Neurophysiology of cognition Flashcards
components of cognition
- language
- executive fxning (fwd planning, anticipation, reasoning)
- social cognition
- decision-making
- memory
- visuospatial perception
language
- language conceptional system
- language mediational system
- language implementation system
- spoken language
language implementation system- involves?
(for speaking)
- wernicke’s area
- arcuate fasciculus
- broca’s area
- facial area of motor cortex
mediational system
- temporal ,parietal, frontal assoc areas
- relays info to the language implementation system
conceptional system
language- babies
- <6 months- “language universalists”- recognize all sounds
- 6-9 months- recognize specific language sounds of their native language- “drop” the use of phenomes that dont occur in their language
- complete by 1 yr- babbling starts to convert to true spoken language
prefrontal cortex- 2 fxns
- planning of complex motor actions- interacts w parieto-temporal-occipital assoc area and all levels of motor cortex
- carrying out of thought processes- hippocampus (working memory); judgment- mult areas (limbic)
pre-frontal cortex- 3 roles in integrating the inputs
- reward processing (orbitofrontal)- w the amygdala- link new stimulus to a reward
- integration of bodily signals
- top down regulation (esp delayed gratification)
Social cognition- 2 components
-emotion comprehension (recognition)
-theory of mind
(ability to fxn in interpersonal and social situations)
Emotion comprehension
- ability to infer the emotional state of another from observable info, such as facial expression
- we look at eye, nose, mouth (triangle)
Emotion comprehension- step 1- perception of facial expressions
-superior temporal sulcus and fusiform gyrus
Emotion comprehension- step 2- bring in emotional component
- ant cingulate cortex
- prefrontal cortex
- amygdala
damage to amygdala
(directs the gaze to the triangle when looking at human faces)
-spends very little time looking at the eyes of another, and doesnt scan the face
mirror neuron system
- ability of recognize emotion in another’s face
- neurons fire both when you do something and when you see someone else do that same action
mirror neurons
- post sector of superior temporal sulcus- provides visual input
- post mirror neuron system- identifies the motor action
- ant mirror neuron system- identifies the goal of the action
circuit for imitating interacts with limbic structures via?
-insula
perception of prosody- steps
- perception of prosody
- primary auditory cortex- required for sound processing- pitch, loudness, and other characteristics of sound
- info sent to right post superior temporal sulcus- begin to piece together the meaning of loudness, pitch, etc
- judgment of emotional stimulus is then determined in frontal cortex
Theory of mind
-ability to understand the mental states (beliefs, desires, intentions) of others and to appreciate how these differ from our own
theory of mind- pathways
- core- amygdala and connections to medial temporal lobes and orbitofrontal areas
- accessory:
- language- scaffold for ToM (in younger ppl)
- executive fxning (frontal lobes)
decision making- stimulus encoding system
- evaluates the evidence available in making the decision- predicts the consequences of actions
- orbitofrontal cortex
- ventromedial prefrontal cortex
- striatum
decision making- action selection system
- learns and encodes the subjective value of the results
- anterior cingulate cortex
decision making- expected reward system
- predicts the expected reward
- basal ganglia
- amygdala
- insular cortex
- intraparietal cortex
decisions w explicit (known) risks
-relies on stimulus encoding system!!
decisions w ambiguous risks
-relies on the expected reward system!! and eventually on the action selection system!!
