Physiologic Basis of Higher Cognition

Question 1

4 operations required to produce explicit memory

Answer 1

Encoding — paying attention to new info and linking it to previous memories

Storage — retention of info over time

Consolidation — making the memory permanent

Retrieval — using the info (bringing it back into working memory)

Question 2

Mechanism of long-term potentiation

Answer 2

EAA binds NMDA (and non-NMDA) receptors on the post-synaptic membrane

The opening of NMDA calcium channel allows calcium into the post-synaptic neurons and leads to NO production

On the presynaptic side, LTP causes more NT to be released for each AP, while on the postsynaptic side, the receptor allows the entry of greater amounts of calcium or sodium (depending on the channel)

Both of these changes mean that the same input frmo the presynaptic cell leads to a great post-synaptic response. In addition, we see activation of CREB and initiation of transcription/translation of proteins involved in synaptic processing

Question 3

________ memory = memory that you are “using” currently; transient, but based on long term memory

Answer 3

Working

Question 4

4 areas involved in creating working memory

Answer 4

Hippocampus — “reconstitutes” the memory

Central executive (prefrontal cortex)

Phonological loop (providing names/words related to the memory)

Visuospatial loop (providing the visual info associated with memory)

Question 5

Memories of events or facts that you have experienced or intentionally learned; every time you study, you are forming this type of memory

Answer 5

Declarative (explicit)

Question 6

Memory of physical skills such as riding a bike

Answer 6

Implicit (skilled) memory

Question 7

Although declarative and implicit memories are stored in different parts of the brain — _______ regions associated with sensory info for declarative, _______ for the most part in implicit memories — the physiologic mechanisms are the same

Answer 7

Cortical; cerebellar

Question 8

Short-term memory relies on the ______ (brain area) and _______________ (physiological process) for the ability to remember facts, etc.. over the short term

Answer 8

Hippocampus; long term potentiation

Question 9

Consolidation of short-term memory into long-term memory requires the protein synthesis triggered by the changes that occur in long-term potentiation. During sleep, the short-term memory is sent repeatedly through the _____ _____. The continued reactivation of synapses produces changes that lead to formation of new synapses dedicated to that memory. The different components of memory are stored in the appropriate area of cortex (visual, auditory, etc)

Answer 9

Papez circuit

Question 10

There is a special case of memory that is stored in the hippocampus itself and that is ____ memory

Answer 10

Spatial

Question 11

Long-term potentiation is most associated with what form of memory?

A. Short term
B. Long term
C. Implicit
D. Declarative

Answer 11

A. Short term

Question 12

Which of the following steps in memory formation occurs when you decide to pay attention to an event that might be worth remembering?

A. Encoding
B. Storage
C. Consolidation
D. Retrieval

Answer 12

A. Encoding

Question 13

While recalling the memory of Toby tracking, Dr. K undergoes functional imaging and it is found that her hippocampus becomes active before other areas associated with the memory. What role does this hippocampal activity most likely serve?

A. Identifying the memory she wishes to recall
B. Recalling the feel of the wind blowing in her face (20 mph, 8 degrees)
C. Recalling the route she took to get to Smithville Lake that morning
D. Recreating the field up at Smithville Lake that Toby tracked in

Answer 13

D. Recreating the field up at Smithville Lake that Toby tracked in

Question 14

At a neuronal level, cognition is produced by extensive synaptic interactions produced by the ____ neurons of the neocortical association cortices

Answer 14

Pyramidal

Question 15

6 components of cognition

Answer 15

Language
Social cognition
Decision-making
Executive functioning
Memory
Visuospatial processing

Question 16

4 components to language pathways

Answer 16

Conceptual pathway — what concepts are you trying to communicate

Mediational pathway — concepts relayed via mediational pathway to:

Language implementation pathway - broca’s and wernickes

Speech

Question 17

Infants make no distinction between relevant and irrelevant phenomes. How does language development progress at 6-9 months vs. 1 year?

Answer 17

6-9 months — begin to eliminate irrelevant phenomes

1 year — first words indicate that all irrelevant phenomes are gone

Question 18

How does learning a new language differ during the language acquisition phase vs. after the language acquisition phase?

Answer 18

During — all spoken words intermingled regardless of language

Adulthood — new language coded for in neighboring areas of the brain

Question 19

2 brain areas that recognize facial expressions (and therefore faces)

Answer 19

Superior temporal sulcus

Fusiform gyrus (fusiform face area)

Question 20

Recognition of emotions involves _____ neurons and the _______

Answer 20

Mirror; amygdala

Question 21

Prosody is the study of the tune and rhythm of speech and how these features contribute to meaning; aka the study of those aspects of speech that typically apply to a level above that of the individual phoneme and very often to sequences of words (in prosodic phrases)

What 3 brain areas are involved in recognition of prosody — including its perception, meaning, and emotional content?

Answer 21

Primary auditory cortex — perception of pitch, loudness, etc

Posterior superior temporal sulcus — determines “meaning” of loudness, pitch, etc.

