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Basic Decision-Making Flashcards

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1
Q

Lobotomies

A
  • come from term love, and to cut or slice
  • clinical treatment for mental illness -> depression / schizophrenia
  • pioneered by Antonia Moniz who received a Nobel prize for this work
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2
Q

how did lobotomies usually work?

A

holes drilled into the side of people’s head, alcohol was poured in and this would scramble their circuits providing a full frontal lobotomy
* then improved to ice-picking: tapped into the orbit of someone’s eye socket (trans-orbit), moved around to sever and scramble the brain tissue

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3
Q

by 1951, how many lobotomies had been conducted in the US alone?

A

20,000

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4
Q

how many of the people receiving lobotomies were women?

A

60%

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5
Q

Rosemary Kennedy

A

had a lobotomy at 23 y/o and her mental capacity limited to 2 y/o

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6
Q

when did lobotomies fall out of use?

A

by the 1970s

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7
Q

effects of lobotomies were unpredicted but generally encompassed ‘higher mental functions’. Lobotomies would affect:

A
  • Judgment.
  • Future planning.
  • Social awareness.
  • Creativity.
  • Ability to relate emotionally to other people.
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8
Q

how did nurses and doctors report their patients to turn out like?

A

Dull, apathetic, listless, without drive or initiative, flat, lethargic, placid and unconcerned, childlike, docile, needing pushing, passive, lacking in spontaneity, without aim or purpose, preoccupied and dependent

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9
Q

what does ‘neocortex’ mean?

A

new bark

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10
Q

what’s executive control for? -> five types of situation (Norman & Shallice, 1980)

A
  1. When we need to plan (or decision-making)
  2. When we need to troubleshoot problems (/problem solving).
  3. Dealing with novel or unplanned situations.
  4. Overcoming a habitual response.
  5. Dealing with danger or difficulty.
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11
Q

what is the homunculus problem?

A

Explaining volitional acts (relating to the use of one’s will) without assuming a cognitive process that is itself volitional (i.e. a man within a man)

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12
Q

What are aspects of executive control?

A

Attention -> Cognitive flexibility -> Monitoring
* Planning.
* Time management.
* Motivation.
* Organization.
* Working Memory.
* Inhibition of a response.
* Initiation.
* Goal orientation.
* Task switching (alternating between different programs).

Remember quite a lot of executive control remains subconsciously, which is an important distinction

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13
Q

what is executive control?

A

collection of brain processing that guide your thought and behaviour

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14
Q

where is the executive control primarily located?

A

the prefrontal cortex but does involve other networks and sub-cortical structures to
* As a result, we get these high order cognitive skills that basically enable your independent, purposeful goal directed behaviour

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15
Q

what were certain people lacking when they had a lobotomy?

A

high order cognitive skills that basically enable your independent, purposeful goal directed behaviour

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16
Q

what is the prefrontal cortex involved in?

A

attention, memory, task competition and engagement

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17
Q

what happens when the prefrontal cortex is damaged?

A

found observed behaviour in animals was disruptive -> apathetic, poor memory, issues with associative skills and learning, particularly negative learning and reinforcement, trouble with engaging in certain steps to reach a goal and disrupted social connections particularly with their caregiver

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18
Q

According to Broadmann (1909), the PFC accounts for % in humans

A

29% (1/3 of our cortical service in humans is part of our PFC, we have massive neocortex and takes up 20% of your resting energy (metabolism) will be allocated to aspects of the brain). - we are social animals, living a social context and have adaptively evolved and can transmit culture, whole set of learning which gets passed on which has a massive adaptive advantage)

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19
Q

According to Broadmann (1909), the PFC accounts for % in chimps

A

17%

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20
Q

According to Broadmann (1909), the PFC accounts for % in macaque

A

11.5%

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21
Q

According to Broadmann (1909), the PFC accounts for % in cats

A

3.5%

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22
Q

what is a distinctive human and primate feature?

A

greatly enlarged PFC

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23
Q

The PFC is highly interconnected and bidirectional. what does it mean to be bidirectional?

A

information is being communicated back and forth

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24
Q

what does tractography show about PFC interconnectivity?

A

3D modelling technique which shows neural pathways goes throughout our brain. Both ipsolateral (same hemisphere) and across the corpus callosum.
* shorter connections are grey matter, and longer connections are white matter but both of these things are connecting different brain regions and allowing the brain to communicate with itself - gives impression it is a coordinating hub
* aspects of the previous frontal cortex, and its interconnectivity are very important for it’s role

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25
Q

in the prefrontal cortex, we’ll usually activate multiple aspects of our executive control. what are these areas?

