Cerebral Cortex

Question 1

Cerebral cortex contains:

Answer 1

Corpus callosum
Frontal lobes
Parietal lobes
Temporal lobes
Occipital lobes

Question 2

Gyri

Answer 2

Bulging parts of cerebral cortex

Question 3

Sulci

Answer 3

Depressions of cerebral cortex

Question 4

Fissures

Answer 4

Deep valleys

Question 5

Why is our brain so convoluted?

Answer 5

Due to evolutionary pressure to have an adaptive brain in a small space

Question 6

Corpus callosum

Answer 6

Function: Allows information from one hemisphere to be shared with corresponding contralateral

Question 7

What is split brain surgery and why is it done?

Answer 7

Splits corpus callosum and can isolate seizures to one side of brain for severe epilepsy

Question 8

Lobes of Cortex:

Answer 8

Frontal
Temporal
Occipital

Question 9

Frontal lobe:

Answer 9

Location: multiple regions

Function: self intimated voluntary movement
Personality 
Working memory
Reward
Punishment

Question 10

Primary motor cortex

Answer 10

Location: strip running from top of skull to ears

Function: organised hierarchically

Top regions: control feet, legs, groin, torso

Lower regions: hands, arms, face and tongue

Larger regions: face and hands (lots of fine motor movement)

Question 11

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)

Answer 11

Location: midpoint of lobes

Function: most abstract thinking abilities ie cognitive process such as problem solving, goal, rules, working memory

Question 12

Parietal lobes

Answer 12

Location: contain long strip next to primary cortex known as somatosensory cortex

Function: process incoming sensory info I.e touch

Question 13

What is congenital insensitive?

Answer 13

Inability to feel pain

Question 14

Hemispatial neglect

Answer 14

Individuals ignore left side of objects or space

Cause: damage to right parietal cortex

Question 15

Occipital lobes

Answer 15

Location: near base of spine above hindbrain

Function: visual processing

Question 16

Cortical blindness

Answer 16

Damage to occipital lobes

Question 17

Achromatopsia

Answer 17

Inability to see colour

Question 18

Akinetopsia

Answer 18

Difficulty perceiving movement due to damage in occipital cortex

Question 19

Temporal lobes

Answer 19

Location: below frontal lobes before occipital cortex

Function: auditory, facial recognition, memory, object recognition

Question 20

Primary auditory cortex

Answer 20

Processing sound information

Question 21

Fusiform face area

Answer 21

Facial recognition

Question 22

Prosopagnosia

Answer 22

Damage to temporal lobes - patients can’t recognise familiar faces

Question 23

Visual agnosia

Answer 23

Damage to temporal lobes

Question 24

Broca’s area

Answer 24

Language

Question 25

Damage to brocas aphasia

Answer 25

Impairment in ability to produce fluent speech

Question 26

Wernika area

Answer 26

Language

Question 27

Wernikes aphasia

Answer 27

Ability to produce fluent speech but poor language comprehension

Nonsensical and contain little meaning

Question 28

What is a limitation of neurobiological approaches?

Answer 28

Region can be described but we still don’t know exactly how it performs. Multiple regions overlap in function

Question 29

Phrenology

Answer 29

Pseudo science based on the idea that lumps or structures on a persons head indicated aspects of their personally