6 - Neurophysiology of Higher Cognition

Question 1

What are the components of cognition?

Answer 1

Language 
Social cognition (recognizing others emotions) 
Decision-making 
Executive functioning 
Memory 
Visuospatial Perception

Question 2

Cognition requires extensive synaptic interactions between _________ cells of all neocortical association areas.

Answer 2

Pyramidal

Question 3

What are the steps in language to reach spoken language?

Answer 3

Language Conceptual System —

Language Mediational System —

Language Implementation System —

Spoken Language

Question 4

For language, the final common pathway (the Language Implementation System) for speaking involves what?

Answer 4

Wernicke’s Area
Arcuate Fasciculus
Broca’s Area
Facial area of Motor Cortex

Question 5

Surrounding the areas of the Language Implementation System as well as parts of the temporal, parietal, and frontal association areas is the ________ ________ ________. This relays information to the Implementation system from the Language Conceptual System.

Answer 5

Language Mediational System

Question 6

This system for language is a broadly distributed set of structures that provides the concepts underlying our language. For example, the noun mediation area receives input from the ventral visual pathway and provides us with the names of things.

Answer 6

Language Conceptual System

Question 7

Babies younger than 6 months are referred to as _________ _________ because they recognize all sounds that might be language as distinct sounds.

Answer 7

Language universalists

Question 8

T/F. For babies between 6-9 months old, their brains change and start to recognize the specific language sounds of their native language. With this change, babies “drop” the use of phonemes that don’t occur in their language. Process is complete at about 1 year old, when “babbling” begins to convert to true spoken language.

Answer 8

True

Question 9

Functional imaging reveals that a second language learned (AFTER/DURING) the language acquisition phase activates the same pathway as the first language, but if a second language is learned (AFTER/DURING) the language acquisition phase it activates an adjacent region of Broca’s Area.

Answer 9

During

After

Question 10

Social cognition is an important factor in our ability to function in interpersonal and social situations. It is divided into at least two components, which are…

Answer 10

Emotion Comprehension (recognition)
Theory of Mind

Question 11

This is an individual’s ability to infer the emotional state of another from observable information, such as prosody and facial expression.

Answer 11

Social Cognition

Question 12

T/F. For the emotion comprehension component of social cognition, it appears that the neural circuits for recognizing emotion in others are also involved in producing that emotion in ourselves.

Answer 12

True

Question 13

What is step 1 for the emotion comprehension component of social cognition?

Answer 13

Step 1 – Perception of facial expressions requires that we identify a face as something special.

Question 14

What areas of the brain are required to perform step 1 of emotion comprehension?

Answer 14

Superior Temporal Sulcus
Fusiform Gyrus (Fusiform face area)

Question 15

What is step 2 for the emotion comprehension component of social cognition?

Answer 15

Step 2 – Bring in the emotional component

***Remember that the same emotional circuitry that produces emotion in us also recognizes it in someone else.

Question 16

What areas of the brain are required to perform step 2 of emotion comprehension?

Answer 16

Prefrontal Cortex
Anterior Cingulate Cortex
Amygdala (***Master emotional spot)

Question 17

The facial details that cue us as to what emotion we are seeing in another person are “concentrated” in very specific areas. They are in a triangle containing the…

Answer 17

Eyes
Nose
Mouth

Question 18

A normal person’s gaze scans another person’s face in roughly a triangle, with their eyes spending more time on the other person’s eyes, nose, and mouth. The _________ controls the uses of the eyes and directs the gaze to that triangle (particularly the eyes) when looking at human faces.

Answer 18

Amygdala

Question 19

What happens with emotion comprehension if an individual has damage to their amygdala?

Answer 19

This person will spend very little time looking at the eyes of another and they won’t methodically scan the face.

Question 20

This system fires both when you do something (i.e., smile) and when you see someone else do that same action. It has a role in imitation and imitative learning, but is important in emotional processing as well.

Answer 20

Mirror neuron system

Question 21

Imitation of other people’s motions requires 3 steps. What are these steps and where do they occur?