A
  • mid-dorsolateral PFC
  • Frontopolar Cortex
  • Premotor Cortex
  • Posterior Lateral PFC
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26
Q

what is the mid-dorsolateral PFC responsible for?

A
  • task switching, categorisation of sequences, complex stimulus-response contingencies
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27
Q

what is the premotor cortex responsible for?

A

response selection, execution of simple actions, rule matching

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28
Q

what is the posterior lateral PFC responsible for?

A

selection of sequences of responses, categorisation of sequence, rule learning

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29
Q

what is the frontopolar cortex responsible for?

A

tracking goals and subgoals, relational integration, information-seeking behaviour

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30
Q

what is the dorsolateral PFC responsible for? (an aspect of executive control)

A

circuits play a role in memory, attention, goal setting, motivation.

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31
Q

what is the lateral frontal polar cortex responsible for? (an aspect of executive control)

A

subjective self, autonoetic consciousness (form of mental time travel which allows you to place yourself in the past and stimulate aspects of your future behaviour), honour and theory of mind

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32
Q

what is the ventrolateral PFC responsible for? (an aspect of executive control)

A

social and emotional functions, self-regulation
* certain forms of emotional learning
^ future forward we get, the more abstract the qualities they provide

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33
Q

Dorsal

A

towards the top

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34
Q

Ventral

A

towards the bottom

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35
Q

Anterior Rostral

A

towards the front

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36
Q

posterior

A

towards the back

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37
Q

what brain areas does grabbing an apple include?

A

anterior premotor cortex, premotor cortex, ventral anterior premotor cortex.

38
Q

The Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC): What is initiation?

A

selection of desired behaviours

39
Q

The Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC): What is inhibition?

A

suppression of unimportant or distracting behaviours

40
Q

what does the striatum help with?

A

task switching

41
Q

there are 4 types of behaviour (in the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex -> what are these?)

A
  1. Restraining potentiated behaviour (deviating slightly from your normal actions/behaviour).
  2. Preventing information from interfering with processing (i.e. changing something, and then still writing the previous thing).
  3. Restraining inappropriate actions.
  4. Removing irrelevant information from working memory.
42
Q

How do we measure initiation? The Oddball Task:

succesive trials contain a sequence of. coloured dots with one screen where the dot is a different colour
* when participants see green, they press one button and then when they see pink, they’d press another.

What is the nature of this task?

A

pink trial -> people get to imitate different behaviours to the one they’re doing under control condition
* by measuring event related potentials / oscillations finding that in the central parietal regions, there is an event related potential 300ms after a onset stimulus
-> need to average across number of trials in order to see the emergent kind of spoke

43
Q

how do you measure inhibition? Go-No-Go task
* participants watch each trial and press a button when they see a heart but if they see a different symbol, they shouldn’t press the button (a rule involving inhibition)

What did they find to schizophrenic patients?

A

really struggle when trying to inhibit these prepared responses - even when instructed not to
-> gives insight into the disruption of executive control that people with schizophrenia can sometimes experience

44
Q

why are inhibition and initiation studies good?

A

reductionist approach which breaks down behaviour we’re interested in to simplest form so we can measure and understand parameters involved

45
Q

what part of the brain does stroop task rely on?

A

link between the DLPFC and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)
* ACC used to select appropriate responses and allocate attention resources - pay attention during difficult tasks
* DLPFC assists memory and other executive functions

46
Q

what does the stroop test do?

A

combine low level features (colour of the words) with high level features (autoorgraphic features of the words)
-> congruent condition (colour match with word) and incongruent (colour doesn’t match the word)

47
Q

what happens in a stroop test when the condition is congruent?

A

reaction time of around 65ms

48
Q

what happens in a strop test when the condition is incongruent?

A

reaction time of 220ms
-> slower than a congruent task

49
Q

why are we slower when the condition is incongruent?

A

we are prone to more errors when there’s a mismatch between colour and words (Stroop, 1935)
-> low level features interfere with high level features

50
Q

how do individuals with schizophrenia respond to a stroop task? (Ungar et al., 2010)

A

display heightened interference on this task -> much slower reaction time

51
Q

The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is important in establishing links between?

A

stimulus and action

52
Q

VmPFC is critical for what?

A

adaptive learning: reward and punishment

53
Q

what is the role of the vmPFC?

A
  • involved in social decision making, emotional regulation and moral judgements
    -> important region for learning reward, emotion associations (emotions exist as it allows us to colour the world in ways that are relevant to us
    -> contingent on vmpfc allows people to establish when something bad happens and what situation they need to avoid - an important learning experience
54
Q

where is the vmPFC located?

