Cognitive Science
This common process helps your brain clear out clutter, generalize experiences, and adapt to changing environments
What is Forgetting?
This microscopic gap between two neurons is where neurotransmitters are released to pass signals along a pathway
What is a synapse?
Known as the "father of psychoanalysis" and analyzing dreaming
Who is Sigmund Freud?
Non-invasive brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) often use this technique to record voltage fluctuations across the scalp
What is an Electroencephalography (EEG)?
Golgi and Santiago Ramón y Cajal won the 1906 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for establishing what doctrine related to nervous tissue
What is the neuron doctrine, the discrete structure of a nervous tissue
This process to the brain’s ability to flexibly “restructure” itself as an individual continues to learn and gain new experiences
What is Neuroplasticity?
This fatty substance around axons allows neurons to transmit signals quickly
What is Myelin?
Pavlov demonstrated classical conditioning by ringing a bell before feeding these animals
What are Dogs?
Researchers transplanted human cortical organoids into this animal and connected with its nervous system
What is a mouse?
Roger Sperry won the 1981 Nobel Prize for his research on "split-brain" patients, demonstrating functional specialization between these two cerebral structures.
What are Left and right hemispheres?
This practice calms your default mode network, strengthens your prefrontal cortex, and regulates attention
What is Mindfulness/Meditation?
Widely studied as a cellular mechanism for learning, this persistent strengthening of synapses based on recent patterns of activity is known by this 3-letter acronym
What is LTP (Long Term Potentiation)?
When someone consumes too much alcohol, "blacking out” blocks the brain from doing this
What is converting short-term memories into long-term storage (forming long-term memories)
Neurons might not be the only cells involved in our memories! These glial cells showed organised patterns of activity while memories were being formed.
What are astrocytes?
In 1936, Sir Henry Dale won the Nobel Prize for identifying the first neurotransmitter which was…
What is Acetylcholine?
It takes the brain about this many milliseconds to sense a stimulus.
What is 100 ms?
Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) naturally occurs in this species of animal.
What is a jellyfish?
This psychological disorder includes “positive” symptoms characterized by hallucinations and delusions and “negative” symptoms characterized by social withdrawal
What is schizophrenia?
Recent research has found these neural-like cells that synapse onto the vagus nerve which line the GI tract.
What are Neuropod cells?
David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian were awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering receptors for these two sensory processes on the skin? (point for either)
What are temperature and touch?
This person is a well-known Stanford professor for challenging the idea of free will by stating that human behavior is predetermined by biological, genetic, and environmental factors
Who is Robert Sapolsky?
Eric Kandel famously studied memory storage and synaptic plasticity using what species
What is a sea slug?
This phenomenon highlights how individuals are more likely to remember information that is presented at the beginning or end of a series, as opposed to the middle
What is the serial position effect?
Recent research shows these non-hallucinogenic psychedelic derivatives can increase dendrite growth and neuroplasticity without causing subjective trip experiences
What are psychoplastogens?
Peter Hegemann, Georg Nagel, Karl Deisseroth developed this technique to be able to turn neurons on and off using light! (Just got awarded 2 days ago!!)
What is optogenetics?