Deck 3: Methods of Cognitive Neuroscience

Question 1

Which of the following is NOT an advantage of computer modeling?

A) Creating a simulation leads researchers to be completely explicit in the modeled operations.
B) Some models have homunculus-like teachers, just like those of biological organisms.
C) Such models can lead to testable predictions.
D) Models can be "lesioned" to see how their performance changes when they are altered.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The field of is based on the idea that perception and thought employ mental representations that undergo transformations as they are used.

A) neuropsychology
B) computer modeling
C) cognitive psychology
D) neuroimaging

Answer 2

C

Question 3

is the science of simulating natural cognitive processes on computers.

A) Mental chronometry
B) Neuropsychology
C) Artificial intelligence
D) Cognitive psychology

Answer 3

C

Question 4

People are better at identifying a briefly presented letter on a computer screen if the letter is

A) a vowel rather than a consonant.
B) presented as part of a word.
C) processed serially.
D) printed in colored ink.

Question 5

What can you infer about the responsiveness of two neurons in the visual cortex that lie next to each other in V1?

A) Both cells share a common receptive field.
B) The cells are sensitive to precisely the same stimulus characteristics.
C) The receptive fields of these cells are also next to each other.
D) Both cells have identical baseline activity rates.

Question 6

One limitation of what we can learn through the single-cell recording technique is that

A) it is often difficult to determine the baseline activity level of a single neuron.
B) patterns of activity among groups of neurons may describe the function of a brain area better.
C) the receptive field of a single neuron changes as the brain develops.
D) single-cell recording is effective only in exploring the primary sensory cortex.

Question 7

The greatest advantage of incorporating computer modeling into the study of a cognitive phenomenon is that

A) this approach best demonstrates the limitations of information processing in natural cognition.
B) computers can analyze a larger amount of data than can real brains.
C) it is no longer necessary to test humans to understand cognition.
D) this technique can generate explicit, testable theories of natural cognition.

Question 8

The model of Kali and Dayan predicted that the maintenance of memories over time would

A) depend on reactivation of thalamo-neocortical connections.
B) depend on reactivation of hippocampal-neocortical connections.
C) not depend on reactivation of thalamo-neocortical connections, even though these are essential for the formation of new memories.
D) not depend on reactivation of hippocampal-neocortical connections, even though these are essential for the formation of new memories.

Question 9

Transcranial direct current stimulation tDCS) affects brain function by

A) altering neuronal polarization.
B) increasing binding to a radioactive tracer.
C) transcranial magnetic stimulation.
D) knocking-out genes.

Question 10

You have isolated a neuron in the occipital lobes that you believe is responsible for processing information about color. What type of neurophysiological technique would allow you to assess this hypothesis in a living animal?

A) single-cell recording
B) histology
C) electrical stimulation
D) Golgi stain

Question 11

The Sternberg paradigm illustrates that when a set of letters held in short-term memory is tested with a recognition task, the time needed to respond to a probe item is

A) unrelated to the number of items in the memory set and is unrelated to whether the probe item was part of the original list.
B) unrelated to the number of items in the memory set but is affected by whether the probe item was part of the original list.
C) related by a linear function to the number of items in the memory set, the slope of which is the same regardless of whether the probe item was part of the original list.
D) related by a linear function to the number of items in the memory set, the slope of which is steeper when the probe item was not part of the original list.

Question 12

The particular region of space in which a stimulus must be presented to evoke a response from a given neuron is its

A) topographic map.
B) sensory homunculus.
C) receptive field.
D) baseline space.

Question 13

Which of the following types of topographic representation does NOT incorporate information about the location of a stimulus in space?

A) retinotopic maps in the visual cortex
B) motor maps in the motor cortex
C) cochleotopic maps in the auditory cortex
D) somatosensory maps in the somatosensory cortex

Question 14

For which disorder have patients benefited from deep-brain stimulation of the basal ganglia?

