Executive Function Flashcards
1
Q
where does executive function reside?
A
PFC
2
Q
delay gratification
A
- Hide reward from you
- Hide yourself from reward
- ‘Cool down’ reward
o Blowing on it - Use distractors
o Singing, taking pictures
3
Q
Cognitive control: Casey et al. 2011
A
- Ability to ‘delay gratification’ aged ~4 predicts future
o Educational performance
o Ability to cope with stress and frustration
o Parental evaluation of success
o SAT scores (University entrance exam)
o Body Mass Index
o Use of crack cocaine
o Performance on a similar task aged 40+
Activation of nucleus accumbens - (Stanford Marshmallow Experiment)
o Kids can have one marshmallow now, or 2 if they wait.
4
Q
explanations for the delay gratification experiments (not cognitive control)
A
Trust, reliability, and predictability:
- Manipulation of the marshmallow test
- More reliable = more trust = better on marshmallow test
5
Q
role of PFC in exectuive function
A
- Generate mental representations without sensory representation
o Working memory
o Abstract reasoning
o High-order, flexible decision making
o Executive functioning
6
Q
Yerkes-Dodson principle:
A
- Impacts of stress on cognitive performance
- Depends on how complicated the task is
- As stress increases, performance on simple task increases
- As stress increases, performance on difficult task increases until optimal stress but any extra stress impairs performance.
7
Q
Positive effects of stress:
A
- Low-level stress can increase attention
o Salience and vigilance - Zeigarnik effect
o Uncompleted tasks are remembered more easily than completed tasks (stress still there and the task nags at us)
8
Q
Stress impairs prefrontal function (Arnsten, 2010): explain
A
- Stress: mediated by increased catecholamine release (especially noradrenaline)
- Fatigue
- Alcohol
- Results in poor decision-making (relapse)
9
Q
Symptoms of frontal cortex damage:
A
- Difficulty planning sequence needed to complete a task (e.g. make a cup of tea)
o Requires working memory - Loss of spontaneous interactions
- Loss of flexibility in thought
- Perseveration – persistence of a single thought or action
- Inability to focus on the task in hand
- Emotional lability
- Abulia – passivity, apathy
- Socially inappropriate behaviour
- Personality change
- Difficulty with problem solving
- Expressive aphasia
- Hemiplegia
10
Q
Dorsolateral PFC: role
A
- Brodmann Area 46 (and 9?
- Working memory
- Abstract reasoning
- Top-down regulation of attention
- Projects to hippocampus
o encoding Long Term memory
o Recalling memory to ‘replay’ in DLPFC - More rostral = more abstract
o Metacognition + Morality
11
Q
Ventromedial PFC: role
A
- Brodmann 25
- Regulation of emotion
- Representations of reward and punishment
- Calculates ‘value’
- Visceral inputs re pain and suffering
- Outputs back to limbic system then on to autonomic
- Supplied by ACA
o Orbitofrontal and Frontopolar branches
12
Q
Orbitofrontal PFC: role
A
- Brodmann 10, 11 and 47
- Decision making
- Impulse control
- Processing reward, punishment and value
o E.g. secondary gustatory cortex - Supplied by ACA and MCA
o Orbitofrontal branch (ACA) lateral orbitofrontal branch (MCA)
13
Q
Oxycontin was supposedly…
A
- Less likely to result in a ‘high’, therefore
- Less addictive
o Less prone to ‘abuse’ (recreational users would ‘not want’ to take it)
o Less prone to ‘diversion’ (no market for it) - Less likely to cause withdrawal
o At lower doses
14
Q
oxycontin - how could this lead to less addiction - flaws?
A
- Oxycontin is slow-release oxycodone
o Coated tablet rather than powder (could be completely bypassed by just smashing the tablets up into the original powder form!)
o Fewer peaks and valleys than with immediate-release oxycodone (supposedly)
15
Q
Extended-release mechanism of oxycontin
A
- Oxycodone is embedded in a matrix
- Tablets are coated to slow their digestion
- Slow down the release of oxycodone into blood/brain
- ‘proven’ with pharmacokinetic studies
- To get the same dose over a longer period
o Need more oxycodone per tablet
