Reference
One-page cheat sheet
Everything testable from Lectures 1–9 in compressed form. Use it to check yourself, not to learn from — each section heading names the chapters that explain it.
Foundations (Ch. 1–4)
| 5 reasons | Clinical (PD) · know thyself (change blindness) · culture (Shepard's tone, depth in art) · better AI (NeuroAI, CAPTCHA) · better robots |
| Disciplines | Cog psych = mental processes · cog neuro = how brain implements them · NeuroAI = neuro + AI |
| Reading | Phonological decoding (blick) vs orthographic recognition (colonel). Phonology damage → non-words fail, irregular words OK |
| Learning | Active > passive, but feels worse (effort + errors). Dunning–Kruger: know less → can't see what you don't know |
| Hierarchy | Cell → circuit → cortical column → brain |
| Cells | Neuron (soma, dendrite = receive, axon = transmit) · Schwann (PNS myelin) · oligodendrocyte (CNS myelin) · astrocyte (BBB + modulate activity) |
| Neuron shapes | Multipolar (integration) · bipolar (special senses) · unipolar (long-distance sensory) · anaxonic (local) |
| Action potential | All-or-none. Stimulus → depolarization (Na⁺ in) → repolarization (K⁺ out) → hyperpolarization (K⁺ still open). Refractory period. Frequency coding |
| Synapses | Electrical (fast, rigid; eye, heart) vs chemical (slow, flexible, reuptake). Glutamate +, GABA −, dopamine both |
| Drugs | PD: agonists (mimic), amantadine (↓ reuptake), COMT/MAO-B inhibitors (↓ breakdown), L-dopa (add). Depression: SSRIs (↓ serotonin reuptake) |
| Plasticity | LTP/LTD (channels, release; habituation = LTD) · dendritic growth (~4 days/synapse) vs pruning · astrocyte regulation |
| Cortical layers | L4 input (thalamus, cortex) · L1–3 cortex↔cortex · L5–6 output (to thalamus) |
| Directions | Dorsal top · ventral bottom · rostral front · caudal back · lateral side |
| Planes | Horizontal (parallel to floor) · sagittal (splits hemispheres) · coronal (through both ears) |
| 4 divisions | Grey (cell bodies) / white (axons) · cytoarchitecture (Brodmann: size, shape, density) · anatomical (4 lobes, gyri/sulci) · functional (phrenology = wrong version) |
| Meninges | Dura (tough, outer) → arachnoid (web; CSF beneath) → pia (on brain, follows every fold) |
| Dissection | Dorsal: motor + somatosensory cortex · sagittal: grey/white · coronal: thalamus, basal ganglia, hippocampus |
| Marr | Computational (why / what problem) · algorithmic (representations + processes) · implementation (physical) |
| Tinbergen | Function ≈ comp · mechanism ≈ algo + impl · development (ontogeny) · evolution (phylogeny) — last two cut across all levels |
| Representations | Symbolic vs visuospatial (paper fold ×2⁵⁰; mountain climber). Mental rotation RT ∝ angle → images (Shepard/Kosslyn vs Pylyshyn) |
| Processes | Chunking; priming (river/money → bank); 12 and 5 → 7; count F's = 6 (skip "of") |
Dysfunctional brain (Ch. 5–7)
| Ceiling / floor | Too easy / too hard → can't detect differences |
| Single dissociation | Lesion impairs X, spares Y. Weaknesses: task sensitivity, general impairment, serial vs parallel ambiguity |
| Double dissociation | Lesion A: X✗ Y✓; lesion B: Y✗ X✓. Fixes all three; supports parallel |
| Blood | ~20% of blood flow · 10 s blocked → unconscious. ACA frontal + parietal · MCA temporal + parietal · PCA occipital + temporal |
| Vessels | Atherosclerosis (plaques) · AVM (artery→vein tangle) · aneurysm (bulge; clip or coil) |
| Stroke | Ischemic = blocked (clot, plaque) · hemorrhagic = burst. F.A.S.T. |
| Aphasia | Broca's: production ✗, comprehension ✓, singing intact · Wernicke's: comprehension ✗, production ✓ (fluent) |
| TBI | Direct force / coup–contrecoup → contusions (orbitofrontal → social regulation) · diffuse axonal injury (rotation shears axons → coma) |
| CTE | Repeated trauma ± LOC; frontal tau. 1 headache/attention → 2 depression/explosivity/STM → 3 executive → 4 dementia/aggression |
