Neurophysiology of Higher Cognition

Question 1

What is the pathway to produce spoken language?

Answer 1

Language conceptual system -> language mediational system -> language implementation system -> spoken language

Question 2

What structures are involved with the language implementation system?

Answer 2

Wernicke’s area, arcuate fasciculus, Broca’s area, and the facial area of the motor cortex

Question 3

What makes up the language mediational system?

Answer 3

Number of areas in the temporal, parietal, and frontal association areas; system relays information to the language implementation system from the language conceptual system

Question 4

What is the language conceptual system?

Answer 4

Broadly distributed set of structures that provides the concepts underlying our language; for example, the noun mediation area receives input from the ventral visual pathway and provides us with the names of things

Question 5

Why are babies younger than 6 months referred as “language universalists”? What happens betwen 6-9 months of age?

Answer 5

They recognize all sounds that might be language as distinct sounds; their brains change and start to recognize the specific language sounds of their native language; with this change, babies drop the use of phenomes that don’t occur in their language; this process is complete at about the age of 1 year; at this point, the child’s babbling will begin to convert to true spoken language

Question 6

What is the difference between learning a 2nd language during the language aquisition phase and after the language aquisition phase?

Answer 6

During aquisition phase, activates same pathway as the first language; after aquisition phase, activates an adjacent region of Broca’s area

Question 7

What is social cognition?

Answer 7

Important factor in our ability to function in interpersonal and social situations; divided into at least 2 components: emotion comprehension (recognition) and theory of mind; defined as an individual’s ability to infer the emotional state of another from observable information, such as prosody and facial expression

Question 8

What is step 1 of emotion comprehension?

Answer 8

Perception of facial expressions requires that we identify a face as something special

Question 9

What is step 2 of emotion comprehension?

Answer 9

Bring in the emotional component

Question 10

The facial details that cue us as to what emotion we are seeing in another person are “concentrated” in a triangle containing what 3 things?

Answer 10

1) Eyes
2) Nose
3) Mouth

Question 11

What is the function of the amygdala in emotion comprehension?

Answer 11

Controls the use of the eyes and directs the gaze to that triangle (particularly the eyes) when looking at human faces

Question 12

In emotion recognition, what provides the visual input?

Answer 12

Posterior sector of the superior temporal sulcus

Question 13

In emotion recognition, what identifies the motor action?

Answer 13

Posterior mirror neuron system

Question 14

In emotion recognition, what identifies the goal of the action?

Answer 14

Anterior mirror neuron system

Question 15

In emotion recognition, what is responsible for imitating other people’s emotions?

Answer 15

Believed to interact with limbic structures via the insula; imitative behavior is crucial to developing social cognitive skills; we tend to imitate emotional state/behavior as well as motor behavior

Question 16

What is prosody?

Answer 16

Study of the tune and rhythm of speech and how these features contribute to meaning; also the study of those aspects of speech that typically apply to a level above that of the individual phoneme and very often to sequences of words

Question 17

What is step 1 in the perception of prosody?

Answer 17

Primary auditory cortex is required for the basics of sound processing, including identity of pitch, loudness, and other characteristics of the sound

Question 18

What is step 2 in the perception of prosody?

Answer 18

Information is then sent to the right posterior superior temporal sulcus where, along with other acoustical information from secondary auditory processes, we begin to piece together the “meaning” of the loudness, pitch, etc of the vocalization

Question 19

What is step 3 in the perception of prosody?

Answer 19

Judgement of the emotional stimulus is then determined in the frontal cortex

Question 20

What is the theory of mind?

Answer 20

The ability to understand the mental states (beliefs, desires, and intentions) of others and to appreciate how these differ from our own

Question 21

What is the core pathway of the theory of mind?

Answer 21

Amygdala and connections to the medial temporal lobes (memory, sensory processing) and orbitofrontal areas (sensory and emotional processing)

Question 22

What are the accessory pathways of the theory of mind?

Answer 22

Language: believed to serve as the scaffold for the theory of mind; may become less important as a person ages

Executive functioning (frontal lobes)

Question 23

T/F: Emotion comprehension is required for theory of mind to exist

Answer 23

True

Question 24

What structures are involved in the stimulus encoding system for decision making? What is its function?

Answer 24

Orbitofrontal cortex, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and striatum; evaluates the evidence available in making the decision

Question 25

What structures are involved in the action selection system for decision making? What is its function?

Answer 25

Anterior cingulate cortex; learns and encodes the subjective value of the results; also involved in error detection

Question 26

What structures are involved in the expected reward system for decision making? What is its function?

Answer 26

Basal ganglia, amygdala, insular cortex (processing of social emotions), intraparietal cortex (somatosensory processing and planning/intent); system predicts the expected reward

Question 27

For a decision in which the risks are explicit (known) relies most heavily on what system?

Answer 27

Stimulus encoding system

Question 28

For decisions in which the risks are unknown rely most heavily on what system initially, and then eventually what other system?

Answer 28

Expected reward system; action selection system