Post Midterm 2 Flashcards
(140 cards)
1
Q
What are the different types of learning?
A
Motor, perceptual, relational, stimulus-response
2
Q
How stable is sensory memory
A
(perceptual memory) lasts only a couple seconds, Allows an individual to retain the experience of the sensation slightly longer than original stimulus
3
Q
How stable is short term memory
A
lasts for seconds to minutes, can be extended through rehearsal
4
Q
What parts of the brain are involved in motor learning?
A
Cerebellum, thalamus, basal ganglia and motor cortex
5
Q
What does perceptual learning involve?
A
Changes in strength of connections between neurons in primary and association sensory cortices
6
Q
How does visual agnosia connect to memory?
A
Disrupts people’s memory of visual properties
Not only ability to recognize visual stimuli
7
Q
What brain pathways are involved in instrumental conditioning?
A
Direct transcortical connections, basal ganglia
8
Q
How are direct transcortical connections involved in instrumental conditioning?
A
Involved in creation of new complex motor sequences that involve deliberation or instruction
9
Q
Direct transcortical connections:
A
connections from one area of the cerebral cortex to another
10
Q
How are the basal ganglia involved in instrumental conditioning?
A
regulate habit learning… integrate sensory and motor info from throughout the brain, initially acting as a passive observer… When successful behaviors are repeated, basal ganglia starts to automate stimulus-response process… Creates habitual ways of responding, leaving transcortical circuits free
11
Q
How is dopamine involved in instrumental conditioning?
A
signaling drives habit learning by controlling synaptic plasticity in the basal ganglia
12
Q
Nearly every area of the cerebral cortex projects to the
A
basal ganglia
13
Q
Inputs to the basal ganglia synapse in the
A
striatum
14
Q
the striatum consists of 3 parts:
A
caudate, putamen, and nucleus accumbens
15
Q
How do dopamine neurons contribute to learning?
A
Dopamine neurons in the midbrain (substantia nigra and ventral tegmental area) signal reinforcement and punishment by releasing more or less dopamine in the striatum
16
Q
What kind of information is processed in the striatum?
A
Different areas process different information … Nucleus accumbens in the ventral striatum: receives input from limbic areas such as the hippocampus, amygdala and parts of PFC… Seems to regulate priorities and cravings
17
Q
What is the role of the basal ganglia?
A
Reinforcement learning, different circuits within the basal ganglia become involved in the action selection and execution process across this transition
18
Q
Lesions of the basal ganglia disrupt
A
reinforcement learning and habit learning, but do not strongly affect perceptual learning or stimulus-stimulus learning
19
Q
What is Korsakoff’s syndrome?
A
permanent anterograde amnesia caused by brain damage, usually resulting from chronic alcoholism, often coupled with confabulation
20
Q
What is anterograde amnesia?
A
Unable to form new memories but can still remember old ones before the damage
21
Q
What is confabulation?
A
reporting of memories of events that didn’t take place (no intention to deceive)
22
Q
Afferent neurons carry information from
A
sensory receptors to the CNS (OUT TO IN)
23
Q
Efferent neurons carry information from
A
CNS to the muscles (IN TO OUT)
24
Q
Anterograde movement
A
Soma to distal axon (IN TO OUT)
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Retrograde movement
Axon to soma (OUT TO IN)
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What is the role of the hippocampus in relational learning?
Forming new episodic and semantic memories
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Hippocampus is NOT the location of
short or long term memories
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Hippocampus is critical for
consolidation of short term into explicit long term memories
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What is memory encoding?
Consolidation, making memories 'permanent’
30
During any given moment, unique pattern of neural activity in the ___ reflects sensory input, thought processes, emotions, etc
cerebral cortex
31
Where are spatial memories stored?
Consolidated and stored in the cerebral cortex after 30 days
need functional hippo. to remember newly learned
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Retrograde amnesia
inability to remember events that occurred ‘before’ brain injury
33
When amnesic patients are tested, found that they still have ___, ____, and ____ learning
perceptual, motor and stimulus-response
34
What is the directionality of verbal behavior in the brain?
Lateral
35
Most language disturbances occur after damage to the ___ side of brain
left
36
What is prosody and what part of the brain is it understood in?
Pitch/tone, right hemisphere
37
What is phonagnosia?
Difficulty recognizing voices
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What does phonagnosia result from?
localized brain damage to the right superior temporal cortex
39
What is aphasia?
Disturbance in understanding, repeating or producing meaningful sound, Isolated deficit, patient is capable of recognizing when others are attempting to communicate
40
Where does language comprehension take place?
Posterior language area
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Where is the posterior language area?
located at the junction of the temporal, occipital and parietal lobes, around the posterior end of the lateral fissure
42
Neurons in the posterior language area activate the ensemble of neurons throughout sensory association cortices that store...
representations of words
43
Damage to the posterior language area causes
transcortical sensory aphasia:
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transcortical sensory aphasia:
failure to comprehend the meaning of words and an inability to express thoughts with meaningful speech, Word perception and speaking might be fine (without any comprehension of what is heard or spoken)
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What is conduction aphasia?
Inability to repeat exact words, other than that, speech is meaningful, fluid and with good comprehension, can’t repeat nonsense words
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What causes conduction aphasia?
damage to the connection between Wernicke’s area and Broca’s area known as the arcuate fasciculus: bundle of axons that connects the two areas
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What is Wernicke’s Area?
Involved in analysis of speech sounds and in recognition of spoken words
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Where is Wernicke's Area?
