Brain and Behaviour Flashcards
What are the neural correlates of memory?
Declarative memory (both episodic and semantic): involves the medial temporal lobes including the hippocampus and the parahippocampal cortex (diencephalon)
Priming involves the neocortex
Procedural memory is the striatum
Emotional responses by classical conditioning is amygdala
Skeletal musculature in classical conditioning is cerebellum.
Name and define each of the stages of the memory process.
Registration– input from senses into the memory system
Encoding – processing and combining of received information
Storage – holding of that input in the memory system
Retrieval – recovering stored information from the memory system (remembering)
What are the two types of long-term memory?
- Non-declarative– familiarity with something, knowledge of how to interact with object or in situation without thinking about it
- Called procedural memory for actions and behaviours
- Complex activities can be carried out without thinking
- Declarative– store of our knowledge
What are the two types of declarative memory?
Episodic– memory related to personal experience and events (e.g. knowing what you did last night)
Semantic– memory for facts and knowledge of the world (e.g. knowing the capital of France)
What are the four types of non-declarative memory?
Procedural– Practical skills (driving, cycling)
Priming– prior knowledge or stimuli affect responses to future stimuli
Conditioning– Non-voluntary associative learning
Non-associative– Habituation and sensitisation
State two strategies for enhancing memory.
By assimilation – linking words with previous knowledge/giving words a meaning
Learn by mnemonics
What is executive functioning?
Executive functions are mental processes that require planning, focusing attention, remembering and executing instructions. This includes attention and organisation and tasks that are of complex difficulty
What is the dysexecutive syndrome?
Disruption of executive function and is closely related to frontal lobe damage
What are some area specific characteristics of the dysexecutive syndrome?
Impulsivity and disinhibition = orbito-frontal damage
Loss of spontaneity or initiation (i.e. cannot start walking or start talking - akinetic mutism) = medial frontal lobe
Inability to formulate and carry out plans (organisation and planning) = lateral frontal lobe
What are some common behavioural and emotional aspects of the dysexecutive syndrome?
Hypo/hyper-activity Lack of drive or impulsivity Apathetic or disinhibited Poor initIation tasks or preservative Emotional bluntness or dysregulation Theory of mind difficulties or socially inappropriate Reduced empathy Rude, crass, and prone to swearing
What are some common cognitive aspects of the dysexecutive syndrome?
Attentional and working memory difficulties
Poor planning and organisation
Difficulty coping with novel situations and unstructured tasks
Difficulty keeping track of multiple tasks
Difficulty keeping track of multiple tasks
Difficulty with complex/abstract thinking
Which hemisphere is language dominant?
Left: 95% of right handed people have left sided dominance and only 18% of left handed people have right sided dominance (19% have bilateral dominance).
What are the main brain regions associated with language?
Broca’s area = Production of langauge and speech; and Wernicke’s area = Understanding/comprehension of langauge and speech
What are the main types of aphasia?
Broca’s (expressive) aphasia = non-fluent speech, poor ability to produce syntactically correct sentences, intact comprehension, specific lesions in more frontal left hemisphere
Wernicke’s (receptive) aphasia =
○ Problems in speech comprehension
Fluent meaningless speech
Semantic paraphasia
○ Substituting words with similar meaning
Phonemic paraphasia
○ Substituting words with similar sound
Neologisms - non-word
Poor repetition
Impairment in writing
○ Not limited to speech but the whole language
More posterior part of temporal lobe
