Neurophysiology of Higher Cognition Flashcards
Theory of mind
Understanding what someone else feels and the reason they have these emotions
COMPONENTS OF COGNITION
- Language
- Social cognition
- Executive functioning (plan ahead, anticipate, reasoning)
- Memory
- Visuospatial perception
Patient comes in after fall and neck and body injury of scapula
Surgery was done however, patient had word impairment prior to fall, and patient is resistant to taking rugs thinking they are trying to poison him
Pt. Is angry when asked to do things
HTN, DM
Mother died to Dementia
Manyyy OTC supplementals
Frontal Temporal Dementia = eats many OTC, emotional regulation, hard to find word, belief he’s being poisoned
Cognition
Requires extensive interactions of pyramidal cells (of 5th layer brain) with all areas of the brain
PTO= example, takes in parietal, Temporal, Occipital
Limbic= example
Language Implementation System
Broca’s and Wernickes, Arcuate Fasciculus, and facial area or somatomotor cortex
steps in making spoken language
- Language Conceptual System
- Language Mediational System
- Language Implementation System
- Spoken Language
Language mediational System
Temporal Parietal and Frontal (relay info from the language conceptual system to the Language implementation system)
Language Conceptual system
Stores all the nouns we know (names of things)
It gets input from ventral visual pathway (visual cortex goes to temporal and parietal to identify what we see), and verbs common from another part of the brain
= what concept am I trying to say
Babies younger then 6mo
Recognize all sounds that could be a language
= Language universalists
= practice motor acts to make any sounds
6mo-9mo
Brain changes and recognize specific language
They start to drop phenomena that don’t occur in their language that their parents speak to them
Synaptic pruning
Age 1yo
Child starts babbling and process if completed at this age
Converts to true language spoken
All language inflictions in when we speak is down
When babies learn language which area is activated
Broca’s and wernickes
In bilingual children= they mix up both language words in speeches since they don’t know which words are to which language
Second language learned compared to 1st language learned
DURING LANGUAGE ACQUISITION PHASE
Activated the same pathway during language acquisition
Second language learned compared to 1st language
AFTER LANGUAGE ACQUISITION PHASE = Adulthood (under 10yo)
Second language activates area of brain adjacent to the Broca’s area
Some doubt in this
Sometimes this area is spared after a stoke and pt. Only speaks language they never spoke before
Social cognition
How do we interact with others
Patient comes in from fall and is very angry and does not have control of angry outbursts
he knows he is having these angry outbursts, throwing objects
He does not think there is anything wrong with it or that anyone should be upset with him or is angry
Social cognition effects
Emotional Comprehension= recognize how someone else feels
Theory of Mind= understand reason they feel the way they do
= understand reason someone’s emotions are different then mine
From prosody and facial expression
Emotional Comprehension
Understanding how others feel
1. Perception of facial expression= identify face as something special [Superior Temporal Sulcus + Fusiform Gyrus]-fusiform face area
Important: neural circuits that help us recognize others emotions help us in having that emotion ourselves ——> step2
- Bring in emotional component [anteriro cingulate cortex, amygdala, prefrontal cortex]
Superior Temporal Sulcus + Fusiform Gyrus-fusiform face area
Stores faces
Can be defected in autistic people
Where is emotion expressed and recognized
In triangle of eyes, nose, mouth
AMYGDALA controls this; uses eyes and directs them to other peoples eyes and triangles (esp. the eyes)
Damage to the amygdala
You look all over the face (not the triangle, EYES) to find emotion
Fusiform gyrus face cortex damage
Person does not look at face of others, does not see it as important or having emotions expressed
Imitation of other peoples emotions steps
- Ventral Visual pathway= visual input posterior part of superior temporal sulcus
- Travels to the Posterior Mirror Neuron System = Identify motor action
- Travels to Anterior Mirror Neuron System = Identifies goal of action
See someone smiling at a cupcake; she’s smiling; because she’s happy and cakes are yummy and pretty; I will also smile
How do we imitate behavior and what is it important for
Important for social cognitive skills
We imitate emotions and behaviors or mirror neurons with limbic system interacting with insula
Prosody
Study of tune and rhythm = inflections in speech = have a meaning
= give clues to emotions others and I feel
Prosody steps
- Primary auditory cortex = basic sound processing
[identify pitch, loudness, characteristics of sound]
Moms voice is loud - Goes to RIGHT posterior superior temporal sulcus = all auditory information are pieced together the MEANING of the sound characteristics gathered
(Moms voice sounds different and louder then usual, yelling) - Frontal Cortex = judge the emotional stimulus is determined
(She is mad)
Frontal temporal dementia
Loose ability to judge the prosody of what you hear
Don’t know the emotion other person is having
Patient repeatedly accuses wife to get rid of him and staff trying to poison him
Theory of mind= belief that led to the emotion understanding
=Ability to understand mental states(beliefs, desires, intentions) of others that are different from mine and appreciate them
Theory of mind steps
- Amygdala sends info about emotion to
- Medial Temporal Lobes (memory, sensory processing)
- Orbitofrontal areas (sensory and emotional processing
- Executive Functioning - identify emotion and why
Language is important in learning theory of mind (WHEN YOUNGER)
What is required for Theory of mind
Emotional Cognition
Posterior Sector of the Superior Temporal Sulcus
Provide visual input what we can work with
Posterior Mirror neurons
Identify the motion (facial expression, facial motions)
Anterior Mirror neurons
Identify purpose of the motion (facial expression, facial movements)
Decision making 3 parts of the Brain
Stimulus Encoding System - evaluates the making a decision based on info and evidence available
- Orbitofrontal cortex
- Ventromedial prefrontal cortex
- Striatum
Ex: interpret that I should not buy that because I don’t have the money
The Action Selection system of decision making
Anterior Cingulate Cortex -learns + encodes value of the results from a decision (good, bad, risky)
- detects error also
= learn from results and encode it
I bought this and it made us broke
Expected Reward System of Decision Making
= predicts reward
- The basal ganglia
- Amygdala
- Insular cortex- process social emotions
- Intraparietal cortex - somatosensory process + planning + intentions
I will buy this becus it will make me happy
Stimulus Encoding System in decision making
Figures out likely hood or probably of a result from a decision
I can choose this table cloth to buy, it is likely my wife will like it
Decision making when risks are unknown rely on
- Expected Reward system= deciding in lottery if you should choose the same deck that you lost money from the time before, you prefer choosing one you have won from before
- Action Selection System (after)
Reason Pt. Had frequent falls with the frontal temporal dementia
Poor judgment of what he could and couldn’t do, cold not assess the risks, bad decisions making
