Chapter 3: Important Theories

Question 1

Which brain zone is commonly viewed as a domain-general control processor?

(A) Pericallosal region
(B) Temporal Lobes
(C) Parietal Lobes
(D) Prefrontal Region

Answer 1

(D) – Prefrontal Region – The bilateral prefrontal areas do not seem to serve any specific motor or sensory modality. The prefrontal areas seem to integrate many different sensory inputs from both the external world (e.g., sight and sound) and the internal world (hormonal and propioceptive stimuli) and then choose the motor program most appropriate to the information. Persons with frontal lesions do have problems with shifting attention and updating information.

Question 2

Cerebral reserve theory began with what observation?

(A) Some patients with Alzheimer’s brain changes did not show dementia when living
(B) Brain dendrite counts during adolescence predicted reading level in older adulthood
(C) Persons with higher gray to white matter ratios recover more quickly from brain injuries
(D) Males have larger brains than females and recover more quickly from a stroke of equal severity

Answer 2

(A) – Some patients with AD brain changes did not show dementia when living. – Correlation of mental status scores with postmortem findings in dementia

Question 3

Which of the following both refer to executive control processes?

(A) updating and phonological looping
(B) facial recognition and expression
(C) contextual shifting and updating
(D) grammatical and lexical access

Answer 3

(C) – contextual shifting and updating – These functions are generally agreed upon executive processes.

Question 4

A patient can both name and match-to-sample a visually presented object. She cannot remember where in a 3 X 3 spatial array the object was located. According to “top-bottom” theory, the lesion is likely somewhere in the _____.

(A) forceps major
(B) dorsal stream
(C) ventral stream
(D) forceps minor

Answer 4

(B) – Dorsal stream – the impaired task requires remembering a spatial location, not identifying an object. The parietal lobes are part of the dorsal stream.

Question 5

Which of the following dichotomies HAS NOT been used to describe right-left cerebral lateralization?

(A) emotional-pedantic
(B) nonverbal-verbal
(C) metric-categorical
(D) global-local

Answer 5

(A) – Emotional-pedantic – The term emotional-pedantic has never been used to categorize right-left differences. Neither brain hemisphere has ever shown exclusive control of emotional expression. The hemispheres may control different types of emotions. Some propose a positive emotional tone to the left and negative to the right.

Question 6

Whose name is most associated with split-brain research?

(A) Nelson Butters
(B) Michael Gazzaniga
(C) Laird Cermak
(D) Edith Kaplan

Answer 6

(B) – Michael Gazzaniga – His name is most associated with split-brain research

Question 7

On what task can patients with substance-induced amnesia (formerly Korsakoff amnesia) demonstrate learning?

(A) spatial location
(B) facial recognition
(C) pursuit-rotor
(D) verbal list learning

Answer 7

(C) – Pursuit-rotor – Procedural memory is relatively intact, but any measure of episodic memory task (A, C, and D) will be failed.

Question 8

If alive, Kurt Goldstein would most agree with which principle?

(A) equipotentiality of brain tissue
(B) brain modularity
(C) left dominance for language
(D) ventral brain object recognition

Answer 8

(A) – equipotentiality of brain tissue – Goldstein viewed the brain holistically and would agree that one brain zone could carry out higher functions carried out by another. He was well aware of left-brain language dominance, but he ignored it, likely because it falsified his organismic theory.

Question 9

Why was the term “dominant hemisphere” dropped as a descriptor of left-brain functions?

(A) The specializations of the right hemisphere were finally appreciated.
(B) The right hemisphere is equally efficient in inferential aspects of speech.
(C) Dominant was considered a pejorative term; too sexist and elitist
(D) Left lesions proved less disruptive of daily function than right ones.

Answer 9

(A) – the specializations of the right hemisphere were finally appreciated – Nonverbal perceptual functions became a focus of research and were found dominant in the right brain for some tasks. Alternative terms were proposed for the left side, such as “language-dominant brain”

Question 10

What sign is likely due to disconnection rather than direct damage to a module?

(A) constructional dyspraxia
(B) any transcortical aphasia
(C) specific type of agnosia
(D) modality specific anomia

Answer 10

(D) – modality-specific anomia – Any sensory-specific cognitive deficit is likely a disconnection problem. In this case, unable to name visual objects, but can name with tactile presentation.

Question 11

That many specific functions have been associated with discrete brain regions is an example of ___________.

