L5 - Modularity

Question 1

What is the modular brain?

Answer 1

• Domain specific: do something in a particular domain e.g vision etc
• Mandatory: If you look at something, you read it etc.
• Fast
• Fixed Neural Architecture: will have some structure fixed within the brain e.g visual cortex etc.
• Show specific breakdown patterns
• Develop in a specific way

Question 2

How to assess cognitive impairment?

Answer 2

• Brain scans anatomical
• Interviews/behavioural assessment: what specific behaviours are abnormal.
• Normal psychometric test
• Standardised neuropsychological tests
• Unstandardised tests

Question 3

What are standardised neuropsychological tests used for?

Answer 3

To find out where lesions are in the brain.

Question 4

What are the standardised neuropsychological tests?

Answer 4

• If its 2 sd below the mean has a deficit
• WAIS Measures
• Wisconsin Card Sorting
• National Adult Reading Test
• Behavioural Inattention Test

Question 5

Describe the WAIS Measures

Answer 5

• Has a full scale measure that is split into two categories, this would continue to branch until you reach tests measuring IQ, attention etc.

Question 6

Describe the National Adult Reading Test

Answer 6

• Measure of pre-morbid IQ
• Tests pronunciation of irregular words e.g depot. If they have a high IQ they will get these correct

Question 7

Describe Standardised Tests

Answer 7

• Clear coding system
• Compare with Published Norms
• Freely available

Question 8

Describe Unstandardised Tests

Answer 8

• Probes individual problems of a particular case (can make a test for a specific person with a specific deficit - there is no standardised test)
• Absence of age-matched controls
• Controls can be put in after

Question 9

Describe some cognitive neuropsychological conditions

Answer 9

• Agnosia: cant recognise
• Prosopagnosia: cant recognise faces
• Alexia: cant recognise text
• Time Agnosia: cant order events
• Aphasia: cant communicate
• Unilateral neglect: Cant attend to one side

Question 10

What is an association test?

Answer 10

• Patients that have similar lesions do not do well on specific tasks
• Suggesting that those tasks use the same systems in the brain

Question 11

What is a disassociation test?

Answer 11

• Task 1 is impaired but 2 is not
• Suggests different systems are affected, modular roots are different
• However it could mean that one requires further processing but share the same root.

Question 12

What is a double disassociation test?

Answer 12

• Two patients
• Task 1 is impaired but 2 is not and vice versa for other patient
• E.g brocas and wernickes area

Question 13

(-) of Double Disassociation

Answer 13

• Different labs test in different ways
• People have untypical coping strategies for their brain damage
• People might have had a difficulty before the brain damage

Question 14

Describe fMRI

Answer 14

• Measures blood oxygen levels to see regional activity. (more = higher activity)
• High spatial resolution
• Records in 3D

Question 15

fMRI (-)

Answer 15

• Indirect measure of brain activity: not measuring neurones
• Slow responses: have to do a task for long period

Question 16

Describe MEG/EEG

Answer 16

• Measurement of action potential on scalp to see synaptic activity
• High temporal resolution

Question 17

MEG/EEG (-)

Answer 17

• Poor spatial resolution
• Must be repeated a lot to get an average

Question 18

Describe TMS

Answer 18

• Using magnets to stimulate parts of the brain
• Knocks out the part of the brain to stop a module from working. Can see what happens if that module was not working