A) epilepsy
B) Huntington's disease
C) Parkinson's disease
D) strokes

Question 15

Neural network models often

A) have distributed processing.
B) store information discretely in isolated and independent units.
C) have static activation levels.
D) are symbolic in nature.

Question 16

One of the experimental strengths of brain-lesion methods in animals, compared to human neuropsychology, is that

A) animal work can be truly experimental, whereas with humans we are limited to correlational inferences.
B) with animal work, we can be confident that the effect of a lesion eliminates the contribution of a single structure.
C) humans, but not other animals, often develop compensatory strategies to minimize the consequences of a lesion.
D) with animals, but not humans, we can create temporary "lesions" using transcranial magnetic stimulation TMS).

Question 17

Research using models sometimes involves "lesioning" the model to see if it adequately simulates the behavioral deficits observed in neurological patients.

A) symbolic
B) propositional
C) neural network
D) chronometric

Question 18

A knockout mouse

A) has damage to a particular neural structure due to a physical lesion.
B) has a transient functional lesion because of administration of neurotransmitter antagonists.
C) is part of a special genetic strain that lacks or no longer expresses certain genes.
D) is bred to perform poorly on maze-solving tasks.

Question 19

Posner and his colleagues had participants view two letters and respond according to whether these letters were both vowels, both consonants, or one of each. Participants were fastest when viewing two physically identical letters, somewhat slower when viewing the same letter in two different fonts, and slowest in the case where two different consonants were presented. This finding shows that

A) we form multiple representations of stimuli.
B) we form representations of stimuli based only on their physical attributes.
C) we form representations of stimuli based only on their abstract category membership.
D) more complex mental representations produce faster reaction times.

Question 20

The Stroop effect demonstrates that when viewing

A) colors, we are successful at suppressing color representations when they are irrelevant to the task.
B) words, we are successful at suppressing word representations when they are irrelevant to the task.
C) colors, we cannot help but activate color representations even when they are irrelevant to the task.
D) words, we cannot help but activate word representations even when they are irrelevant to the task.

Question 21

The formation of plaques composed of abnormal amyloid protein in the brain is a characteristic symptom of

A) Alzheimer's disease.
B) Parkinson's disease.
C) Huntington's disease.
D) Korsakoff's disease.

Question 22

Which of the following neuroimaging techniques involves manipulating the orientation of hydrogen atoms?

A) MRI magnetic resonance imaging)
B) PET positron emission tomography)
C) MEG magnetoencephalography)
D) ERP event-related potential)

Question 23

Which of the following is an advantage of the group study approach in neuropsychology, compared to the individual case study approach?

A) A group study allows a cognitive process to be related to particular underlying brain structures with greater reliability.
B) A group study can employ the methods of cognitive psychology.
C) A group study avoids the problem of compensatory strategies.
D) A group study allows neuroimages to be produced.

Question 24

A blockage of the posterior cerebral arteries that resulted in brain damage would most likely cause a deficit in

A) vision.
B) motor function.
C) somatosensation.
D) speech.

Question 25

Which of the following imaging techniques would be best for visualizing a skull fracture?

A) CT computed tomography)
B) PET positron emission tomography)
C) fMRI functional magnetic resonance imaging)
D) DTI diffusion tensor imaging)

Question 26

The term is used to describe the situation in which group 1 is impaired on task X and unimpaired on task Y and group 2 is impaired on task Y and unimpaired on task X. In contrast, the
Term is used when group 1 is impaired on task X and unimpaired on task Y and group 2 is unimpaired on both tasks X and Y.

A) single dissociation ; double dissociation
B) double dissociation ; single dissociation
C) double dissociation ; triple dissociation
D) triple dissociation ; double dissociation

Question 27

The electrical signal evoked by a class of sensory, motor, or cognitive events, which is observed by averaging multiple EEG traces, is known as an)

A) brain response potential.
B) mean event trace.
C) event-related potential.
D) neural activity trace.

