Lecture 1: The Human Brain Flashcards
What are the 3 main areas of the pre frontal cortex in the frontal lobe and what are they associated with
Dorsalateral pfc: Moralistic reasoning, good, better, best.
Ventrolateral pfc: Refocusing during an automatic movement, show emotion through action.
Orbital pfc: Emotional, reward based decision, personality, fight/flight.
Describe the main features of the Temporal lobe including gyruses, association cortex and special areas of interest
Has Superior, Mid, Inf temporal gyruses
Association cortex: short term memory, aggression, intelligence
Contains 1’ Auditory cortex which is a thin but deep tissue bringing in tone and timing information of sounds from the cochlear. This is interpreted as language by Wernickes area surrounding this in the sup temp gyrus.
Describe the main features of the Occipital lobe including gyruses, association cortex and special areas of interest
No major gyri. No Association Cortex:
Has 1’ Visual cortex which receives basic info from eyes and then rest of it mainly 2’ Visual cortex which also extends under the surface of the temporal lobe which interprets what is being seen, and helping to formulate response.
Describe the main features of the Parietal lobe including gyruses, association cortex and special areas of interest
Superior and inferior parietal gyrus.
Post central gyrus: 1’ somatosensory cortex: pressure, pain, temperature, discriminative sensation.
Supramarginal gyrus: Read/Understand
Angular gyrus: Write/formulate
Both work together with about 20% overlap
Association cortex: Nuance, complex language (left) Spatial skills, 3D recognition, faces/shapes (right)
Describe the main features of the Frontal lobe including gyruses, association cortex and special areas of interest
Sup, Mid, Inf frontal gyrus.
Precentral gyrus: 1’ Motor cortex: output.
Frontal Association cortex: Intelligence, behaviour, mood, personality
Premotor planning area in front of 1’ motor cortex. Specific Broca’s area: planning motor aspect of speech
Exner’s area: planning motor control of hand for writing. Frontal eye fields for reading.
+ Pre frontal cortex areas.
What does homunculus mean and what are the main differences/similarities for sensory and motor homunculus
A homunculus is a map like representation where parts of the body correspond to specific areas of cortex.
The proportion of neural tissue is different to physical size with larger areas of cortical tissue given to hands and face which are highly innervated. Motor has slightly bigger hand area whereas Sensory has bigger lips area.
Can you compare the definition of association fibres, commissural fibres and projection fibres and give an example
Association fibres: connect within the same hemisphere
- eg. arcuate fasciclus.
Commissural fibres: between two hemispheres - eg. corpus callosum
Projection fibres: between the brain and spinal cord or muscle. eg. spinothalamic fibre.
Where are the association fibres going that we have learnt (mostly for communication) and what conditions result from problems with these connections
-Arcuate fasciculus between Wernickes area for language comprehension and Broca’s area for speech planning. == Connectional aphasia (can vocalise and understand but not logical/appropriate response to Q)
- Fasciculus between Wernickes and Angular area
- Fasciculus between Angular gyrus and Exner’s area= Agraphia
- Fasciculus between Supramarginal gyrus and frontal eye fields pre motor planning area. = Dyslexia
What are in the forebrain, midbrain and hindbrain (formed from the 3 vesicles.
Forebrain (from outside to inside)= Cortex, Cingulate gyrus (relaying info to and from frontal cortex), Corpus Callosum (info from left to right), Lateral ventricle, 3rd ventricle
Midbrain=?
Hindbrain: Pons, Medulla, Cerebellum
What is the difference between Grey matter and white matter
Grey matter is cell bodies
white matter is cell axons
What is the difference between dominant and non dominant hemisphere
One side has all the functional regions for major task that it is doing. Eg. left hemisphere dominant for language/communication
What is the name for the deficit caused by damage to prefrontal cortex, Broca’s area, 1’ motor cortex in the frontal lobe
- Prefrontal cortex: personality change
- Broca’s area: expressive aphasia; aka nonfluent aphasia: comprehension of oral language is intact but cannot put words together to make meaning
- 1’ motor cortex: paralysis of particular body part; loss of conscious motor control
What is the name for the deficit caused by damage to 1’ sensory cortex, angular gyrus, supramarginal gyrus in the parietal lobe
- 1’ sensory cortex: paresthesia ; loss of discriminative light touch
- Angular gyrus: agraphia
- Supramarginal gyrus: dyslexia
What is the name for the deficit caused by damage to 1’ visual cortex, 1’ auditory cortex, Wernickes area
- visual cortex: loss of vision from the hemi visual field of the opposite side to the lobe that was damaged
- auditory cortex: deafness in mainly one ear - if in two lobes: cortical deafness where hearing is normal but no sound is percieved
- Wernickes: receptive aphasia; fluent aphasia: not able to grasp the meaning of spoken sentences/ words but can produce connected speech
What is connectional/ conduction aphasia and what causes it
Where a person can vocalise and understand speech well but do not respond appropriately/ logically to a question.
This is due to damage to Arcuate fasciculus which is a association fibre tract which connects Broca’s and Wernickes areas due to stroke/tumour
