Chapter 17 Flashcards
disconnection
the cutting or resetting cerebral connection
Disconnection syndrome
the ensuing behavioral effects of disconnection
Intact Monkey - anatomically intact
- hemispheres connected by commissures including…
- optic chiasm - where two hemiretinas intersect
- corpus callosum - bundle of fibers that interconnect the two hemispheres
tame monkey
commissures disconnected, left amygdala removed
- If the objects were presented to the eye ipsilateral to the hemisphere with the ablated amygdala, the animal appeared tame even if the objects were typically frightening to monkeys.
- when the right eye is covered, and the left amygdala removed, visual info is unavailable to motor system
wild monkey
commissures disconnected, left amygdala removed
- If the objects were presented to the eye ipsilateral to the intact amygdala, the animal made its usual specie’s typical responses to threats and appeared wild.
- left eye covered, the circuit in the right hemi for activating species typical behavior is intact.
disconnection monkey experiment results
+ steps
- for an animal to display species’s typical responses to a visual stimulus, information must project from the eye to the visual cortex, passing through the temporal lobes to the amygdala and from the amygdala then to the brain stem and frontal cortex
- these connections activate respectively the autonomic responses, movements and facial expressions.
- If that hemisphere contains an intact amygdala, the circuit for activating specie’s typical behavior is complete and behavior would be typical.
- If the amygdala in the hemisphere is not intact, visual information will be disconnected from modal systems and can not elicit specie’s typical behavior.
three major types of neural fiber pathways connecting to neocortex:
- association pathways
- projection pathways
- commissural pathways
association pathways
- made of long fiber bundles that connect distant neocortical areas
- short, subcortical, U-shaped fibers that connect adjacent neocortical areas
projection pathways
- include ascending fibers from lower brain centers up to the neocortex
- ex: projections from the thalamus, and descending fibers from neocortex to brainstem and spinal cord
commissural pathways
- connect the two hemispheres
- include principally: corpus callosum, anterior commissure, and hippocampal commissures
- among areas that do receive interhemispheric connections, the density of projections is not homogeneous
- Cortical areas that represent the body’s midline, including the central meridian of the visual field, auditory fields, and the track of the body on the somatosensory and motor cortex, have the densest connections
commissural connection in primary visual cortex (V1)
- no interhemispheric connections, except for that part representing the midline of the visual world (visual meridian)
- V1 represents the visual world topographically, and there is no need for one half of the representation to be connected to the other
commissural connections in motor and sensory areas
- motor and sensory areas for distal parts of the limbs, mainly hands and feet, lack commissural connections
- bc essential function is to work independently of one another, it could be argued that the connections are not necessary
callosal connections (3)
- most callosal projections connect to homotopic areas, presumably to meet the two areas together functionally
- projection zones within a hemisphere also connect to homotopic zones in the contralateral hemisphere
- ex: area V1 is connected to area V2, not only within a hemisphere, but also across hemispheres, because area V1 in one hemisphere also sends connection to area V2 in the opposite hemisphere
- a group of projections has a diffuse terminal distribution
- possibly to alert appropriate zone in one hemisphere that the other is active
homotopic areas
identical points in the two cerebral hemispheres that are related to the body’s midline
genu
- anterior part of corpus callosum
- contains the fibers projecting from the prefrontal cortex
- Fibers through the body of the corpus callosum, proceeding from front to the back, project from the premotor, motor, somatosensory, and posterior parietal cortices
splenium
Fibers in the posterior callosum, or splenium, project from the superior temporal, inferior temporal, and visual cortices.
anterior commissure
much smaller than the corpus callosum and connects parts of the anterior temporal lobe, amygdala, and the paralimbic cortex of the temporal lobe surrounding the amygdala
humans born without corpus callosum
anterior commissure
the anterior commissure is greatly enlarged to connect far greater regions of the neocortex
connectome studies
goals
- demonstrate that large scale neural networks underlie complex cognitive operations
- seek to unravel neural network architecture and how networks relate to cerebral functions
Diffusion Tensor Imaging and DTI tractography
they can be mathematically described as comprising sets of nodes, neuronal elements and edges
graph theory
- nodes (neuronal elements) interconnect with related nodes and clustering to functional modules
- Individual modules maintain mutual nodal connections, but form few connections called hubs, to other modules
- Mathematical analysis have identified a specific and especially densely connected set of hub regions that require disproportionately high metabolic activity and are believed to factor in efficient communication and functional integration across the brain.
connector hub
nodes that connect with connector hubs in other modules
provincial hub
nodes that connect primarily to similar nodes in the same module
connectivity of cortical hubs in human brain
- Each hub participates in several dynamic brain networks as defined by fMRI and Magnetoencephalography recordings, MEG recordings including the default and salience networks
- Cortical hubs emerged relatively early in brain development but continue to increase their functional interactions into adolescence.
importance of severed connections as an underlying factor in the effects of cerebral damage
Hugo Liepmann
If a patient was given a verbal command to use the left hand in a particular way
some apraxias might result from disconnections
- If a patient was given a verbal command to use the left hand in a particular way, only the verbal left hemisphere will understand the command
- implies that to move the left hand, a signal will then have to travel from the left hemisphere through the corpus callosum to the right hemispheric region that controls movement of the left hand
- interrupting the part of the corpus callosum that carries the command from the left hemisphere to the right will disconnect the right hemisphere’s motor region from the command
- apraxia will occur in the absence of the weakness or incoordination of the left hand
- will develop in the presence of a lesion of the right hemisphere motor cortex, which controls the actual movement of the left hand.