(A) lateralization
(B) double dissociation
(C) domain-specific, localization theory
(D) brain reserve

Answer 11

(C) – domain-specific, localization theory

The voluminous literature concerning the relationship between specific brain regions and functions is the cornerstone of modern brain science

Question 12

Describe the three main tenets of the DOMAIN-SPECIFICITY theory

Answer 12

1) The brain has a modular organization
2) Each module is a specialized processor devoted to one task (e.g., facial recognition)
3) Each specialized processor is reliably associated with specific zones in the brain (inferior temporal lobes in the case of facial recognition.

Question 13

What is another name for the CEREBRAL LOCALIZATION THEORY?

Answer 13

Domain-specificity Theory

Question 14

What is the name of the countervailing view of the Cerebral localization theory?

Answer 14

Domain-general Theory

aka “Generalist”, “holistic,” “field”

Question 15

Kurt Goldstein popularized this term in the 1930s in relation to the Domain-general theory

Answer 15

“Organismic”
“Organic brain syndrome”

refers to any syndrome or disorder of mental function whose cause is alleged to be known as organic (physiologic) rather than purely of the mind.

Question 16

Describe at least four to five features of the Domain-General theory

Answer 16

1) The brain has only one or a few fundamental properties, such as general learning and reasoning capacity, a position also favored by behaviorists and anthropologists
2) Any mental act requires the entire brain working in concert
3) Long-term memory is distributed around the brain
4) Symptoms are in part the expression of the undamaged part of the brain

5) only motor and sensory functions are localized, not higher brain functions
Brain tissue generally has EQUIPOTENTIALITY

6) The observed variety of organic brain syndromes is explained either by brain lesion size, lesion “intensity”, or the combination of the fundamental cognitive deficit with a specific motor-sensory impairment.

Question 17

DEFINITION:

Equipotentiality

Answer 17

Equipotentiality is the idea that any brain area can do what any other brain area can do for perception; only sensory and motor function are localized

Question 18

What is the core premise of the Domain-General Theory of neuropsychology?

Answer 18

Core premise: mental function is not reducible to specific anatomic lesions.

Question 19

KEY FIGURE:

What is Franz Gall known for?

Answer 19

proposed that personality traits were localized and predictable by studying variations (‘bumps’) in skull contour – PHRENOLOGY

LOCALIZATION THEORY ASCENDANT

Question 20

What are two important conceptual breakthroughs learned from the practice of phrenology?

Answer 20

1) the materialist/reductionalist view of the brain as subject to scientific laws
2) mental modularity (e.g., localization)

Question 21

KEY FIGURE:

What is Paul Broca known for?

Answer 21

Founder of the idea of CEREBRAL DOMINANCE

Observed:
1) acquired language loss was reliably localized to the left hemisphere (stroke patients)

2) loss of expressive speech and syntactic sentence structure was associated with left anterior strokes

LOCALIZATION THEORY ASCENDANT

Question 22

KEY FIGURE:

What is Carl Wernike known for?

Answer 22

Correlated specific aphasias associated with certain brain areas

observed:
1) auditory comprehension but not fluency was impared by left posterior-brain lesions

2) disconnection explained why left white matter lesions affected langauge repetition but not comprehension

LOCALIZATION THEORY ASCENDANT

Question 23

KEY FIGURE:

What is Joseph Dejerine known for?

Answer 23

Described two forms of reading loss (“Alexia”):
1) direct destruction of the left angular and supramarginal gyrus of the left brain

2) disconnection of visual input to an intact memory center

LOCALIZATION THEORY ASCENDANT

Question 24

KEY FIGURE:

What is William James known for?

Answer 24

proposed that the brain evolved to contain dozens(+) instincts

more–> James theorized that behavior was driven by a number of instincts, which aid survival (Figure 1). From a biological perspective, an instinct is a species-specific pattern of behavior that is not learned.

LOCALIZATION THEORY ASCENDANT

Question 25

KEY FIGURE:

What is Hugo Liepmann known for?

Answer 25

showed that left parietal lesions affected skilled movement in both hands, even when language was intact.

LOCALIZATION THEORY ASCENDANT

Question 26

KEY FIGURE:

What is Alexander Luria known for?

