Finals: Cognition Flashcards
Short axons, mainly interneurons
Shaped like a star
Excitatory (secrete glutamate) or inhibitory (secrete GABA)
Granular Neurons/Stellar Neurons
Smaller, project output fibers to lower brain centers
Fusiform Neurons
Functions of Specific Cortical Areas:
Primary Motor Area: Controls voluntary movement
Primary Sensory Areas (e.g., parietal lobe): Receives specific sensory information
Secondary Areas: Analyze and give meaning to sensory information
Thalamus acts as a sensory relay station, projects sensory information to the cortex
Damage to the thalamus affects sensory and motor function
Thalamocortical system: Cortex and thalamus form an anatomic and functional unit
note
Integrates sensory information from various areas
Computes spatial coordinates of body and surroundings
Includes Wernicke’s Area for language comprehension
Parieto-Occipito Temporal Association Area:
Shaped like pyramids
Project output fibers downward to the spinal cord
Source of large subcortical association fiber bundles
Pyramidal Neurons
Layers of the Cerebral Cortex and their functions (3)
Layers 1-3: Intracortical association functions
Layer 4: Sensory input termination
Layer 5: Projects to the spinal cord
Analyze and interpret signals from multiple regions of motor and sensory cortices
Examples include prefrontal and parieto-occipital association areas
Association Areas in the Cerebral Cortex:
Located in the prefrontal cortex
Responsible for word formation and speech articulation
Works closely with Wernicke’s Area for language expression
Broca’s Area:
Involved in planning complex motor activities
Receives pre-analyzed sensory information
Essential for motor planning and elaboration of thoughts
Prefrontal Association Areas:
Converts visually perceived words into meaningful information
Lesions can cause agraphia (inability to write) and alexia (inability to read)
Angular Gyrus:
Concerned with behavior, emotions, and motivation
Part of the limbic system
Plays a role in learning and memory consolidation
Limbic Association Area:
Involved in remembering faces
Includes regions contiguous with the visual cortex and associated with the limbic system
Lesions can lead to prosopagnosia (inability to recognize faces)
Area for Facial Recognition:
Highly developed in the dominant hemisphere
Interprets meaning transmitted between sensory areas
Damage results in loss of intellectual function
Wernicke’s Area:
Processes visual information and language-related functions
Damage may cause word blindness (alexia)
Angular Gyrus:
A rare neurological disorder consisting of tetrad symptoms which include impairment in calculations, discriminating their own fingers, inability to write by hands, and impairment of distinguishing left and right
Jerk’s Man Syndrome
One hemisphere is usually larger and preferred for processing
Highly developed areas include Wernicke’s area and angular gyrus
Dominant Hemisphere:
Elaborates thoughts and plans complex motor activities
Damage can result in loss of problem-solving abilities and social responses
Prefrontal Association Areas:
Sensory input received in primary auditory area
Wernicke’s area interprets words and forms thoughts
Impulses transmitted via arcuate fasciculus
Function of Brain in Communication:
Inability to emit words due to damage to Broca’s area.
Prefrontal and premotor facial regions of the cerebral cortex, primarily in the left hemisphere.
Broca’s Aphasia:
Inability to interpret spoken or written words
Lesion location: posterosuperior temporal gyrus in dominant hemisphere
Wernicke’s Aphasia:
Total inability for language understanding or communication.
Global Aphasia:
Provides bi-directional neural connections between cortical areas of both hemispheres.
Lesion may cause indecisiveness.
Corpus Callosum:
Connects anterior portions of temporal lobes, especially the amygdala.
Anterior Commissure:
Continuous awareness of surroundings or sequential thoughts.
Consciousness:
Neural mechanisms still unknown.
Involves signals in cerebral cortex, thalamus, limbic system, and reticular formation.
Thought:
Result of synaptic facilitation and inhibition.
Stored in synapses as memory traces.
Long-term memories result from synaptic changes in lower brain centers.
Memory:
Lasts for seconds or minutes unless converted into long-term memory.
Short-Term Memory:
Stored and can be recalled for years, such as names, birthdays, and addresses.
Long-Term Memory:
Lasts for days or weeks if the information is important.
Intermediate Long-Term Memory:
Involves time, relationships, and meanings of experiences.
Declarative Memory:
Associated with motor activity and actions, including automatic memories.
Skill Memory (Implicit/Nondeclarative Memory):
Forms of Declarative Memory:
Semantic Memory:
Involves words, rules, or language.
Episodic Memory:
Relates to events in one’s life.
May last for many minutes or weeks.
Involves a release of neurotransmitters in the synapse and structural changes.
Intermediate Long-Term Memory:
Core memories with structural changes enhancing or suppressing signal conduction.
Long-Term Memory:
Neuronal Changes During Learning:
New neurons are produced, forming connections with other neurons.
Number of connections determined by specific nerve growth factors.
Habituation and Sensitization:
Habituation: Decrease in response to repeated neutral stimuli.
Sensitization: Augmented responses after pairing neutral stimuli with noxious ones
Forms of Nondeclarative Memory:
Procedural Memory: Relates to skills and habits.
Priming and Perceptual Memory: Recognition of words without prior exposure.
Associated Learning: Involves classical conditioning.
Non-Associative Learning: Includes habituation and sensitization.
Lasts only as long as the person thinks about the information.
Caused by continual neural activity in a circuit of reverberating neurons.
Can cause lasting facilitation or inhibition from seconds to minutes.
Short-Term Memory:
Conversion of short-term to long-term memory.
Initiated by repeated activation of short-term memory.
Enhanced by rehearsal and results in chemical, physical, and anatomical changes in synapses.
Consolidation of Memory:
Tor F
The hippocampus is involved in the excitation of limbic punishment and reward centers, influencing the perception of which thoughts and experiences are important based on reward or punishment signals.
TRUE
It serves as one of the primary output pathways from the reward and punishment centers of the limbic system.
It plays a role in establishing the background mood and motivations of an individual.
Function of the Hippocampus:
Inability to recall memories from the past following damage to the hippocampus or thalamus.
Retrograde Amnesia:
Inability to create new long-term memories for verbal and symbolic types of memories (declarative memory).
Anterograde Amnesia:
