Neurophysiology of Higher Cognition

Question 1

What do you need to have cognition?

Answer 1

Pyramidal neurons in different brain areas of the neocortex to talk to each other

Question 2

What is the pathway of acquiring language?

Answer 2

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

Question 3

What is the Implementation system?

Answer 3

Includes the Wernicke’s and broca’s areas and the arcuate fasciulus
Totem pole guy - only implements what the higher systems command

Question 4

What is the mediational system?

Answer 4

The middle guy. Includes pretty much everything but the visual cortex

Question 5

What is the conceptual system

Answer 5

The boss. Allows us to recognize the concepts behind our language.
(e.g. via the ventral visual pathway > can name things (noun association)

Question 6

Describe language in babies younger than 6 months

Answer 6

Language universalists. Responds to every sound they hear and perceive it as potential language

Question 7

Describe language in children between 6-9 months old - to about a year old

Answer 7

Children start to “dump” sounds/phenomes that aren’t in their language.
At 1 year, this process ends and babies will start to convert to true spoken language

Question 8

How is a second language processed?

Answer 8

During language acquisition phase: same pathway as first language
Outside of the language acquisition phase: activates region adjacent to Broca’s

Question 9

What are the components of social cognition?

Answer 9

Emotional comprehension

Theory of mind

Question 10

What are two ways you can accomplish emotional recognition?

Answer 10

Facial expression

Prosody (intonation)

Question 11

So how do we process facial expressions?

Answer 11

1. Use superior temporal sulcus and fusiform gyrus to recognize the face
2. Use the amygdala to recognize the emotion

Question 12

What does the amygdala do in terms of recognizing emotion?

Answer 12

It will focus on the eyes, nose, mouth triangle and make your eyes spend more time on this

Question 13

What happens to emotional recognition if you damage your amygdala?

Answer 13

Eyes aren’t focused on the triangle and you can miss the emotional context and not recognize the emotion

Question 14

What type of cells are responsible for emotional comprehension?

Answer 14

Mirror neuron system (fire when you do something and when you see someone else do it)

Question 15

What are the types of mirror neurons and what do they do? Where do they receive input?

Answer 15

Anterior Mirror Neurons - purpose of action (why are they doing that?)
Posterior Mirror Neurons - motor action (what are they doing?)
They receive visual input from posterior superior temporal sulcus

Question 16

What is the importance of imitation in social cognition?

Answer 16

We imitate emotional state and motor behavior

Imitation circuit interacts with insula

Question 17

What is the pathway for perceiving prosody?

Answer 17

Primary auditory (sound info) > right posterior superior temporal sulcus (piece together meaning of sounds) > frontal cortex (judge the emotion - how did that sound “sound”?)

Question 18

What is the theory of mind?

Answer 18

Ability to recognize the intention of others (why does the person feel the way they do?)

Question 19

What is the core pathway of processing the theory of mind?

Answer 19

Amygdala connects to the medial temporal lobe (sensory) and orbitofrontal areas (sensory and emotion)

Question 20

What other pathways help in processing theory of mind?

Answer 20

Language - serves as scaffold to understand someone’s theory of mind
Executive functions using frontal lobe

Question 21

To evaluate the info you have to make a decision what do you use?

Answer 21

Stimulus encoding system

Question 22

What consists the stimulus encoding system?

Answer 22

Orbitofrontal cortex
Ventromedial prefrontal cortex
Striatum

Question 23

To evaluate if the decision you made was good or not what do you use?

Answer 23

Action selection system (assigns a subjective value or error detection on the decision)

Question 24

What consists the action selection system?

Answer 24

Anterior cingulate cortex

Question 25

To predict the reward of a decision you use…

Answer 25

Expected reward system (I’m gonna go to Harvard because it will give me the most benefits)

Question 26

What does the expected reward system consist of?

Answer 26

Basal ganglia
Amygdala
Insular cortex
Intraparietal cortex

Question 27

When the risks are explicit (known), what do you primarily use to make your decision?

Answer 27

Stimulus encoding system

Question 28

When the risks and benefits are unknown (e.g. 1st patient in clinical trial), what do you use to make your decision?

Answer 28

Expected Reward and eventually the Action Selection system