Clinical Neuroscience Flashcards
The ToM (mentalizing) mechanisms helps us infer mental states of other people. The False Belief test is typically passed at what age?
4 years old
What are the substrates of social cognition?
TPJ, medial PFC, and mirror neurons system
What is TPJ responsible for?
Reasoning about mental states of others, redirecting attention in both social and nonsocial situations (lesions=> impaired ToM task)
What is the medial PFC responsible for?
Reasoning about other people as entitites, social tasks (lesions=> do not impair ToM tasks)
What is the mirror neurons system made up of?
Premotor cortex, parts of superior temporal sulcus, intraparietal cortex
Say a similarity and a difference between ToM and mirror neurons systems.
Similarity: they both engage TPJ areas.
Difference: Mirror Neurons system engages lateral motor cortex (for actions) and ToM engages medial PFC (for perceiving mental states)
Autism Spectrum Disorders are developmental disorders with deficits in:
Social communication/interaction and restricted, repetitive behaviors
What are the 3 types of social deficits in ASD?
-Social-emotional reciprocity
-Non-verbal communicative behaviors in social interactions (poor eye contact)
-Developing, mantaining and understanding relationships deficits (control, sociality, motivation)
What are the 4 types of restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviors, interests or activities in ASD?
-Stereotyped or repetitive behavior
-Insistence on sameness
-Highly restricted, fixated interests
-Hyper- or hypo-activity
How can ASD be assessed psychologically?
-Verbal+Non-verbal Skills assessment (comunication)
-Social-Adaptive and Social Emotional Behaviors
-Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R): interview of caregivers
-Autism Diganostic Observation Schedule (ADOS): patients are observed
What is the most connected structure in the brain?
MTL
Amygdala is involved in:
-Fear-related processing (psychic blindness, no fear cause by damage to amygdala in monkeys and in patient S.M.)
-Arousal/salience/vigilance: stimuli are made salient, it activates arousal, it reacts to both positive and negative stimuli
What does LeDoux’s theory say?
There is a low-road made up of subcortical structures (thalamus-amygdala; quick and shallow processing for fight-or-flight), and a high-road made up of cortex (thalamus-sensory cortices-amygdala; slow or sophisticated processing).
What are the antecedent-focused ER?
Situation selection, situation modification, attentional deployment, reappraisal
What is the response-focused ER?
Supression
What regions are involved in emotion-down regulation?
Prefrontal and parietal control regions (healthy subject VMPFC can decrease amygdala activity during regulation, in depressed subjects the opposite effect occurs)
In order to diagnose someone with depression, the following have to be present:
-a major depression episode
-depressed mood/interest for at least 2 weeks
-significant distress, disengagement, anhedonia
What are the brain changes in depression?
-In chemistry: serotonin, norepinephrine, cortisol
-Structural: reduced gray matter volume in hippocampus, thalamus, frontal cortex, prefrontal cortex, enlarged amygdala (acutely) vs reduce (chronically)
-Functional: networks of brain areas are under- or over-activated
What disorders are anxiety disorders?
Panic disorders, generalized anxiety disorder,obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), phobias (specific vs social)