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PSYC 351B > Frontal Lobes and Executive Function > Flashcards

Frontal Lobes and Executive Function Flashcards

1
Q

Why are executive functions difficult to study?

A
  • they are not directly observable
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2
Q

What are some examples of executive dysfunction?

A
  • Parkinson’s
  • substance abuse
  • schizophrenia
  • aging
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3
Q

According to the supervisory attentional system, what tasks require deliberate attentional resources?

A
  • involving planning or decision making
  • involved in trouble shooting
  • ill-learned or contain novel sequences of actions
  • tasks that are dangerous or difficult
  • tasks that require overcoming of a strong habitual response or resisting temptation
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4
Q

What are the assumptions of the Supervisory Attentional System?

A
  • actions under deliberate control involve additional mechanism than automatic actions
  • attention modulates selection process with activation or inhibition
  • attention is primarily relevant to the initiation of actions (not execution)
  • selection between competing action sequences takes place through the mechanism of contention scheduling
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5
Q

What is the association in the supervisory attentional system?

A
  • association between the contention scheduling and the basal ganglia/striatum dopaminergic system
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6
Q

What is an example of an overload and then broken contention scheduling?

A
  • Parkinsonism
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7
Q

According to Alan D. Baddeley, what is central executive?

A
  • attentional controller responsible for focus attentional resources, divding and switching attention
  • homunculus-a little man who sits in the head and in some mysterious way makes the important decisions
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8
Q

Who coined the name “executive function” and what does it mean?

A
  • Muriel Deutsch Lezak

- the ability to formulate goals, plan their execution and carry them over effectively

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9
Q

According to Maria Jurado, what is executive function?

A
  • allow us to shift our mind set quickly and adapt to diverse situations while at the same time inhibiting inappropriate behaviours
  • enable us to create a plan, initiate its execution and persevere on the task at hand until its completion
  • mediate the ability to organize our thoughts in a goal directed way and are essential for success in school/work
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10
Q

How can we approach the elusive construct of executive function?

A
  • brain-behaviour relationships (performance on cognitive tasks, neuroimaging)
  • complex stats (latent variable analysis, within-subject designs)
  • typical and atypical everyday life behaviours (rating scales)
  • clinical samples (between-group designs)
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11
Q

What are some observable complex executive behaviours?

A
  • decision-making, problem solving, self-regulation
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12
Q

What are some environmental influences on complex executive function?

A
  • physical activity
  • bilingualism
  • musical education
  • SES/nutrition
  • parent-child interaction
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13
Q

What are some EF components?

A
  • planning
  • problem solving
  • behavioural self-regulation
  • judgement
  • working memory
  • initiation of action
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14
Q

What are some problems with the “unity and diversity of executive function” approach?

A
  • conflation of concepts

- additional problems when the definition of a construct is based solely on description of outcomes

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15
Q

What are the 5 most common terms associated with executive functions?

A
  • planning
  • working memory
  • inhibition
  • set shifting
  • fluency
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16
Q

According to the handbook of intelligence, when does intelligence emerge and when does executive function emerge?

A
  • intelligence emerges when there is complexity

- executive functioning emerges when there is novelty

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17
Q

What are the three functions leading to a complex executive task?

A
  • shifting
  • updating
  • inhibition
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18
Q

What is the unidirectional frontal lobe cortico-subcortical connections?

A
  • caudate and putamen (striatum)
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19
Q

What is the bidirectional frontal lobe cortico-subcortical connections?

A
  • nucleus medial dorsal
  • pars magnocellularis (OPFC)
  • pars parvocellularis (DLPFC)
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20
Q

What are the direct paths of the frontal lobe cortico-subcortical connections?

A
  • hypothalamus

- mesencephalon

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21
Q

What are the indirect paths of the frontal lobe cortico-subcortical connections?

A
  • hippocampus (via cingulate and parahippocampal gyri)
  • amygdala (via uncinate fasiculus)
    slide 32
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22
Q

What are the direct paths of the frontal lobes cortio-cortical connections?

A
  • temporal and parietal lobes
  • visual, auditor and somatosensory modalities via association cortex
  • projections from the olfactory bulb to posterior OFL cortex
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23
Q

What are the indirect paths of the frontal lobe cortico-cortical connections?

A
  • projections from the piriform cortex via the mediodorsal nucleus of the thalamus
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24
Q

What are the other frontal lobe cortico-cortical connections aside from direct and indirect?

A
  • limbic systems
25
Q

What is the DMPFC responsible for?

A
  • reality testing

- error monitoring

26
Q

What is the DLPFC responsible for?

A
  • top-down guidance of attention and thought
27
Q

What is the rlPFC responsible for? Where does it project to?

A
  • inhibition of inappropriate actions

- striatum and hypothalamus

28
Q

What is the VMPFC responsible for? Where does it project to?

A
  • regulating emotion

- amygdala

29
Q

What are the functional divisions of the prefrontal cortex?

