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Year 2 - BRS > 2.2 - Cortical organisation and function > Flashcards

2.2 - Cortical organisation and function Flashcards

1
Q

What is the cerebral cortex?

A
  • covers entire surface of brain
  • together with deep nuclei, contains grey matter (cell bodies and glial cells)
  • highly folded with gyri and sulci
  • organised into lobes
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2
Q

How is the cerebral cortex organised microscopically?

A
  • organised into layers and columns
  • six layers (I most superficial and VI most deep) and multiple cortical columns
  • entire cortex only 2-3mm thick and has cell bodies which makes it look grey
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3
Q

What is the cytoarchitecture of the cerebral cortex?

A
  • cytoarchitecture is cell size, spacing or packing density and layers
  • German neurologist Brodmann identified 52 regions of the cortex using this
    • 1,2,3 = primary somatosensory cortex
    • 4 = primary motor cortex
  • many areas are related to their function
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4
Q

What are the four lobes of the cortex?

A
  • frontal
  • parietal
  • temporal
  • occipital
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5
Q

What are the two additional lobes of the cortex?

A
  • limbic lobe
  • insular cortex
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6
Q

What are the functions of the frontal lobe? (5)

A
  • regulating and initiating motor function
  • language
  • cognitive functions (executive functions e.g. planning)
  • attention
  • memory
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7
Q

What are the functions of the parietal lobe? (3)

A
  • sensation - touch, pain
  • sensory aspects of language
  • spatial orientation and self-perception
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8
Q

What are the functions of the temporal lobe? (3)

A
  • processing auditory information
  • emotions
  • memories
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9
Q

What are the functions of the occipital lobe?

A

Processing visual information

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10
Q

What is the limbic lobe made up of? (4)

A
  • amygdala
  • hippocampus
  • mamillary body
  • cingulate gyrus
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11
Q

What are the functions of the limbic lobe? (5)

A
  • learning
  • memory
  • emotion
  • motivation
  • reward
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12
Q

Where is the insular cortex located?

A

Lies deep within the lateral fissure (which separates frontal from temporal lobe)

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13
Q

What is the insular cortex concerned with? (4)

A
  • visceral sensations
  • autonomic control and interoception
  • auditory processing
  • visual-vestibular integration
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14
Q

What is grey matter?

A

Neuronal cell bodies and glial cells - around 85 billion of each

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15
Q

What is white matter?

A

Myelinated neuronal axons arranged in tracts

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16
Q

What do white matter tracts do?

A

Connect cortical areas

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17
Q

What are the types of white matter tracts? (3)

A
  • association fibres
  • commissural fibres
  • projection fibres
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18
Q

What do association fibres do?

A

Connect areas within the same hemisphere - there are short and long fibres

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19
Q

What are examples of association fibres? (4)

A
  • superior longitudinal fasciculus
  • arcuate fasciculus
  • inferior longitudinal fasciculus
  • uncinate fasciculus
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20
Q

What does the superior longitudinal fasciculus connect?

A

Frontal and occipital lobes (long)

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21
Q

What does the arcuate fasciculus connect?

A

Frontal and temporal lobes (long)

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22
Q

What does the inferior longitudinal fasciculus connect?

A

Temporal and occipital lobes (short)

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23
Q

What does the uncinate fasciculus connect?

A

Anterior frontal and temporal lobes (short)

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24
Q

What do commissural fibres do?

A

Connect homologous structures in left and right hemispheres

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25
Q

What are two examples of commissural fibres?

A
  • corpus callosum (can be disconnected in patients with epilepsy to treat it)
  • anterior commissure
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26
Q

What do projection fibres do?

A
  • connect cortex with lower brain structures (e.g. thalamus, brain stem, spinal cord)
  • afferent fibres take info towards cortex
  • efferent fibres take info away from cortex
  • deeper to cortex - radiate as the corona radiata (anatomical, fan out)

i.e. corona radiata are a type of projection fibre

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27
Q

Where do projection fibres converge?

A

They converge through the internal capsule between the thalamus and basal ganglia

28
Q

What are primary cortices?

A
  • function predictable
  • organised topographically - bits of body close to each other are closely represented on brain
  • symmetry between left and right
29
Q

What are secondary/association cortices?

A
  • function less predictable
  • not organised topographically
  • left-right symmetry weak or absent
30
Q

What are the primary/secondary cortices in the motor area of the frontal lobe?

A
  • primary motor cortex
  • supplementary area
  • premotor area
31
Q

What does the primary motor cortex do?

A
  • controls fine, discrete, precise voluntary movements
  • provides descending signals to execute movements
32
Q

What does the supplementary area do?

