Higher Cortical Funciton Flashcards
Where do most inputs and pouts come from in the cortex?
Most inputs are from thalamus and other cortical areas
Most outputs are from pyramidal cells and project to widespread areas
What is the frontal lobe responsible for?
Motor
Expression of speech (usually left hemisphere)
Behavioural regulation/ judgement
Cognition
Eye movements
Continence
What does alcohol inhibit?
Frontal lobe & cerebellum
What is the parietal lobe responsible for?
Sensory
Comprehension of speech (usually left hemisphere)
Body image (usually right)
Awareness of external environment (attention)
Calculation and writing
(Visual pathways of superior optic radiation project through white matter but not one of the functions)
What is hemisensory neglect or inattention? How is it caused?
Where a person doesn’t not acknowledge the left side of space
Caused by a lesion (especially right) in one hemisphere
What is the function of the temporal lobes?
Hearing
Olfaction
Memory (widespread throughout brain)
Emotion
Geographical map of world
Concept cells activated by a concept e.g. Jennifer Anderson
(Visual pathways of inferior optic radiations project through white matter but not one of the functions)
What’s a specific symptom of temporal lobe epilepsy?
De ja vu
What’s the main issue pointed out with how we decided on brain lobe functions?
We based it largely on what damage to certain areas causes losses of in a person. However, take a radio and take one battery out the who,e thing will die but that one battery wasn’t responsible for the whole radio function
What is meant by cerebral ‘dominance’?
The left and right hemispheres have slightly different roles and outputs and we are a combination of both our right and left hemispheres
left hemisphere :
- has sequential processing (attends to only right half of space)
- Language in 95% of people is controlled
- maths/ logic
Right hemisphere:
- whole picture processing (attends to both halves of space)
- body image
- visuospatial awareness
- emotion
- music
Can be said left dominated in 95% of people e.g. most of us right handed (doesn’t mean all left handed are right dominant though)
What is the corpus callosum?
Bundle white matter connecting two hemispheres
What is alien hand syndrome?
Caused by damage to corpus callosum (e.g. cut in epilepsy treatment)
Left and right hemispheres don’t communicate so both hands want to do two different things or both want to do one thing
Describe the language pathways in the brain
Primary dominant in left hemisphere
Broca’s area (inferior lateral frontal lobe) produces speech
Wernicke’s area (superior temporal lobe) interpretation of language
Connected to each other via arcuate fasciculus
How does the location of Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area aid their functions?
Broca’s - inferior lateral frontal lobe, near primary motor cortex (controls muscles needed to talk)
Wernicke’s - superior temporal lobe, near primary audiometry cortex (interprets vibrations as language)
Describe the pathway for repeating a heard word
Vibrations in primary audiometry cortex -> Wernicke’s area makes sense of vibrations to language -> arcuate fasciculus -> Broca’s area works out movements needed to produce sounds -> primary motor cortex to send signals to muscles of speech
Describe the pathway for speaking a written word
Visual cortex signals of images -> Wernicke’s puts meaning to images -> arcuate fasciculus -> Broca’s movements needed -> primary motor cortex
Describe the pathway for speaking a thought
Many areas of cortex signals about ideas -> Wernicke’s converts into language -> arcuate fasciculus -> Broca’s into movements -> primary motor cortex to muscles of speech
Describe Wernicke’s aphasia?
Fluent gibberish
Difficulty understanding written and spoken speech
Speech that doesn’t make logical sense but with real words
Person is unaware of problem and is not distressed
What is Broca’s aphasia?
Can comprehend words but can’t physically say much or make fluent words
Person is aware and distressed at inability
Shows a left of effort and thought when trying to speak
How can we classify memory? Where are the two types stored?
Declarative (explicit, facts) - cerebral hemispheres
Nondeclarative (implicit, motor skills and emotions) - cerebellum/ basal ganglia (automatic processing runs quickly)
Where are memories stored?
Seem to be very dispersed throughout the brain and need global damage (e.g. Alzheimer’s) to have problems
How are memories stored?
Short term memory (seconds to minutes) then needs consolidation (depending upon emotional content, rehearsal, association) to move into long term memory (up to lifetime)
E.g. PTSD from very traumatic events very easily moves into long term and stays- imprinted stringer due to high stress
What would happen if our hippocampus was removed and why?
If removed never able to make new memories as hippocampus crucial for consolidating declarative memories
Receives inputs from visual system, auditory system, somatosensory system, limbic system etc -> makes associations by converging inputs
Deep in temporal lobe
How do we make memories?
Long- term potentiating mechanism
Synaptic connections are strengthened to make associations
