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Psychology 479 > Chapter 10 - Principles of Neocortical Function > Flashcards

Chapter 10 - Principles of Neocortical Function Flashcards

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1
Q

What is a hemispherectomy and why may it be performed?

A
  • When one of the hemispheres is removed from the brain
  • May be done on those with severe epilepsy, or those with Rasmussen encephalitis
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2
Q

What’s dysphasia?

A
  • A moderate impairment in language
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3
Q

How can hemispherectomy patients function so well?

A

1) Brain plasticity
2) Levels of function (hierarchy of function from spinal cord to the cortex)

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4
Q

At the level of only the spinal chord, what functions are available?

A

Reflexes:
- Limb approach to a sensory stimulus
- Limb withdrawal from noxious stimuli
- Stepping movements

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5
Q

At the level of only the hindbrain, what functions are available?

A
  • Perform units of movement when stimulated (ex. hissing, chewing, lapping)
  • Exaggerated standing
  • Postural reflexes
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6
Q

What are you incapable of performing when limited to the spinal cord?

A
  • No voluntary movement
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7
Q

What are you incapable of performing when only limited to the hindbrain?

A
  • Difficulty maintaining consciousness
  • Rigidity (excessive muscle tone)
  • Narcolepsy
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8
Q

What does the term low decerebrate indicate?

A
  • Animal is restricted to a hindbrain
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9
Q

What does the term high decerebrate indicate?

A
  • Animal is restricted to a midbrain
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10
Q

What are you incapable of doing when restricted to a midbrain?

A
  • Animal will lack spontaneous and complex behaviours
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11
Q

What are you capable of doing when limited to a midbrain?

A
  • Respond to simple visual and auditory stimulation
  • Perform automatic behaviours such as grooming, pouncing on a sound source
  • Perform subset of voluntary movements when stimulated
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12
Q

What does the term diencephalic indicate?

A
  • The animal is restricted to the diencephalon
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13
Q

What are you incapable of doing when restricted to the diencephalon?

A
  • Spontaneous behaviour, but hyperactive and aimless (no goal in mind)
  • Unchecked emotion (ex. sham rage)
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14
Q

What are you capable of doing when restricted to the diencephalon?

A
  • Sense of smell
  • Control over endocrine system and homeostasis
  • Behaviour has effect and motivation (i.e., becomes energized and sustained)
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15
Q

What does the term decorticate indicate?

A
  • The animal is restricted to the basal ganglia.
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16
Q

What are you incapable of performing when restricted to the basal ganglia?

A
  • No spatial navigation
  • Do not build nests, hoard food
  • Difficulty performing skilled movements
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17
Q

What are you capable of doing when restricted to only the basal ganglia?

A
  • Self-maintenance (eating, drinking; can link automatic movements to voluntary movements so behaviours are biologically adaptive)
  • Typical sleep-wake cycles
  • Perform complex movement sequences in proper order
  • Simple learning (ex. classical and operant conditioning)
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18
Q

What does the term typical indicate in an animal?

A
  • The animal has complete access to their cortex and can perform all functions
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19
Q

What major characteristics contribute to the structural organization of the cortex?

A

-Spiny vs. aspiny neurons
- Layers
- Columns
- Maps

20
Q

What are spiny neurons?

A
  • They are excitatory neurons
  • Around 95% of their excitatory synapses are found on their spines
  • Most are pyramidal, some are stellate
21
Q

What are stellate neurons?

A
  • A type of spiny neuron that has more localized projections, not as extensive as pyramidal cells
22
Q

Since spiny cells are excitatory, which NT would they be most likely to emit?

A
  • Glutamate
23
Q

What’s the difference between non-specific afferent connections versus specific afferent connections?

A
  • Non-specific - they terminate across multiple layers of the cortex (more generalized functions)
  • Specific - Targets one specific layer of the cortex
24
Q

T/F: Most interactions between layers take place vertically.

A
  • TRUE
25
Q

How big are cortical columns?

A
  • Also called modules
  • Around 150-300 neurons, forming mini circuits 0.5-2.0 mm wide
26
Q

Where are cortical columns most prominent?

A
  • More prominent in the sensory cortex
27
Q

What are cortical maps?

A
  • Areas devoted to processing a specific peripheral unit
  • Ex. sensory and motor homunculi, tonotopic representation in A1
  • Dozens of maps per sensory modality, processing different aspects of sensory experience
28
Q

What do more cortical maps usually correlate to?

