PSC 135 MT 3 EXAM QUESTIONS WITH VERIFIED SOLUTIONS LATEST UPDATE 2026

PSC 135 MT 3 EXAM QUESTIONS WITH VERIFIED SOLUTIONS LATEST UPDATE 2026 1) The lesion analysis method used in studies of human brain function primarily involves: a. testing patients with brain damage to identify cognitive brain mechanisms b. using functional brain imaging to investigate specific mental processes in humans. c. recording ERPs in patients to pinpoint where their lesion is located d. producing lesions in animals and observing their activity levels or hunger levels. - Answers a. testing patients with brain damage to identify cognitive brain mechanisms 2) Localization of mental functions in the brain is an idea that gained support from: a. Conditioning studies by Pavlov in dogs. b. Ramon y Cajal's theory of dynamic polarization in neuronal coding. c. Karl Lashley's studies of spatial learning in rats. d. Paul Broca's studies of patients with language disorders. e. All of the above. - Answers d. Paul Broca's studies of patients with language disorders 3) Korbinian Brodmann used ________ techniques to document 52 regions of the brain that differed in ________. a. phrenological / cytoarchitectonics b. phrenological / chronometrics c. tissue staining / cytoarchitectonics d. tissue staining / chronometrics - Answers c. tissue staining / cytoarchitectonics 4) The temporal lobe likely bears this name because a. it is the brain's center for time processing. b. its functions are particularly susceptible to the effects of aging. c. it lies beneath the area of the scalp where hair grays with age. d. its neurons fire more quickly than neurons in other brain regions. - Answers c. it lies beneath the area of the scalp where hair grays with age. 5) The central sulcus is an anatomical landmark that separates the ________ lobe from the ________ lobe. a. temporal / frontal b. frontal / parietal c. parietal / occipital d. occipital / temporal - Answers b. frontal / parietal 6) Communication between the two hemispheres of the brain occurs mainly through the a. basal ganglia b. cingulate gyrus c. corpus callosum d. limbic system - Answers c. corpus callosum 7) All of the following terms refer to the same cortical region that processes visual input EXCEPT: a. striate cortex. b. area V1. c. Heschl's gyrus. d. Brodmann's area 17. e. None of the above - Answers c. Heschl's gyrus. 8) The part of the thalamus that is most important in relaying information from the retina to the primary visual cortex is the _____. a. lateral geniculate nucleus. b. superior colliculus. c. medial geniculate nucleus. d. inferior colliculus. - Answers a. lateral geniculate nucleus. 9) Following a focal brain injury, a patient shows great difficulty in discriminating tones that differ in sound frequency (high vs. low). Which area of the cortex is most likely affected? a. The superior temporal lobe b. The inferior temporal lobe c. The anterior parietal lobe d. The posterior parietal lobe - Answers a. The superior temporal lobe 10) Areas of the brain where neural activity is relatively high are characterized by___________. a. increased regional blood flow b. decreased cerebrospinal fluid production c. a high degree of myelination d. greater concentrations of proteins e. postsynaptic depression - Answers a. increased regional blood flow 11) You have are interested in a particular type of neuron in the occipital lobe that you believe is responsible for processing information about motion. What type of neurophysiological technique would best allow you to assess this hypothesis in a living animal? a. Single-cell recording b. Histology c. Functional MRI d. Golgi stain e. Transcranial magnetic stimulation - Answers a. Single-cell recording 12) The term ________ is used to describe the situation in which Patient Group 1 (e.g., brain lesion in area A) is impaired on task X and unimpaired on task Y, and Patient Group 2 (e.g., brain lesion in area B) is unimpaired on task X and impaired on task Y. a. single dissociation b. double dissociation c. linear dissociation d. inverse dissociation e. none of the above - Answers b. double dissociation 13) A patient has an injury to the parietal lobe and has a selective deficit in processing information about the spatial location of visual stimuli (i.e., no object perception deficit). You hypothesize that this region of the brain is distinct in function from other visual areas in the occipital lobe, in which you suspect object information is processed. In order to establish the difference between the two functions and the two brain regions, you would need to find another person who had damage to the_______. a. same part of the parietal lobe but did not have a visuospatial deficit b. occipital lobe and had both visuospatial and color perception deficits c. same part of the parietal lobe and had only a color perception deficit d. occipital lobe and had only an object perception deficit - Answers d. occipital lobe and had only an object perception deficit 14) The technique known as ________ can be used to