Cortical Anatomy and Cognitive Neuroscience (Level 5)

Question 1

What has traditionally been based on the experimentally-controlled study of observable human behaviour (such as reaction times, error rates, detection accuracy, and verbal reports)?

Answer 1

The study of human perception, cognition, and performance.

Question 2

Over what time period have new methods become available that make it possible to study brain processes that underlie cognitive capacities related to observable human behaviour?

Answer 2

They have become available in the last decade.

Question 3

Which new discipline has emerged which combines traditional cognitive-psychological methods with new methods, such as functional brain imaging, electrophysiological recordings of ongoing brain activity, and the study of selective impairments of cognitive functions in brain-damaged patients?

Answer 3

Cognitive neuroscience.

Question 4

What is the aim of cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 4

To obtain a better understanding of cognitive functions by investigating how these functions are implemented in the brain.

Question 5

What is the basis of all higher perceptual, cognitive, and motor functions?

Answer 5

The cerebral cortex.

Question 6

Of what is the cerebral cortex composed?

Answer 6

It is composed of several layers of cells.

Question 7

How thick is the cerebral cortex?

Answer 7

It is only about 3 mm thick.

Question 8

Why is the cortex heavily folded?

Answer 8

To pack more cortex into the limited space available within the skull.

Question 9

What are the infolded regions of the cortex called?

Answer 9

Sulci

Question 10

What are the tops of folded tissue of the cortex, visible from the outside, called?

Answer 10

‘Gyri’

Question 11

Why does the cerebral cortex appear grey?

Answer 11

Because it contains a high proportion of cell bodies.

Question 12

What do the regions below the cortical surface contain?

Answer 12

Axons which connect the cells within the cortex.

Question 13

Why do the regions below the cortical surface appear white?

Answer 13

Because they contain the axons which connect together all of the cells within the cortex.

Question 14

What is the basis of the distinction between white and grey matter?

Answer 14

The cerebral cortex appearing grey due to its containing a high proportion of cell bodies, and the regions below the cortical surface appearing white due to their containing of the axons that connect together the cells within the cortex.

Question 15

Into how many major areas, or ‘lobes’, can the cortex roughly be subdivided?

Answer 15

Four

Question 16

Which lobes of the cortex are subdivided by the central sulcus?

Answer 16

The parietal and frontal lobes.

Question 17

By what is the temporal lobe separated from the frontal and parietal lobes?

Answer 17

By the sylvian fissure.

Question 18

How is the occipital lobe separated from the parietal lobe?

Answer 18

Thanks to the parieto-occipito sulcus.

Question 19

How is the occipital lobe separated from the temporal lobe?

Answer 19

By the pre-occipital notch.

Question 20

How many cerebral hemispheres does the cortex contain, which are connected by the ‘corpus callosum’?

Answer 20

Two

Question 21

On what has a particularly fine subdivision of the cortex been based?

Answer 21

On differences in cytoarchitecture, based on the histological analysis of tissue samples from different regions of the cortex.

Question 22

On which differences are the Brodmann areas based?

Answer 22

Differences in cytoarchitecture, which are based on the histological analysis of tissue samples from different regions of the cortex.

Question 23

How many different Brodmann areas are there in the cortex?

Answer 23

About 50.

Question 24

To what do the boundaries of the approximately 50 different Brodmann areas in the cortex correspond, at least in part?

Answer 24

To functional differences for which these different brain regions are specialised.

Question 25

How long ago did many neuroscientists believe that the cerebral cortex was undifferentiated, rather than that different parts of the cortex have different, and highly specialised functions?

Answer 25

About a century ago.

Question 26

How many findings in the second half of the 19th century challenged the view that the cerebral cortex is basically undifferentiated?

Answer 26

Two

Question 27

What is one finding from the second half of the 19th century which challenged the view that the cerebral cortex is basically undifferentiated?

Answer 27

The finding that lesions to circumscribed regions of the cortex (specifically, Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area) were observed to give rise to two highly distinctive types of speech problems (aphasias) related to language production and comprehension, respectively.

Question 28

What are there, apparently, which are responsible for the different skills needed for producing and understanding language?

Answer 28

Dedicated brain areas

Question 29

What is the second finding from the second half of the 19th century which challenged the view that the cerebral cortex is basically undifferentiated?

Answer 29

That stimulation of different parts of the primary motor cortex (M1) results in the activation of different parts of the body, giving rise to the motor homunculus- similarly, stimulation of different regions of the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) gives rise to distinct sensations.