Answer 21

1) Provide visual input – Posterior sector of Superior Temporal Sulcus
2) Identify the motor action – Posterior Mirror Neuron System
3) Identify the goal/purpose of the action – Anterior Mirror Neuron System

Question 22

Imitative behavior is crucial to developing social cognitive skills. We tend to imitate emotional state/behavior as well as motor behavior. The circuit for imitating is believed to interact with limbic structures via the _________.

Answer 22

Insula

Question 23

This is the term for the study of the tune and rhythm of speech and how these features contribute to meaning. It looks at the aspects of speech that typically apply to a level above that of the individual phoneme and very often to sequences of words.

Answer 23

Prosody

Question 24

The perception of prosody is part of emotion comprehension (component of social cognition), and has 3 steps. Step 1 requires the use of the _______ _______ _______ for the basics of sound processing, including identify of pitch, loudness, and other characteristics of the sound.

Answer 24

Primary Auditory Cortex

Question 25

The perception of prosody is part of emotion comprehension (component of social cognition), and has 3 steps. Step 2 takes the information from step 1 (from primary auditory cortex) and sends it to the _______ _______ _______ _______ where, along with other acoustical information from secondary auditory processes, we begin to piece together the ‘meaning’ of the loudness, pitch, etc., of the vocalization.

Answer 25

Right Posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus

Question 26

The perception of prosody is part of emotion comprehension (component of social cognition), and has 3 steps. Step 3 takes the information from steps 1 and 2 and makes a judgment of the emotional stimulus within the _______ _______.

Answer 26

Frontal Cortex

***This is why kids have poor judgment and can’t always recognize anger or other emotions in adults. Their frontal cortex is not fully developed yet.

Question 27

This is the ability to understand the mental states (beliefs, desires, and intentions) of others and to appreciate how these differ from our own. It allows us to answer the question “Why are they doing what they’re doing?”

Answer 27

Theory of Mind

***Remember, this is the second component of social cognition. The first component was emotion comprehension (involved facial expression and prosody)

Question 28

T/F. It is likely that Theory of Mind is required for Emotion Comprehension to exist.

Answer 28

False. It is likely that Emotion Comprehension is required for Theory of Mind to exist.

Question 29

Theory of Mind has a core pathway and “accessory” pathways. What is part of the core pathway?

Answer 29

Amygdala
Connections to Medial Temporal Lobes (memory, sensory processing)
Orbitofrontal Areas (sensory and emotional processing)

Question 30

Theory of Mind has a core pathway and “accessory” pathways. What is part of the “accessory” pathways?

Answer 30

Language – believed to serve as the ‘scaffold’ for Theory of Mind (may become less important with age)

Executive functioning – Frontal lobes (forward planning, anticipation, reasoning)

Question 31

What are the three neuronal components of decision making, and what type of decisions are they involved with?

Answer 31

Stimulus encoding system – decisions with known risks
Expected reward system – decisions with ambiguous risks
Action selection system – decisions with ambiguous risks

Question 32

This neural component of decision making evaluates the evidence available in making the decision. It predicts the consequences of actions.

Answer 32

Stimulus encoding system

Question 33

What are the components of the stimulus encoding system for decision making?

Answer 33

Orbitofrontal Cortex
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex
Striatum

Question 34

This neural component of decision making learns and encodes the subjective value of the results. It is also involved in error detection (learn from mistakes).

Answer 34

Action selection system

Question 35

What are the components of the action selection system for decision making?

Answer 35

Anterior Cingulate Cortex

Question 36

This neural component of decision making predicts the expected reward.

Answer 36

Expected reward system

Question 37

What are the components of the expected reward system for decision making?

Answer 37

Basal Ganglia
Amygdala
Insular Cortex (processing of social emotions)
Intraparietal Cortex (somatosensory processing and planning/intent)

Question 38

A decision in which the risks are explicit (known) relies most heavily on the…

Answer 38

Stimulus encoding system

***i.e., There is pile of red and blue boxes. How much are you willing to bet that a token lies under a blue box? (You make the bet of say $10, so you KNOW the risk that you are making)

Question 39

Decisions in which the risks are unknown rely most heavily on…

Answer 39

Expected reward system
Action selection system

***i.e., A line of playing cards are laying face down. You will win or lose whatever the card says (could say win $100 or lose $500). You DO NOT know the risk you are making because you don’t know what the cards say. That is ambiguous risk.