| Cerebellum | >80% of neurons; hereditary; ataxia (over/undershoot); generates sensory predictions (can't tickle yourself) |
| Parkinson's | Sporadic; 40–80 yrs; SN dopamine loss. Bradykinesia, rigidity, rest tremor (~3 Hz), loss of righting reflex. ↓DA → ↓striatum → ↑GPi → ↑thalamic inhibition → ↓cortex |
| Treatments | L-dopa (adds DA; → dyskinesia via influx + receptor sensitization) · DBS shuts off GPi → releases thalamus |
| Huntington's | Genetic; ~40 yrs. No-go striatum lost → ↑GPe → ↓STN → ↓GPi → ↑movement: chorea + dementia |
| Hemiballismus | Demyelination of BG circuitry → one-sided flinging movements |
| Alzheimer's | 60–80 (slides). Amyloid plaques between neurons; tau tangles inside. Hippocampus. Working memory ✓, old LTM ✓, forming new memories ✗ |
Methods (Ch. 8)
| Method | + | − | Causal? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Behavior | Characterize/dissociate representations; cheap | Sparse; no stages; no brain | — |
| fMRI (BOLD) | Best whole-brain spatial (~1 mm) | BOLD indirect; 2–3 s lag; ~600 dollars/h; artifacts near ears/sinuses | No |
| EEG | Best temporal; non-invasive | Lousy spatial; movement | No |
| MEG | As EEG, slightly better spatial | Earth's field; movement | No |
| ECoG | High spatial + temporal (2 mm patches) | Rare, invasive, one patch, hospital | No (recording) |
| sEEG | Down to single neurons | Same as ECoG | No |
| Patients | Evidence of necessity | Rare, messy, recovery reorganizes, no on/off | Clue |
| Electrical stim | Strong causal evidence (off → on) | Region vs connections; special patients | Yes |
Faces: orientation-specific templates (Dutch politicians: 2 people, unfamiliar say 7) · inversion effect · FFA (1-back rules out body parts/curves/attention; Mooney inversion) · 150–170 ms · prosopagnosia (~2%) vs object agnosia (CK: touch ✓, knowledge ✓) = double dissociation.
Vision (Ch. 9–12)
| Eye | Camera obscura (Ibn al-Haytham): dim, narrow, fixed focus. Eye: bigger hole, pupil, 2 eyes, cornea, accommodation |
| Retina | Photoreceptors → interneurons → ganglion cells → optic nerve |
| Rods / cones | Rods: 1 type, scotopic, periphery, rhodopsin · cones: 3 types, photopic, fovea, photopsins. Averted vision (~10°) |
| Blind spot | Optic nerve exit. Hidden by two eyes + perceptual completion |
| Adaptation | Unchanging stimuli filtered (blood vessels, Troxler fading) |
| Lesions | Rods: periphery/night · cones: colour/central · optic nerve: one eye · chiasm: bitemporal · after chiasm: contralateral homonymous hemianopia |
| LGN | Magno L1–2 (motion, coarse, fast) · parvo L3–6 (colour, fine, slow) → V1 layer 4 |
| V1 | Retinotopic · corticomagnification · ocular dominance columns · orientation columns · blobs (colour) |
| Amblyopia | Strabismus → amblyopia; patch strong eye during critical period |
| Receptive fields | Photoreceptor: itself · ganglion/LGN: center–surround (contrast) · simple cell: oriented lines (Hubel & Wiesel) |
| Illusions | Hermann grid: intersection has more surround light → more inhibition → grey · tilt adaptation: fatigue → bias away |
| Surfaces | Border ownership (Rubin vase) · amodal (occluded, inferred) vs modal (illusory surface seen) · V1 edges, V2 surfaces (real + illusory) |
| Pictorial cues | Occlusion · linear perspective · height in field · known size · texture gradient · atmospheric perspective · shadows |
| Size constancy | Perceived size = retinal size × perceived distance (Ames room fools distance) |
| Non-pictorial | Motion parallax · accommodation · vergence (VR conflict) · binocular disparity → stereopsis (Wheatstone 1832); V1–V5 |
| Motion | Inferred (apparent motion). Solves: depth (parallax), objects (segmentation, biological motion), attention (silencing), action (optic flow, vection) |
| MT/V5 | Lesion → akinetopsia (LM) · single cells tuned to direction/speed · fMRI flow > noise · motion aftereffect (opposite direction) |