A

The VMPFc is located in the prefrontal cortex, and is a brain region involved in value computation that has been researched extensively in decision-making studies, due to its role in influencing the value one attaches to choices
-> on the inferior frontal gyrus, bounded superiorly by the inferior frontal sulcus and inferiorly by the lateral sulcus.

55
Q

where is the oribitofrontal cortex

A

area of the prefrontal cortex that sits just above the orbits (also known as the eye sockets)
-> contains the secondary taste cortex, in which the reward value of taste is represented
-> has extensive connections with sensory areas as well as limbic system structures involved in emotion and memory.

56
Q

what 3 brain regions are involved in reward processing and thereby in emotion but are also implicated in episodic memory?

A

orbitofrontal cortex, ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), and anterior cingulate cortex

57
Q

what does vmPFC and stimulation do?

A
  • creates a mental model of the world -> also called ‘abstraction’
  • central feature is the ability to recognise and create rules for behaviour that generalise across contexts
  • involved in theory of mind
58
Q

what does vmPFC and stimulation allow you to do?

A

conceptualise and think
-> put yourself in future events and stimulate all the possible outcomes from learned experienced

59
Q

Benolt got participants to image 200 people and 200 places and rate them on a scale of familiarity (9, familiar and 1, unfamiliar) - took a subset of 80 people and 80 places and got people to image in the scanner these people were in these places. What did they find?

A

vmPFC is mire highly activated when you’re imaging things that you are familiar with and easier to visualise (richer context of how these interact with each other)

60
Q

when is the vmPFC more highly activated?

A

when you’re imaging things you’re familiar with (richer content of how these interact with each other)

61
Q

how does vmPFC enhancement link to DC’s Midnighter?

A

his power is stimulation -> able to look at any situational context and map out all possible outcomes -> choosing the sequence in which he wins the fight

62
Q

what happened when the vmPFC is damaged

A

vmPFC is important for obeying rules of behaviour (incl. emotion regulation)
* How to interact appropriately with others and objects (those with damage may be quick to anger etc. -> issues with emotion regulation).
* Lesions in this region produce disinhibition and altered social conduct.
* “Acquired sociopathy” (Damasio, 1994) = unconcern for punishment.
* Bilateral damage leads to frontal disinhibition syndrome.

63
Q

what happened to Tom Hardy?

A

got in lots of fights
-> problem damaged his vmPFC and he acquired sociopathy

64
Q

what had to phineas gage?

A

pipe went through his lower cheek and out the front of his head (3.2cm diameter and 1m long)
* a lot of these characteristics on the screen were established once he had died so behaviour might be escalated by history and no medical records were taken at the top of the injury

65
Q

what was gage’s behaviour like prior to his accident?

A

Hard Worker
Diligent
Reliable
Responsible
Intelligent
Good humoured
Polite

66
Q

what was gage’s behaviour like after his accident?

A

Lazy
Unreliable
Impatient
Disorganised
Fiscally irresponsible
Lost sense of humour
Vulgar
Sexually Inappropriate

67
Q

what is cognitive flexibility?

A

ability to adjust one’s thinking from old to new situations
-> switch between two different concepts, think about a concept simultaneously and adjust ones thinking to one situation to another and includes aspects of executive control

68
Q

what does cognitive flexibility allow us to do?

A

overcome habitual responses and adapt to new situations

69
Q

how can cognitive flexibility to probed?

A

by using a variety of psychological measures

70
Q

the ability to switch between different rules and concepts, what are two of these concepts in cognitive flexibility?

A

cognitive shifting: conscious
task / rule switching: typically unconscious and more automatic
-> help us adapt to new situations and remain flexible

71
Q

in what situations may cognitive flexibility / frontal lobe cognition and awareness go wrong?

A

Aneurysm - blood vessel with balloons out and just bleeds and bleeds
* individuals typically lose their ability to emotionally regulate, decision-making, problem solve and be functionally well at their job

72
Q

what is the A-not-B task

A
  • Used to assess cognitive flexibility in infants.
  • Hide object at A repeatedly then switch to B (to a different, second location - also in visible view of the infant).
  • 10 months or younger infants tend to make preservation errors (still stick to location A and won’t update their knowledge/change the rule showing a lack of cognitive flexibility).
  • At about one year old infants typically pass this test as they start to use cognitive flexibility and update this world view.
73
Q

what is the
Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST)?