A
  • Higher intelligence
29
Q

What is special about Graziano’s cortical maps (2009) compared to Penfields (1930s)?

A
  • They differed primarily in their stimulation protocols
  • Graziano stimulated his monkeys for a longer period of time, allowing him to elicit specific actions opposed to simple movements, which is what Penfield did
30
Q

What’s a multimodal cortex?

A
  • Areas that function in more than one sensory modality
  • Also called polymodal
  • Contributes to perceptual linking (potential explanation for the binding problem)
31
Q

What are the two general types of multimodal cortexes?

A
  1. Recognizing/identifying/processing info
  2. Controlling movement related to the above info
32
Q

What’s the superior temporal sulcus?

A
  • A multimodal cortex associated with processing auditory, visual, and somatosensory info.
33
Q

What does the term gestalt refer to?

A
  • Perceiving the world as a whole.
34
Q

How does brain organization translate into our perception of the world as a gestalt?

A
  • Most likely due to intracortical connections among subsets of cortical regions
  • Includes column to column interactions
35
Q

What does the term re-entry signify regarding cortical connections?

A
  • The bidirectional exchange of signals between 2 or more brain areas
  • Mechanism by which one area can influence afferent projections received from another area
  • NOT the same as feedback
36
Q

What does Alexander Luria’s (1973) hierarchical model of cortical function claim?

A
  • The cortex can be divided into 2 functional units: posterior cortex; anterior cortex
  • Posterior cortex (parietal, occipital, temporal lobes) - a sensory unit; activates paralimbic cortex and amygdala
  • Anterior cortex (frontal lobe) - Motor unit; receives projections from posterior cortex, paralimbic, amygdala
  • The sensory unit usually starts from primary to secondary to tertiary, while the motor unit is the opposite
37
Q

According to Luria (1973), summarize the cortical motor system.

A
  1. PFC selects a goal/plan
  2. Premotor cortex organizes appropriate sequence of behaviours
  3. Primary motor cortex executes the movements
38
Q

What does Daniel Felleman and David van Essen’s (1991) distributed hierarchical model claim?

A
  • More than one area can occupy a given hierarchical level
  • There are reciprocal connections
  • Parallel processing occurs
39
Q

What does the contemporary model of cortical function claim?

A
  • Discrete brain areas do not act as independent processors, rather they function conjointly in large-scale neural networks
  • Resting-state fMRI has been used in their discovery
  • Cortex is likely made up of primary regions, and multiple large networks forming the association areas
40
Q

What’s the Default Mode Network (DMN)?

A
  • Responsible for daydreaming, introspection, understanding etc. (passive conditions)
  • Involves the PFC, medial temporal lobe, the posterior cingulate cortex, and the posterior parietal lobe
  • May be linked to depression (too much rumination)
41
Q

What are the 4 allegedly unique properties of the human brain?

A
  1. Grammatical language
  2. Phonological imagery
  3. Theory of mind/social cognition
  4. Certain forms of intelligence such as intuition
42
Q

What are some physical properties that may make human brains unique?

A
  • Greater parcellation of cortex (i.e., more maps)
  • Higher density of cortical neurons
  • Unique classes of cortical neurons
43
Q

What are von Economo neurons?

A
  • Large bipolar neurons found in areas of cortex associated with social cognition
  • Develop late in development, reach adult levels around 4 years of age
  • Found in humans and great apes
44
Q

Which three regions are von Economo neurons found in the brain?

A
  • The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
  • The anterior cingulate cortex
  • The frontal insular cortex
    *Both emotional hotspots
45
Q

What’s the difference in function between the anterior cingulate cortex and the frontal insular cortex?

A
  • ACC - Involved in nearly every complex cognitive function (empathy, impulse control, emotion, decision-making)
  • Insula - play a more specific role in social emotion and self-awareness (empathy, trust, guilt, humor, etc.)
46
Q

What did John Allman (2005) theorize about von Economo neurons?

A
  • Thought that VENS are associated with the emergence of theory of mind
  • Speculated that VENs fail to develop normally in people with ASD (although it has been found that people with ASD may have too many)
  • VENs may allow rapid (intuitive) adjustment to changing social contexts
  • Implicated in several neuropsychiatric illnesses including frontotemporal dementia, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder

Psychology 479 (13 decks)

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