Answer 26

systemized the modular geography of the entire brain based on inferences from clinical cases –> mostly Russian soldiers with brain injuries

suggested prototypical bedside tasks for each module (still used today)

LOCALIZATION THEORY ASCENDANT

Question 27

KEY FIGURE:

What is B.F. Skinner’s contribution to neuropsychology?

Answer 27

maintained that the brain had only a general capacity to learn

DOMAIN-GENERAL THEORY ASCENDANT

Question 28

KEY FIGURE:

What is John Hughlings Jackson known for?

Answer 28

argued that mental functions are hierarchical, not localized

proposed only two types of deficits were caused by cerebal damage:

1) positive sxs –> disinhibition of lower centers (e.g., remove the brainstem which affects cortices)
2) negative sxs–> loss of function when the superordinant functions are impaired

DOMAIN-GENERAL THEORY ASCENDANT

Question 29

KEY FIGURE:

What is Karl Lashley known for?

Answer 29

group effect for lesion size, not localization

Ex: frontal lesions caused no greater deficits in flexibility than did non frontal lesions

equipotentiality hypothesis: if part of one area of the brain involved in memory is damaged, another part of the same area can take over that memory function

DOMAIN-GENERAL THEORY ASCENDANT

Question 30

KEY FIGURE:

What is Kurt Goldstein Known for?

Answer 30

“loss of abstract attitude” (reasoning) was fundamental defect in any type of brain damage

Patient: Schneider (Schn) –> small occipital lesion caused widespread damage despite arguments that that brain area was for a specific function

DOMAIN-GENERAL THEORY ASCENDANT

Question 31

KEY FIGURES:

What are German perceptual psychologists (Gestalts) known for in neuropsychology?

Answer 31

offered that the brain had only a general capacity to organize information.

Question 32

The famous case of H.M., who suffered dense amnesia due to bilateral hippocampal damage provides evidence for which neuropsychological theory:

(A) Domain-specificity
(B) Two streams hypothesis
(C) Cerebral Laterality
(D) Domain-General

Answer 32

(A) Domain-specificty

Other evidence supporting this theory includes:

Split Brain Studies (Sperry & Gazzaniga) –> qualitatively different styles of encoding information were associated with the right and left hemispheres

Disconnection Syndromes (Norman Geschwind) –> showed that small lesions that interrupt input to specific brain zones still result in striking specific impairment (e.g., alexia without graphia)

Question 33

Brenda Milner’s team found that large exicisions of prefrontal tissue caused impairment in executive functions such as shifting of strategy, without any any generalized decline. Which neuropsychological theory does this support:

(A) Domain-General
(B) Two streams hypothesis
(C) Cerebral Laterality
(D) Cerebral Localization

Answer 33

(D) Cerebral Localization - aka Domain-Specificity

Other evidence supporting the Domain-specificity theory is:

Question 34

Lev Vygotky’s Regression Theory suggests that:

(A) brain damage causes regression to earlier stages damage causes regression to earlier stages
(B) Intelligence regresses to the median following an MCA stroke due to damage in watershed regions
(C) inferior temporal lobe damage leads to prosopagnosia with retained ability to detect faces
(D) frontal lobotomies and leukotomies resulted in in affective and personality changes

Answer 34

(A) - brain damage causes regression to earlier stages damage causes regression to earlier stages

Note: Answers C & D provide evidence for the General-Specificity Theory

Question 35

“Double Dissociation” is an experimental technique by which two areas of neocortex are functionally dissociated by two behavioral tests, each test being affected by a lesion in one zone and not the other. This term was coined by:

(A) Norman Geschwind
(B) Brenda Milner
(C) Hans Lukas Teuber
(D) Ralph Reitan

Answer 35

(C) - Hans Lukas Teuber

An example is of double dissociation occurs when a lesion in brain zone A impairs verbal memory but not visual memory, but a lesion in brain zone B weakens or impairs visual memory but not verbal memory.

