Overview Of The Nervous System Flashcards
What are the three orientations of scans?
- sagittal
- coronal
- transverse
What are the 3 major brain regions?
- the FOREBRAIN (made up of the cerebrum and the diencephalon)
- the BRAINSTEM (made up of the midbrain, the pond and the medulla oblongata)
- the CEREBELLUM
List the 4 lobes of the cortex.
- the frontal lobe
- the occipital lobe
- the parietal lobe
- the temporal lobe
List the roles of the frontal lobe, and give evidence of that.
Roles:
- decision making
- attention
- consciousness
- deliberate movement
Evidence:
- Phineas Gage got frontal lobe damage, and his behaviour changed completely (got angrier, shorter temper, etc.)
- a prefrontal lobotomy used to be a normal procedure, but it often resulted in impaired voluntary behaviour
List the roles of the occipital lobe, and give evidence of that.
Roles:
- visual processing (eg. colour, orientation, motion)
Evidence:
- McCarley et al., (1999) examined MRI data from patients with schizophrenia and found abnormal activity levels in their occipital lobes. Hallucinations are a symptom of schizophrenia, showing the abnormality of visual processing in the lobe.
List the roles of the parietal lobe, and give evidence of that.
Roles:
- sensory processing
- proprioception
Evidence:
- reduced levels of activation have been detected in the left parietal lobe of people with dyslexia (Pammer, 2014)
List the roles of the temporal lobe, and give evidence of that.
Roles:
- auditory processing
- language
- speech
Evidence:
- in 1874, Carl Wernicke hypothesised a link between a discrete area of the temporal lobe and receptive aphasia. Receptive aphasia is a condition where there is a major impairment of language comprehension, whilst speech retains natural rhythm.
List the roles of the hippocampus, and give evidence of that.
Roles:
- memory formation
- memory retrieval
Evidence:
- in 1985, Clive Wearing, a composer and musician, contracted a virus that caused damage to his hippocampus, causing him memory problems.
List the roles of the corpus callosum, and give evidence of that.
Roles:
- connects the right and left hemispheres , allowing information to be passed between them
Evidence:
- in the 1960s, Gazzaniga and Walcott performed experiments on people who had had the corpus callosum connection severed. By testing the hemispheres in isolation, the left and right hemispheres were formed to dominate in the execution of certain hemispheres.
List the roles of the basal ganglia, and give evidence of that.
Roles:
- movement
- balance
- posture
Evidence:
- it’s associated with movement disorders such as Parkinson’s Disease and Huntingdon’s Chorea. Parkinson’s is a neurodegenerative disease, caused by reduced dopaminergic function. Huntingdon’s Chorea is a genetic disorder that causes damage to the basal ganglia.
What two parts make up the diencephalon?
The thalamus and the hypothalamus.
List the roles of the thalamus, and give evidence of that.
Roles:
- multi modal functions
Evidence:
- many different streams of information are integrated in the thalamus. Thalamus damage can results in blending of information streams, which is known as synasthesia (eg. ‘hearing’ colour, ‘feeling’ sounds) (Ro eg el., 2007)
List the roles of the hypothalamus, and give evidence of that.
Roles:
- a collection of small nuclei (temperature, hunger/thirst, neuroendocrine control, circadian rhythms, blood pressure/ heart rate)11
What are the roles of the medulla oblongata?
Homeostasis (breathing, heart rate, blood pressure) and motor movements (reflexes, fine motor movements of limbs and face in conjunction with cortex)
What problems arise from damage to the medulla oblongata?
If homeostasis is affected, could be stated as being ‘brainstem dead’. This is from loss of blood circulation to all brainstem regions.
If motor movements affected, could be stated as having ‘Locked-In Syndrome’. This is from loss of blood circulation to pons.
Both can be caused by a stroke to the brainstem region.
