Exam3Lec2Limbic&ExecutiveSys

Question 1

What regions does the limbic system include?

Answer 1

Forebrain areas surrounding the thalamus (traditionally regarded as critical for emotion)

Cortical and Subcortical regions (hippocampus + amygdala)

note that the limbic system is expanded to the hypothal, olfactory system, etc

Question 2

PET and fMRI studies also suggest that what structures are connected to the limbic system?

Answer 2

Frontal and temporal lobes

Question 3

What are key structures of the limbic system?

Answer 3

1. Hippocampus
2. Amygdala
3. Hypothalamus
4. Prefrontal cortex

Question 4

What are 6 functions of the limbic system?

Answer 4

1. Pavlovian learning or classical conditioning
2. Spatial and temporal learning
3. Learning and emotional stimuli
4. Affective state
5. Responding to stress
6. Vigilance/attention

Question 5

What’s another name for the Hippocampus?

what other names refer to the hippocampus

Answer 5

• Medial Temporal lobe (sits inside and wraps around the inside of the temp lobe)
• Post, pero,entero-rhinal

posterior to the optic chiasm

Question 6

What is so special about the hippocampus having layers?

Answer 6

It increases the surface area and gives it a simple circuit b/c it serves as an amplifier for when we learn something for it to become a permanent memory.

amplifies info to learn and store new memories

Question 7

What structures serve as short-term memory storage for declarative memory?

Answer 7

Hippocamous and related structures

declarative learning is memory that you can put into words
For any kind of declarative learning, it comes thru the hippocampus and then gets stores in the cortical region where it was 1st processed.

Question 8

What is the long term storage for declarative info?

Answer 8

A variety of cortical sites: wernicke’s, termporal cortex

Question 9

What is non-declarative memory?

Answer 9

Memory that cannot be put into words such as motor learning (muscle memory) and biasis/ prejudices.

short term site are unknown but long term storage can include cerebellum, basal ganglia, premotor cortex, etc

Question 10

What is the purpose of the hippocampus-cortical interactions?

Answer 10

Amplify information and store it back to where it came from to make an memory

Question 11

If you injure the hippocampus, can you make new memories?

Answer 11

NO, you can’t, but you can remember things prior to your injury

Question 12

What is the purpose of the LTP (long term potentation)?

Answer 12

Strenghtening certain circuits in the brain to make a memory. The hippocmapus allows us to strengthen the synaptic connection in a specific part of your neural network.

strenghtening of synapses

Question 13

Where is the amygdala located?

Answer 13

Anterior to the hippocampus

repsonds to phremones weakly

Question 14

What is the circuit of emotion and learning and mediates negative emotion

Answer 14

The amygdala

Question 15

What inhibits the amygdala?

Answer 15

The orbital and medial prefrontal cortex

someone with depression looses control from the PFC onto the amyg, so amyg runs wild with neg emotion. A person with depresison has low pre-frontal activity and high amy activity

Question 16

What two structures are involved in memory and feelings?

Answer 16

1. Amygdala dependent associative learning (emotional component)
2. Hippocampal-dependent explicit memory (actual context of learning)

Question 17

Judgement of trustworthiness has to do with what structure?

Answer 17

Amygdala: the amy is highly active for negative emotion whether you are paying attention to a stimuli or not (conscious of it or not)

Question 18

For affective disroders, what do you see changes in?

Answer 18

See changes in the circuit b/w the amy and the prefrontal cortex and some hypothalamus

Question 19

What is the major output pathway of the limbic system?

Answer 19

The hypothalamus

mediates fight/flight, drives the reward system, and sends connections out for facial recognition

Question 20

What are some examples of autonomic targets for the hypothal?

Answer 20

Fight or flight responses such as nose and eye dilating, sick to stomach, sweating , etc

Question 21

With a lesion POSTERIOR to the hypothalamus, what happens to the connection b/w the brainstem and body and is sham rage lost or intact?

Answer 21

Connection b/w brainstem and body is lost and sham rage is LOST

Question 22

With a lesion THROUGH the hypothalamus, what happens to the connection b/w the brainstem and body and is sham rage lost or intact?

Answer 22

Connection b/w brainstem and body is intact and sham rage is INTACT

Question 23

What was concluded with the sham rage experiment?

Answer 23

Hypothalamus is what mediates fight or flight and ANY aggressive response

proves hypothal is the relay station

Question 24

What are the cortical areas of the limbic cortex?

Answer 24

Insular/cingulate cortex , pre-frontal cortex, right temporal cortex

Question 25

What is the fxn of the cortical areas of the limbic cortex?

Answer 25

Provides executive control, but also process emotions. Localization is strongest for the emotion of disgust.

Question 26

When is the Insular cortex is strongly activated?

Answer 26

During the exposure to stimuli perceived as disgusting

also the primary taste cortex

Question 27

The insular cortex (insula) also plays a role with what type of stimuli?

