IC3 Limbic (Mood)

Question 1

Roles of the various regions:

• Spinal cord
• Thalamus
• Cortex

Answer 1

Spinal cord and thalamus relay information

Thalamus: all information from your body’s senses (except smell) must be processed through your thalamus before being sent to your brain’s cerebral cortex for interpretation

Cortex involved in cortical processing that enables consciousness

Question 2

Cortex is the seat of consciousness; it plays a role in all the following functions:

Answer 2

• Sensation (somatosensory cortex)
• Perception
• Voluntary behavior (motor cortex)
• Learning and memory
• Emotions
• Language
• Personality traits (prefrontal cortex)
  etc.

Question 3

Language is a function of the ____ hemisphere

Answer 3

Left

Question 4

What is the Broca’s area?

Answer 4

Located in the left hemisphere, in the motor association cortex of the frontal lobe

Controls production of speech / expressing language

Question 5

What is the Wernicke area?

Answer 5

Located in the left hemisphere, in the posterior section of the superior temporal gyrus, part of the auditory association cortex

Controls comprehension/interpretation of speech/language

Question 6

What might result from damage to the Broca’s and/or Wernicke’s area?

Answer 6

Global aphasia

• Language disorder
• Aphasia leaves a person unable to communicate effectively with others (either difficulty in producing speech, or difficulty in comprehending speech)

Question 7

Which cortex plays a role in emotions and mood?

Answer 7

• Subgenual anterior cingulate cortex of the prefrontal region
• Amygdala of the medial temporal lobe

Question 8

Subgenual anterior cingulate cortex

Answer 8

Subgenual ACC is located in the prefrontal region (where prefrontal cortex and amygdala are involved in emotion and mood, depression and anxiety)

Subgenual ACC is involved in depression - feeling of sadness, loss of interest

Depression is correlated with increased activity in the region of Subgenual AACC

Question 9

What are the limbic structures in the brain

Where are they located and what are they involved in?

Answer 9

• Thalamus (frontal)

=> relay info to cortex

• Hypothalamus (medial temporal lobe)

=> homeostasis

• Hippocampus (medial temporal lobe)
• Amygdala (medial temporal lobe)

These structures are in the sub-cortical regions and are involved in cognition (learning and memory), emotion, and mood

Question 10

What is the function of the limbic system?

Answer 10

The limbic system is the part of the brain involved in our behavioural and emotional responses, especially when it comes to behaviours we need for survival: feeding, reproduction and caring for our young, and fight or flight responses. - autonomic

Limbic structures are known to be involved in the processing and regulating of emotions, the formation and storage of memories, sexual arousal, and learning

• Facilitate memory storage
• Establish emotional states
• Link the conscious, intellectual functions of the cerebral cortex with the unconscious, autonomic functions of the brainstem

ADD MEMORY AND EMOTIONS TO SENSORY EXPERIENCE

Question 11

Function of Hippocampus (in medial temporal lobe)

• Lesion to hippocampus result in?

Answer 11

• Declarative memory
• Lesion of the medial temporal lobe, specifically hippocampus, can lead to loss of memory (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease)

Question 12

Function of Amygdala (in medial temporal lobe)

• Lesion to Amygdala result in?

Answer 12

• Emotion and emotional memory, important for mood changes
• Bilateral degeneration/damage to amygdala can lead to Urbach-Wiethe disease (lose ability to recognize facial expression of emotions, fail to learn cue used to discern fear in facial expression)