Question 28

A patient suffering from a progressive neurological disorder is brought to a neurologist for diagnosis. The neurologist notes that the patient's MRI reveals a great deal of cortical atrophy and suspects that the problem may be Alzheimer's disease. Which of the following symptoms, if also discovered, would confirm this diagnosis?

A) tremors and difficulty in initiating movement
B) double vision
C) loss of dopaminergic neurons in the basal ganglia
D) presence of amyloid plaques during postmortem examination of the brain

Question 29

Resecting or removing regions of cortex and cutting the corpus callosum are techniques that are usually used to

A) alleviate severe chronic epilepsy.
B) reduce the symptoms of depression.
C) increase the functioning of dopaminergic cells in people with Parkinson's disease.
D) relieve imbalances in neurotransmitter levels that can lead to Alzheimer's disease.

Question 30

The small regions in a three-dimensional grid, approximately 5 to 10 cubic millimeters in volume, that neuroimagers use to map the brain are known as

A) posners.
B) sternbergs.
C) voxels.
D) pixels.

Question 31

Which of the following imaging techniques can be thought of as a three-dimensional X-ray?

A) MRI magnetic resonance imaging)
B) CT computed tomography)
C) fMRI functional magnetic resonance imaging)
D) PET positron emission tomography)

Question 32

A magnetic resonance imaging MRI) image is constructed from signals that are generated by:

A) protons being perturbed by the Earth's magnetic field
B) protons rebounding to the Earth's magnetic field
C) protons being perturbed by the MRI's magnetic field
D) protons rebounding to the MRI's magnetic field

Question 33

This neuroimaging technique combines X-ray pictures taken from many different angles into a compressed two-dimensional representation of the brain.

A) MRI magnetic resonance imaging)
B) CT computed tomography)
C) PET positron emission tomography)
D) EEG electroencephalography)

Question 34

The technique known as can be used to induce virtual lesions in humans.

A) EEG electroencephalography)
B) TMS transcranial magnetic stimulation)
C) MEG magnetoencephalography)
D) PET positron emission tomography)

Question 35

Diffusion tensor imaging DTI)

A) is like a conventional X-ray but allows the reconstruction of three-dimensional space from compressed two-dimensional images.
B) is an imaging method used to evaluate the circulatory system in the brain.
C) involves inserting electrodes into the brain that produce continuous signals to trigger neural activity.
D) is performed with an MRI scanner but measures the density and motion of water contained in axons.

Question 36

A patient has an injury to the parietal lobe and has a selective deficit in processing information about the spatial location of visual stimuli. You hypothesize that this region of the brain is distinct in function from other visual areas in the temporal lobe, in which you suspect shape perception information is processed. To establish a double dissociation between the two functions and brain regions, you would need to find another person who had damage to the

A) same part of the parietal lobe but did not have a visuospatial deficit.
B) temporal lobe and had both visuospatial and shape perception deficits.
C) same part of the parietal lobe and had only a shape perception deficit.
D) temporal lobe and had only a shape perception deficit.

Question 37

What part of the brain does an angiogram allow you to visualize?

A) ventricles
B) meninges
C) cell bodies
D) arteries

Question 38

Which of the following degenerative disorders is believed to have the strongest genetic component?

A) Alzheimer's disease
B) Parkinson's disease
C) Huntington's disease
D) Korsakoff's disease

Question 39

The driver in a car accident first hits the windshield with great force, then rebounds backward. Which part of the brain would you expect to be damaged as a result of the countercoup injury?

A) the dorsolateral frontal lobes
B) the posterior occipital lobes
C) the medial temporal lobes
D) the anterior tips of the temporal lobes

Question 40

is a condition characterized by excessive and abnormally patterned activity in the brain.