induce virtual (temporary) lesions in healthy humans. a. EEG (electroencephalography) b. TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) c. MEG (magnetoencephalography) d. PET (positron emission tomography) e. fMRI (functional MRI) - Answers b. TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) 15) The best tool for studying the timing of brain activity is _________. a. EEG (electroencephalography) b. neurotransmitter assay c. PET (positron emission tomography) d. fMRI (functional MRI) e. autoradiography - Answers a. EEG (electroencephalography) 16) The best tool for studying the location(s) of brain activity is _________. a. EEG (electroencephalography) b. EMG (electromyography) c. MEG (magnetoencephalography) d. PET (positron emission tomography) e. fMRI (functional MRI) - Answers e. fMRI (functional MRI) 17) EEG recordings reflect _______. a. single neuron action potentials that are very large b. the postsynaptic activity of large populations of neurons in the brain c. changes in blood flow in the brain d. muscle contractions in the scalp e. increased metabolism in neurons - Answers b. the postsynaptic activity of large populations of neurons in the brain 18) Information from the left visual field first enters cortex in the ______ occipital lobe. a. ventral b. left c. right d. both e. None of the above - Answers c. right 19) The visual hierarchy from retina to inferior temporal cortex is characterized by a systematic _________ in receptive field of neurons at each stage (area). a. decrease in size b. linearity in response c. increase in size d. shift in location towards fixation e. shift in location away from fixation - Answers c. increase in size 20) It is possible to find patients who have brain damage and cannot recognize faces, but can perceive movement, as well as patients with the inverse pattern (trouble with movement perception, but no problem with face recognition). a. true b. false - Answers a. true 21) A neuron that was specialized for the processing of faces in macaque monkeys would be most likely to be found in _______. a. medial frontal lobe b. posterior parietal lobe c. temporal lobe d. V1 of the occipital lobe e. cingulate cortex - Answers c. temporal lobe 22) Hermann Von Helmholtz, the great German psychophysicist, studied visual attention by observing his own abilities to process brief presentations (stimuli flashed for 100 msec) of complex stimulus scenes. He observed that he could________. a. process all stimuli across the visual field equally well b. not detect stimuli presented briefly c. could detect some stimuli that he was not looking directly at d. was better able to perceive visual stimuli when accompanied by sounds - Answers c. could detect some stimuli that he was not looking directly at 23) Changes in sensory-evoked brain responses (ERPs) generated by activity in area V1 as a function of selective attention would provide support for________. a. memory models of attention b. computational models of attention c. late-selection models of attention d. early-selection models of attention - Answers d. early-selection models of attention 24) All of the following statements about early-selection and late-selection models of attention are true EXCEPT: a. Early-selection models argue that selection occurs before the stage at which incoming information is encoded as semantic (categorical) information. b. Late-selection models argue that processing in sensory systems is influenced by attention c. Early-selection models suggest that processing bottlenecks likely exist in the brain. d. Late-selection models argue that selection of inputs occurs after the stage of perceptual-to-semantic encoding. - Answers b. Late-selection models argue that processing in sensory systems is influenced by attention 25) There is a selective increase in the amplitude of sensory-evoked responses (ERPs from visual cortex) to a given visual stimulus compared to other stimuli when: a. human subjects are preparing motor responses to be fast b. human subjects encode the stimulus in long-term memory c. human subjects are shown a different stimulus to each eye d. human subjects are covertly attending the stimulus e. human subjects are highly behaviorally aroused - Answers d. human subjects are covertly attending the stimulus 26) Bilateral simultaneous extinction of sensory stimuli in patients with hemispatial neglect means that these patients usually only detect a stimulus in the hemifield contralateral to the lesioned hemisphere when: a. the stimulus is presented alone in the visual field. b. the stimulus is presented and a motor response is required. c. they also have damage to the visual system. d. the stimulus is presented together with an auditory tone. e. the stimulus is presented with other stimuli in the opposite visual field. - Answers a. the stimulus is presented alone in the visual field. 27) Brain damage resulting in disorders of attention such as hemispatial neglect occur most commonly with lesions to: a. the right hemisphere b. the left hemisphere