell, grandmother cell
E) none of the above

Question 43

What best describes how specific neurons in the olfactory cortex become specific to certain odorants?

A) pruning during development of the olfactory cortex determines which stimuli certain neurons respond to
B) there is no specificity of olfactory neurons to certain stimuli
C) the olfactory cortex contains topographically mapped neurons for specific odorants
D) Hebbian LTP creates cell assemblies that wire together for certain stimuli

Question 44

Loss of smell, known as anosmia, might result from damage to either of which of the following anatomical locations?

A) gustatory cortex, olfactory bulb
B) olfactory bulb, piriform cortex
C) pre-frontal cortex, cerebellum
D) thalamus, lateral geniculate nucleus
E) none of the above

Question 45

A 62-year old man suffers an ischemic stroke and after 2 months still insists he has absolutely no sense of smell. What can you conclude his pathology and do you think it is possible that his sense of smell could return, why or why not?

Question 46

The olfactory cortex is much smaller than the visual or somatosensory cortex in humans. Does this fact support that the neurons are not topographically organized, why or why not?

Question 47

The most central or core areas of the auditory cortex are ________ organized.

Question 48

Which of the following is a true statement regarding the spectrotemporal receptive field (STRF) in auditory perception?

A) the STRF can be specifically measured and predicted for neurons in the auditory cortex
B) lower levels of the auditory cortex, such as the inferior colliculus, have less predictable STRFs
C) acoustic context does not affect the STRF
D) it is dependant on both the pitch as well as the timing of sounds
D) it is dependant on both the pitch as well as the timing of sounds
Answer :

Question 49

Which of the following correctly outlines taste circuitry starting at the taste buds?

A) nucleus tractus solitarius $\rightarrow$ insular cortex $\rightarrow$ dorsal thalamus $\rightarrow$ orbifrontal cortex
B) insular cortex $\rightarrow$ dorsal thalamus $\rightarrow$ nucleus tractus solitarius $\rightarrow$ orbifrontal cortex
C) dorsal thalamus $\rightarrow$ insular cortex $\rightarrow$ nucleus tractus solitarius $\rightarrow$ orbifrontal cortex
D) nucleus tractus solitarius $\rightarrow$ dorsal thalamus $\rightarrow$ insular cortex $\rightarrow$ orbifrontal cortex

Question 50

Compare the spatial receptive field of a visual neuron to the spectrotemporal receptive field of an auditory neuron. Is one more specific than the other, why?

Question 51

Why does it make sense from multiple different sensory systems (visual, somatosensory, olfactory, auditory) that babies prefer to use their mouth for object exploration?

Question 52

Sensory deprivation experiments have yielded all of the following insights into the development of our sensory systems, except.

A) when and with severity a sensitive period for a stimulus occurs during development is not uniform across all types of stimuli
B) deprivation of stimulus during the sensitive period of development always results in irreversible deficits
C) experience-dependent neural plasticity is most effectively accomplished during a sensitive period of development
D) a lack of early pattern vision can result in permanent visual deficits

Question 53

Refer to figure 12.31. In the text If a kitten is reared in an environment where only vertical lines are in it's visual field, the size of it's cortical area mapped to a different orientation of line (horizontal or askew) will be__________.

A) decreased permanently
B) undetectable
C) unaffected
D) decreased unless repeatedly exposed to the different orientation
E) none of the above

Question 54

What might be the consequences of a child growing up without any exposure to music or the sound of musical instruments in their life and could these consequences be reversed in adult life?

Question 55

Which of the statement below most accurately describes the binding problem of sensory perception?

A) we preferentially choose one sense over another when recognizing objects and therefore we are bound to a specific type of object
B) multiple senses are called into play when you confront a complex object that may have many identifying features (color, texture, motion, smell, sound) and it is necessary to put all of the input together for object recognition
C) multiple senses are called into play when you confront a complex object that may have many identifying features (color, texture, motion, smell, sound) and it is necessary to catagorize all of the input individually before we can recognize an object
D) some senses are inherently bound together like smell and taste and therefore treating them independently to analyze a stimulus that might have a taste but no odor is impossible

Question 56

Compare the binding through convergence model to the binding through temporal correlation hypotheses. Which model is more likely to be correct and what evidence supports this?

Question 57

Which of the statements is best supported by the data above of recorded individual action potentials from the two neurons?

A) the two neurons are located in different parts of the cortex
B) the two neurons are synchronous
C) the two neurons are asynchronous
D) the two neurons are located in close proximity
E) all of the above

Question 58

Match the following agnosias with their symptoms: (
-_____inability to interpret nonverbal sounds

A) apperceptive agnosia
B) associative agnosia
C) amusia
D) pure word deafness
E) nonverbal auditory agnosia
F) prosopagnosia

Question 59

Match the following agnosias with their symptoms: (
-_____inability to see a collection of features as an object

A) apperceptive agnosia
B) associative agnosia
C) amusia
D) pure word deafness
E) nonverbal auditory agnosia
F) prosopagnosia

Question 60

Match the following agnosias with their symptoms: (
-_____inability to recognize the faces of people

A) apperceptive agnosia
B) associative agnosia
C) amusia
D) pure word deafness
E) nonverbal auditory agnosia
F) prosopagnosia

Question 61

Match the following agnosias with their symptoms: (
-_____inability to identify pieces of music

A) apperceptive agnosia
B) associative agnosia
C) amusia
D) pure word deafness
E) nonverbal auditory agnosia
F) prosopagnosia

Question 62

Match the following agnosias with their symptoms: (
-_____ability to perceive objects but inability to determine their meaning or utility

A) apperceptive agnosia
B) associative agnosia
C) amusia
D) pure word deafness
E) nonverbal auditory agnosia
F) prosopagnosia

Question 63

Match the following agnosias with their symptoms: (
-_____inability to interpret the sounds of words

A) apperceptive agnosia
B) associative agnosia
C) amusia
D) pure word deafness
E) nonverbal auditory agnosia
F) prosopagnosia

Question 64

A 13 year old boy always describes different numbers with a corresponding color. What is the perception disorder he most likely has?

A) amusia
B) synethesia
C) prosopagnosia
D) auditory agnosia
E) associative agnosia

Question 65

Which of the following changes in movement after severe damage to descending neurons of the spinal cord in the upper thoracic vertebrae would you expect?

A) during a period of spinal shock processes such as respiration, digestion, urination, and defecation are severely impaired or lost completely
B) upper and lower limbs go limp or are very weak and any returning movement is erradic and unpredictable
C) heightened sensitivity to non-voluntary movement to the limbs and skin sensitivity due to a loss of spinal reflex integration with the motor cortex and cerebellum
D) complete paralysis of the lower body with no movement, voluntary or involuntary
E) a-c

Question 66

A 7-year old girl is having some severe trouble in school with some basic exercises that will help her learn to read. The school counselor suggests she may have a form agnosia. What sorts of tests could you devise to determine what sort of agnosia she might have?

Question 67

How might the distribution of neurons in the cortex of a nocturnal bat that uses acute hearing to localized prey differ from an eagle that uses primarily visual acuity to locate prey?

Question 68

Make an argument using at least three sensory systems as to whether grandmother cell coding or population cell coding is a more likely mechanism of coding for the complex stimuli a human experiences.