2. The Brain Flashcards by Anny W

What does it mean to order the brain by phylogenetic division

Organizing the brain structures in terms of the order in which they are thought to have evolved

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Phylogenetically, what are 3 main regions of the brain

Forebrain
Midbrain
Hindbrain

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What are 3 structures in the hindbrain

Medulla
Pons
Cerebellum

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What does the medulla do and where is it located

hindbrain
- transmits info from the spinal cord to the brain
- regulates life support functions like respiration/blood pressure/coughing/heart rate

think -> modulates [functions], medium [transport]

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What does the cerebellum do and where is it located

hindbrain
- coordinates muscle activity
- balance, coordination
lesions cause damage to above + damage to ability to shift attention from visual and and auditory stimuli, and dealing with temporal stimuli like rhythm

cerebellum -> um -> mu -> muscle
bell -> balance

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What do pons do and where is it located

hindbrain
- neural relay centre (cross over from left and right sides of the brain)
- balance + processing of visual/auditory info (kinda similar to cerebellum lesions??)

pons -> latin for bridge

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What are 5 structures in the forebrain

thalamus
hypothalamus
hippocampus
amygdala
cerebrum (the entire upper wrinkly “casing” on forebrain)

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Where is the thalamus located and its use

Forebrain
- switching station for sensory information
- involved memory

above the thalamus (like an overhead)

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Where is the hypothalamus located and its use

Forebrain
- regulates basic biological functions (hunger, thirst, temperature, sexual arousal), by releasing hormones to control the pituitary gland
- involved in emotions
- homeostatic behaviours

hypo: beneath

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Where is the hippocampus located and its use

Forebrain
- Learning
- Long term memory
- Emotions

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Where is the Amygdala located and its use

Forebrain
- Memory, emotion, aggression
- Strength of emotional memories
- Emotional learning

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Where is the basal ganglia and where is it located

Forebrain
- production of motor behaviour

gang -> beats people up

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What are the four lobes of the cerebral cortex

Frontal
Parietal
Temporal (on sides)
Occipital

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What is the cerebral cortex

Cerebral cortex is a layer in cerebrum consisting of neurons with white matter underneath that carries info between cortex and the thalamus or between different areas in the cortex

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Explain the main functions of the parietal lobes

Contains the somatosensory cortex
- Processes sensory information from the body
- sensations of pain, pressure, touch, or temperature
- spatial processing and attention

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Explain the main functions of the occipital lobes

Processes visual information

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Explain the main functions of the temporal lobe

Processes auditory information
supports function associated with encoding and retrieval of info from LTM

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What might damaging the temporal lobe affect

ability to process auditory information
memory: since the temporal lobe is right above the amygdala and hippocampus

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What are the 3 regions of the frontal cortex and their uses

Motor cortex: Directs fine motor movement
Premotor cortex: Planning fine motor movements
Prefrontal cortex: executive functioning

What is the precentral gyrus

In the frontal lobe, stretches horizontally (wrinkle) across the center of the brain
contains the motor cortex

What does homeostasis mean

State of balance in the body needed to survive

What are the general functions of structures in the midbrain

Relays information between brain regions
Keeps us awake and alert

What did Franz Gall believe in and his student invent

He believed in Faculty Psychology: theory that different mental abilities were independent and carried out in different parts of the brain

student invented phrenology:
psychological strengths/weaknesses can be precisely correlated to the relative sizes of different brain areas

What are 2 erroneous assumptions with phrenology

Size of a portion of the brain corresponded to its relative power
Different faculties were absolutely independent

Where is and what is Wernicke's area responsible for

left temporal lobe damage causes fluent aphasia: speech is fluent in pitch and rhythm but makes no sense. patients also have difficulty understanding speech

What is Broca's area responsible for

Left frontal lobe damage causes nonfluent aphasia: person is unable to produce many words or speak very fluently

What does the Penfield cortical body map do

Maps the sensory and motor cortices of the brain - organized sizewise based on amount of information received from that part of the body

What is brain ablation and what did Karl Lashley find after doing it to rats and seeing them run in a maze

Removal of parts of the brain Found that the impairment was related to the total amount of the cortex removed, rather than the region -> showed higher order processes are too connected to be located in one region

What is the plasticity of the brain

Brain regions can adapt to take over the functions of damaged regions depending on the extensiveness and patient age

What does it mean for the brain to be lateralized

Different hemispheres of the brain play different roles for some cognitive functions, especially language

WRT lateralization, what roles/regions are each hemisphere "generally" found to take/are larger

Most (95%) of people have a specialization for language in the left hemisphere, and is larger in size (esp for language areas) Usually right hemisphere has larger parietal and temporal areas - speculated to have better integration of visual+auditory info and better spatial processing

What connects the two hemispheres

corpus callosum

What is a doule dissociation

Brain damage and behaviour for two cases are completely disassociated from each other, used in reasoning etc. Broca's area and Wernicke's area

What are two static brain imaging techniques

CAT MRI

What technique does CAT scans use, and what can it be used to determine in brain injuries?

Highly focused X-rays are passed through the body from different angles Differing densities in the brain defect the X-rays differently Can be used to determine area and age of the injury (presence blood for recent, spinal fluid for old)

What technique does MRI scans use?

Magnetism: under a strong magnetic field, different tissues in the brain produce different signals

What are two brain activities that functional brain imaging depends on

1. Electrical signals generated when neurons fire 2. Metabolism/blood flow as a byproduct of 1

What are 3 reasons MRI scans preferred over CAT scans

1. Requires no exposure to radiation 2. More detailed images for structures 3. Can also measure the functional aspects of the brain

What functional brain imaging technique depends on electrical signals

EEG (or ERP), MEG

What functional brain imaging techniques depend on measuring blood flow

PET fMRI

What is EEG/ERP

When you attach a bunch of electrodes to areas of the scalp and measure the changes in electrical signals generated. ERP: event related potential - more specific segment of the continuous EEG recording

How does Positron Emission Teomography (PET) work?

Inject radioactively labelled compound that can be detected, and then measuring the blood flow to different parts of the brain - depends on the fact that more active areas require more blood flow/uses more glucose - uses radiation

How does fMRI scan work and what is it detecting?

Based on magnetism, and the fact that oxygenated and de-oxygenated blood have different magnetic properties - heart is most magnetic? detects the BOLD function

What is the substraction technique and how is it applied

It is used to isolate brain regions contributing to a specific cognitive process Task state - Control state

What is the BOLD function and how is it used?

Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent Function Total is about ~20 seconds - first few seconds: receiving signal, so oxygenation dips as it is consumed - afterwards: blood slowly inflows, and peaks at ~10-15 seconds - after afterwards: dip back down to pre-signal state detected by fMRI