Neurophysiology of Higher Cognition Flashcards
At the neuronal level, what does cognition require?
Extensive synaptic interactions between pyramidal cells of all neocortical association areas
What are the four levels to language?
Language conceptual system -> language mediational system -> language implementation system -> spoken language
What does the language implementation system include?
Wernicke’s area, arcuate fasciculus, and Broca’s area (and facial area of primary motor cortex)
What is the language mediational system?
Includes areas of temporal, parietal, and frontal association areas. Relays info to the language implementation system
What is the language conceptual system/
Provides concepts underlying language (rules of speech), includes ventral visual pathway for naming objects
How are babies <6 mos language universalists? What happens from 6-9 mos?
<6 mos: They recognize all sounds that might be language as distinct sounds.
6-9 mos: start recognizing sounds of their native language, drop phenomes that don’t occur in their language
What happens when kids learn a second language DURING the language acquisition phase vs adults learning a second language AFTER the language acquisition phase?
Activates same pathway in brain as first language
Activates an adjacent region of Broca’s area
What are the two components of social cognition?
Emotion comprehension (recognition) and theory of mind
How does emotion comprehension work?
Must first identify human face as something special (superior temporal sulcus and fusiform gyrus), then bring in emotional component (anterior cingulate cortex, prefrontal cortex, amygdala). The area of the brain that produces emotion in us recognizes it in someone else
What facial details do we use to comprehend emotion?
Eyes, nose, mouth (triangle) - done by amygdala
What are mirror neurons?
Play role in imitation and imitative learning - important in emotional processing. Fire when you do something AND someone else does it
How does imitation work?
- Posterior sector of superior temporal sulcus provides visual input
- Posterior mirror neuron system identifies motor action
- Anterior mirror neuron system identifies goal of action
What is prosody of speech?
Tune and rhythm of speech that allows us to recognize emotion in speech
What are the steps in perception of prosody?
- Primary auditory cortex identifies pitch, loudness, etc
- Right posterior superior temporal sulcus pieces together meaning
- Frontal cortex judges emotional stimulus
What is theory of mind?
Ability to understand mental states of others and appreciate how they differ from our own (recognize beliefs that lead to emotion and that different people have different beliefs)
What is the core pathway of the theory of mind?
Amygdala connects to medial temporal lobes and orbitofrontal areas
In decision making, what areas make up the stimulus encoding system?
Orbitofrontal cortex, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, striatum
What is the stimulus encoding system?
Evaluates evidence available in making the decision, heavily relied on for decisions in which risks are known
In decision making, what areas make up the action selection system?
Anterior cingulate cortex, decisions with ambiguous risks, learns from mistakes, encodes results
What is the action selection system?
Learns and encodes subjective value of results. Is involved in error detection
In decision making, what areas make up the expected reward system?
Basal ganglia, amygdala, insular cortex, intraparietal cortex
What is the expected reward system?
Predicts the expected reward, heavily relied on for decision in which risks are unknown
What part of the Expected Reward System processes social emotion?
Which part does somatosensory processing and planning/intent?
Insular Cortex
Intraparietal Cortex
When the risks are explicit, what do you use?
Stimulus Encoding system
When risks are iffy/unknown.. you rely on?
the Expected Reward system…and eventually the Action Selection system
