Introduction to the Brain Flashcards
What can damage to the frontal lobe lead to?
-mood changes, social differences
What are the 3 views of the brain?
- Coronal (front)
- Horizontal (top)
- Sagittal (side)
What does the parietal lobe do?
-integrates sensory information, visuospatial processing, attention
What does the occipital lobe do?
Sense of sight, lesions can cause blindsight or cortical blindness
What does the temporal lobe do?
Processes sound, and complex stimuli like faces and scenes. Medial part involved in memory and emotion
What is cytoarchitecture?
The study of the cellular composition of the body’s tissues under the microscope
How were the 52 Brodmann Areas created?
Korbinian Brodmann used Nissl stain (a dye that attaches to nucleic acids) to examine the cytoarchitectural organization of neurons in the cerebral cortex
What are the 3 (x, y, z) of Talairach coordinates?
X. Medial-Lateral (Sagittal)
Y. Anterior-Posterior (Coronal)
Z. Dorsal-Ventral (Horizontal)
The brain is connected via…
white matter tracts
What is the first Super Highway of the brain? (starts with an A)
Arcuate fasciculus - temporal parietal junction - prefrontal cortex
What is the third Super highway?
Corticospinal tract- motor cortex to the spinal cord- it contains mostly motor axons
Where does the dorsal pathway run?
From the visual cortex dorsally over the parietal lobe forward to the prefrontal cortex
What is the dorsal pathway involved in?
Dorsal -“ Where? “
Spatial reasoning and the guidance of actions
Where does the ventral pathway run?
Runs ventrally down from the visual cortex to the temporal lobe and frontal cortex
What is the ventral pathway involved in?
“What” - object processing
What does damage to Broca’s area do?
Inability to spreak
What does damage to Wernickes’ area result in?
Inability to comprehend words
Lesions on the hippocampus result in…
amnesia
What does the parietal cortex play a role in?
Switching our attention (along with the temporoparietal junction)
What two concepts is fMRI based on?
- It takes energy to think. The brains main food sources are oxygen and glucose.
- Magnetic properties of oxygenated and deoxygenated blood are different.
What is the main advantage and disadvantage of PET scan?
+Can tell us which neurotransmitters are being used
-Slow- (2 min blocks)
How does a PET scan work?
- Injects small amount of radioloabeled biologically active compounds (tracers)
- Scanner produced an image of the distribution of the tracer in the body