A
  • orbitofrontal
  • dorsolateral
  • ventromedial
  • frontolimbic
30
Q

What brodmann’s areas are a part of the orbitofrontal PFC?

A
  • 10, 11, 13
31
Q

What is the orbitofrontal PFC responsible for?

A
  • inhibitory control over behaviour

- suppress or defer immediate gratifications

32
Q

What Brodmann’s areas are a part of the dorsolateral PFC?

A
  • 46 and 9
33
Q

What is the dorsolateral PFC responsible for?

A
  • working memory
  • planning
  • problem solving
  • monitoring behaviour
34
Q

What Brodmann’s areas are a part of the ventromedial PFC?

A
  • 12, 32, 12/47
35
Q

What is the ventromedial PFC responsible for?

A
  • gives meaning to emotions
  • maintenance of goals
  • motivation
  • attentional control
36
Q

What Brodmann’s areas are a part of the frontolimbic PFC?

A
  • 24 and 25

- ACC

37
Q

What is the frontolimbic PFC responsible for?

A
  • interpretation of emotions
  • integration emotion-behaviour
  • emotional control
38
Q

What does PFC rich intra and inter-connectivity allow?

A
  • access to all kinds of information
  • ability to synthesize information
  • direct connections to secondary and tertiary areas
  • connections mediated by thalamus (indirect)
  • feedback loops
  • allows extraction of commonalities between situations (goals and rules)
39
Q

What are three important underlying tenets of PFC?

A
  • high level of plasticity
  • adaptability (cognitive flexibility) and robustness (avoidance of distractors)
  • recruitment in novel, top-down processing
40
Q

What do the underlying tenets of PFC allow it to have the capacity for?

A
  • capacity to sustain activity in the face of interference (interaction between inhibition and updating WM)
  • capacity to actively maintain information allows associative learning
41
Q

What are Milner’s main observations?

A
  • frontal eye field in initial saccade suppression and correction
  • cell activation before eye movement
  • activation of FL in atypical associations between stimuli and response
  • role of FL in utilization of external cues in behavioural guidance
  • role of FL in spatial and nonspatial learning tasks (memory)
  • FL association to temporal organization of behaviour
42
Q

What is PFC main function (top-down control)?

A
  • bias competitive inputs in the benefit of the generation of patterns of goal-oriented behaviour under novel conditions
43
Q

What are the important features of PFC top-down control?

A
  • “active memory in the service of control”
  • protects fragile representations from interference of external or internal distractions
  • promotes task-relevant operations
  • inhibits inappropriate actions
44
Q

What is the stroop test/effect?

A
  • you ignore what the word says and instead state its colour

- inhibit word, enhance colour

45
Q

In the stroop test what do the different functional areas do?

A
  • posterior DLPFC: bias to task-relevant processes
  • posterior dorsal ACC: select the information that should guide responding
  • mid-DLPFC: bias to task-relevant representations
  • anterior dorsal ACC: evaluate the response
46
Q

How are WM representations in the PFC organized?

A
  • organized by process (updating, order, manipulating) rather than material type (verbal, object, spatial)
47
Q

What type of working memory engaged more frontal lobe?

A
  • updating and ordering engaged more FL

- dual tasking and manipulating of information engaged less FL

48
Q

What can be seen by prefrontal cortex development?

A
  • that bigger does not equal smarter
  • neanderthals had larger frontal lobes because they were engaging with the environment a lot (but not as complex and connected)
49
Q

What are the three essential processes of prefrontal cortex development?

A
  • myelinization
  • gray matter changes
  • synaptogenesis
50
Q

What has been found about prefrontal cortex development through postmortem studies?

A
  • ages 2-7: neuronal density decrease in PFC layer III
  • age 3.5: highest value of synaptic density
  • dendritic length growth and expansion of denstritic trees also observed
51
Q

What has been found about prefrontal cortex development through in vivo imaging studies?

A
  • FL maturation: back to front direction
  • left PFC matures earlier than right PFC
  • FL gray matter increase during a short window: pre-adolescence (males peak at 12 and females at 11)
52
Q

How does the prefrontal cortex develop?

A
  • shared networks at early stages in development and subsequent fractionation
53
Q

What is the role of inhibition in EF development?

A
  • increased inhibition as a sign of enhanced voluntary attention
  • language serves a maintenance function for self-regulation through social interaction
54
Q

What are some important gains during EF development?

A
  • from perseverative behaviour to cognitive flexibility

- from reactive to proactive control (AX-CPT)

55
Q

What is perseverative behaviour?

A
  • making an error in a task and getting feedback but continuing to make the same error
56
Q

What is continuing performance task (CPT)?

A
  • task : when you see an X then click but only if proceeded by A
  • children will see A and click even if X is not after
57
Q

What are the steps in the problem solving approach (an EF developmental model)?

A
  • problem representation
  • planning
  • execution (intending/rule use)
  • evaluation (error detection/correction)
58
Q

What can we see from the “colour game”?

A
  • 3 year olds able to play colour game but once switched to shape game cannot change tasks

PSYC 351B (14 decks)

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