Q&A Hero

Q: In performing a sequence of complex actions, such as playing the piano, each movement is planned primarily in relation to the immediately preceding and subsequent movements.

Q: Although simple reflexes can occur without sensory input, the generation of rhythmic walking movements requires sensory feedback from the environment.

Q: Single axons of the corticospinal tract can extend for more than one meter.

Q: Keeles work with people with Parkinsons disease suggests that they may have difficulties in which of the following cognitive operations? a. discriminating scents b. spatial memory c. facial recognition d. set shifting

Q: Hyperkinesia is to _________ as hypokinesia is to _________. a. Parkinsons disease ; Huntingtons disease b. Huntingtons disease ; Parkinsons disease c. apraxia ; hemiballism d. hemiballism ; apraxia

Q: What disorder is characterized by a loss of dopaminergic fibers in the substantia nigra, which results in deficits in initiating voluntary movements, bradykinesia, and the progressive emergence of a resting tremor? a. Huntingtons disease b. Parkinsons disease c. hemiballism d. cogwheeling

Q: A patient has damage to the basal ganglia, particularly within the striatum, and demonstrates both chorea and hyperkinesia. What is your diagnosis? a. Parkinsons disease b. Huntingtons disease c. hypermetria d. bradykinesia

Q: One reason that lesions to the cerebellum disrupt the eye blink conditioning response is because a. the cerebellum regulates the production of acetylcholine in peripheral motor neurons. b. this structure is involved in timing the activation of different effectors involved in a learned motor sequence. c. the cerebellum controls the initiation of eye movements. d. this structure normally inhibits the activity in the motor cortex, and when this inhibition is disrupted, motor learning is impaired.

Q: Lesions to this region of the cerebellum lead to postural instability and difficulty in keeping ones eyes fixed on a visual object despite head or body movements. a. the spinocerebellum b. the vestibulocerebellum c. the neocerebellum d. the dentate nucleus

Q: Once a brain-machine interface (BMI) takes on the ability to reward a rat that was previously rewarded by pressing a lever, how will the rats lever-pressing rate change? a. There will be no change. b. Lever-pressing will slightly increase. c. Lever-pressing will slightly decrease. d. Lever-pressing will eventually stop.

Q: Chapins early work on a brain-machine interface (BMI) in rats used an online population vector that matched the _________ of the rats movement. a. direction b. force c. velocity d. complexity

Q: Franz and colleagues (1996) asked a patient who had had his corpus callosum surgically severed to draw figures like the ones here, each simultaneously with a different hand. Compared to neurologically intact control participants, they found that this patient a. was better at producing movements simultaneously with both hands, even when they differed in direction. b. was selectively impaired when simultaneously producing movements with each hand when they differed in direction. c. performed poorly and was especially impaired when the figures closely resembled each other. d. was better at producing movements simultaneously with both hands only when they differed in direction.

Q: In the days following her stroke, Patient E cannot refrain from reaching out and grasping nearby objects even when she has been asked not to do so. This syndrome probably is the result of the abnormal dominance of the a. lateral supplementary motor area loop. b. lateral premotor loop. c. medial supplementary motor area loop. d. medial premotor loop.

Q: In the period of time immediately following focal brain injury to the supplementary motor cortex, patients may reach out and grasp objects with the affected arm when they have not been asked to do so, or even when they have been explicitly told not to do so. This is an example of a. apraxia. b. hemiplegia. c. Huntingtons disease. d. alien hand syndrome.

Q: The two general subtypes of apraxia are a. ideomotor and ideational. b. ideational and associative. c. associative and apperceptive. d. apperceptive and ideomotor.

Q: After suffering a focal brain injury, a patient has great difficulty in pantomiming particular motor actions such as turning a key in a lock. Because other problems like hemiplegia, muscle weakness, sensory deficits, and lack of motivation have been ruled out, your diagnosis would be a. agnosia. b. apraxia. c. anomia. d. akinetopsia.

Q: The loss of a motor skill that cannot be attributed to hemiplegia, muscle weakness, sensory deficits, or motivation is called a. hemiparesis. b. hypermetria. c. apraxia. d. akinetopsia.

