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Cognitive Neuroscience > Lecture 10 - The Executive Brain > Flashcards

Lecture 10 - The Executive Brain Flashcards

1
Q

What is executive function?

A

Control processes that enable an individual to optimise performance, requiring coordination of basic cognitive processes - CONTROLLED BEHAVIOUR

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2
Q

What domain is linked to executive functioning?

A

Not tied to a specific domain (such as memory or language) - meta-cognitive, supervisory / controlling role

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3
Q

What do disorders of executive functioning cause?

A

Difficulty in decision making, organising, planning and multi-tasking etc.

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4
Q

Bottom-up processes of decisions

A

Arise out of an interaction of environmental influences

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5
Q

Top down processes of decisions

A

Influences related to the motivation and goals of the person

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6
Q

How many cortical surfaces does the prefrontal cortex have?

A

3 - lateral, medial and orbital

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7
Q

Where does the lateral prefrontal cortex lie?

A

Anterior to the premotor areas, closest to the skull

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8
Q

Where does the medial prefrontal cortex lie?

A

Between the two hemispheres and to the front of the corpus callosum and anterior cingulate cortex

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9
Q

Where does the orbital prefrontal cortex lie?

A

Functionally and anatomically related to the ventral part of the medial surface - ventromedial prefrontal cortex

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10
Q

Role of the anterior cingulate cortex

A

Monitoring in situations of response conflict and error detection.
Emotions
Pain
Executive functions

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11
Q

Phineas Gage 1848

A

Non fatal traumatic brain injury - damage in left orbitofrontal / ventromedial region and left anterior region = impaired impulse decision making, planning and social regulation of behaviour. Poor decisions and planning

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12
Q

What is problem solving?

A

Related to generalised measures of intelligence

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13
Q

What is task setting?

A

When presented with a goal and starting point, then coming up with a solution.

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14
Q

Which brain area lesions lead to poor task setting and problem solving?

A

Prefrontal cortex

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15
Q

What is the Tower of London task - Shallice, 1982

A

Beads moved from one position to a specific end point. Patients with unilateral prefrontal cortex lesions (especially left anterior) = poor performance- take significantly more moves (trial and error instead of PLANNING)

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16
Q

Cognitive estimates tests - Shallice & Evans, 1978

A

‘How many brushings from a tube of toothpaste’ - those with damage to prefrontal cortex do worse

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17
Q

what are FAS tests - Miller, 1984

A

PPTs asked to produce as many words starting with the letters F, A or S
Damage to left frontal dorsolateral cortex = particularly bad at this task

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18
Q

What lesions impair ability at Tower of London task

A

Left anterior lesions - impairment in generating, selecting and remembering moves

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19
Q

what lesions impair FAS tests

A

Left dorsolateral - poorer letter fluency, impairment in generating new strategies and selecting between alternatives / avoiding repeated responses

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20
Q

WHAT is the STROOP TEST

A

Response interference from naming the ink color of a written color name (e.g., the word BLUE is printed in red ink and participants are asked to say the ink color, i.e., “red”).

21
Q

what brain areas are involved in the stroop test

A

False positives - lesions in ventrolateral PFC
Lesions in right superior medial region, anterior cingulate cortex, pre-supplementary motor area and dorsolateral areas = SLOW REACTION TIMES, DECREASED CORRECT RESPONSES

22
Q

What is the GO/NO GO TEST

A

response to certain stimuli, inhibit response for another stimuli
e.g) stage 1 : A = go, B,C,D = no-go
stage 2 : B,C,D = go, A = no-go
- PPT have become habituated to original stage

23
Q

Which brain areas are involved in the GO/NO GO TEST

A

Superior medial frontal lobe - response inhibition. Lesions in this area are slowest at the task.
Lesions in this area had more false alarms - reacting to impulsivity. Reaction time decreases after making a false alarm in stage 2

24
Q

Task switching - Wisconsin card sorting test

A

Match a card to 1 out of 4 reference cards
Symbols on the card vary in shape, number, colour
If matched incorrectly - switch trial (causes reaction time to decrease)

25
Q

What is the switch cost?

A

When there is a big change in reaction time between no-switch and switch trials. A slowing of response time due to discarding a previous schema and having to set up a new one.

