NEURO LEC 17 COGNITION, CONSCIOUSNESS, ATTN, LANGUAGE Flashcards
Definition of cognition
the process by which we come to know the world
Cognition is the ability to
* attend to ____ stimuli or _____ motivation
* identify significance of such stimuli
* make meaningful responses
External
Internal
What is the primary function of the temporoparietal association cortex?
Cognitive intelligence
What is the primary function of the dorsolateral prefrontal areas?
- Self awareness
- Executive functions (goals and plans)
What is the primary function of the medial dorsal prefrontal area?
Perceives others’ emotions, making assumptions of their beliefs/intentions
medial Dorsal, D for delusions
What is the primary function of the ventral prefrontal cortex?
Connects with areas of mood and affect
Lesion to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex looks like
Executive dysfunction, loss of willpower, loss of focus, not self aware
Lesion to orbital cortex looks like
Disinhibition, irritability, impulsiveness
Lesion to ventromedial prefrontal cortex looks like
Apathy
Lesion to medial dorsal prefrontal cortex looks like
Paranoia, delusions
What is the Theory of hemispheric specialization?
To reduce connection times of signals going long distances
Highly skilled movements performed by R handed people are _____ hemispheric dominant
Left
Handedness and other aspects of lateralization are not present till age ____
3 or 4
If a lesion occurs at a younger age, language and other dominant side functions move to ______ side with preservation of ____ likely
nondominant
function
What is the name of the commissural fibers connecting homologous structures of sides of cerebral cortex?
Corpus Callosum
What are the 5 dominant (usually L) functions?
- Language
- Skilled motor planning
- Math - sequence, analytic calculations
- Music - sequential, analytic skills in trained musicians
- Sense of direction - following written directions in sequence
What are the 5 nondominant (usually R) functions?
- Prosody - emotion, tone of voice
- Visual spatial analysis and spatial attention
- Math - estimate quantities, aligning #s into columns
- Music - in untrained musicians and complex performance in trained musicians
- Sense of direction - navigating your way due to sense of spatial orientation/awareness
Which side does sequential, analytic calculations?
left
Which side does emotion, tone of voice?
Right
Which side does following written directions in sequence?
Left
Which side does music in untrained musicians and complex performance in untrained musicians?
right
which side does sequential, analytic skills in trained musicians?
left
which side does navigating your way due to sense of spatial orientation/awareness?
right
if there is a lesion in the white matter between visual cortex and language processing areas, what can the person do, and what can’t they do?
Can see but can no longer read
conduction aphasia - what is the hallmark of this syndrome?
cant repeat
a Disconnection syndrome where disconnect between understanding and speech produciton occurs
can understand and speak fluently but cant repeat
what is a corpus callosotomy?
a “split brain” procedure for severe epilepsy
what are the 3 levels of consciousness?
The triple A’s:
Alertness
Attention
Awareness
What is defined as:
the normal functioning of brainstem and diencephalic arousal circuits and cortex?
Alertness
What has the same circuits as for alertness?
Attention
What is attention?
Same circuits as those for alertness AND processing in frontoparietal association cortex
What is awareness?
- Subjective and personal experiences
- Ability to combine higher order systems from various parts of the brain into united, efficient summary of mental activity
- Poorly understood anatomically
Where is the reticular formation embedded in?
Tegmentum
What makes up the rostral RF + related structures?
RF of midbrain and upper pons and continuous with certain nuclei of diencephalon rostrally
What makes up the caudal RF + related structures?
RF of pons and medulla with intermediate zone of SC caudally
What is the rostral RF in charge of?
Conscious state in the forebrain
What is the caudal RF in charge of?
Motor, reflex (gag, cough, survival ones), and autonomic functions
What can a coma occur from?
- Lesion in rostral RF and related structures
- Massive damage to B cerebral cortex regions
- Damage to B thalamus
T/F: More caudal and/or ventral brainstem lesions can cause coma
False
They don’t! Only ones in the rostral RF cause a coma.
What is a coma NOT?
- Persistent vegetative state (still have sleep wake cycle open eyes, respiration)
- Minimally conscious state
- Locked-In Syndrome
Maintence of alertness is ran by multiple parallel systems where? (3 Places)
upper brainstem and diencephalic junction
Brainstem that projects -> Cortical/forebrain
Brainstem that projects -> thalamus/hypothalamus
Hypothalamus
Thalamic nuclei
The reticular formation (including RAS) receives input from sensory systems, especially the ________________ involved in pain
anterolateral system spinoreticular pathway
Pain can make you more alert!
The ___________ hypothalamus projects to the arousal system to do what
Posteriolateral hypothalamus
keep you awake
What cortical areas project to the reticular formation to allow emotion & cognition to impact alertness
Several areas from the association cortex and limbic cortex
What are the 4 kinds of attention?
Sustained attention - vigilance, concentration, nondistractability
Switching- changing from 1 task to another
Selective- ability to focus on something more than other things
Divided- Preforming 2 or more tasks at the same time
Before a person can be attentive, they must be:
In an awake/alert state
What areas of the brain provide motivation that allows us to be ATTENTIVE?
Anterior cingulate gyrus, amygdala, other limbic structures
What hemisphere is dominant in language for R handed people?
What hemisphere is dominant in language for L handed people?
L hemisphere is dominant 95% of the time
L hemisphere is dominant 60-70% of the time
Many L handed people have _____________ reprentations for language, especially if family has history of L handedness
Bilateral cortical
*
Wernicke’s area is found within L/R ______________ cortex
L parietotemporal cortex
the _______ gyrus is connected to wernickes area for comprehending spoken and written language
Angular Gyrus - assists w/ complex language
What connects wernicke’s and brocas?
Arcuate Fasciculus
The nondominant side language abilities:
Area equivelant to wernickes:
Comprehends emotion or tone of voice
(if you’ve got wernicke’s on the left, this area is on the right)
The nondominant side language abilities:
Area equivelant to Brocas:
Controls your own tone of voice and gestures in communication
Wernicke’s vs Broca’s aphasia
Wernicke’s- fluent w/ words but words have no meaning
Broca’s- know what you want to say but have trouble sayingit
Conduction aphasia lesion location
Lesion to arcuate fasciculus
Can hear but cannot repeat it back
Global aphasia-
Both speaking and understanding are impaired to some degree
Agraphia
Inability to write
what are association cortices?
higher order processing, regions of the cortex that process and integrate info from primary sensory, motor cortices and thalamus and brainstem
1 and 4
medial dorsolateral prefrontal
2 and 6
parietotemporal association cortex
3 and 5 (different)
3 - ventral prefrontal
5 - dosolateral prefrontal
What areas of the brain take care of major functions of consciousness?
medial and lateral frontoparietal association cortex and arousal circuits of upper brainstem and diencephalon
cognition is the _______ cortex
consciousness is the _____ association cortex
parietotemporal
frontoparietal
seratonin role in consciousness and location
generalized arousal level
raphe nucleus
Norepi role in consciousness and location
attention
locus coeruleus & medial reticular zone
Ach role in consciousness and location
selection of objection of attention based on goals
pedunculopntine nucleus
dopamine role in consciousness and location
motivation, cognition (and motor)
ventral tegmental area and substantia nigra
RAPHE LOCUS PEDO
motor impersistence
involuntary cessation to hold posture
randomly stop walking on treadmill bc your attn stops
where is brocas area?
frontal lobe by the L inferior frontal gyrus
define
anomia
neologisms
anomia - cant find words
neologisms - made up words
what are two communication disorders that are not language disorders?
oral motor dyspraxia (motor planning)
dysarthria (weak speech muscles)