Q: Loss of blood flow in the _________ is the most common cause of hemiplegia. a. anterior cerebral arteryb. vertebral artery c. middle cerebral artery d. circle of Willis

Q: Hemiplegia is the a. paralysis of the side of the body that is contralateral to the injured brain region. b. paralysis of the side of the body that is ipsilateral to the injured brain region. c. loss of sensory feedback from the side of the body that is contralateral to the injured brain region. d. loss of sensory feedback from the side of the body that is ipsilateral to the injured brain region.

Q: When you first learn how to execute the complex motor sequence that comprises a slam dunk in basketball, a circuit including the _________ is active. After much practice, once you have learned the sequence well, a second circuit involving the _________ is active. a. parietal cortex ; lateral premotor area b. lateral premotor area ; supplementary motor area c. supplementary motor area ; parietal cortex d. basal ganglia ; parietal cortex

Q: Single-cell recording studies have indicated that the _________ may be especially important in the control of internally guided motor sequences, whereas the _________ may be especially important in the control of externally guided motor sequences. a. supplementary motor cortex ; premotor cortex b. premotor cortex ; supplementary motor cortex c. basal ganglia ; cerebellum d. cerebellum ; basal ganglia

Q: _________ seem(s) particularly important in the control and planning of complex motor sequences as opposed to simple movements. a. The primary motor cortex b. The primary somatosensory cortex c. The motor cortex regions in the prefrontal lobes d. The motor cortex regions in the parietal lobes

Q: In the most general sense, scientists use the term mirror system to refer to a distributed network of neural regions involved in both a. the perception of the self and the perception of others. b. action production and action interpretation. c. the control of specific effectors as well as abstracted movement plans. d. proprioception and somatosensation.

Q: Mirror cells are neurons in the _________ cortex that respond when an animal produces a particular movement and when the animal _________. a. parietal ; perceives another animal producing the same movement b. parietal ; produces the mirror image of the same movement c. premotor ; perceives another animal producing the same movement d. premotor ; produces the mirror image of the same movement

Q: The fact that the population vector recorded in the motor cortex precedes the corresponding reaching movement indicates that motor cortex activity a. is primarily involved in the planning of movement. b. is independent of voluntary movement. c. automatically leads to movement. d. is related to the movement of specific muscle groups.

Q: Which of the following statements best describes the population vector associated with a reaching movement from left to right? a. The population vector shifts from right to left only while the arm is actually moving. b. The population vector shifts from left to right only after the arm has moved and stopped. c. The population vector shifts from left to right only while the arm is actually moving. d. The population vector shifts from left to right before the arm begins to move.

Q: With regard to motor cortex, a population vector is the a. summed activity of the neurons in the motor cortex, including cells that are tuned to all directions. b. summed activity of the neurons in the motor cortex, including only cells that are tuned to the same preferred direction. c. total number of neurons that are tuned to the same preferred direction. d. preferred direction of a single neuron.

Q: Using single-cell recording, a researcher isolates a neuron in the motor cortex of a monkey that is extremely active when the monkey moves its arm from left to right. In subsequent trials, the animal is required to move its arm from the starting to the ending locations diagrammed here. Which, if any, of these additional trials will also increase activity in this neuron? a. C only b. A and B c. A, B, and D d. D only

Q: Single-cell recording studies of the motor control of reaching movements have demonstrated that neurons in the motor cortex are selectively active based on the a. distance through which a reaching movement must pass. b. direction in which a reaching movement is generated. c. speed at which a reaching movement is performed. d. final arm position achieved once a reaching movement is completed.

Q: Which of the following would demonstrate the finding that some aspects of motor learning are independent of the specific effectors used to perform an action? a. Right-handed pitchers have great difficulty in throwing a baseball accurately with the left hand. b. Actions such as the backhand stroke in tennis require the coordination of a sequence of separate movements. c. All cyclists tend to use the same set of effectors in riding, regardless of the specific age at which they learned to ride a bicycle. d. Ones signature looks very similar regardless of whether one uses the left or the right hand to produce it.

