Chapter 15 Quiz

. People with savant syndrome

become experts in several different domains.

are typically regarded as mentally handicapped.

have been given special training to develop their expertise.

have unusually large cerebral cortices.

inherit their abilities.

. Which of the following is consistent with Darwin's views?

Shared traits in animals descend from a common ancestor.

Brain evolution is not subject to the same selection pressures as other traits.

Basic behavioral responses to emotions are different among species.

Humans are different from all other animals in their morphology and behavior.

Humans evolved from apes.

. The idea that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny

has been supported through many observations and experiments.

is supported by Piaget's claim that children move through a series of cognitive stages as they develop.

would not be supported by Darwin.

states that development stages are not the same as changes in these same features during the course of evolution.

states that more basic features appear at the same time as more advanced ones.

. During nervous system development,

the posterior end of the neural tube develops first.

the anterior end of the neural tube initially divides into five distinct vesicles.

neurons generated earliest migrate to the most superficial layers of the brain.

neuronal precursor cells initially divide along the inner surface of the neural tube, the ventricular zone.

neurons mature in the ventricular zone before migrating.

. Myelination in the brain

is accomplished by Schwann cells.

is completed by birth in humans.

is important in the emergence of cognitive functions in both evolution and individual development.

reaches its peak in the prefrontal cortex before the peak is reached in the sensory cortices.

increases the speed of action potential conduction but does not affect processing.

. Synaptogenesis

increases after adolescence in primates.

does not affect the maximum number of synapses per unit volume in a given region during development.

occurs during the peak of cell proliferation.

has no relationship to synaptic loss and rearrangement.

occurs at a different rate across brain regions.

. Connectivity

can be rearranged better later than early in development.

does not change during development.

is only rearranged when neurons die.

only develops early.

usually dictates what kind of information cortical neurons process.

. Which of the following is true for human brain development?

Average brain weight continues to increase with age.

The last brain regions to mature are the parietal and occipital cortices.

The average volume and weight of male brains becomes greater than that of female brains.

Although we lose white matter as we age, the amount of gray matter never changes.

All of the above

. Brain size

to body size measurements suggest that humans, dolphins, and crows have larger brains than expected for their average body size.

correlates absolutely with cognitive ability.

is larger for any mammal than for any other animal.

is not related to body size.

is the only important determinant of behavioral complexity and flexibility.

. Gender differences in cognitive abilities

are due to absolute brain size.

are reflected by differences in regional differences in the relative size of those regions.

show that males process language bilaterally more than females do.

show that females have the same visuospatial navigation abilities as males.

show that males have the same verbal abilities as females.

. The neocortex

is the same relative to body size for all primates.

gets relatively bigger as the size of the brain relative to body size increases.

is relatively bigger in prosimians than in great apes.

is absolutely bigger in insectivores than prosimians.

may change in relative size among primates but not in complexity.

. Which of the following is true of human evolution?

There is no correlation in the complexity of stone tools with increasing brain size.

Adult human cognitive capacities do not appear to have changed much in the past 200,000 years.

The first adaptive change distinguishing hominids from apes was neurological.

The first human to produce tools was Homo erectus.

All of the above

. The microcephalin gene family

produces relatively minor deficits when mutated.

shows the same proportion of nonsynonymous mutations across primate lineages.

contributes to the growth and differentiation of neurons.

would not affect the scaling of primate brains if mutated.

produces much larger brains when mutated.

. The somatosensory cortex

forms a reduced representation for whiskers in rodents.

has whisker barrels for every row of whiskers.

maps out different parts of the body equally for mammals.

overrepresents tactile sensibility in rodents.

is mapped topographically, but the motor cortex is not.

. The avian hippocampus

is relatively bigger in food-storing birds than in non-storing species.

is not necessary for spatial tasks.

is proportionately smaller in food-storing birds than in non-storing species.

does not encode information the same as the hippocampus in other animals.

None of the above

. The foraging hypothesis

explains why leaf-eating primates have larger brains than fruit-eating primates.

accounts for the same brain size in bats that feed on fruits and flowers versus insects.

suggests that the demands of feeding food sources that vary spatially and temporally favor the evolution of enhanced cognition.

is supported by better spatial memory in sap-eating marmosets than in fruit-eating tamarins.

suggests that leaf-eating monkeys need better memories for finding food than fruit-eating monkeys.

. Which of the following is true for mathematical abilities?

They are only present in humans.

They are not present in preverbal humans.

Non-human animals show they can represent number independently of other physical dimensions.

Humans show much faster reaction times and better accuracy than monkeys do.

Babies show no preference for the ratio of two alternating values in a numerical change detection paradigm.

. Numerical processing

occurs in different structures in adult versus children.

occurs in the intraparietal sulcus in adult humans.

is probably different in different species, based on experimental results.

occurs in dispersed areas of the human brain without representation for an approximate number system.

All of the above

. Which of the following does not support the Machiavellian intelligence hypothesis?

Primate societies are very complex, and primates have relatively large forebrains.

Measures of advanced brain development among primates correlate with measures of social complexity.

The primate brain shows specializations for processing social information.

Primates have the ability to infer the emotions and intentions of others.

Non-social animals can have brains that are relatively as large as social animals.

. In a study that experimentally manipulated group size, from one to six individuals, in a colony of rhesus macaques,

the results support the idea that individual experience can shape the structure and function of neural circuits.

gray matter in the superior temporal sulcus was thicker in monkeys with larger social networks.

stronger functional coupling was found between the superior temporal sulcus and a region of prefrontal cortex implicated in planning and decision making.

monkeys with higher social status showed the most functional coupling described above.

All of the above

. Which of the following is true for the evolution and development of language?

Non-human primates have a left-hemisphere processing bias for species-specific vocalizations.

Broca's and Wernicke's areas are unique to humans.

Human language is not distinct from other animal communication.

Brain regions that process language are not influenced by experience with a given language.

Language development is different for children with left- compared to right-hemisphere trauma when the damage occurs very early in life.

Chapter 15 Quiz

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