A

measures preservation errors
* used to test competence in task switching, abstract reasoning and problem solving strategies.
* Trying to figure out a specific rule by being guided ‘wrong’ and ‘right’ but the rule will eventually change and then you have to figure out the new rule
* Patients with damage in the lateral prefrontal cortex have difficulty on the WCST often leading preservation errors -> unable to change their prepotent response and update their ability to problem solve to the new rule

74
Q

what is the Eriksen Flanker Task?

A
  • Another type of response inhibition test (have to figure out if stimulus is going left or right).
  • Can add different trials in order to record slightly different aspects of behaviour
  • You have to inhibit prepotent responses.
  • A good measure of selective attention.
75
Q

what regions is strongly involved in the Erijsen Flanker Task?

A

Strong involvement of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) again in allowing people to diffrentiate between congruent and incongruent trials. Helps us understand when we need to implement top-down control to respond correctly on this measure.

76
Q

what is the medial prefrontal cortex essential for?

A

goal-directed behaviour and initiation

77
Q

A stroke in lateral parts but not the ventromedial components show..

A

aboulia (a problem with initiating behaviour)

78
Q

how do those with prefrontal cortex convexectivity syndrome / stroke damage act?

A
  • Lethargy, quiet withdrawal.
  • Answer questions but act slowly, easily distracted, cannot sustain a movement, apathetic.
79
Q

Imitative Behaviour

A

“Lhermitte sat opposite a patient, and, without explanation, produced gestures. Some were innocuous: folding paper, combing his hair, or tapping his leg. Others were socially inappropriate: thumbing his nose, chewing paper or kneeling in prayer. Patients with frontal lobe damage mimicked these actions.” (Lhmeritte, 1986)
* If you present people with certain objects, they will act on compulsions to do things

80
Q

What is Alien Hand Syndrome

A

neurological disorder in which the afflicted person’s hand appears to take on a mind of it’s own.
* can occur through unilateral or bilateral damage to the frontal lobe.
* rare: first identified in 1909, only 40 to 50 recorded cases since.
-> People using agency over hand that they believe they don’t have energy over - it feels like it has a mind of it own- disentanglement between thought and action

81
Q

When can client hand syndrome occur?

A

after strokes, surgery, tumors and infections: frontal lobe and corpus callosum.

82
Q

utilisation behaviour

A

“Professor Lhermitte would place a hammer, nail and picture on a table in the entryway to his office. On seeing this array of objects, the frontal lobe patient might pick up the hammer and nail and hang the picture on the wall.” (Lhmeritte, 1986)
-> Compelled to act on an item when they see it

83
Q

where is frontal lobe dysfunction often reflected?

A

more than direct damage of frontal lobes themselves-> due to inconnectuivity and number of different tasks and subtasks can be affected

84
Q

what will damaged in the mid-dorlateral PFC cause?

A

impaired shifting, response inhibition and motivation

85
Q

damage to the ventralmedial PFC causes?

A

social behaviours, impulsive behaviour, imitation and utilzation and profound personality changes

86
Q

what does general damage to the prefrontal cortex cause?

A

impaired goal setting and planning, reduced interest and initiative

87
Q

what are the 6 features of executive control?

A
  1. Planning: identify goals, develop subgoals.
  2. Receive information about goals and means. (Rule learning. Reward. - completing a subgoal that allows you to engage in a further goal)
  3. Selection of task relevant information- selection of responses (focusing, attention).
  4. Determine what temporal order is required to achieve the subgoals.
  5. Switching tasks, when necessary. - have to deviate from regular plan
  6. Monitoring progress.
88
Q

what does executive control allow us?

A

to flexibly interact with the world and plan behaviour including inhibiting, initiating and following rules

89
Q

what does cognitive flexibility permit

A

task shifting and adaptive behaviour

90
Q

how is damage to the PFC show?

A

not always immediately but there are certainly consequences

91
Q

how do we select a sequent of appropriate movements and inhibit/suppress inappropriate ones?

A
  1. established rules and modifying rules
  2. we can initiate new rules, inhibiting inappropriate behaviours, shift among new rules or relating rules
  3. inhibiting appropriate rules -> actions, interfering information and socially inappropriate behaviour

i.e. if you’re at home and the phone rings, the prepotent response is to answer the phone. BUT if your visiting a friends house, it would be inappropriate to answer the phone - therefore your prefrontal cortex will be involved in inhibiting a prepotent response to a stimulus i.e. picking up the ringing phone
^ certain situations in context that modify your behaviour in certain environments, and your prefrontal cortex helps navigate this gauntlet

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