Frontal cortex — determines emotional content

Question 22

What theory takes emotional cognition to a higher level — not just recognizing the emotion, but recognizing the beliefs that led to that emotion and that different people have different beliefs?

Answer 22

Theory of mind

Question 23

3 brain areas + 2 accessory pathways required by theory of mind

Answer 23

Amygdala

Medial temporal lobes

Orbitofrontal regions

Accessory paths:
In the very young — language as scaffold (linguistic cues to different beliefs)

Executive functioning

Question 24

Compare/contrast the functions of the posterior sector of the superior temporal sulcus, posterior mirror neuronal system, and anterior mirror neuronal system

Answer 24

Posterior sector of the superior temporal sulcus — provides the visual input that we work with

Posterior mirror neuronal system — identifies the motion

Anterior mirror neuronal system — identifies the purpose of the motion

Question 25

3 neural components of decision making (1 that deals with known risks, and 2 that deal the ambiguous risks)

Answer 25

Stimulus encoding system — decisions with known risks

Expected reward system — decisions with ambiguous risks

Action selection system — decisions with abiguous risks

Question 26

The stimulus encoding system deals with decisions that have known risks. The _______, _______, and _______ are brain areas involved in predicting the consequences of actions

Answer 26

Orbitofrontal cortex

Ventromedial frontal cortex

Striatum

Question 27

The expected reward system deals with decisions that have ambiguous risks. The ______, _____, _____, and ______ are brain areas involved in determining what the rewards are

Answer 27

Amygdala
Basal ganglia
Insular cortex
Intraparietal cortex

Question 28

The action selection system is involved in decisions with ambiguous risks. The ______________ is the brain area involved in learning from mistakes and encoding results

Answer 28

Anterior cingulate cortex

Question 29

Which of the following areas is classified as part of the language conceptualization area?

A. Broca’s area
B. Facial regions of the primary motor cortex
C. Noun mediation area
D. Wernicke’s area

Answer 29

C. Noun mediation area

Question 30

What part of the brain would be most involved in making a decision in which there is a lot of evidence to use in the decision?

A. Action selection system
B. Expected reward system
C. Mediational system
D. Stimulus encoding system

Answer 30

D. Stimulus encoding system

Question 31

In observing a research subject as they view pictures of faces, you observe that most of the time their eyes are focusing on the eyes, nose, and mouth of the pictured faces. What part of the brain controls this behavior?

A. Amygdala
B. Anterior cingulate cortex
C. Fusiform facial region
D. Prefrontal cortex

Answer 31

A. Amygdala

Question 32

What characteristics do you attend to in order to understand an individual’s prosody?

A. The eyes, nose, and mouth of that person
B. The pitch, volume, and speed of their language
C. The speed and intention of their movements
D. The direction and rapidity of changes in their gaze

Answer 32

B. The pitch, volume, and speed of their language

Question 33

What part of the brain is used to identify the emotional content of another person’s speech?

A. Right posterior superior temporal sulcus
B. Primary auditory cortex
C. Frontal cortex
D. Amygdala

Answer 33

C. Frontal cortex

Question 34

What part of the brain is associated with error detection and encoding the subjective value of the results of a decision?

A. Action selection system
B. Conceptual system
C. Expected reward system
D. Stimulus encoding system

Answer 34

A. Action selection system

Question 35

What part of the language systems receives input from the ventral visual pathway?

A. Language mediational system
B. Language implementation system
C. Language conceptual system

Answer 35

C. Language conceptual system

Question 36

What language learning process generally occurs in children between the ages of ~6 months to 1 year old?

A. Activation of neighboring regions within Broca’s area by different languages
B. Conversion of babbling to true spoken language
C. Elimination of phenomes that are meaningless in the language they are hearing
D. Final maturation of the noun mediation area with completion of the ventral visual pathway

Answer 36

C. Elimination of phenomes that are meaningless in the language they are hearing

Question 37

Which statement best describes theory of mind?

A. My ability to understand my own happiness
B. My ability to recognize when another person is angry based on facial expression
C. My ability to recognize the sadness present in another person’s voice
D. My ability to understand why another person is surprised by an event

Answer 37

D. My ability to understand why another person is surprised by an event

Question 38

Which of the following is crucial in directly mediating autonomic effects (i.e., increased HR, BP, sweating, etc) in response to an emotional state?

A. Hypothalamus
B. Anterior cingulate cortex
C. Amygdala
D. Nucleus accumbens

Answer 38

A. Hypothalamus

Question 39

Interestingly enough, Dr. Karius knew in her gut before the sparring match that her opponent was much better than her at sparring, even though she’d never seen this person before. What part of her brain was responsible for this knowledge?

A. The anterior cingulate cortex
B. The ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus
C. The amygdala
D. The hippocampus
E. The prefrontal cortex

Answer 39

E. The prefrontal cortex

The prefrontal cortex has 3 major roles in emotion, the 1st is reward processing, where we establish the link between an event, the reward, and the emotion. The 2nd is known physiologically as “integration of bodily signals” aka the gut feeling — this part is active when we don’t have all the facts we need to make an informed decision. It relies on subconscious cues and makes a lot of “guesses” based on them. The 3rd is allowing us to delay gratification.

