lec 10

Question 1

Frontal lobe mass and subsection

Answer 1

• 1/3 mass of brain
• motor region, premotor region, prefrontal region
• prefrontal region consists of dorsolateral, ventromedial (orbitofrontal) and medial cortex (cingulate gyrus)

Question 2

prefrontal area

Answer 2

receives input from dorsomedial thalamic nucleus. prefrontal is for supervisory functions i.e. working memory, planning, reasoning, problem solving etc. Also responsible for personality and behaviour

Question 3

Phineas Gage

Answer 3

Rod went through FL, went through personality shift and was uninhibited and was unhinged

Question 4

prefrontal ventromedial area

Answer 4

responsible for personality like inhibition and execution of certain behaviour, responsible for personality changes

Question 5

cognitive deficits and FL lesions with working memory

Answer 5

dorsolateral prefrontal area is for cognitive deficits. if damaged, cannot form or sustain goals, distracted easily by circumstances. Dorsolateral activated when doing working memory tasks (spatial WM task). patients with FL lesion have confabulation (can recall events, but cannot arrange events in temporal order). lesions in orbitofrontal region associated with confabulation.

Question 6

prefrontal areas and cognitive difficulties

Answer 6

damage to FL causes problem in abstraction, planning, appropriateness and working memory. Cannot interpret environmental circumstances that shape reflexive behaviour. unable to have divergent thinking (multiple responses).

Question 7

wisconsin card test

Answer 7

cards classified by shape number or colour, lesions in dorsolateral lesions cannot find criterion and cannot shift from one criterion to another. patients with complete FL damage most impaired.

Question 8

fronto-temporal dementia

Answer 8

Pick had progressive loss of speech and dementia, causing shrinkage in brain. cell loss in fronto-temporal area rather than generalised in dementia. abnormal behaviours during examination (echolalia = repeating words, echopraxia = repeating gestures, and primitive reflexes).

Question 9

Picks course and symptomology

Answer 9

early oribtofrontal dysfunction = aggressive and inappropriate. dorsolateral dysfunction = lack of concern and decreased spontaneity. speech abnormalities early, non-fluent speech. movement disorders

Question 10

anterior cingulate cortex

Answer 10

attentional /monitoring functions. evaluating appropriate goals on basis of feedback. input from limbic structures (amygdala, thalamus, striatum). Output to prefrontal cortical areas.

Question 11

orbitofrontal cortex

Answer 11

social and emotional judgement and decision-making. integrates incoming info with existing info about goals, values and situations. Iowa gambling task, lesions in FL cause to take more risky deck each time instead of go for long term gain decks. Prefrontal emotions acquired and depend on life experience