Question 36

Apraxias, i.e., disorders of skilled movement and hand gesture, are associated with lesions to the:

(A) Left-Brain
(B) Right-Brain
(C) Dorsal Brain
(D) Ventral Brain

Answer 36

(A) Left Brain

Question 37

All of the following EXCEPT which function is better processed by the right hemisphere than the left:

(A) discriminating Nonsense shapes from each other
(B) remember designs
(C) making similarity judgments among faces
(D) recognizing and processing faces
(E) identifying sounds, especially in the right ear (i.e., right ear advantage)

Answer 37

(E) - right ear advantage

Question 38

Left-right processing styles have been dichotomized respectively as all of the following EXCEPT:

(A) Local-Global
(B) Analytic-Holistic
(C) High-Low Spatial Frequencies
(D) Categorical-Metric
(E) Logical-Intuitive
(F) Art-Spatial

Answer 38

(F) - Art-Spatial

All of the others are correct

Question 39

DEFINITION:

Automatcity

Answer 39

behavioral routiens that are carried out quickly, effortlessly, accurately, and with little forethought

synonym: “overlearned”
Exs: basic addition or reciting math facts, digits forward, speaking and formulating sentences, recognizing written words, greetings and helping responses ins social settings; motor skills like riding bikes

Question 40

DEFINITION:

Effortful Processing

Answer 40

mental operations carried out with effort, planning, and careful attention to proximate conditions

Synonyms: effortful; online
Exs: digits backward, cancellation tasks, driving in an unfamiliar location, remembering what you did last Tuesday

Effortful “online” tasks are more sensitive to brain injury

Question 41

All of the following are examples of effortless tasks EXCEPT:

(A) Reciting the Alphabet
(B) Completing Trail Making Test, Part A
(C) Simple Mental Arithmetic
(D) Reproducing a line drawing from memory after a delay
(E) Repeating a short string of digits forward

Answer 41

(D) Reproducing a line drawing from memory after a delay.

NOTE: Errors or slow completion times on effortless tasks raise suspicions about deficit stimulation in the absence of aphasia or subcortical disease.

Question 42

What are some examples of tests that “HOLD” against brain damage?

Answer 42

“HOLD” Tests are neuropsychological tests which tap abilities which are thought to be largely resistant to cognitive declines following neurological damage.

National Adult Reading Test (NART)
North American Adult Reading Test (NAART)
Picture Completion subtest of Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
Similarities subtest of Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
Wechsler Test of Adult Reading (WTAR)
Wide Range Achievement Test (WRAT)

Question 43

DEFINITION:

What is the Brain Reserve Hypothesis?

Answer 43

aka CEREBRAL reserve

refers to the brain’s ability to absorb insult and potentially recover.

those with “brain matter to spare” (more brain cells or denser synaptic networks) are less likely to show observed deficits

Question 44

DEFINITION:

What is the Cognitive Reserve Hypothesis?

Answer 44

education and enriched experience can increase cerebral reserve and are relatively protective against the expression of symptoms following brain disease or injury.

Higher cognitive reserve DOES NOT prevent dementia or impairments following TBI, but can modify the functional and clinical expression of such conditions.

Question 45

The brain reserve hypothesis is often described as a :

(A) passive threshold model
(B) active threshold model
(C) efficiency model
(D) inefficiency model

Answer 45

(A) Passive Threshold model

states that a critical threshold of brain cell loss must be corsed before a deficit achieves clinical expression in symptoms or test score abnormalities

Question 46

The cognitive reserve hypothesis is often described as a:

(A) passive threshold model
(B) active threshold model
(C) efficiency model
(D) inefficiency model

Answer 46

(C) efficiency model

refer’s to the mind’s resistance to brain damage due to the presence of more efficient synaptic networks or preexisting cognitive abilities.

Question 47

The Sisters of Notre Dame prospective dementia study provided evidence to support which theory/hypothesis:

(A) Executive Function Theory
(B) Cognitive Reserve Hypothesis
(C) Domain-Localization Theory
(D) Effortful Processing Hypothesis

Answer 47

(B) Cognitive Reserve Hypothesis

The study showed that Nuns with lower literacy showed dementia signs at earlier ages than did more literate (and presumably more intelligent) nuns

Essays to the pope were scored as to complexity as a proxy for verbal intelligence.

Question 48

CONCEPTs & FINDINGS:

Cognitive Reserve Hypothesis & TBI

Answer 48

CRH predicts that persons with remote TBI should experience earlier or more frequent age-related declines in function than non-injured persons matched for age.

one population study found no increased risk for Alzheimer’s dementia in a large TBI Sample, but found age of onset 8 years earlier than uninjured controls

cross-sectional studies find that the more severe the TBI, the greater the incremental risk.

Question 49

DEFINITION:

Executive Function Theory

Answer 49

One or more general-purpose processors control domain-specific (specialized) mental operations to guide attention and action. Different sets of control processes have been proposed, with different localizations.