Q: The concept of endpoint control refers to the observation that voluntary muscle events a. are programmed to result in the displacement of an effector based on the desired distance from its starting point. b. are programmed to result in the displacement of an effector based on its desired final location. c. require sensory feedback that arrives after an effector has been moved to its desired location. d. require sensory feedback from an effector that arrives during the entire course of its movement.

Q: Studies of de-afferentation and its effect on movement control in humans and other species demonstrate that a. movement depends on internal mental representations of the consequences of motor commands. b. movement depends on the availability of intact sensory feedback from effectors. c. movement is controlled by information from sensory receptors rather than muscles. d. movement is controlled differently in humans than in other primate species.

Q: Which of the following types of motor behavior probably relies the most on the function of a central pattern generator? a. walking b. speaking c. drawing d. juggling

Q: Neurons in the spinal cord that can mediate sequences of motor actions even in the absence of external sensory feedback signals are called a. proximal effectors. b. central pattern generators. c. alpha motor neurons. d. ventral root neurons.

Q: Sherrington (1947) surgically disconnected spinal motor neurons from cortical and subcortical motor centers in laboratory animals. Which of the following statements is true about the subsequent motor behavior of these animals? a. The animals could still generate voluntary movements, but reflexive responses were disrupted. b. Reflexive responses were intact, but complex voluntary movements were disrupted. c. The animals showed normal motor function as long as sensory inputs from the dorsal root were also severed. d. The animals became completely motionless and unresponsive to stimulation.

Q: Simple reflexive motor responses to external stimuli rely primarily on the function of the _________, whereas motor behaviors that are only minimally dependent on such external cues rely primarily on the function of the _________. a. basal ganglia ; spinal cord b. cerebellum ; brainstem c. spinal cord ; motor cortex d. motor cortex ; brainstem

Q: One major difference between the pyramidal and the extrapyramidal motor tracts is their points of origin. The pyramidal tracts carry messages from _________ to the spinal cord, whereas the extrapyramidal tracts carry messages from _________ to the spinal cord. a. cortical structures ; subcortical structures b. cranial nerves ; peripheral nerves c. basal ganglia ; the cerebral cortex d. subcortical structures ; the cerebral cortex

Q: Lesions to the pyramidal motor tract would produce difficulty in moving effectors on which side of the body? a. the contralateral side b. the ipsilateral side c. both the contralateral and ipsilateral sides d. neither side: the pyramidal neurons do not innervate effector muscles

Q: The pyramidal motor tract carries signals from the motor cortex of each cerebral hemisphere to _________ side(s) of the spinal cord, whereas the extrapyramidal motor tracts carry signals from various subcortical structures to _________ side(s) of the spinal cord. a. the ipsilateral ; both the ipsilateral and contralateral b. both the ipsilateral and contralateral ; the ipsilateral c. the contralateral ; both the ipsilateral and contralateral d. both the contralateral and ipsilateral ; the contralateral

Q: Neurons in each half of the cerebellum synapse on _________ targets in the thalamus and other subcortical structures, and therefore regulate the effectors on the _________ side of the body. a. ipsilateral ; ipsilateral b. ipsilateral ; contralateral c. contralateral ; ipsilateral d. contralateral ; contralateral

Q: The excitatory command to contract the biceps muscle of the arm is normally accompanied by an inhibitory command to relax the antagonist triceps muscle. If this inhibitory signal failed to occur, a. the passive stretching of the triceps would trigger a stretch reflex that would return the arm to its original position. b. the contraction of the biceps would be irreversible, and the limb would remain frozen in the resulting position. c. the contraction of the biceps would cause tearing of fibers in the triceps and severe muscle damage. d. the fibers that make up the triceps muscle would shorten and thicken during the resulting passive stretch.

Q: When a voluntary movement such as contracting ones right biceps is generated, what other signals, if any, must accompany this command? a. A signal to antagonist muscles, such as the right triceps, to relax. b. A signal to antagonist muscles, such as the right triceps, to flex simultaneously. c. A signal to antagonist muscles, such as the left biceps, to relax. d. No other signal is necessary.

Q: A laboratory dog has had surgery to separate the spinal components of its motor system from the cortical and subcortical components. Which of the following best describes the motor abilities of this animal? a. The dog is able to sit and roll over in response to commands. b. The dog can move proximal effectors normally, but not distal effectors. c. The dog demonstrates reflexive withdrawal of its foot in response to sudden stimulation. d. Only vital motor functions such as breathing and heartbeat are intact in this animal.

