Neurophysiology of Higher cognition Flashcards
what does cognition require between all the neocortical association areas
synaptic interactions between pyramidal cells of all neocortical areas
what is the systematical order for producing language
Language conceptual system
Language mediational system
Language Implementation system
Spoken Language
What is the anatomical area of the Language implementation system
Wernickes Area
Arcuate Fasciculus
Brocas Area
What is the anatomical area of the language mediational system
Number of areas
Temporal, Parietal, and frontal association areas
relays information to the language implementation area
What is the job of the conceptual system for language
broadly distributed set of structures that provides the concepts underlying our language
What are babies younger than 6 months refered as in retrospect to our language
what happens at 6-9 months
what happens at 1 year
Language universalists
they reckognize all sounds that might be language as distinct sounds
between 6-9 months they start to recognize specific language sounds of their native language with this change babies drop the use of phenomes that dont occur in their language
this process is complete at about the age of 1 year and at this point the childs babbling will begin to convert to true spoken language
Where is a learned second language stored in the brain during vs after the language acquisition phase
during the language acquisition phase the second language activates the same pathway as the first
while a second language learned after the language acquisition phase activates an adjacent region of Brocas area
What are the two components of social cognition
Emotion Comprehension (recognition)
Theory of mind
Step 1 in Emotion Comprehension
Perception of facial expressions requires that we identify a face as something special and that is done by the Superior temporal sulcus and the fusiform gyrus (fusiform face area)
Step 2 of the emotional comprehension
Bring in the emotional component
Amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex, and prefrontal cortex
what is important about the neural circuits for recognizing emotion
They are the same circuits that produce the emotions in ourselves
what controls the use of our eyes as we scan an individuals face for emotion and what happens if it is damaged
The amygdala makes us look at the eyes nose and mouth of the individual
if the amygdala was damaged we would spend very little time looking at the eyes and wont methodically scan the face
What is the mirror neuron system
Mirror neurons fire both when you do something and when yo see someone else do that action
helps in imitation and imitative learning and important in emotional processing
what are the three steps of imitiative behavior
1 is the Posterior sector of the superior temporal gyrus which provides the visual input
then the Posterior mirror neuron system Identifies the motor action
then the Anterior mirror neuron system identifies the goal of the action
this circuit also interacts with the limbic structures to imitate the emotions as well
What is Prosody
Is the study of the tune and rhythm of speech and how these features contribute to meaning
Prosody is 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 in prosodic phrases
Perception of prosody
Primary aditory cortex is required for the basics of sound processing, including identity of pitch, loudness, and other characteristics of the sound
that information is then sent to the right posterior superior temporal sulcus where we befin to piece together the meaning of the loudness and pitch of the vocalization
Finally the judgement of the emotional stimulus is then determined in the frontal cortex
What is theory of mind
The ability to understand the mental states (beliefs, desires, and intentions) of others and to appreciate how these differ from our own
What are the Requirements of the theory of mind
Core pathway: amygdala and connections to the medial temporal lobes (memory, sensory processing) and orbitofrontal areas (sensory and emotional processing)
Accessory pathways
- language
- Executive functioning (frontal lobes)
Likely that the emotion comprehension is required for theory of mind to exist
What does the stimulus encoding system do in decision making
THis system evaluates the evidence available in making the decision
done by the orbitofrontal cortex
Ventromedial prefrontal cortex
striatum
What does the action selection system do in decision making
This system learns and encodes the subjective value of the results. it also is involved in error detection
An action selection system is done by the anterior cingulate cortex
WHat is the expected reward system
Basal ganglia
Amygdala
Insular cortex: processing of social emotions
intraparietal cortex: somatosensory processing and planning
THis system predicts the expected reward
A decision in which the risks are explicit or known relies on the?
Stimulus encoding system
A decision in which the risks are unknown rely heavily on?
the expected reward system and on the action selection system
