Neurophysiology of Higher Cognition

Question 1

What are the components of cognition?

Answer 1

• language
• social cognition
• decision making
• executive function (forward planning, anticipation, reasoning)
• memory discussed in learning and memory
• visuospatial perception

Question 2

What does cognition require?

Answer 2

extensive synaptic interactions between pyramidal cells of all neocortical association areas

Question 3

What is the flow of language?

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What does the final common pathway (language of implementation system) involve?

Answer 4

• Wernicke’s
• Broca’s
• arcuate fasciculus (connects Brocas and Wernicke’s)
• facial area of motor cortex

Question 5

What does the mediational system for language do?

Answer 5

relays information to the language implementation system from the third system in language production

Question 6

Where is the mediational system for language located?

Answer 6

surrounds language implementation system, includes areas in temporal, parietal and frontal association areas

Question 7

What is the conceptual system for language?

Answer 7

• broadly distributed set of structures that provide concepts underlying language
• includes the ventral visual pathway
• allows us to match words to objects

Question 8

What is meant by “language universalists”?

Answer 8

• babies younger than 6 months

- recognize all sounds that might be language as distinct sounds

Question 9

What occurs between 6 and 9 months in babies?

Answer 9

• they begin to recognize the specific language sounds of their native language
• they drop the use of phenomes that don’t occur in their language

Question 10

What occurs at about 1 year of age?

Answer 10

-child’s babbling will begin to convert to spoken language

Question 11

What does functional imaging reveal about the second language learned DURING the acquisition phase?

Answer 11

activates same pathway as the first language

Question 12

What does functional imaging reveal about the second language learned AFTER the acquisition phase?

Answer 12

activates an adjacent region of Broca’s area

Question 13

What are the four components to language pathways?

Answer 13

1) conceptual- what concepts you are trying to communicate
2) mediational- concepts relayed via this pathway
3) language implementation- Broca’s and Wernicke’s
4) spoken language

Question 14

What is social cognition?

Answer 14

individual’s ability to infer the emotional state of another from observable information, such as prosody (speech) and facial expression

Question 15

What are the 2 components of social cognition?

Answer 15

1) emotion comprehension (recognition)

2) theory of mind

Question 16

Neural circuits for recognizing emotion in others are also involved in what?

Answer 16

producing emotion in ourselves

Question 17

Steps in the emotion comprehension of social cognition

Answer 17

1) perception of facial expression requires that we identify a face as something special (superior temporal sulcus and fusiform gyrus)
2) anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, and prefrontal cortex bring in the emotional component

Question 18

Where are the facial details that cue us to what emotion we are seeing located?

Answer 18

• concentrated in a triangle containing the eyes, nose, and mouth
• this occurs even if the faces/people are very different

Question 19

What is the role of the amygdala in emotion comprehension?

Answer 19

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

Question 20

What happens with a person who damages their amygdala?

Answer 20

they spend very little time looking at the eyes of another and do not methodically scan the face

Question 21

What is the role of mirror neurons?

Answer 21

• fire when you do something and when you see someone else do that same action
• involved in imitation and imitative learning

Question 22

What area of the brain identifies the goal of the action?

Answer 22

anterior mirror neuron system

Question 23

What area of the brain identifies the motor action?

Answer 23

posterior mirror neuron system

Question 24

What area of the brain provides the visual input?

Answer 24

posterior sector of the superior temporal sulcus

Question 25

What does the circuit for imitating behavior interact with?

Answer 25

limbic system via the insula

Question 26

Define prosody

Answer 26

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

Question 27

What area of the brain is required for the basics of sounds processing, including identity of pitch, loudness, and other characteristics of sound?

Answer 27

primary auditory cortex

Question 28

Where is information about the basics of sounds from the primary auditory cortex sent?

Answer 28

right posterior superior temporal sulcus where we begin to piece together the “meaning” of the loudness, pitch, etc of vocalization

Question 29

Where is the judgment of the emotional stimulus determined?

Answer 29

frontal cortex

Question 30

What is the theory of mind part of social cognition?

Answer 30

the ability to understand the mental states of others and to appreciate how these may differ from our own

Question 31

What are the requirements of the theory of mind?

Answer 31

1) CORE PATHWAY: amygdala and connections to the medial temporal lobes (memory, sensory processing) and orbitofrontal areas (sensory and emotional processing)
2) accessory pathways: language is believed to serve at the scaffold for theory of mind and may become less important as someone ages; executive functioning (frontal lobes)

Question 32

What are the components of the stimulus encoding system for decision making?

Answer 32

• orbitofrontal cortex
• ventromedial prefrontal cortex
• striatum

Question 33

What does the stimulus encoding system do?

Answer 33

evaluates the evidence available in making the decision

Question 34

What is the action selection system of decision making comprised of?

Answer 34

anterior cingulate cortex

Question 35

What does the action selection system of decision making do?

Answer 35

learns and encodes the subjective value of the results and is involved in error detection

Question 36

What is the expected reward system of decision making comprised of?

Answer 36

• basal ganglia
• amygdala
• insular cortex (processing of social emotions)
• intraparietal cortex (somatosensory processing and planning/intent)

Question 37

What does the expected reward system of decision making do?

Answer 37

predicts the expected reward

Question 38

Which system is involved in a decision in which the risks are explicit (known)?

Answer 38

• stimulus encoding system (evaluates evidence available)
• orbitofrontal cortex, ventromedial frontal, striatum
• predicts the consequences of actions

Question 39

Which system is involved in a decision in which the risk is ambiguous? (figure out risk through trial and error)

Answer 39

• rely most heavily on the expected reward system (prediction of expected reward)
• amygdala, basal ganglia, insular cortex, intraparietal cortex
• eventually relies on action selection system (learns from mistakes, encodes results)
• anterior cingulate cortex