Q: The term decussation refers to a. a type of cerebrovascular accident that frequently damages motor structures. b. the shift in involvement from the premotor cortex to the supplementary motor area (SMA) with motor learning. c. the crossing of nerve fibers from one side of the body to the other. d. a type of rapid involuntary movement made by people with Huntingtons disease.

Q: Corticospinal fibers originate primarily in the a. cerebellum. b. supplementary motor area. c. premotor cortex. d. primary motor cortex.

Q: Which of the following is NOT a part of the basal ganglia? a. the putamen b. the claustrum c. the caudate d. the globus pallidus

Q: The primary interaction of muscles and the nervous system involves the alpha motor neurons, which originate in the _________, exit through the _________, and terminate in the muscles. a. brain ; dorsal root b. brain ; ventral root c. spinal cord ; dorsal root d. spinal cord ; ventral root

Q: Alpha motor neurons in the spinal cord communicate with muscle fibers by releasing acetylcholine, which influences muscle activity by a. depolarizing neurons in the peripheral nervous system. b. directly causing muscle contractions. c. hyperpolarizing peripheral motor neurons. d. inhibiting neurons in the dorsal root of the spinal cord.

Q: The neurotransmitter responsible for translating action potentials into mechanical actions at muscles is a. norepinephrine. b. dopamine. c. acetylcholine. d. serotonin.

Q: Which of the following is NOT an effector? a. the brain b. the jaw c. the arm d. the back

Q: Parkinsons disease results from cell death in the _________, which is a part of the _________. a. substantia nigra ; cerebellum b. substantia nigra ; basal ganglia c. striatum ; cerebellum d. striatum ; basal ganglia

Q: Extrastriate cortical regions specialized for the processing of color, form, and motion are modulated by visual attention to these stimulus features.

Q: When spatial attention is introduced to one stimulus in a spatial array, simultaneous presentation of competing stimuli interferes less compared to the absence of spatial attention.

Q: Spatial attention to one hemifield leads to increased neural activity in the fusiform gyrus in the ipsilateral hemisphere.

Q: ERP studies of visual and auditory attention suggest that early ERP components like the P1 and N1 are not modulated by the participants attentional state.

Q: Attention can be directed to both spatial and nonspatial features of target visual stimuli.

Q: In visual search tasks, the amount of time it takes to find a target among distracters is independent of the number of distracters if the target can be identified by a single feature.

Q: In exogenous cuing, the orienting of attention to the cue is driven primarily by the participants goals.

Q: Models of late selection hypothesize that attended and ignored inputs are processed equivalently by the perceptual system, reaching a stage of semantic analysis.

Q: Unilateral spatial neglect typically results from damage to the left temporal lobe.

Q: You are chasing a tennis ball that has been hit away from you. Which of the following brain areas is least involved in tracking that stimulus? a. the parietal lobe b. the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex c. The inferotemporal cortex d. V1

Q: Your friend is looking for you and sees your face on someone elses body. This is most likely due to an error in which attentional system? a. the ventral system b. the dorsal system c. Neither a nor b d. Both a and b

Q: According to research by Wolfe and colleagues (2000), visual search is slowest when a. the focus of attention is driven by voluntary, controlled search. b. the focus of attention is driven by the sensory information. c. the number of distracters in the display is large. d. the number of features in the display is large.

Q: Visual search for __________ targets requires the use of selective attention, whereas visual search for __________ targets can occur without sequential attention. a. pop-out ; conjunction b. pop-out ; feature c. conjunction ; feature d. feature ; conjunction

Q: You are looking for a friend who is supposed to meet you in a crowded lecture hall. You know that she is wearing a bright purple sweater and glasses. Which kind of visual search best describes this situation? a. Conjunction search b. Feature search c. Pop-out search d. Parallel search

Q: Studies of attention employing the P1 waveform and the N1 waveform suggest that a. both vision and audition involve a late-selection mechanism. b. both vision and audition involve an early-selection mechanism. c. visual attention primarily involves early selection, whereas auditory attention primarily involves late selection. d. auditory attention primarily involves early selection, whereas visual attention primarily involves late selection.

