Deck 2: Cognitive Neuroscience

Question 1

Which of the following neural components is NOT found at the receiving end of neurons?

A)Cell body
B)Dendrite
C)Receptor
D)Axon

Answer 1

Axon

Question 2

Recordings from single neurons are conducted using which of these pieces of equipment?

A)Positron emission tomography scanner
B)Functional magnetic resonance imaging scanner
C)Microelectrode
D)Neurotransmitter

Answer 2

Microelectrode

Question 3

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

A)The end of one neuron makes direct contact with the receiving end of another neuron.
B)A chemical process takes place in the synapse.
C)An electrical process takes place in the receptors.
D)Action potentials travel across the synapse.

Answer 3

A chemical process takes place in the synapse.

Question 4

Barbara has recently been diagnosed with a rather aggressive form of abdominal cancer.Her oncologist is interested in determining the best way to treat her so that the tumors can be eliminated.Her gastroenterologist is focused on relieving her symptoms and giving her normal digestive functioning.Barbara is also seeing a psychologist,whose goal is to help her stay calm,relaxed,and keep her anxiety as minimal as possible while keeping 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 ofpresented in your textbook.

A)unitary explanations
B)idiographic evaluation
C)nomothetic examination
D)levels of analysis

Question 5

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

A)brick wall.
B)chain link fence.
C)solid wall.
D)picket fence.

Question 6

The layer of neurons that lines the back of the eye is called the

A)retina.
B)grandmother cell.
C)reference electrode.
D)feature detector.

Question 7

The study of the physiological basis of cognition is known as

A)cognitive psychology.
B)neuroscience.
C)cognitive neuroscience.
D)neuropsychology.

Question 8

Neurons that respond to specific qualities (e.g. ,such as orientation,movement,and length)that make up objects are called

A)retinal cells.
B)feature detectors.
C)dendrites.
D)receptors.

Question 9

You are walking down the street and see a really nice car drive by.You notice many features of it: its color,movement,shape,location,and so forth.All of these features are processed

A)in one localized area of the brain.
B)by the grandmother cells in the brain.
C)in different parts of the brain.
D)through fMRI potentials.

Question 10

If the intensity of a stimulus that is presented to a touch receptor is increased,this tends to increase thein the receptor's axon.

A)rate of nerve firing
B)size of the nerve impulses
C)speed of nerve conduction
D)all of these

Question 11

The neuron doctrine is

A)in agreement with nerve net theory.
B)unrelated to nerve net theory.
C)synonymous with nerve net theory.
D)in disagreement with nerve net theory.

Question 12

The key structural components of neurons are

A)cell body,cellular membrane,and transmitters.
B)axon,dendrites,and glands.
C)cell body,dendrites,and axon.
D)transmitters,dendrites,and nodes of Ranvier.

Question 13

The idea of a grandmother cell is consistent with

A)distributed coding.
B)specificity coding.
C)subtraction techniques.
D)primary receiving areas.

Question 14

A grandmother cell responds

A)only to a specific stimulus.
B)to strong positive emotion.
C)to both positive and negative emotion.
D)to a variety of stimuli.

Question 15

Groups of interconnected neurons are referred to as

A)myelin sheaths.
B)potentiated somas.
C)neural circuits.
D)spreading activations.

Question 16

Your author points out that studying the mind requires bothandexperiments.

A)nomothetic;idiographic
B)behavioral;physiological
C)brain;body
D)observational;correlational

Question 17

A synapse is

A)a tube filled with fluid that conducts electrical signals.
B)the structure that contains mechanisms to keep a neuron alive.
C)the structure that receives electrical signals from other neurons.
D)the gap that separates two different neurons.

Question 18

When recording from a single neuron,stimulus intensity is represented in a single neuron by the

A)size of the action potentials.
B)size of the synapse.
C)firing rate of the neurotransmitters.
D)firing rate of the action potentials.

Question 19

Action potentials occur in the

A)cell body.
B)synapse.
C)neurotransmitters.
D)axon.

Question 20

Early studies of brain tissue that used staining techniques and microscopes from the 19th century described the "nerve net." These early understandings were in error in the sense that the nerve net was believed to be

A)continuous.
B)composed of discrete individual units.
C)composed of cell bodies,axons,and dendrites.
D)composed of neurotransmitters rather than neurons.

Question 21

A specific person's face is represented in the nervous system by the firing of

A)a feature detector that fires specifically to that face.
B)a group of neurons that all respond only to that face.
C)a group of neurons each responding to a number of different faces.
D)a receptor in the retina that responds when the face is present.

Question 22

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 his

A)Broca's area.
B)Parahippocampal place area (PPA)
C)Extrastriate body area (EBA)
D)Wernicke's area.