Answer 27

It reacts to frightening stimuli and active in drug addiction, so it its not completely dedicated to disgust

plays a role for craving drugs

Question 28

Is limbic damage unilateral or bilateral? Explain this concept

Answer 28

Unilateral
* The right hemi is more responsive to emotional stimuli than the left

unilateral damage leads to problems in the ability to identify emotions of others

Question 29

If you were to damage your left and right temporal cortex in the lymbic system, what problems can occur with each one respectively.

Answer 29

If you damage left temp cortex: you lose the ability to know who you are (provides factual info/ID info)
If you damage right temp cortex: you lose ability to identify emotions of others (provides emotional info)

Question 30

What does asymmetrical smiles imply?

Answer 30

You have stronger emotional output from right side of the brain, so your smile is more higher on the left.

Question 31

What does the prefrontal cortex combine in order to create personality?

Answer 31

1. Experience
2. Emotion
3. Motivation
4. Mood

personality disorders stems from problems with frontal cortex

Question 32

differences in frontal cortex activity relate to personality

Generally, people with greater activity in the right hemi have what type of personality?

Answer 32

Happier, more out-going, friendlier

Question 33

differences in frontal cortex activity relate to personality

Generally, people with greater activity in the left hemi have what type of personality?

Answer 33

Socially withdrawn, less satisfied with life, prone to unpleasant emotions

Question 34

What does damage to the prefrontal cortex impair?

Answer 34

Impairs decision making, so it leads to impulsive decision making w/o considering consequences

stems from a failure to anticipate unpleasantness of an outcome

Question 35

What control emotional smiles? What controls forced smiles?

Answer 35

Limbic system controls emotional (real) smiles
Motor cortex controls volitional (forced) smiles

Question 36

With ** voluntary facial motor paresis** due to a lesion from the descending pyramidal and extrapyramidal projections from motor cortex and brainstem, what occurs with a (A)voluntary smile and (B) response to humor

Answer 36

(A) voluntary smile (pyramidal volational/forced smile): smile is abnormal
(B) response to humor (duchenne-emotional/real): smile is intact

natural smile is intact because the limbic system is in intact

Question 37

With emotional facial paresis due to a lesion from the descending extrapyramidal projections from medial forebrain and hypothal, what occurs with a (A)voluntary smile and (B) response to humor

Answer 37

(A) voluntary smile (pyramidal-volational/forced smile): smile is intact
(B) response to humor (duchenne-emotional/real) : smile is abnormal

natural smile is abnormal because the limbic system is not intact

Question 38

Briefly explain the Limbic loop

Answer 38

1. Dopamine generated in Substantia nigra and is released from the ventral tegmental area
2. Synapses on Nucleus accumbens (ventral striatum)
3. Nuclues accumebens in activated and reward system is generated

Question 39

What is the function of the limbic loop and where do we see abnormal activation of this loop?

Answer 39

Function: motor and reward behavior
Abnormal activation in OCD

a lot of dopamine is released

changes in circuit leads to obsessive thoughts and compulsive behavior

Question 40

Why do we emote?

why do we have emotions?

Answer 40

1. Preparation of body by an autonomic response
2. Behavioral flexibility
3. Provides drive or motivation to respond
4. Social/emotional cues to interact w/ each other
5. Social bonding/communication
6. Cognitive evaluation of stimuli and judgments
7. Memory storage for specific events
8. Persitannt motivation/direction w/o a specific stimulus
9. Recall of specific memories

Question 41

What is the James-Lange theory and what 2 predictions did it lead to?

Answer 41

The autonomic arousal and skeletal action occurs first in an emotion. The emotion that is felt is the label that we give the arousal of organs and muscle
* People with a weak autonomic or skeletal response should feel less emotion
* Incr one’s response should enhance an emotion

bottom-up process: that body responds to stimulus and then the brain is labeling that response w/a specific emotion

Question 42

What 3 mixed evidence was discovered that counteracts the James-Lange theory?

Answer 42

1. Paralyzed people reported feeling emotion as prior to their injury
2. People with autonomic failure (no fight/flight response) still report feeling emotion but less intensely
3. Incr physiologocal arousal incr attraction to potential mates
4. Indiv w/ Moebius syndrome still feel strong emotions

emotional respone is a behavioral response

Question 43

What is Mobius syndrome and what does it imply about emotion?

Answer 43

It is a condition where their emotional output is attenuated so they arent able to generate normal facial expression/body language but they still feel intense emotions.

This implies that peripheral responses might enhance our emotions, especially how we interpret out emotions. But emotion is starting from a cognitive point and it becomes a feedback cycle

Question 44

What key things does executive objectives identify?

