9. Higher Cortical Function

Question 1

What are the roles of the frontal lobes?

Answer 1

Motor, expression of speech (usually in left hemisphere), behavioural regulation/judgement, cognition, eye movement, continence.

Question 2

What are the roles of the parietal lobes?

Answer 2

Sensory, comprehension of speech (usually in left hemisphere), body imagine (usually in right hemisphere), awareness of external environment/attention, calculation and writing, superior optic radiations project through here.

Question 3

What are the roles of temporal lobes?

Answer 3

Hearing, olfaction, memory, emotion, inferior optic radiations project through here.

Question 4

What is the role of the occipital lobe?

Answer 4

Vision.

Question 5

Which hemisphere is usually dominant?

Answer 5

Left hemisphere.

Question 6

What are the roles of the dominant hemisphere?

Answer 6

Language, mathematics/logic.

Question 7

What are the roles of the non-dominant hemisphere?

Answer 7

Body image, visuospatial awareness, emotion, music.

Question 8

What is the corpus callosum?

Answer 8

White matter that connects the two hemispheres.

Question 9

What was an early treatment for epilepsy and the consequence of it?

Answer 9

Cutting the corpus callosum so seizure activity didn’t propagate through whole brain. Led to alien hand syndrome and other interesting neuropsychological consequences!

Question 10

What are the two key areas involved in the language pathway?

Answer 10

Broca’s and Wernicke’s area.

Question 11

Where is Broca’s area and what is its role?

Answer 11

Inferior lateral frontal lobe - production of speech.

Question 12

Where is Wernicke’s area and what is its role?

Answer 12

Superior temporal lobe - interpretation of language.

Question 13

How are Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area connected?

Answer 13

Via arcuate fasciculus.

Question 14

What is the pathway for repeating a heard word?

Answer 14

Auditory cortex -> Wernicke’s to decode vibration to words -> Broca’s to communicate with motor cortex to move mouth.

Question 15

What is the pathway for speaking a written word?

Answer 15

Seen in visual cortex -> decoded in Wernicke’s areas -> Broca’s communicates with motor cortex to move mouth.

Question 16

What is the pathway for speaking a thought?

Answer 16

Information from whole brain -> Wernicke’s decodes it -> Broca’s to move mouth to speak.

Question 17

What is Wernicke’s aphasia?

Answer 17

Can speak fluently but there’s no comprehension. Can move mouth to formulate words as Broca’s works, but Wernicke’s doesn’t work so it makes no sense.

Question 18

What is Broca’s aphasia?

Answer 18

Can’t speak words or fluently produce sounds but can fully understand words.

Question 19

What are the two types of memory?

Answer 19

Declarative and nondeclarative.

Question 20

What is declarative memory?

Answer 20

Explicit, facts.

Question 21

What is nondeclarative memory?

Answer 21

Implicit, motor skills and emotions.

Question 22

Where are memories stored?

Answer 22

Everywhere and nowhere - distributed throughout a large area of brain.

Question 23

Where are the different memory types broadly stored?

Answer 23

Factual in cerebral cortex, motor skills in cerebellum.

Question 24

How does short term memory get converted to long term memory?

Answer 24

Consolidation depending on: emotional context, rehearsal, and association.

Question 25

How long does short term memory last for?

Answer 25

Seconds to minutes.

Question 26

How long does long term memory last for?

Answer 26

Up to a lifetime.

Question 27

Where is the main site of consolidation of declarative memories?

Answer 27

Hippocampus, found on the rolled medial edge of the temporal lobe.

Question 28

What are the neuroplastic mechanisms of memory?

Answer 28

In learning, more neurotransmitters are released from pre-synaptic neurone so more act on post-synaptic neurone then there are more pre-synaptic neurones releasing even more neurotransmitters.