26
Q

Meuter & Allport, 1999 bilingual study

A

BILINGUALS SLOWER AT SWITCHING FROM 2ND LANGUAGE (HARDER TASK) TO 1ST LANGUAGE (EASY TASK) - SWITCH COST IS GREATER BECAUSE INHIBITING THE MORE COMPLEX SCHEMA HAS A COST

27
Q

Neural correlates of task switching

A

Process of task switching involves superior medial regions (lesions = greater switch cost), but making ERRORS is related to interior medial regions.

28
Q

Role of Inhibition in these tests

A

Slowing of response time when switching from hard to easy tasks - discarding previous schema and setting up a new one. Reflects difficulty in inhibiting old task. SWITCH COST

29
Q

Hot vs Cold control processes

A

Hot stimuli - affective or reward related (food or money) , associated with ORBITOFRONTAL CORTEX (connections with posterior affective areas)
Cold stimuli - cognitive (sensory dimensions such as shape or colour) - lateral frontal cortex - tests of executive functions

30
Q

What is reversal learning?

A

learning that a previously rewarded stimulus or response is no longer rewarded - HOT CONTROL PROCESS

31
Q

Task switching

A

discarding a previous schema and establishing a new one - COLD CONTROL PROCESS

32
Q

Dias et al 1996 - monkeys study

A

Trained to respond to certain items through reward
Post lesion training - reversal learning, same shapes and lines but rewarded for different shape (UNLEARN OLD RULE)
Dimension shift - new shapes, rewarded for a certain line (learn a new rule)

33
Q

What did Dias et al 1996 find?

A

Orbitofrontal lesion = impaired reversal learning, intact set shifting
Lateral frontal lesion = intact reversal learning, impaired set shifting

34
Q

What does the Dias et al 1996 findings show?

A

Dissociable neural correlates for control of reward related (hot) VS cognitive (cold)
Distinction between brain areas responsible for hot and cold control processes could explain individuals with PFC lesions who are:
- Impaired in the real world - impaired social behaviour - hot salient rewards for appropriate social interactions (in group benefits)
- SPARED in lab tests of executive function - cognitive dimensions such as shape and colour without salient rewards (cold)

35
Q

What is the somatic marker hypothesis (Damasio 1996)

A

Emotional and bodily states associated with previous behaviours are used to influence decision making

36
Q

Where are somatic markers stored?

A

In orbitofrontal / ventromedial pre frontal cortex

37
Q

What is the Iowa Gambling Task - Denburg & Hedgcock 2015

A

Participants given a loan of £2000
Choose cards from one out of 4 decks
Gain vs Loss
A + B = big gain but bigger loss
C + D = smaller steady gain but less loss

38
Q

What does the Iowa Gambling Task find

A
  • Control group - learn to switch from bad decks to good decks and show anticipatory skin conductance response when selecting from risky deck
  • Patients with orbitofrontal prefrontal cortex lesions fail to switch from bad to good decks. Don’t show anticipatory skin conductance response when selecting from risky decks
  • Show intact performance on other executive function tests : could be a failure of reversal learning
39
Q

Posterior prefrontal cortex and executive functioning

A

Implements tasks with a single goal - Response mapping (red stimulus = press left button)

40
Q

Anterior prefrontal cortex and executive functioning

A

Implements multiple tasks simultaneously - complex mapping (red stimulus = press left button only if stimulus is a vowel)
- Involved in multi tasking - requires task switching and maintaining future goals in mind, whilst dealing with current goals

41
Q

Koechlin & Summerfield, 2007 - Hierarchical organisation of executive functioning.

A

Anterior -> posterior gradient for complex to simple tasks

42
Q

What is the left lateral prefrontal cortex involved in?

A

Task setting - maximised when open ended such as problem solving

43
Q

What is the right lateral prefrontal cortex involved in?

A

Task monitoring - linked to sustained attention and maintaining focus / keeping on task

44
Q

What task is impaired after lesions of both left and right lateral PFC?

A

WISCONSIN CARD SORTING TASK
Left = longer switch costs
Right = error prone (failure of response inhibition)

45
Q

Anterior cingulate cortex dorsal region

A

implicated in executive functioning

46
Q

Anterior cingulate cortex ventral region

A

implicated in emotional processing

47
Q

What is the role of the anterior cingulate cortex?

A

How we change our behaviour after making an error - slower / more accurate. Lesions involved in error rates not accuracy.

48
Q

What is error related negativity

A

ERP detected at the scalp when an error is made

Cognitive Neuroscience (12 decks)

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