A

Involved in planning complex movements (e.g. internally cued)

33
Q

What does the premotor area do?

A

Involved in planning movements (e.g. externally cued)

34
Q

What are the primary/secondary cortices in the parietal lobe?

A
  • primary somatosensory
  • somatosensory association
35
Q

What does the primary somatosensory cortex do?

A

Processes somatic sensations arising from receptors in the body (e.g. fine touch, vibration, two-point discrimination, proprioception, pain and temperature)

36
Q

What does the somatosensory association area do?

A
  • interprets significance of sensory information e.g. recognising an object placed in the hand
  • also awareness of self and awareness of personal space
37
Q

What are the primary/secondary cortices of the occipital lobe?

A
  • primary visual
  • visual association
38
Q

What does the primary visual cortex do?

A

Processes visual stimuli

39
Q

What does the visual association cortex do?

A

Gives meaning and interpretation of visual input

40
Q

What are the primary/secondary cortices of the temporal lobe?

A
  • primary auditory
  • auditory association
41
Q

What does the primary auditory cortex do?

A

Processes auditory stimuli

42
Q

What does the auditory association cortex do?

A

Gives meaning and interpretation of auditory input

43
Q

What other association areas are there? (3)

A
  • prefrontal cortex
  • Broca’s area
  • Wernicke’s area
44
Q

What does the prefrontal cortex do? (5)

A
  • attention
  • adjusting social behaviour
  • planning
  • personality expression
  • decision making
45
Q

What does Broca’s area do?

A

Production of language

46
Q

What does Wernicke’s area do?

A

Understanding of language

47
Q

What do frontal lobe lesions cause? (2)

A
  • changes in personality
  • inappropriate behaviour
48
Q

What do parietal lobe lesions do?

A
  • contralateral neglect
  • e.g. for a lesion in right hemisphere:
  • lack of awareness of self on left side
  • lack of awareness of left side of extrapersonal space
  • e.g. no shaving/clothing on left side, forgotten about left
49
Q

What do temporal lobe lesions do?

A
  • leads to agnosia - inability to recognise (lateral lesion)
  • a patient had a bilateral resection of anterior medial temporal lobe to cure epilepsy and was left with anterograde amnesia (couldn’t form new memories - medial lesion)
50
Q

What do lesions to Broca’s area do?

A

Expressive aphasia - poor production of speech, comprehension intact

51
Q

What do lesions to Wernicke’s area do?

A

Receptive aphasia - poor comprehension of speech, production is fine

52
Q

What does a lesion to the arcuate fasciculus cause?

A

Inability to repeat speech (this tract links Broca’s to Wernicke’s)

53
Q

What does a lesion to the primary visual cortex do?

A

Blindness in the corresponding part of the visual field

54
Q

What does a lesion to the visual association cortex do?

A

Deficits in interpretation of visual information e.g. prosopagnosia (inability to recognise familiar faces/learn new faces - face blindness)

55
Q

Imaging - what does positron emission tomography (PET) do?

A

Looks at blood flow directly to a brain region by seeing how glucose (radioactive isotope used) is taken up by different parts of the brain

56
Q

Imaging - what does functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) do?

A

Looks at amount of blood oxygen in brain region

57
Q

Imaging - what is diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)?

A

Based on diffusion of water molecules

58
Q

Imaging - what is DTI with tractography?

A

3D reconstruction to assess neural tracts

59
Q

Encephalography - what does electroencephalography (EEG) do?

A
  • measures electrical signals produced by brain since brain works on AP travelling around it
  • different electrodes stuck over scalp and each electrode measures its own thing
  • evoked potentials = seen as peaks
60
Q

Encephalography - what does magnetoencephalography (MEG) do?

A

Measures magnetic signals produced by brain

61
Q

Encephalography - how are somatosensory evoked potentials measured?

A
  • put electrodes along a certain neural pathway and see if there are any issues
  • we can see a series of waves that reflect sequential activation of neural structures along the somatosensory pathways
62
Q

Encephalography - what do somatosensory evoked potentials help us measure?

A

Nerve degradation and which point it has happened

63
Q

Brain stimulation - how does TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) work?

A
  • uses electromagnetic induction to stimulate neurones
  • assess functional integrity of neural circuits
64
Q

What can brain stimulation be used to measure?

A
  • investigate neural interactions controlling movement following spinal cord injury
  • investigate whether a specific brain area is responsible for a function e.g. speech
65
Q

Brain stimulation - what is transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)?

A

Uses low direct current over the scalp to increase or decrease neuronal firing rates

Year 2 - BRS (84 decks)

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