Mod 13 Higher Function Flashcards
What is cognition?
mental processes by which the brain manipulates info
internal = emotional
external = sensory
What do unimodal association cortexes do?
they surround each primary sensory area and elaborate messages for that specific modality
What do multimodal association cortexes do?
receives info from several unimodal association areas and integrates the cross-modal info
What are the 3 multimodal association cortexes?
lateral association (anterior and posterior)
basamodemial (limbic) association
Where is the anterior association area?
frontal lobe/anterior parietal
Where is the posterior association area?
posterior parietal lobe
Where is the basomedial association cortex?
medial: cingulate, frontal, and temporal lobes
What aspects of cognition are housed in the posterior association area of the lateral association cortex?
- spatial recognition
- facial recognition
What is the most prominent deficit of spatial cognition with damage to the posterior association area?
unilateral hemispatial neglect
- bump into things on affected side/neglect to do ADLs on that side (brush teeth, hair, etc)
Where is the affected side in spatial deficits with damage to the posterior association area?
contralateral to the lesion
What can damage to the posterior association area do to facial recognition?
result in prosopagnosia
What is prosopagnosia?
loss of the ability to recognize faces
Which side of the brain does a stroke need to occur to cause hemi-inattention?
right sided stroke because the right side of the brain controls attention for the left side and right, while the left only controls right sided attention
What are tests that you can conduct on a patient if you suspect damage to the posterior association area of the lateral association cortex?
have them draw a clock, flower, or house
What happens if someone has prosopagnosia?
they are unable t recognize familiar faces or make new facial associations
can identify people by voice, mustache, glasses
What does damage to the anterior association area of the lateral association cortex do?
disrupts executive functioning
empathy, reasoning, emotion
What is executive function?
aka contingency planning, the capacity to generate behaviors that are appropriate to the circumstances in which they unfold
What is the importance of Phinneas Gage’s case on the anterior association area?
illustrates the importance of prefrontal areas as they relate to social cognition (complete change in personality)
How do you assess executive function and damage to the anterior association area of the brain?
- Wisconsin card sorting test
- stroop test (color test)
- observation of behavior
What does the basomedial association cortex house when it comes to cognition?
emotional processing and performance eval and optimization
problem solving, error recognition, and anticipation
How is basomedial association cortex damage assessed?
observation or neuropsych
What role does the dorsolateral prefrontal circuit play?
role in cognition
What role does the limbic circuit play?
role in motivation
What is the pathway of the dorsolateral prefrontal circuit?
dorsolateral prefrontal cortex > caudate nucleus > Gpi/SNpr > DM of thalamus > DLPFC
What is the pathway of the limbic circuit?
cingulate gyrus > striatum > ant nucleus thalamus > limbic structures
What do basal ganglia loops do?
interconnect the basal ganglia and functionally associated cortical areas, go through BG to thalamus and back to same cortical area
What is the clinical correlation of Parkinson’s disease on cognition?
cognitive deficits occur in early stage PD and some of the dopamine medication can cause pathological compulsions
How are Huntington’s disease patients affected in cognition?
triad of behavior manifestations
- motor
- cognitive
- memory impairments
can have subcortical dimensia due to loss of striatal neurons
What is prospective memory?
- using memory to predict
- memory of the future
- memory of what we should do to successfully accomplish a future event based on previous experience
What is working memory?
ability to hold info in the mind that is needed to complete complex tasks or sequential actions including reasoning and learning
How much info and how long do you retain it in working memory?
small amount of memory for a short amount of time
What is short term memory and long term memory, how are STMs turned into LTMs?
STM: short lived period remembered for seconds to minutes
LTM: event can be recalled for a period of days, years, or lifetime
consolidation: STM to LTM that involves the hippocampus so it is increased with sleep
What are the two major forms of LTM?
declarative (explicit) memory
procedural (implicit) memory
What is declarative memory?
memory for facts and events
- episodic (autobiographical): events
- semantic (non autobiographical): facts
What is procedural memory?
memory of procedures and skills (how to do something)
What structure is associated with working memory?
pre frontal cortex
What structures are associated with declarative memory?
- hippocampus
- nearby cortical areas
- diencephalon
What structures are associated with procedural memory?
striatum, motor areas, cerebellum: skills and habits
amygdala: emotional associations
cerebellum: conditioned reflexes
What are the 6 important limbic system structures?
- amygdala
- uncus
- hippocampus
- parahippocampal gyrus
- dentate gyrus
- cingulate gyrus
What is important to remember about emotion and memory?
deeply interconnected and overlapping pathways so they are related
What did the surgery of Henry Molaison do to his brain and function?
removal of ant hippocampus, amygdala, and overlying cortex to resolve seizures
could not consolidate STM to LTM
IQ, procedural memory, and LTM were spared
What is language and what is speech?
language: use of symbols to communicate ideas and feelings
speech: mechanistic aspects of verbal expression involving articulation
What causes deficits to language?
cerebral injury
What causes speech deficits?
injury to cerebrum, brainstem, cerebellum, or PNS structures
What are the neocortical substrates of language?
- association cortex of dominant hemisphere (left)
- planum temporale (top of temporal lobe)
- perisylvian language zone (Broca and Wernicke)
- superior longitudinal fasciculus
What is Broca’s aphasia?
motor, expressive, non-fluent aphasia\
- image to posterior part of inferior frontal gyrus and surrounding cerebrum
- choppy, comprehensive speech
What is wernicke’s aphasia?
sensory, receptive, posterior, or fluent aphasia
- damage to posterior part of superior temporal gyrus and surrounding cerebrum
- fluent, incomphrensive speech
What is global aphasia?
aphasia including both Broca and wernicke areas
- lesion destroys nearly all of persylvian language zone
- impairments in both production and comprehension of speech
What is prosody?
the ability to detect how speech sounds:
- rhythm
- pitch
- intonation
- emphasis
- music of speech
Where does prosody centers lie in the brain?
non-dominant hemispheres (right)
Where does the ability to produce (motor) prosody lie in the brain?
right hemisphere homologue for broca’s area
- inferior frontal gyrus
Where does the ability to understand (sensory) prosody lie in the brain?
right hemisphere homologue for wernicke’s area
- posterior temporoparietal regions
How do you evaluate language in clinic?
spontaneous speech observation for production, comprehension, and prosody
also look for production and effort
