Cognitive Neuroscience Methods Quiz

The study of mental processes, such as perception, attention, memory, and language.

A field that combines cognitive psychology with neurobiology to investigate the brain's role in mental processes.

Mental representations are internal representations of the world, like images or concepts.

Mental operations refer to the processes the brain uses to manipulate mental representations.

Different levels of mental representation exist for the same concept.

Posner's experiment demonstrated that accessing different levels of representation takes different amounts of time.

Mental representations can be transformed from one form to another during processing.

The time interval between the presentation of two stimuli.

A technique used to study cognition by observing the cognitive deficits caused by brain damage.

Cognitive impairment resulting from a disruption in brain function, often localized to specific brain regions.

The study of the relationship between the brain and cognitive functions, utilizing insights from neurological disorders and brain lesions.

A research method that involves comparing the performance of patients with lesions in different brain regions on specific cognitive tasks.

A type of lesion study where patients with lesions in one brain region show impairment on a specific task, while patients with lesions in another region do not.

A type of lesion study where patients with lesions in one brain region show impairment on one task, while patients with lesions in a different region show impairment on another task.

Cognitive impairment that occurs after a traumatic brain injury (TBI), often caused by repeated mild injuries.

A condition characterized by excessive brain activity causing disruptions in cortical processing, often resulting in seizures.

Surgical removal of brain tissue, often used as a treatment for epilepsy or other neurological conditions.

A surgical procedure that involves severing the connection between the two hemispheres of the brain.

A surgical procedure that involves severing the connections between the frontal lobes and the rest of the brain.

A procedure that involves implanting electrodes in the brain to stimulate specific regions.

The area of the brain responsible for higher-level cognitive function, including decision-making, planning, and abstract thinking.

A type of memory that allows us to see the world as coherent and continuous, despite the constant changes happening around us.

A type of memory that allows us to remember the meaning of words and concepts.

Two tasks are considered to involve non-overlapping component operations if specific manipulations affect one aspect of memory but not another, while other manipulations have the opposite effect.

The value of using patients to study brain-behavior relationships. Despite variations in lesion locations, comparing patient performance with lesion overlap helps identify brain regions associated with specific cognitive functions.

A study of single patients with unique brain injuries to gain insights into specific cognitive functions. This can reveal insights that might be lost in larger group studies.

The inability to name fruits or vegetables despite the ability to name other objects, such as tools.

Non-invasive methods that directly record electrical activity in the brain. These measure the electrical activity associated with specific tasks, providing valuable insights into neuronal processing.

A technique that induces electrical pulses in the brain, temporarily disrupting normal processing. It creates what's known as a virtual lesion, allowing researchers to study brain function in healthy individuals.

The ability of TMS to disrupt specific brain regions, allowing researchers to investigate the role of these regions in various cognitive tasks.

The limitations associated with TMS. It mainly affects superficial and exposed cortical regions, making it unsuitable for studying deeper brain structures.

A method that uses magnetic fields to measure brain activity. It provides information about brain activity, but does not directly measure neural firing rates.

Mental operations are the steps or processes that occur in our minds when we perform tasks. They involve encoding information, comparing it to existing knowledge, making decisions based on that comparison, and finally, responding to the task. This involves using mental representations, attention, memory, and other cognitive processes to perform a task.

This task measures how long it takes to identify whether a specific letter was presented in a brief sequence of letters. It highlights the cognitive processes involved in visual search, encoding information, and comparing it against stored memories.

The process of registering and identifying information or stimuli, often the first step in a cognitive process.

A comparison process involved in retrieving information from memory, where encoded information is compared to existing knowledge or mental representations.

A stage in cognitive processing where the brain makes a decision or judgment based on the information it has processed.

The final stage of a cognitive process, where the brain produces a response to the task at hand, such as a physical gesture or verbal output.

The strategy of searching through memory one item at a time, as demonstrated in the Sternberg Memory Task.

The inherent limitations in our brain's capacity to process information simultaneously. This limit can lead to interference when multiple tasks or stimuli compete for attention.

A task that highlights the limitations of information processing by showing how conflicting information can interfere with our ability to respond quickly and accurately. Examples are tasks that involve naming colors of words that are printed in incongruent colors.

Tasks that require individuals to perform two or more cognitive operations simultaneously, which can often lead to slower reaction times, increased errors, and demonstrate the limitations of our mental resources.

A technique used to understand the brain's neural activity by recording electrical signals from individual neurons. These recordings provide information about how specific neurons respond to stimuli, perform tasks, and contribute to cognitive processes.

These are recordings of neuronal activity taken while the animal is awake and performing a specific cognitive task. This allows researchers to examine the neural basis of higher cognitive processes like attention, memory, and decision-making.

A technique used to manipulate genes in animals to understand their roles in cognitive processes. This includes creating knock-out animals where specific genes are disabled and knock-in animals where specific genes are introduced to study their effects on behavior and cognitive functions.

The systematic process of selectively breeding animals to produce offspring that lack a specific gene, allowing scientists to study the effects of that missing gene on cognitive processes.

Studies where a specific gene is introduced into an animal's genome, allowing researchers to explore how the addition of this gene affects brain development and cognitive functions.