Introduction to Dissertation (Week 1)

TRUE/FALSE: Injuries which involve nerve damage take longer to recover, and result in the greatest level of long-term impairment, compared to injuries where the nerves are not damaged.

• True

• False

TRUE/FALSE: Per individual, the cost of the nerve repair surgery itself is the greatest compared to all the other costs.

• True

• False

To receive information from the hand, we are primarily reliant on a dense network of _________.

Discriminative touch is an umbrella term, referring to... (pick multiple)

• Touch detection threshold

• 2-Point Discrimination

• Locognosia

Around each receptor, there is an area that, if touched, causes the receptor to fire. This is known as a _________ _____.

TRUE/FALSE: Receptive fields can partially overlap one another.

• True

• False

The map of a receptive field is similar to a topographical map. This means that...

• ...the firing rate across a receptive field varies, with the possibility of multiple centres.

• ...the firing rate across a receptive field is constant, with only one centre.

• ...touching the centre of a receptive field stimulates only that particular field.

TRUE/FALSE: Once stimulated, we know with exact certainty where that stimulation occurred.

• True. After central processing, we are aware of the exact receptor stimulated.

• False. After central processing, we are aware of the most likely place we have been stimulated, based on our brain's interpretation of the signals and our self-model.

Some studies in the past have (broadly) looked at the differences in patterns of responding between patients and healthy controls. What are we doing differently?