HNS46, HNS47 Higher Cortical Function I and II Flashcards
***Development of vertebrate brain
3 Primary Vesicles —> 5 Secondary Vesicles
Prosencephalon (forebrain)
—> Telencephalon —> Cerebral hemisphere (+ Lateral ventricle)
—> Diencephalon —> Thalamus (+ 3rd ventricle)
Mesencephalon (midbrain) —> Mesencephalon —> Midbrain (+ Aqueduct)
Rhombencephalon (hindbrain)
—> Metencephalon —> Pons + Cerebellum (+ Upper 4th ventricle)
—> Myelencephalon —> Medulla (+ Lower 4th ventricle)
記:
Pros —> Mes —> Rhomb
Tel —> Di —> Mes —> Met —> Myel
Cerebral hemisphere —> Thalamus —> Midbrain —> Pons + Cerebellum —> Medulla
Cerebral cortex
Evolutionarily newest part of Cerebral cortex —> “Neo” cortex
Controls nearly all aspects of behaviour, including perception, language, decision making
6 layers (usually no neurons in 1st layer)
Coronal section of cerebrum
- Caudate nucleus
- Putamen
- Globus pallidus
- Lateral ventricle
- Cingulate gyrus
- Amygdala
- Insula
- Operculum
4 Lobes of Cerebral hemisphere
- Frontal lobe
- Prefrontal cortex
- Premotor cortex
- Primary motor cortex - Parietal lobe
- Primary somatosensory cortex
- Sensory association area - Temporal lobe
- Primary auditory cortex
- Auditory association cortex - Occipital lobe
- Primary visual cortex
- Visual association area
Divided by 3 sulci:
- Central sulcus
- Lateral sulcus (Sylvian fissure)
- Parietal-occipital sulcus
Functions of cerebral lobes
- Frontal lobe
- emotions, personality, social control, speaking
- executive functions e.g. planning, attention, decision making (PFC)
- control of movement (Premotor cortex + Primary motor)
- speech (Broca’s area) - Parietal lobe
- anterior part: somatosensory function (Primary somatosensory cortex)
- interpretation of shape / textures
- understanding speech and formulating words (Wernicke’s area) - Temporal lobe
- Hearing (Auditory cortex)
- storage of auditory experience
- memory storage —> ∵ Hippocampus wrapped inside temporal lobe - Occipital lobe
- visual information processing
- correlate visual images from previous visual experience
Gyrus vs Sulcus
Gyrus: Ridge on cerebral cortex
Sulcus: Depression / Groove in cerebral cortex
***Neurons in cerebral cortex
Most abundant type: ***Excitatory pyramidal neurons (cell body: pyramidal shape)
Other excitatory: Stellate neurons
Inhibitory: Interneurons
Pyramidal neurons:
- ***Spiny neurons (projections from dendrite —> dendritic spine —> postsynaptic membrane of excitatory synapse)
- Apical + Basal dendrites
- ***Excitatory (Glutamatergic)
- Glutamate, Aspartate
- ***Homogeneous morphology
- 70-80%
Interneurons:
- ***Non-spiny
- ***Inhibitory (GABAergic)
- GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid)
- ***Heterogeneous morphology
- 20-30%
Laminar organisation of cerebral cortex (6 layers)
- Composed of Glial cells + Neurons
- Gray matter
- Different inputs / outputs of different layers (e.g. Thalamic input: layer 4, output to Thalamus: layer 6)
—> Different functional units - 6 layer (based on morphology) (X rmb):
1. Molecular / Plexiform
2. External (Outer) granular
3. External pyramidal
4. Internal (Inner) granular
5. Internal pyramidal
6. Multiform (Polymorphic)
Brodmann’s areas
Based on histology —> 52 regions
Columnar organisation of cerebral cortex
Columnar function organisation —> a “column” of cells with:
- ***Similar response properties
- Overlapping / Nearly ***identical receptive field
Example:
- Visual cortex
- Ocular dominance columns (Binocular vision / Depth perception)
- Orientation columns (detect Orientation) - Auditory cortex
- Binaural bands
- Iso-frequency bands
Thalamocortical projections / relationships
Example:
- Anterior nucleus (from hippocampus / mammillary bodies) —> ***Cingulate gyrus
- Medial dorsal nucleus (from amygdala / olfactory bulb) —> **Prefrontal cortex + **Limbic system
- VPL (from Spinothalamic tract / Dorsal column-Medial lemniscus tract) —> Primary somatosensory cortex (Postcentral gyrus)
- Lateral Geniculate nucleus (from retina) —> Primary visual cortex
- Medial Geniculate nucleus (from cochlea) —> Primary auditory cortex
4 ***Functional categories of cerebral cortex
- Primary motor
- Primary sensory
- Primary sensory areas (***except olfactory) receive thalamocortical fibres from diencephalic (Thalamus) relay nuclei related to their functional modality - Unimodal association cortex (Secondary)
- Premotor area / Supplementary motor cortex: preparation, organising, planning sequence of movement - Multimodal association cortex (Tertiary)
- **Temporal association cortex
- **Parahippocampal cortex
- ***Cingulate cortex
Unimodal association area / Multimodal association area
Unimodal association area:
- ***Adjacent to primary cortex
- Devoted to ***higher level of information processing
Multimodal association area: - Receive information from several ***different sensory modalities —> production of a ***unified perception —> representation of perception in ***memory —> ***cognitive functions: 1. Use of language 2. Future planning 3. Imagine and create 4. Appreciation of space etc.
Motor areas - Control voluntary movement
- Primary motor cortex (Area 4)
- Premotor cortex (Area 6)
- Frontal eye field (Area 8) (visual attention, voluntary saccade, pursuit eye movement)
- Broca’s area (Area 44, 45) (language)
Primary motor cortex
- Location: Precentral gyrus
- Conscious control of precise, skilled, voluntary movements (on opposite side of body)
- Represented in orderly manner in cortex
- Body mapped upside down (Lateral: Face + Upper limb; Medial: Lower limb)
- Body regions with greatest number of motor innervation —> Largest areas of motor cortex (e.g. face, fingers)
- Disproportionate representation of body on primary motor cortex
Voluntary movement
- Mediated by direct connections
—> Cortex —> Internal capsule —> Spinal cord —> Corticospinal tract - Continuous stream of tactile, visual, proprioceptive information needed
—> from **Basal ganglia, **Cerebellum
—> Accurate + Properly sequenced voluntary movement
Sensory areas - Conscious awareness of sensation
- Primary somatosensory cortex (Area 1, 2, 3)
- Visual cortex (Area 17)
- Auditory cortex (Area 41, 42)
- Vestibular cortex
- Gustatory cortex (Area 43)
- Olfactory cortex
Primary somatosensory cortex
- Location: Postcentral gyrus
- Receives information from skin + skeletal muscle —> VPL, VPM of Thalamus
- Body regions with highest densities of receptors —> Largest areas of sensory cortex
- ***Exhibits spatial discrimination
—> column receive inputs from same body area with a specific sensory submodality (rapidly adapting (e.g. vibration) / slowly adapting (mechanoceptive))