Methods Constructs
This technique involves examining whether different experimental methods and populations all lead to the same conclusion about a brain-behavior relationship, such as concluding the parietal lobe directs spatial attention.
What is the method of converging operations?
This functional imaging technique provides better temporal and spatial resolution than PET and is safer for children because it does not involve ionizing radiation.
What is fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging)?
This term describes the ability of the basal ganglia to group individual motor steps into one seamless unit of action, such as the multiple steps involved in a tennis serve.
What is chunking?
This "little brain" is essential for the smooth coordination of rapid, well-learned movements like writing or throwing a ball. It is unique because it generally modulates muscles on the same (ipsilateral) side of the body.
What is the cerebellum?
This progressive subcortical disorder is characterized by a "mask-like" facial expression, a resting "pill-rolling" tremor, and bradykinesia (slowness of movement) due to the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra.
What is Parkinson's Disease?
This critical clinical estimate aims to determine how a person was functioning intellectually and cognitively before they sustained a brain injury, often using subtests like Vocabulary that are "hold" tests resistant to damage.
What is the method of premorbid functioning?
While this technique shares the high temporal resolution of EEG, it records magnetic rather than electrical potentials. Its primary advantage for clinical researchers is that magnetic fields are not distorted by the skull or scalp, allowing for much more accurate localization of deep brain sources.
What is MEG (Magnetoencephalography)?
This cortical area is primarily responsible for inhibiting, stopping, or interrupting an ongoing or planned motor action.
What is the right inferior frontal cortex?
These subcortical nuclei form a series of "loops" with the cortex and act as a modulator for the initiation and cessation of movement, as well as the formation of habits.
What are the basal ganglia?
This inherited neurological disease, caused by an autosomal dominant gene, leads to the degeneration of the striatum and manifests as chorea—involuntary, rapid, jerky movements that can appear like a "dance"
What is Huntington's Disease?
This gold-standard logical proof in clinical research occurs when Patient A has a deficit in Task 1 but not Task 2, while Patient B has a deficit in Task 2 but not Task 1, proving the two functions rely on independent brain systems.
What is a double dissociation?
This structural imaging technique uses X-rays to create 2D "slices" of the brain; while it has lower resolution than MRI, it is often used in emergency clinical settings to quickly identify large hemorrhages or tumors.
What is a CT (Computed Tomography) scan?
Unlike the cerebellum, which predicts consequences before movement, this lobe is responsible for "on-line" adjustments to a movement once it has already begun.
What is the parietal lobe?
This specific cortical region is responsible for the conceptualizing, planning, and sequencing of complex motor acts, rather than the simple execution of muscle force.
What is the supplementary motor complex (SMC)?
Unlike the resting tremors seen in Parkinson's, the "intention tremors" associated with damage to this brain structure occur only during active movement and are often accompanied by dysmetria, the overshooting or undershooting of a target.
What is Cerebellar Ataxia (or cerebellar damage)?
This concept suggests that a patient's performance on a test can be influenced by "non-neurological" factors such as depression, anxiety, or lack of effort, which a psychologist must rule out before concluding a brain-based deficit exists.
What is a moderator variable?
Unlike tDCS, which uses electrical currents, this neuromodulation technique uses a pulsed magnetic field to induce an electrical current in a localized area of the cortex, effectively "turning off" or "stimulating" that region.
What is TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation)?
This type of sensory information, processed heavily in the parietal regions, provides the brain with data from internal sensors regarding the position of body parts relative to one another.
What is proprioception (or proprioceptive information)?
This brain region is specifically activated during novel tasks or when an individual must select a response under conditions of uncertainty or competing possibilities.
What is the anterior cingulate cortex (specifically the mid-cingulate region)?
This subcortical syndrome, which typically manifests in childhood, is characterized by repetitive, involuntary movements or vocalizations known as tics. Because of the unusual behaviors involved, children with this condition are sometimes misdiagnosed with psychiatric disorders
What is Tourette's Syndrome?
This specific type of memory, often assessed in school settings, refers to the ability to hold and manipulate information in mind over short periods; it is frequently contrasted with "archival" long-term memory.
What is working memory?
This functional imaging technique involves injecting a radioactive tracer (such as Oxygen-15) into the bloodstream to measure regional cerebral blood flow; while it has lower temporal resolution than fMRI, it is uniquely valuable for mapping specific neurotransmitter receptors, such as dopamine.
What is PET (Positron Emission Tomography)?
These two muscle groups must be carefully timed and coordinated by the cerebellum; one contracts during movement while the other relaxes or lengthens to act as a "brake."
What are agonist and antagonist muscles?
This cognitive construct refers to the cerebellum’s ability to predict the sensory consequences of a motor plan before the movement actually occurs.
What is a forward model?
Resulting from cerebellar damage, this motor speech disorder is characterized by speech that is slow, monotonous, slurred, and sometimes explosive in jerky variations of voice intensity.
What is dysarthria?