9. Higher Cortical Function Flashcards
What are the roles of the frontal lobes?
Motor, expression of speech (usually in left hemisphere), behavioural regulation/judgement, cognition, eye movement, continence.
What are the roles of the parietal lobes?
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.
What are the roles of temporal lobes?
Hearing, olfaction, memory, emotion, inferior optic radiations project through here.
What is the role of the occipital lobe?
Vision.
Which hemisphere is usually dominant?
Left hemisphere.
What are the roles of the dominant hemisphere?
Language, mathematics/logic.
What are the roles of the non-dominant hemisphere?
Body image, visuospatial awareness, emotion, music.
What is the corpus callosum?
White matter that connects the two hemispheres.
What was an early treatment for epilepsy and the consequence of it?
Cutting the corpus callosum so seizure activity didn’t propagate through whole brain. Led to alien hand syndrome and other interesting neuropsychological consequences!
What are the two key areas involved in the language pathway?
Broca’s and Wernicke’s area.
Where is Broca’s area and what is its role?
Inferior lateral frontal lobe - production of speech.
Where is Wernicke’s area and what is its role?
Superior temporal lobe - interpretation of language.
How are Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area connected?
Via arcuate fasciculus.
What is the pathway for repeating a heard word?
Auditory cortex -> Wernicke’s to decode vibration to words -> Broca’s to communicate with motor cortex to move mouth.
What is the pathway for speaking a written word?
Seen in visual cortex -> decoded in Wernicke’s areas -> Broca’s communicates with motor cortex to move mouth.
What is the pathway for speaking a thought?
Information from whole brain -> Wernicke’s decodes it -> Broca’s to move mouth to speak.
What is Wernicke’s aphasia?
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.
What is Broca’s aphasia?
Can’t speak words or fluently produce sounds but can fully understand words.
What are the two types of memory?
Declarative and nondeclarative.
What is declarative memory?
Explicit, facts.
What is nondeclarative memory?
Implicit, motor skills and emotions.
Where are memories stored?
Everywhere and nowhere - distributed throughout a large area of brain.
Where are the different memory types broadly stored?
Factual in cerebral cortex, motor skills in cerebellum.
How does short term memory get converted to long term memory?
Consolidation depending on: emotional context, rehearsal, and association.
