Cortical Lesions

Question 1

Two major categories of cortical disorders

Answer 1

1. Diffuse (degenerative, metabolic)

2. Focal (vascular, traumatic, neoplastic)

Question 2

Frontal lobe functions

Answer 2

Voluntary movement
Language production (left)
Motor prosody (right)
Comportment
Executive function
Motivation

Question 3

Temporal lobe functions

Answer 3

Audition
Language comprehension (left)
Sensory prosody (right)
Memory
Emotion

Question 4

Parietal lobe functions

Answer 4

Tactile sensation
Visuospatial function (right)
Attention (right)
Reading (left)
Writing (left)
Calculation (left)

Question 5

Occipital Lobe functions

Answer 5

Vision
Vision perception
Vision recognition

Question 6

Frontal lobe lesions

Answer 6

Worse if bilateral

Deficits in motor function (upper motor neuron involvement), language, prosody, and neuropsychiatric disorders (frontal lobe syndromes)

Question 7

Motor aprosody

Answer 7

Don’t inflect speech with emotion

Lesion of the right inferior frontal gyrus (Broca’s area homologue)

Question 8

Orbitofrontal cortex damage

Answer 8

Disinhibition

A frontal lobe syndrome

Question 9

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortices damage

Answer 9

Executive dysfunction

Exhibit perseveration

A frontal lobe syndrome

Question 10

Medial frontal cortices damage

Answer 10

Apathy

A frontal lobe syndrome

Question 11

Temporal lobe lesions

Answer 11

Lesions of the temporal lobe have minor effects on audition, but often major effects on language, prosody, memory, and emotion

In terms of the emotions, the effects of temporal lobe lesions result from irritative lesions of the cortex that cause epilepsy

Question 12

Sensory aprosody

Answer 12

inability to comprehend the prosody of others

Analogous to Wernicke’s aphasia

Question 13

Limbic lesions

Answer 13

Often disturb emotional function

Question 14

Temporal Lobe Epilepsy (TLE)

Answer 14

Common form of epilepsy, related to focal cortical lesions in the temporal lobe that produce complex partial seizures

Behavioral phenomena can be associated with these seizures

Can change wiring of the brain to make people hyper-religious, write a bunch, philosophical, etc

Question 15

Parietal Lobe Lesions

Answer 15

Deficits in tactile sensation, but also in cognition: visuospatial dysfunction, inattention to the contralateral space (right parietal with left hemineglect), and reading, writing and calculation disorders (all with left side lesions)

Question 16

Hemineglect

Answer 16

Usually rt side lesions of parietal lobe with neglect of left side

The right hemisphere has the capacity to attend to both sides of space, whereas the left can only attend to the contralateral space

Question 17

Occipital lobe lesions

Answer 17

visual field deficits: most common are hemianopia and quadrantanopia

Question 18

Visual agnosia

Answer 18

Failure to recognize objects that are adequately seen

Question 19

Alexia without agraphia

Answer 19

Lesion of the left occipital lobe and the splenium of the corpus callosum disconnects the visual system from the left angular gyrus

Question 20

Hemispheric disconnection

Answer 20

Effects are generally mild, but left hand anomia, agraphia, and apraxia can be seen