Note: some EFTs suggest a single controller; others multiple

Question 50

Laterality theory goes by all of the following names EXCEPT:

(A) Cerebral Laterality
(B) Hemispheric Specialization
(C) Right-Left Functionalism
(D) Cerebral Asymmetry

Answer 50

(C) Right-Left Functionalism is made up

Cerebral laterality is a MIDDLE theory, a hybrid of the domain-specificity and domain-generality theories. It proposes two domain-general processors rather than one, in which the two halves of our brain are organized differently and control qualitatively different.

Question 51

What structures does the Dorsal or “Top” brain refer to?

What processes is it associated with?

Answer 51

The dorsal or “Top” brain refers to structures above the horizontal plane formed by the Sylvian fissure.

Includes:

• Parietal Lobes
• dorsolateral prefrontal cortex

Processes:

• processing and storage of the spatial features of information, such as where something is located either in space or in an event sequence.
• dorsal frontal lobes–> how to carry out an action

Question 52

What structures does the Ventral or “Bottom” brain refer to?

What processes is it associated with?

Answer 52

Refers to the structures on the Sylvian plane

Includes:

• inferotemporal cortex
• ventral portion of the posterior cortex
• ventral frontal lobes

Processes:

• posterior cortex –> extracts object information such as shape, color, or identity
• frontal lobes –> causal relations between objects and actions (but NOT how to carry out an action).

Question 53

Describe the landmark study and findings of support for the “top-bottom” view of the Two-Streams Hypothesis:

Pohl (1973)

Answer 53

Integrated decades of primate research to prove distinct functions can be organized into a ventral-dorsal scheme, such as egocentric and allocentric perception

Egocentric perception = involves a self-object representational system (relation of objects to self)

Allocentric perception = involve an object-to-object representational system and encode information about the location of one object or its parts with respect to other objects,

Question 54

Describe the landmark study and findings of support for the “top-bottom” view of the Two-Streams Hypothesis:

Ungerleider & Mishkin (1982)

Answer 54

Lesioned primate inferotemporal cortex and found not only object discrimination deficits, but also the inability to relearn spatial location tasks following parietal lobe lesions

Question 55

Describe the landmark study and findings of support for the “top-bottom” view of the Two-Streams Hypothesis:

Goldman-Rakic and Colleagues (1980s-1990s)

Answer 55

showed dorsal-ventral organization in monkey frontal lobes: dorsolateral areas serve spatial working memory and ventrolateral areas serve object working memory.

Question 56

What evidence does Balint’s syndrome provide for the Two-Stream Hypothesis?

Answer 56

People with Balint’s syndrome (superior occipital parietal lesions) have difficulty reaching for objects directly, but can recognize them.

Question 57

Describe the landmark study and findings of support for the “top-bottom” view of the Two-Streams Hypothesis:

Borst, Thomson, Kosslyn (2011)

Answer 57

meta analysis showing strong associations between dorsal activation/damage and grouped data for spatial relations and movement detection.

Ventral activation/damage associated with parallel processing.

Question 58

Describe Alan Baddeley’s working memory model.

Answer 58

CENTRAL EXECUTIVE
Drives the whole system (e.g., the boss of working memory) and allocates data to the subsystems: the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad. It also deals with cognitive tasks such as mental arithmetic and problem-solving.

VISUALSPATIAL SKETCHPAD (inner eye)
The visuospatial sketchpad is a component of working memory model which stores and processes information in a visual or spatial form. The visuospatial sketchpad is used for navigation.

PHONOLOGICAL LOOP
The phonological loop is a component of working memory model that deals with spoken and written material. It is subdivided into the phonological store (which holds information in a speech-based form) and the articulatory process (which allows us to repeat verbal information in a loop).

–>Phonological Store (inner ear) processes speech perception and stores spoken words we hear for 1-2 seconds.

–>Articulatory control process (inner voice) processes speech production, and rehearses and stores verbal information from the phonological store.

Question 59

Describe Norman and Shallice’s Superviaory Attentional System SAS

Answer 59

According to Shallice (1982), the supervisory attentional system is a limited capacity system and is used for a variety of purposes, including:

• -tasks involving planning or decision making
• -trouble shooting in situations in which the automatic processes appear to be running into difficulty
• -novel situations
• -dangerous or technically difficult situations
• -situations where strong habitual responses or temptations are involved