A) Progressive supranuclear palsy
B) Epilepsy
C) Multiple sclerosis
D) Aneurysm

Question 41

What is the Stroop effect? Describe a principle of cognition that the task's results reveal.

Question 42

What are single and double dissociations? Provide an example of a neuropsychological study illustrating each one.

Question 43

The term tonotopic refers to the fact that the cochlea and the auditory cortex contain maps that are organized according to the sound frequencies that best stimulate the cells.

Question 44

The most frequent cause of stroke is occlusion of the normal passage of blood by a foreign substance, such as an embolus.

Question 45

How do computational models contribute to our understanding of cognitive neuroscience? Include an example in your answer.

Question 46

Weaver mice are a knockout strain in which Purkinje cells, the prominent cell type in the hippocampus, fail to develop. As a result, these mice are "maze dull."

Question 47

Research questions about the time course of cognition are better addressed using methods like , whereas questions about the anatomy of cognition are better addressed using methods like
)

A) ERP / fMRI
B) fMRI / PET
C) PET / MEG
D) MEG / ERP

Question 48

Functional connectivity is a measure of functional relatedness between different

A) stimuli.
B) brain regions.
C) neurons.
D) methods.

Question 49

Which neuroimaging technique involves injecting an isotope of oxygen into the bloodstream and using it to measure regional cerebral blood flow?

A) fMRI
B) PET
C) CT
D) EEG

Question 50

Why are methods that perturb neural function useful to researchers? Give examples of at least two such methods.

Question 51

When performing a single-cell recording, researchers typically carefully insert a thin electrode through the cell membrane into the interior of a neuron.

Question 52

The best neuroimaging method for visualizing the white and gray matter is computed tomography CT).

Question 53

Which of the following is an advantage of MEG magnetoencephalography) over EEG electroencephalography)?

A) With MEG, current flow can be detected in any orientation.
B) With MEG, the inverse problem can be avoided.
C) With MEG, magnetic fields are not distorted by the skull.
D) With MEG, the temporal resolution is much better.

Question 54

Computational models can vary widely in the level of explanation they seek to provide, and they can range from the cellular/molecular level to the systems level.

Question 55

What is a mental representation? How are mental representations transformed? Give an example to support each of your two answers.

Question 56

The Sternberg experiment showed that the amount of time it takes to compare a target item with a list of items in memory increases with the number of items in the memory set. This is an example of parallel processing.

Question 57

Functional magnetic resonance imaging fMRI) is based on a measurement of

A) magnetic fields emanating from the surface of the brain.
B) the distribution of dye in the arteries and veins of the brain.
C) virtual lesions following intense magnetic stimulation of the brain.
D) ratios of oxygenated to deoxygenated hemoglobin in the brain.

Question 58

Some progressive neurological disorders can be caused by viruses like the human immunodeficiency virus HIV) and the herpes simplex virus.

Question 59

How do transcranial magnetic stimulation TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation tDCS) differ? Give a real or hypothetical example of an occasion when one of these methods would be preferable to the other. Explain why.

Question 60

Cognitive neuropsychological approaches using people who have suffered a stroke, tumor, or neurological disorder are sometimes described as "correlational." Explain what this means, and provide a hypothetical case study to illustrate your point.

Question 61

Choose two of the following methods and briefly describe how they work. For each of your choices, describe a research question real or hypothetical) for which this method would be an appropriate choice, and explain why.
functional magnetic resonance imaging fMRI)
transcranial magnetic stimulation TMS)
electroencephalography EEG)
computed tomography CT)
diffusion tensor imaging DTI)

Question 62

Compare and contrast EEG and MEG. Highlight their similarities and differences in your answer.

Question 63

What is an event-related potential ERP)? What benefits do ERPs bring to a researcher's toolkit?

Question 64

What role does an isotope play in Positron Emission Tomography PET)? Include a real or hypothetical example.

Question 65

Describe an experiment you could conduct in order to understand the properties of a particular cell's receptive field.