Question 40

Which of the following is involved in encoding what happens as a result of our decisions and for identifying mistakes (error detection) when we make a decision?

A. The anterior cingulate cortex
B. The ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus
C. The amygdala
D. The hippocampus
E. The prefrontal cortex

Answer 40

A. The anterior cingulate cortex

Question 41

Which of the following is involved in production of satiety as well as additional effects in producing responses to thermoregulatory stress and physiologic responses to emotion?

A. The anterior cingulate cortex
B. The ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus
C. The amygdala
D. The hippocampus
E. The prefrontal cortex

Answer 41

B. The ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus

Question 42

A patient has been diagnosed with the early stages of Huntington disease. Which of the following emotions is he most likely to be unable to recognize in another person?

A. Anger
B. Disgust
C. Sorrow
D. Fear
E. Pleasure

Answer 42

B. Disgust

The experience of disgust requires the putamen and insular cortex be intact. As Huntington disease damages the putamen and other parts of the striatum, both the experience and recognition of disgust is impaired by this disease

Question 43

A research subject temporarily loses the ability to recognize anger when expressed by other people. What manipulation likely produced this effect?

A. Activation of the posterior mirror neuronal systems
B. Activation of the insular cortex
C. Antagonism of dopaminergic inputs in the amygdala
D. Antagonism of opioid inputs to the VTA

Answer 43

C. Antagonism of dopaminergic inputs in the amygdala

Question 44

A patient suffers an ischemic event that disrupts neuronal functioning in a region of the brain including the primary auditory cortex, the right superior temporal sulcus, and the frontal cortex. What cognitive functions are they most likely to have difficulty with?

A. Recognizing a person’s face as a special ‘object’
B. Recognizing that other people act from a belief system different from their own
C. Identifying the intent of an action being performed by another person
D. Evaluating the evidence available in making a decision
E. Recognizing the emotional meaning of the loudness and pitch of the spoken word

Answer 44

E. Recognizing the emotional meaning of the loudness and pitch of the spoken word

Question 45

When is the “action selection system” most likely to be active?

A. You are trying to decide between hiding from the homicidal maniac by going into the basement of a house that you have never been in before or running to the barn in the distance
B. You elected to draw from one of four piles of blue cards and the card drawn says you have lost $100
C. You have decided to bet $50 that a hidden token will be under a red cup in a situation where there are 8 red cups and 2 blue cups that the token might be under
D. You are trying to decide between going to dinner at one of your favorite restaurants or trying a new one down the street

Answer 45

B. You elected to draw from one of four piles of blue cards and the card drawn says you have lost $100

The action selection system is involved in analyzing an action you have selected and connecting the results of that action (in this case, losing $100) to a reward. Of the options listed, this is the only one that specifies that you’ve already taken this action and, in fact, the consequence was negative. The action selection system should now steer you away from the blue deck of cards

Question 46

Preventing the activation of which of the following would deprive you of joy/pleasure?

A. Ventral tegmental area
B. Lateral hypothalamic nucleus
C. Amygdala
D. Nucleus accumbens

Answer 46

A. Ventral tegmental area

By inactivating the VTA, you block the dopaminergic input to the nucleus accumbens. This dopaminergic input is required to reduce the activity of the NAc and decrease the release of GABA in the prefrontal cortex and allow the sensation of pleasure. Preventing the VTA from releasing dopamine deprives joy/pleasure

Question 47

Wernicke’s and Broca’s areas correspond to which of the following?

A. Language implementation system
B. Language mediational system
C. Language conceptual system

Answer 47

A. Language implementation system

Question 48

The noun mediation area corresponds to which of the following?

A. Language implementation system
B. Language mediational system
C. Language conceptual system

Answer 48

C. Language conceptual system

Question 49

The frontal association area corresponds to which of the following?

A. Language implementation system
B. Language mediational system
C. Language conceptual system

Answer 49

B. Language mediational system

Question 50

During one decision-making trial in a research project, the regions of the brain associated with the stimulus encoding system were found to be more active than any others. Which of the following area(s) of the brain was/were being scanned?

A. Orbitofrontal cortex
B. Anterior cingulate cortex
C. Ventromedial prefrontal cortex
D. Striatum
E. Insular cortex
F. Amygdala

Answer 50

A. Orbitofrontal cortex

C. Ventromedial prefrontal cortex

D. Striatum

Question 51

During activation of the stimulus encoding system, which of the following decisions is most likely being made?

A. Decide how much to bet on the probability that a quarter is under a purple cup, when there are 5 purple cups, 9 blue cups, and 6 red cups to choose from
B. Select a card from one of four different decks of 36 cards each (red, blue, green, and purple) to find out how much money he has won or lost
C. Choose between one of three identical curtains to see what prizes he has won

Answer 51

A. Decide how much to bet on the probability that a quarter is under a purple cup, when there are 5 purple cups, 9 blue cups, and 6 red cups to choose from