PHYS: Higher Cortical Function Flashcards
What are the 6 layers of cerebral cortex?
- I, II, III - intracortical association fibres (mainly interneurons within that region of cortex)
- IV - incoming sensory fibres terminate
- V, VI - output fibres leaving cortex (V to brain stem/SC, VI to thalamus)
What are higher cortical functions?
- Executive functions - planning, decision-making, attention
- Reasoning, memory, learning
- Language, musical appreciation
- Emtoional feelings and expression, motivation
- Self-awareness, body image
What are the 3 major divisions of association cortex?
- Pariteo-occipito-temporal AA
- polysensory integration and language
- Prefrontal AA
- executive functions, motor planning, working memory, attention
- Limbic AA
- memory, emotion, motivation
What is the function of the parieto-occipito-temporal association area? What is the result of damage to these areas?
- Provides interpretive meaning
- Spatial coordinates (continuous analysis of spatial orientation)
- Damage: failure to plan movement of opposite side of body
- Processing of visual language (reading)
- Damage: lose reading language comprehension
- Naming objects area (coordinates names learnt - visual names and physical nature
- Damage: lose names
- Language comprehension area (Wernicke’s)
- Damage: can’t process language
What are the function of the prefrontal association area?
- Ability to plan consequences and actions
- Calling forth information and using it to obtain a goal
- Working memory
- Elaboration of thought
- correlate divegent info
- culture appropriate personality/behaviour
What are the consequences of lesions to the prefrontal cortex?
Loss of:
- Complex problem-solving
- Ability to perform sequential tasks
- Ability to learn parallel tasks
- Morals, social appropriateness
- Purpose
What is the function of the Limbic Association Cortex? What does damage here cause?
- Behaviour, judgement, insight, emotions & motivation
- Provides emotional drive for activating other brain regions
- Motivational drive for learning
- Damage: difficulties iwth abstract reasoning, judgement and mood
What functions of the brain are involved in communication?
- Sensory integration (audiovisual)
- Formation thoughts: choosing words (Wernicke’s area)
- Motor control of vocalization: vocalization (Broca’s area)
What is Wernicke’s area function (parieto-occipito-temporal AA)?
- General interpretive area
- integrates comprehensive interpretive function
- integrates auditory/visual/somatic AAs
- Language-based intellectual function
- integrates senses to form thoughts
So potent as integrative centre due to its location.
What is the function of Broca’as area (prefrontal AA)?
- Pre-motor speech - word formation
- initation & execution of plans & motor patterns for expressing words
- initiates skilled patterns of movement
- larynx, lip, mouth, repsiratory & accessory muscles
- articulation
- intonation, timing, intensity changes, sequential sound
Explain how higher executive function is lateralised
Left:
- language
- reading
- mathematical/analytical
- music (musicians)
Right:
- body image
- complex spatial tasks
- non-verbal ideation
- music (non-musicians)