PSYC 365

One begins with the observable facts and then works backward from these observations. It is sometimes called “inference to best explanation” and is part of most modern science to study events that cannot be observed directly.

• Rare, but seems to accompany Alzheimers and is observed among the elderly.
• Capgras sufferers are able to recognize friends and family but are convinced these people are not who they appear to be.

A passive storage device that serves as part of the articulatory rehearsal loop. Serves as part of the mechanisms ordinarily needed for hearing.

A disorder characterized by an inability to control the muscles needed for ordinary speech. These individuals cannot speak, although other aspects of language functioning are unimpaired.

An almond-shaped structure in the limbic system that plays a central role in emotion and in the evaluation of emotional stimuli.

The outer surface (cortex) of the frontal lobe. This area is crucial for the planning of complex or novel behaviors, and executive functions.

sits atop the spinal cord and includes several structures crucial for controlling key life functions such as breating and heart beat.

The largest area of the hindbrain, crucial for the coordination of bodily movements and balance.

plays an important role in coordinating movements, regulating pain and also contains structures that serve as "relay" stations for information arriving from the sensory organs.

• plays a crucial role in supporting intellectual functioning.
• subcortical parts are the: thalamus, hypothalamus and limbic system (amygdala and hippocampus)

The lobe in each cerebral hemisphere that handles some of the primary sensory projection area, as well as circuits that are crucial for the control of attention.

The lobe of the cortex lying inward and down from the temples. Includes the primary auditory projection area, Wernicke's area, and, subcortically, the amygdala and hippocampus.

A part of the lower portion of the forebrain that serves as a major relay and integration center for sensory information.

A small structure at the base of the forebrain that plays a vital role in the control of motivated behaviors such as eating, drinking, and sexual activity.

A set of brain structures including the amygdala, hippocampus, and parts of the thalamus. Believed to be involved in the control of emotional behavior and motivation, and it also plays a key role in learning, emotional processing and memory.

• A structure in the temporal lobe that is involved in long-term memory and spatial memory.
• A lesion on the hippocampus results in memory problems.

• A disturbance in the initiation or organization of voluntary action.
• produced by a lesion on the frontal lobe

• A disturbance in a person's ability to identify familiar objects
• caused by a lesion on the occipital cortex or parietal lobe

A disruption to language capacities, often caused by damage to the frontal lobe.

A neuron in the eye that receives input from the bipolar cells, and then the axons gather together to form the optic nerve, carrying information back to the lateral geniculate nucleus.

A pattern in which cells, when stimulated, inhibit the activity of neighboring cells. In the visual system this in the optic nerve creates edge enhancement.

An important way station in the thalamus that is the first destination for visual information sent from the eyeball to the brain.

The site on the occipital lobe where axons from the lateral geniculate nucleus first reach the cerebral cortex.

Cells in the lateral geniculate nucleus specialized for the perception of patterns.

Cells in the lateral geniculate nucleus specialized for the perception of motion and depth.

A pattern of firing by neurons in which neurons in one brain area fire at the same time as neurons in another area; the brain seems to use this pattern as an indication that the neurons in different areas are firing in response to the same stimulus.

An error in perception in which someone correctly perceives what features are present but misperceives how the features are joined, so that a red circle and a green sqare might be misperceived as a red square and a green circle.

A disorder caused by a specific form of damage to the parietal lobe; people with this disorder appear relatively normal in tasks requiring them to detect whether specific features are present in a display, but they are impaired in tasks that require them to judge how the features are bound together to form complex objects.

A syndrome in which patients lose their ability to recognize faces and to make other fine-grained discriminations within a highly familiar category, even though their other visual abilities seem relatively intact.

• the relationship between levels of priming determines how one detector is more influential than the other;
• the knowledge is detectable only by considering the functions of the entire network

• is a configuration system
• strongly dependent on orientation
• damage to FFA is what probably underlies prosopagnosia