Cerebral Cortex Flashcards
thalamus
- relays sensory signals
- consciousness
- sleep
- alertness
cerebral cortex
- 1.3 pound covering of cerebrum
- covers 40% of brain
- contains 85-100+ billion neurons
neocortex
high-order brain functions such as
- sensory perception
- cognition
- generation of motor commands
- spatial reasoning
- language
neocortex lobes
- frontal
- temporal
- parietal
- occipital
damage to frontal lobe
- disinhibition
- deficits
- concentration
- orientation
- judgement
premotor cortex (6, 8)
- SMA (6) and PMA (8) contribute axons to descending motor pathways
- provide input to area 4 (ie – prep for swing)
primary motor cortex (4)
- located in precentral gyrus
- initiates skilled, delicate and voluntary movements
prefrontal cortex (9, 10, 25, 46)
- regulatory of depth of feeling (ecstasy, gloom, disagreeableness)
- goal direction
- pain
anterior association area (10)
- which includes prefrontal cortex rostral to the precentral gyrus
- associated with planning movement
parietal lobe
- perception
- sensation
- integrating sensory input with the visual system
primary somatosensory cortex
- includes the post central gyrus (3) and its medial extension in the paracental gyrus (1 and 2)
- recieves input from thalamus
temporal lobe
- derive meanings for the appropriate retention of emotions
- visual memory
- language comprehension
total anterograde amnesia
- removal of medial temporal regions (amygdala and hippocampus)
- inability to form new declarative memory
amygdala
- establishes associations to events
- correlates information from different modalities
- intermediates between sensory systems and emotions
hippocampus
- central for the formation and consolidation of declarative memories
- registers cognitive info
- linkage to neocortex envisioned as being involved in the dynamics of memory (via gene protein synthesis)
non-declarative (procedural) memory
- recalled unconsciously
- involves acquired skill associations
auditory cortex (22, 41, 42)
- primary (41, 42) detects changes in pattern and in the location of the source of a sound
- 5+ auditory regions in 22 of temporal lobe necessary for interpreting sounds
wernickes area (22)
- temporal lobe
- words to be spoken originate and are generated here
brocas area (44, 45)
- temporal lobe
- coordinated program for vocalization formed here
gerstmann’s syndrome
- parietal lobe
- difficulty with writing (agraphia)
- difficulty with mathematics (acalculia)
- finger agnosia
- left-right disorientation
aphasia
disruption of language or speech
agnosia
inability to recognize or to be aware of an object when using a given sense
receptive aphasia
- Wernickes
- nonsensical speech and comprehension inability
- unaware of these problems
expressive aphasia
- Brocas
- failure in the formulation of speech, which becomes labored, slow, and poorly articulated
- aware of problems
auditoria agnosia
- unimpaired hearing
- inability to recognize familiar sounds, music, and words
multimodal areas
- posterior association area
- anterior association area
- limbic area
posterior association area
- located at the margins of the parietal, temporal and occipital cortices
- processes language
limbic area
- surrounds the corpus callosum and diencephalon on the medial surface
- associated with memory and emotion
orbitofrontal-ventromedial prefrontal cortex (11, 12, 25)
- frontal lobe
- emotional processing of moral decisions
- monitors motivation and intentions
ventromedial prefrontal cortex
- encodes emotional value of sensory stimulus
- envolved in emotional processing
- allows adherence to social norms
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (46)
- frontal lobe
- acts as a moral filter
- problem-solving
- evaluates using rule based knownledge
- critical role in utilitarian reasoning
- crimes and punishment
- activated during lying
cingulate cortex (23, 24, 31, 32, 33, 34)
- frontal lobe
- anterior: mediates the conflict between emotional and rational components of moral reasoning
- posterior: related to emotion and social ability
amygdala
- subcortical
- affective judgements about emotional value of action
- processing moral emotions
thalamus
- subcortical
- cooperativeness
- altruism
septum
- subcortical
- empathy
- altruism
nucleus accumbens
- subcortical
- cooperativeness
- altruism
- impulsivity
posterior hypothalamus
- subcortical
- impulse control
- regulation of aggressively
subthalamic nucleus
- subcortical
- evaluation of conflictual moral decisions
inferior and superior parietal lobe
- parietal
- cognitive control
- working memory
insula
- insula
- emotional processing
- perception of inequity
- emotional intelligence
temporal superior gyrus and superior temporal sulcus
- temporal lobe
- elaboration of intentionality
- social complexity of moral acts
anteriorimiddle temporal lobe
- temporal lobe
- cognitive processing
- working memory
angular gyrus
- temporal lobe
- activated during various moral judgement tasks
temporo-parietal junction
- temporal lobe
- moral intuition
- spontaneous attention directed towards morally salient cues
- ability to understand other peoples thoughts
hippocampus
- temporal lobe
- monitoring
- controlling aggressive behavior
myth of moral brain (opinion)
- philosophy, biology, theology and clinical psychology as opposed to biomedical alone
- fails to adequately model
- realistic versus fantastical enhancements
- mans fate does not lie in biology
- pharmaceuticals, neurostimulation and genetics unsuitable
- treat case-by-case
superior temporal sulcus
- associates w/ emotion
- activates during elaboration of moral dilemma
anterior/middle temporal gyrus
- activated after decision
- particularly when utilitarian response
cerebral cortex image
moral brain
