Chapter 3

Question 1

Central Nervous System

Answer 1

• Consists of the brain and spinal cord

- Make sure to read up on this one

Question 2

Peripheral Nervous System

Answer 2

• Consists of any neural tissue outside of brain and spinal cord
• 12 cranial nerves, 31 spinal nerves

Question 3

Left Hemisphere of the brain: What is it specialized for?

Answer 3

• Specialized for language in all modalities: oral, written, visual
• Math calculations and linear order perception
• Logical reasoning and complex analysis
• Step-by-step processing
• Auditory processing of speech, both hemispheres do the meaning of speech/language
• Contains Wernicke’s and Broca’s area

Question 4

Where is Wernicke’s Area located in the brain?

Answer 4

Left Temporal Lobe

Question 5

Where is Broca’s Area located in the brain?

Answer 5

Left Frontal Lobe

Question 6

Right Hemisphere of the Brain: What is it specialized for?

Answer 6

• Integrates information: holistic interpretation
• Visuospatial processing
• Well rehearsed, automatic speech
• Comprehension and production of speech prosody and affect
• Comprehension and production of metaphorical (abstract and figurative) language and semantics
• Involved in pragmatics, including perception and expression of emotion in language, understanding jokes + irony + figurative language
• Comprehension of complex linguistic material and environmental (nonspeech) sounds

Question 7

Brain Growth

Answer 7

• Brain grows in weight and neural pathways
• A child’s brain at birth is 25% the adult brain weight
• Reaches adult weight by age 12

Question 8

Wernicke’s Area: What it does

Answer 8

Reception:
-Processes linguistic information while it is held in Broca’s

Production:

• Underlying structure of the message is formed
• Sends it to Broca’s Area via the arcuate fasiculus

Question 9

Broca’s Area: What it does

Answer 9

Reception:

• Receives from Heschl’s
• Auditory working memory: holding info while the meaning is parsed
• May be responsible for attending to syntax, processing discrete units (single words+phrases), further analysis of information

Production:

• Receives message from Wernicke’s
• Programs the motor strip for speech
• Sends nerve impulses to the speech muscles

Question 10

Executive Function: Attention

Answer 10

• Includes awareness of a learning situation and active cognitive processing
• Orientation: the ability to sustain attention over time -We attend best when motivated, especially by high intensity, moving stimuli
• Reaction: amount of time required for an individual to respond to a stimulus
• Reaction time
• Less mature individuals are less efficient at attention allocation and have limited attentional capacity

Question 11

Executive Function: Discrimination

Answer 11

• The ability to identify stimuli differing along some dimension
• Must be able to identify relevant characteristics to easily compare new input with stored information
• Working memory controls attention and holds a message during processing–located in Broca’s area

Question 12

Executive Functioning: its role

Answer 12

• Theory of Mind

- By age 4, kids recognize that other people can have their own different knowledge and beliefs

Question 13

Metacognition: definition

Answer 13

• Your knowledge of your own cognitive and memory processes

- Can facilitate encoding and retrieval and the use of problem-solving strategies

Question 14

Language Comprehension: definition

Answer 14

-Consists of auditory processing and language decoding, involves many parts of the brain working together

Question 15

Language Comprehension: the basic process

Answer 15

• Auditory signals are relayed to Heschl’s Gyrus in the auditory cortex
• Sent to Broca’s Area (auditory working memory) WHILE…
• Wernicke’s area analyzes it for meaning

Question 16

Language Comprehension: Which auditory signals are received at Heschl’s Gyrus? How is it filtered/separated?

Answer 16

• 60% of the auditory input is received from the ear on the other side of the body
• Linguistic information is sent to the left temporal lobe for processing
• Paralinguistic input (intonation, stress, rate, rhythm) is sent to right temporal lobe for processing

Question 17

Angular Gyrus and Supramarginal Gyrus: what they do

Answer 17

• Assist in linguistic processing
• Integrate visual, auditory, tactile input with linguistic info
• Angular gyrus aids word recall
• Supramarginal gyrus is involved in processing longer syntactic units; is a critical link btwn sound and meaning

Question 18

Angular Gyrus and Supramarginal Gyrus: when they myelinate

Answer 18

-Myelinate in adulthood, often after age 30

Question 19

Language Production: the basic process

Answer 19

• Conceptual basis of message forms in memory areas of cortex
• Underlying structure formed in Wernicke’s
• Message transmitted/given specific form through arcuate fasiculus on its way to Broca’s
• Broca’s area preps and coordinates the motor program for speech, then sends the signals to the motor cortex

Question 20

Injury to Broca’s Area results in…

Answer 20

• Disrupted expressive language, comprehension may remain intact
• Slow, nonfluent speech due to motor strip programming problems

Question 21

Injury to the arcuate fasiculus results in…

Answer 21

-Speech is unaffected except for repetitive movements, but the resultant speech may not make sense

Question 22

Injury to Wernicke’s Area results in…

Answer 22

• Disrupted expressive and receptive language

- Fluent, meaningless speech

Question 23

Executive Functioning: its central function

Answer 23

• overseeing the processing system is your brain’s central executive function
• executive functioning determines cognitive strategies and activities needed for a task and monitors feedback and outcomes in order to reallocate resources if necessary