Nervous system: The Human Brain Flashcards
Label the diagram, what view of the brain is seen, what is this classification of separation called and what is it dominant for?
The left hemisphere
Division by lobes
Dominant for languages
What feature of the brain defines the parietal and temporal lobe?
Lateral fissure
What feature of the brain defines the frontal lobe?
Central sulcus
What feature of the brain defines the occipital lobe?
Parieto occipital sulcus
What are the features of the brain which indicates the parieto occipital sulcus?
It is the region of the brain where the grooves are shallower and lined up with the pre-occipital notch
Label the diagram (only the coloured bits but have a read of the labels to get a feel for where stuff should go). What is the classification of the brain called?
By historical development
How does the human brain regions compare with a rats brain regions size? Why is this?
The human brain has proportionally a much larger forebrain and smaller hindbrain than a rat
Forebrain is associated with humans emotional and logical intelligence development
How does the brain regions of mammals compare during embryo development?
In embryo development they are the same relative sizes (i.e. fore, mid, hind are same) but as it develops they brain regions grow disproportionally
Label the lateral view diagram of the human brain
What is the function of the primary auditory cortex?
Breaks down the whole sound received into its constitutive sounds (i.e. Tonotopic representation)
What is the function of Wernicke’s area?
It interprets the constitutive sounds received by the primary auditory cortex and gives them meaning (i.e. it can filter out unnecessary sounds and convert sound into language…) (i.e. secondary auditory cortex)
What is the name and description of the condition when a patient gives inappropriate responses?
Fluent/Wernicke’s aphasia
When a patient has difficultly interpreting responses but can still communicate properly
What is the function of Broca’s area? What classification of auditory cortex is it?
It controls speech by talking to the primary motor cortex to control the physical structures involved in speech (i.e. mouth, tongue etc.)
Secondary auditory cortex
What are the parts of the brain that control reading and writing? How are these roles split?
Supramarginal gyrus and Angular gyrus
They both participate in reading and writing actions but the supramarginal does more for reading and the angular does more for writing
What is the function of Exner’s area?
Involved in hand movement
What is the function of the frontal eye fields?
Controls eye movement
What is the process of spoken language being generated from other spoken language?
1 - The sound is received by primary auditory cortex
2 - Wernicke’s area processes the sound and decides on a response
3 - The information from Wernicke’s area is transferred to Broca’s area by the Arcuate Fasciculus
4 - Broca’s area transmits required info to the primary motor cortex for speech generation
5 - primary motor cortex initiates cell-bodies to co-ordinate speech
What is the name and description of the condition when a patient is unable to respond to speech properly?
Non-fluent/Broca’s Aphasia
A person can interpret language but are unable to communicate properly
What is the process of written language being generated from spoken language?
1 - The sound is received by primary auditory cortex
2 - Wernicke’s area processes the sound and decides on a response
3 - The information from Wernicke’s area is transferred to the Supramarginal/Angular gyrus by a fasciculus
4 - The processed information then is transferred by another fasciculus into the frontal eye field and Exeners area so that movements of the hand can be controlled by sight
What is the name and description of the condition when a patient has intact language production and comprehension but poor speech repetition
Connectional aphasia
This is where the patient is unable to complete an idea in conversation because the arcuate fasciculus is damaged resulting in faulty messages between the Wernicke’s and Broca’s area
What are the functions of the frontal association cortex?
Intelligence, personality, behaviour, mode, cognitive functions
What are the functions of the parietal association cortex?
Spatial skills, 3D recognition of shapes, faces, concepts and abstract perception
What are the functions of the temporary association cortex?
Memory, mood, aggression, intelligence
What are the functions of the non-dominant hemisphere? What side is this normally on?
Non-verbal language (i.e. body language), emotion expression (tone of language), spatial skills, conceptual understanding, artistic/musical skills
Normally the right hemisphere (for all right handed people and 80% of left handed people FYI)
What are the effects of injury on the non-dominant hemisphere?
Loss of non-verbal langage, speech lacks emotion, spatial disorientation, inability to recognise familiar objects, loss of musical appreciation
Label the diagram
What is the function of the primary visual cortex?
Receives visual info and converts it into brain signal
What is the function of the supplementary visual cortices?
Processes visual info
What is the function of the motor planning area?
It is where the movement that is going to happen is planned (i.e. what nerves need to be activated)
What is the other name and function of the primary motor cortex?
Pre central gyrus, contains the cell bodies which connect to the spinal cord and control the motor movement
What is the other name and function of the primary sensory cortex?
Postcentral gyrus, the main sensory receptive area for touch
Both the pre and post central gyrus have a ______ representation? What does this mean?
They are both homunculus
The organisation of the motor neurons that detect/activate parts of the body are organised together
For motor function, how much of the representation of the primary motor cortex is associated with the face? What does this indicate about the number of neurons in the brain?
A bit less than half of the motor cortex is associated with the face
This indicates that a bit less than half of all the motor neurons are associated with facial movement
For motor function, relatively how much of the representation of the primary motor cortex is associated with the trunk? What does this indicate about the type and activation of the muscles?
There is relatively a small amount of the motor cortex associated with the back Considering that the trunk takes up a large amount of total mass/size, this indicates that the muscles here are large and are activated by only a few nerves
What does fasciculus mean?
A bundle of white matter
What are the three regions in the motor planning area?
Broca’s area, frontal eye fields and Exners area
If you suspect someone has connectional aphasia, what test can you do? Why does this work?
Get the patient to write down their response
This bypasses the arcuate fasciculus which so if there is an issue with it, the patient should be able to write down a correct response indicating damage to the connection to Broca’s area
What percentage of people are left side dominant for languages in people that are right and left handed?
All right handed people are left hemisphere dominant for language and 80% of left handers are as well
What does the primary visual cortex do?
It interprets the light signals from the eyes
What does the secondary visual cortex do?
Interprets the visual information received and processed by the primary visual cortex
Label the diagram
What is the function of the calcimine sulcus?
It divides the two halves of the visual cortex