Q: The P1 ERP is associated most closely with the a. direction of attention to the spatial location of a visually presented object. b. pop-out of feature-based visual targets in visual search. c. direction of attention to the specific ear through which a particular signal is presented. d. increased activity of cells in the primary and secondary auditory cortex.

Q: In ERP studies of performance on the dichotic listening task, Hillyard and colleagues (1973) found that attended signals are accompanied by a negative-polarity waveform that is relatively large and peaks at approximately 180 milliseconds after stimulus presentation. This waveform is called the auditory __________ potential. a. N1 b. P3 c. ERF d. sensory

Q: Directing attention to a visual stimulus produces a positive ERP waveform called the P1 waveform if participants are a. overtly, rather than covertly, directing attention. b. selectively attending to the stimulus based on its location rather than its color. c. exogenously (externally) cued rather than endogenously (internally) cued to the stimulus. d. shown a different stimulus in each eye.

Q: The observation that participants are actually slower to detect targets that appear at recent previously attended locations is called a. attentional fatigue. b. exogenous cuing. c. inhibition of return. d. pop-out search.

Q: Alexandra believes that the effects of attention on perception occur very quickly on a fine temporal scale. Which of the following techniques should she use to investigate the changes in perceptual processing that may accompany focused attention? a. CT (computed tomography) b. PET (positron emission tomography) c. MEG (magnetoencephalography) d. MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)

Q: Techniques such as EEG are particularly well suited to studies of attention. However, one difficulty in using these techniques is that a. one must also use a structural neuroimaging technique to isolate the source of attentional activation to a specific brain structure. b. one must also use a functional neuroimaging technique to isolate the source of attentional activation to a specific brain structure. c. EEG is an expensive and extremely invasive neuroimaging technique. d. electrical signals in the brain are not affected by the use of focused attention.

Q: Hillyard and colleagues (1973) recorded event-related potentials (ERP) from participants while they performed a dichotic listening task. When comparing the ERPs collected when participants attended to a given signal to when they ignored this signal, the researchers found that auditory ERPs a. began later for attended versus unattended signals. b. began earlier for attended versus unattended signals. c. were larger for attended versus unattended signals. d. were smaller for attended versus unattended signals.

Q: The Posner spatial cuing task (1980) showed that cuing participants to the location of an upcoming target a. increased reaction time to detect the target. b. decreased reaction time to detect the target. c. failed to affect reaction time but did increase detection accuracy. d. failed to affect either reaction time or detection accuracy.

Q: Results of the Posner spatial cuing task showed that cuing participants to the location of an upcoming target decreased their reaction time to detect it because attention enhanced perceptual processing for the target. This finding is most consistent with __________ models of attention. a. gating b. bottleneck c. early-selection d. late-selection

Q: You are working diligently in the chemistry laboratory when suddenly a small explosion occurs in the rear of the room, immediately and automatically capturing your attention. This is an example of a. inhibition of return. b. exogenous cuing. c. voluntary orienting. d. controlled processing.

Q: On one trial of the Posner spatial cuing task, a flash of light validly cued the location of an upcoming target and enhanced the participants reaction time to detect that target. Which of the following statements about the participants subsequent responding to this location is most accurate? a. Detection of targets that appear in this position on subsequent trials will also be enhanced. b. Detection of targets that appear in this position on subsequent trials will be unaffected. c. Detection of targets that appear in this position on subsequent trials will be inhibited from now on. d. Detection of targets that appear in this position on subsequent trials will be temporarily inhibited.

Q: The process of directing ones attention to a specific external stimulus is called a. vigilance. b. arousal. c. orienting. d. extinction.

Q: One finding demonstrated by the Posner spatial cuing task (1980) is that a. the focus of attention can be moved separately from eye fixation. b. valid cues cause a slowing in reaction time to detect targets. c. invalid cues cause a speeding of reaction time to detect targets. d. neutral cues produce the greatest change in reaction time.

Q: Which of the following phenomena is the most consciously mediated? a. inhibition of return b. reflexive attention c. exogenous cuing d. endogenous cuing