Behavioral effects of severing corpus callosum in cats
(Myers and Sperry)
- if sensory information was allowed separate access to each hemisphere, each hemisphere could be shown to have its own independent perceptual, learning, and memory processes
- corpus callosum is important
why disconnection of neocortex is easy
- the primary sensory areas have no direct connections among one another
- even in higher-order sensory zones, only few direct connections exist among sensory systems
- the hemispheres are in large part symmetrical and are connected by only a few projection systems
hemispheres may become completely separated under three conditions:
- cut as therapy for epilepsy - commissurotomy
- callosal agenisis
- animal research
- disconnections are performed to trace functional systems, to model human symptoms, and to answer basic questions about interhemispheric development
commissurotomy
recovery
- surgical several of cerebral commissures
- elective treatment for intractable epilepsy
- when medication is ineffective
- each hemisphere retains fibers that allow it to see only the opposite side of the visual world
- each hemisphere predominantly receives information from the opposite side of the body and controls movement on the opposite side of the body
- isolates speech in persons with lateralized speech
- the dominant hemisphere, usually the left, is able to speak, and the non-dominant hemisphere is not
- “typical” behavior recovers within two years despite independent functioning of hemispheres
split brain patients
- their scores on standardized tests are normal
- patient’s everyday behavior appears similar to that of typical unified people
specific tests on split brain patients
- specific tests, such as those Sperry and his coworkers obtain with their split-brain patients in 1974, can still show differences between the functioning of split-brain patients and that of people with intact cerebral connections
- usual testing procedures include presenting stimuli only to one hemisphere and then testing each hemisphere for what transpired
- ex: split-brain patient who is asked to touch an out-of-view object with one hand, and then find a similar object with the other hand, is unable to match the objects
- each hemisphere can be shown to have its own sensations, percepts, thoughts, and memories, that are not accessible to the other hemisphere
callosal agenesis
impairments
congenitally reduced or absent interhemispheric connections
- can perform inter hemispheric comparisons of visual and tactile info
- patients have enhanced conduction in the remaining commissure (ex: vision)
- developed enhanced ability to use their few uncrossed projections (ex: tactile info)
- impaired general intelligence, expressive and receptive language, visual and spatial reasoning, memory, motor skills, etc
sensory disconnection
olfaction
connections are not crossed
- input from left nostril goes straight back into left hemi, same with right
- fibers travel through the anterior commissure join the olfactory regions in each hemisphere
sensory disconnnection - olfaction
case
- case: patient whose anterior commissure is severed - cannot name odors presented to the right nostril because the speaking left hemisphere is disconnected from the information
- rt hemi has the info but no control of speech
- olfactory function still intact but because the patient can use the left hand to pick out an object such as an orange that corresponds to the odor, smell
- no connection with speech is necessary because the right hemisphere both contains the olfactory information and controls the left hand
- if requested to use the right hand the patient will be unable to pick out the object because the left hemisphere which controls the right hand is disconnected
sensory disconnection
vision
information flashed to one visual field travels selectively to the contralateral hemisphere
- verbal material including words is perceived more accurately when presented to the right visual field
- prob bc the input travels to left “speaking” hemi
- visual spacial input such as a map produces a left visual field superiority because the right hemisphere appears to be superior to the left in analyzing spacial information
- visual field superiority observe the neuro-typical controls is relative
- visuospatial input - left field superiority
- relative effects occur because either hemisphere potentially has access to input to the opposite hemisphere through the corpus callosum which connects the visual area
sensory disconnection
vision
words presented to the left visual field
words presented to the left visual field and hence in right hemisphere are sometimes perceived, although not as accurately or consistently as when presented to the right visual field
sensory disconnection
vision
words presented to right visual field
verbal material perceived more accurately when presented to rt visual field, bc the input travels to the left, speaking hemisphere
if obj presented to left visual field
commissurotomy patient
- commissurotomy pt unable to read it or answer qs about it verbally (but right visual field no difficulties)
- commissurotomy pt will be unable to name it and will appear agnosic and aphasic
if obj presented to right visual field
commissurotomy pt
commissurotomy pt
obj will be correctly named
sensory disconnection
vision
split brain
the split brain pt is aphasic, alexic, and agnosic if verbal material or an obj requiring verbal response to presented visually only to rt hemi, but intact if material is presented to left hemi
sensory disconntection
somatosensory functions
- if the two hemispheres are disconnected the somatosensory functions of the left and right parts of the body become independent
- ex: if some object is placed in the left hand of a blindfolded callosal patient who is then asked to choose the presented object from an array of objects the left hand can pick out the object but the right hand cannot
- if an object is placed in a blindfolded patient’s right hand the patient can name it but cannot do so if the object is placed in the left hand because the sensory input is disconnected from the left speech hemisphere
- one hand has no way of knowing what the other hand is doing inn the absence of input coming from opposite hemisphere