Question 23

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

A)It is probably accurate,which explains why the human nervous system contains over one hundred quadrillion neurons.
B)Research has found that specificity encoding does occur for lower animals,such as dogs and cats,but has not found this phenomenon to exist in human beings.
C)It is unlikely to be correct because there are too many stimuli in the world to have a separate neuron for each.
D)Specificity coding is one of the areas that is only theoretical and not applied,and thus there is no way to know if it truly exists in human beings.

Question 24

The temporal lobe is

A)the first place in the cerebral cortex where visual information is received.
B)important for language,memory,hearing,and vision.
C)important for higher functions such as language,thought,and memory,as well as motor functioning.
D)where signals are received from the auditory system.

Question 25

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 thelobe.

A)parietal
B)occipital
C)frontal
D)temporal

Question 26

The concept of distributed neural coding proposes that a specific object,like a face,is represented across a number of

A)microelectrodes.
B)stimuli.
C)modalities.
D)neurons.

Question 27

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

A)Broca's aphasia.
B)Wernicke's aphasia.
C)prosopagnosia.
D)Alzheimer's disease.

Question 28

The occipital lobe is

A)the part of the cerebral cortex where the visual cortex is located.
B)important for language,memory,hearing,and vision.
C)important for higher functions such as language,thought,and memory,as well as motor functioning.
D)where signals are received from the sensory system for touch.

Question 29

Brain-imaging techniques can determine all of the following EXCEPT

A)areas of the brain activated during cognitive tasks.
B)localization of brain activity in response to a specific stimulus.
C)the structure of individual neurons.
D)patterns of blood flow in the brain.

Question 30

Recording from single neurons in the brain has shown that neurons responding to specific types of stimuli are often clustered in specific areas.These results support the idea of

A)cortical association.
B)dissociation.
C)localization of function.
D)the information processing approach.

Question 31

Hemoglobin molecules in areas of high brain activity

A)gain some of the ferrous molecules they are transporting.
B)lose some of the ferrous molecules they are transporting.
C)gain some of the oxygen they are transporting.
D)lose some of the oxygen they are transporting.

Question 32

Which of the following is consistent with the idea of localization of function?

A)Specific areas of the brain serve different functions.
B)Neurons in different areas of the brain respond best to different stimuli.
C)Brain areas are specialized for specific functions.
D)All of the above.

Question 33

Thelobe 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.

A)subcortical
B)frontal
C)occipital
D)parietal

Question 34

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

A)distributed processing.
B)localization of function.
C)prosopagnosia.
D)neural net theory.

Question 35

Damage to Wernicke's area is in which lobe of the brain?

A)Temporal
B)Occipital
C)Parietal
D)Frontal

Question 36

Brain imaging has made it possible to

A)determine which areas of the brain are involved in different cognitive processes.
B)view individual neurons in the brain.
C)show how environmental energy is transformed into neural energy.
D)view propagation of action potentials.

Question 37

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

A)Fusiform face area (FFA)
B)Parahippocampal place area (PPA)
C)Extrastriate body area (EBA)
D)Functional magnetic area (FMA)

Question 38

Which part of the brain is important for touch,pressure,and pain?

A)Occipital lobe
B)Hippocampus
C)Temporal lobe
D)Parietal lobe

Question 39

Which of the following brain imaging techniques,discovered in 1908,is now a standard technique for detecting tumors and other brain abnormalities?

A)Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
B)Computed tomography (CT)
C)X-ray imaging
D)Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

Question 40

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 supportcoding.

A)specificity
B)distributed
C)sparse
D)divergence

Question 41

Define both localization of function and distributed representation.Discuss whether these are opposing or complementary concepts.

Question 42

Which of the following procedures can be used to help determine the exact way in which nerve fibers communicate with each other?

A)fMRI
B)DTI
C)PET
D)EMG

Question 43

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

A)localization of function.
B)distributed processing.
C)modularity.
D)aphasia.

Question 44

Describe how localization of function and distributed representation work together in everyday cognitive processes.Use the example of seeing your prom date at a high school reunion to illustrate your answer.

Question 45

Describe three physiological techniques for investigating human cognition.What can each technique tell us about the brain and human cognition? Also,give at least one limitation of each of the three techniques.

Question 46

In a procedure called diffusor tensor imaging (DTI),the way in whichdiffuse(s)along the length of a nerve fiber is measured to determine how different nerves communicate with each other.

A)water
B)electricity
C)neurotransmitters
D)sodium ions

Question 47

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

A)Fusiform face area (FFA)
B)Parahippocampal place area (PPA)
C)Extrastriate body area (EBA)
D)Functional magnetic area (FMA)

Question 48

Groups of neurons or structures that are connected within the nervous system are called.

A)synaptic vesicles
B)neuronal bridges
C)neural networks
D)fused conduits

Question 49

Describe how neurons communicate.Mention the key components of the neurons that are involved.Explain the process whereby the electrical signal (the information)is transferred from one neuron to another.

Question 50

Explain the purpose of feature detectors in creating mental representation of objects.

Question 51

Explain how action potentials change in response to stimulus intensity.Use an example from one's visual system to illustrate this process.