Answer 44

Key differences between male and female brains
Key brain areas that process: emotion, memory, language, drug abuse and reward

describes the main fxns of each cortical lobes association area

Question 45

cortical lobes

Fxn of Frontal Lobe

Answer 45

• Movement
• Complex behaviors: personality, working memory, spontaenous behavior
• Produduction of Speech (broccas)

Question 46

cortical lobes

Fxn of Parietal lobe

Answer 46

• Somatosensory perception
• Some Visual and acoustic fxn: attention
• Perception of space

Question 47

Cortical lobes

Fxn of Occipital and Temporal Lobe

Answer 47

Occipital lobe: Vison
Temporal lobe:
* hearing
* some vision, memory, personality, social behavior
* comprehending spoken words

Question 48

What does an “association area” mean?

Answer 48

Essential for mental fxns that are more complex than detecting basic dimensions of sensory stimulation, for which primary sensory areas appear to be necesarry

basically a higher order brain area in frontal, parietalm and temporal cortices that integrates lots of diff info

Question 49

Whaat structues can association areas connect to?

Answer 49

1. Thalamic nuclei
2. Mediodorsal
3. Lateroposterior
4. Pulvinar
5. Ventral ant/ventral lateral

it can get inout from all over and it associates diff things and makes 1 big picture so we can decide how to respond to stimuli

Question 50

Which lobe is strongly involved in attention control?

Answer 50

Right parietal lobe

Question 51

If you have have a left parietal lobe lesion, what can occur?

Answer 51

You are generally fine because the right parietal lobe is doing all visual space so it compensates

minimal right neglect

left parietal lobe plays a minimal role in attention for rvf, its done by right parietal lobe

Question 52

If you have a right parietal lobe lesion, what can occur?

Answer 52

You have severe left neglect.
Not good b/c you can only attend to 1/2 of visual space and can’t recognize the other half

Ex: drawing half a clock

parietal damge creates hemispatial neglect: ignoring half of visial and proprioceptive space

Question 53

Partial bilateral lesion of both parietal lobes, what can occur?

Answer 53

Severe right neglect

bc you damaged right parietal, it only gets from right, since that is lost, you neglect the right

Question 54

What area of the temproal area is involved in recognition?

Answer 54

Fusiform face gyrus

strong activation in the presence of stimulus which resembles a face

Question 55

What is prosopagnosia?

Answer 55

damage to fusiform face gyrus causes Face blindness: can’t identify yourself or others through facial recognition

Question 56

Although memories are stored by the hippocampus, which structure is involved in working memory?

Answer 56

Prefrontal cortex (frontal lobe): provides a rehearsal loop to keep info active during processing and manipulation

Ex: someone tells you a phone # w/o having somewhere to write it down and you say it over and over again in your head

Question 57

Different regions of which structure works together to produce personality and is responsible for behavioral control?

Answer 57

Pre-frontal cortex (frontal lobe)

for behavioral control, as you age, your pre-frontal cortex is maturing/developing. Full development occurs in your 20s

Question 58

language areas

What is wernicke’s area and broca’s area?

Answer 58

• Wernicke’s area: comprehension (understanding language)-temporal lobe
• Broca’s area: production of speech-frontal lobe

if you had a lesion to broca’s you can understand what is being said to you but you can’t respond

Question 59

What is the fxn of the left and right hemisphere in language?

Answer 59

Left hemisphere: grammar/syntax rules
Rigth hemisphere: emotional inntonation

left: analysis of right visual field, writing speech, lexical and syntatic lang.
rightL analysis of left visual field, emotional coloring of lang=PROSODY, spatial abiities, singing, humming

Question 60

In an expirement
In Trial 1 you passively viewed the word “table”
In Trial 2 , you solely listened to the word “table”
What areas of the brain are strongly activated in each trial?

Answer 60

Trial 1: visial cortex
Trial 2: audition cortex

Question 61

In an expirement
In Trial 3 you solely spoke the word “table”
In Trial 4 , you had to generate a word associated with the word “table”
What areas of the brain are strongly activated in each trial?

Answer 61

Trial 3: Recognition processing and motor processing in brocas areas to actually say it
Trial 4: Requires cognitive processing, incorporating temporal and frontal lobe circuit

Question 62

The limbic system also mediates sexual behavior, mention how each structure below plays a role
1. Amygdala (medial nucleus)
2. Medial preoptic/sexually dimporphic
3. Ventromedial & Periaqueductal grau
4. Pineal
5. Pituitary

Answer 62

1. Amygdala (medial nucleus): pheromones
2. Medial preoptic/sexually dimporphic: male sexual behavior
3. Ventromedial & Periaqueductal gray: femal sexual behavior
4. Pineal: sexual development
5. Pituitary: hormone control

Question 63

What is the relationship between gender and neural activity?

Answer 63

You see greater similarities in brain activity/ares between everyone that attracted to females/males. (HeM and HoW/ HeW and HoM)

two aspects to sexuality: sex and gender

Question 64

How does differences in sex hormones plays a role in learning?

Answer 64

We have differences in the number of estrogen and testosterone receptors leading to different levls of brain derived neurotrophic factor in the hippocampus. This changes the way we learn.

This is why womean is better at spatial reasoning and men is better at linear reasoning tasks