Chapter 3 Flashcards
What is the nervous system responsible for?
responsible for monitoring our body’s state
1) conducting messages from the senses and organs
2) conducting messages to the organs and muscles through nerves
Central Nervous System
Spinal Cord
Brain
Peripheral Nervous Sytem
Consists of 12 cranial nerves
31 spinal nerves that interact with the CNS
Brainstem:
Medulla oblongata
pons
thalamus
midbrain
Cerebellum
Motor functions (coordinates motor learning)
Language processing
higher-order cognitive and emotional functions (the exact nature is unknown)
Executive Functioning
working memory, divided attention, affect or emotion.
How does information travel
from the upper part of the brain to the cerebellum and back again.
Cerebrum
Most sensory and motor functions in the cerebrum- contralateral. (each hemisphere is related to the opposite side of the body (a few exceptions). Nerves cross to opposite side of body)
What parts are in the cerebrum
Cerebral cortex (grey matter), white matter (The subcortical ‘white matter’: children with autism-more diffuse white matter-leading to different processing) , gyrus, and sulcus.
The fiber tracts are of 3 types:
Association, Projection, and Transverse.
Each hemisphere:
Consists of white fibrous connective tracts covered by gray cortex of nerve cell bodies.
Association Fibers
run between different areas within each hemisphere.
Projection Fibers
connect the cortex to the brainstem and below.
Transverse Fibers
Connect the two hemispheres-largest one is corpus callosum.
Each hemisphere is divided into four lobes:
Frontal, Parietal, temporal, and occipital
Right Hemisphere
-Holistic processing and visuospatial processing
-Extralinguistic aspects of communication (picking up on intonation)
-Comprehension of complex linguistic (statements that hold ambiguity)
-Pragmatics (language in a social context)
Frontal Lobe
Makes sense of information for decision making
Responsible for behavioral traits
Important for language production
Frontal Association Area
Pre-frontal Cortex
-Executive functions
-Synthesis of sensory and motor information
Temporal Lobe
Decodes auditory information
Important for language comprehension
Motor Cortex
Controls motor movement
Central Sulcus
Separates frontal lobe from parietal lobe
Parietal Lobe
-Decodes information from our senses
-Monitors relative position of our body and limbs
Occipital Lobe
Decodes visual information
Primary Motor Cortex
2-centimeter-wide strip that controls voluntary movements
The finer the movements the larger the cortical area designated for it
Holistic processing and visuospatial processing has to do with
Perception and recognition of faces
Pictures/photographs
Recognizes printed words but has difficulty decoding
Extralinguistic aspects of communication has to do with
Speech prosody and affect
Metaphorical language and semantics
Comprehension of complex linguistic
Pragmatics
The perception and expression of emotion in language
Ability to understand jokes, irony, and figurative language
Ability to produce and comprehend coherent discourse.
Left Hemisphere
Dominant for control of speech and non-speech‐related oral movements.
Specialized for language in all modalities (speech, listening, reading, writing)
Linear order perception (arithmetic calculations, logical reasoning)
Adept at perceiving rapidly acoustic characteristics of phonemes in speech.
(Almost all right‐handers and 60% of left‐handers are left‐hemisphere dominant for language.)
What is happening in our brains when we process or produce language? (Wernicke–Geschwind model)
Auditory signal is received at brainstem
Signal is relayed from brainstem to an area called Herschel’s area in each auditory cortex (in temporal lobe)
Herschel’s area and surrounding structures separate linguistic and extralinguistic information
Linguistic: Goes to left temporal lobe
Extralinguistic: Goes to right temporal lobe
To process sentences we need help from our working memory (allows us to simultaneously store and analyze information in memory)
Working memory is thought to be located in Broca’s area, in the left frontal lobe
Left temporal lobe: (Wernicke’s area) analyzes linguistic information held in WM
Right hemisphere: Interprets extralinguistic information
Angular gyrus and supramarginal gyrus assist in by integrating visual, auditory, and tactile input
Frontal lobe integrates information from right and left hemisphere and uses executive functions to interpret
Language Production
Processes located in the same general areas of your brain as comprehension
Language Production Processes
The conceptual basis of the message forms in many memory areas of the cortex
The underlying structure is organized in Wernicke’s area
Message is transmitted through the arcuate fasciculus to Broca’s area
Broca’s area programs and coordinates the motor strip for speech production
Information Processing
How incoming information is processed represents the voluntary problem‐solving strategies of each person
Executive function is defined as
the ability to maintain an appropriate problem-solving set for attainment of future goal”.
Steps in Information Processing
Attention
Discrimination
Organization
Memory
Orientation
Directing focus to the stimulus
Reaction
Amount of time required for an individual to respond to a stimulus
Discrimination
Discrimination is the ability to identify relevant vs. non-relevant information
(Requires working memory (WM): Involved the simultaneous storage and processing of information)
Organization
The organization of information for future retrieval.
Two kinds of organizational strategies:
Mediational strategies: a symbol forms a link to some information (e.g., an image may facilitate recall of an event)
Associative strategies: one symbol is commonly linked with another (e.g.,cat/dog… boy/girl… apple/banana)
Short‐term memory
Storage for a small amount of information to be retrieved soon
Recalling items on a shopping list
Recalling a phone number
Long-term memory:
Information that has been rehearsed and organized
Explicit memory:
Fact and events
Meaning and concepts.
Important names, dates, etc
Implicit memory
consists of knowing how to do something, such as put words together or ask for something.
Transfer or Generalization
The ability to apply previously learned material to similar but novel problems.
When the two are very similar, generalization is called
Near transfer
When very dissimilar, generalization is called
Far Transfer
Top‐down processing
is conceptually‐driven or affected by expectations about incoming information.
E.g., The cat caught a ……..
Bottom‐up processing
is data driven; analysis occurs at the levels of sound/syllable discrimination and proceeds upward to recognition and comprehension.
E.g., The cat caught a /b/ ……..