Region of auditory association cortex on left temporal lobe of humans
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Being able to hear is one thing (___) and recognizing words (____) amd comprehending them (____)
primary auditory cortex, Wernicke’s area, Posterior Language Area
50
Pure word deafness: result of damage to
a small part of Wernicke’s area
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Pure word deafness
Disorder of auditory word recognition, an inability to comprehend or repeat spoken words
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Wernicke’s aphasia
features of transcortical sensory aphasia and pure word deafness, poor language comprehension, fluent speech production, but what they say is meaningless and typically filled with function words (not nouns, verbs, adjectives)
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Wernicke’s aphasia results from
damage to both Wernicke’s area and PLA which means you have features of transcortical sensory aphasia and pure word deafness
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What is pure alexia?
Disrupts ability to perceive written words, Cannot read, but writing skills are fine
55
Pure Alexia results from
damage to visual word-form area (VWFA)
56
visual word-form area VWFA is in the
fusiform gyrus of left hemisphere
57
What is surface dyslexia?
Inability to recognize whole-words, can only read phonetically, Irregularly spelled words are difficult to perceive
58
What is phonological dyslexia?
can read familiar words but difficult to read unfamiliar or non-words
59
What area controls speech production?
Broca’s area
60
What is Broca's aphasia
difficult for patients to express themselves verbally, slow non-fluent speech
61
What is anomic aphasia?
hard time thinking of the word they want to say
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What is Anomia?
difficult in remembering appropriate word to describe object
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What is Circumlocution?
strategy by which people with anomia find alternative ways to say something when they are unable to think of the most appropriate word
64
What can increase the risk of a stroke?
Atherosclerosis: process in which linings of arteries develop a layer of plaque, deposits of cholesterol, fats, calcium and cellular waste products
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What is an hemorrhagic stroke?
rupture of a cerebral blood vessel
66
What is an ischemic stroke?
occlusion of a blood vessel
67
Thrombus:
blood clot that forms within a blood vessel, which may block it and reduce blood flow to the affected area
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Embolus:
piece of matter (such as a blood clot, fat, or bacterial debris) that dislodges from its site or origin and occludes an artery
69
In the brain an ___ can lead to a stroke
embolus
70
To treat a stroke you can administer
drugs that dissolve blood clots in an attempt to reestablish circulation to an ischemic brain region
71
Malignant tumor:
cancerous, lacks distinct border and may metastasize
72
Non-malignant tumor:
non-cancerous, “benign” tumor, has distinct border and cannot metastasize
73
How does a tumor affect the brain?
Compression: directly destroys brain tissue, or indirectly by blocking flow of CSF and causing hydrocephalus & Infiltration: occupying space and pushes against brain
74
Example of malignant tumour
Glioma, Tumor initiating cells originate from the neural stem cells that make glia
75
Example of Non-malignant tumour
meningioma, Composed of cells that constitute the meninges, often right between the two cerebral hemispheres
76
What are the common causes of seizures?
Injury, stroke, tumor, developmental abnormality, high fevers, and withdrawal from GABA agonists, such as alcohol and barbiturates
77
Neural network instability and increased risk of seizures can be because of genetic reasons, involving mutations that affect
Amount or function of different ion channels in the brain
The reciprocal wiring of excitatory and inhibitory neurons
Rules that govern synaptic plasticity
78
Do all seizures cause convulsions?
No, in fact most do not
If neurons that make up motor system are involved, a seizure can cause a convulsion
79
What are the different types of seizures?
Partial (focal) and generalized
80
Partial seizure:
begins at a focus and remains localized, not generalizing to rest of brain
81
A simple partial seizure:
does not produce loss of consciousness
82
A complex partial seizure:
produces a loss of consciousness
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A Generalized seizure:
involves most of the brain
84
What are the different types of generalized seizures?
Grand mal, atonic, absence
85
Tonic-clonic:
grand mal that typically starts with an aura followed by a tonic phase and clonic phases, involves convulsion
86
Aura:
sensation that precedes a seizure, exact nature depends on location of the seizure focus
87
Tonic phase:
first phase, all skeletal muscles are contracted
88
Clonic phase:
second phase, rhythmic jerking movements
89
Absence (petite mal):
common in children, very brief seizures
Generalized complex seizures
People stop and stare into the distance, often blinking eye repeatedly
90
Can seizure disorders be treated?
Yes, effectively with meds, usually benzos
91
What is MS (multiple sclerosis)?
Autoimmune demyelinating disease
Usually occurs late 20s/30s
Certain genes can increases one’s susceptibility for getting MS, but generally a sporadic disease
92
In MS, at scattered locations within the central nervous system, ___ are attacked by the ____
myelin sheaths, immune system
93
In MS, normal transmission of ___ is interrupted because of ___
neural messages, demyelinated axons
94
In MS, wide variety of neurological disorders are seen because
damage occurs in white matter located throughout brain and spinal cord
95
Neurodegen. disease typically results from
large scale apoptosis
96
Neurodegen. disease is triggered by
aggregates of misfolded proteins that disrupt normal cellular function, some conditions injure particular kinds of cells, others are more widespread
97
What is prion protein disease?
Contagious brain disease whose degenerative process gives the brain a sponge-like appearance, eg. mad cow
98
Accumulation of misfolded prion protein is responsible for
transmissible spongiform encephalopathies
99
Prion:
misfolded proteins with the ability to transmit their misfolded shape onto normal variants of the same protein
100
When a misfolded prion protein interacts with correctly folded prion proteins, it will...
cause them to misfold as wel
101
What is Huntington’s disease caused by?
Caused by one dominant mutation in Huntingtin gene, Mutated protein tends to aggregate and over time this cause degeneration of neurons in these regions
102
In Huntington's the protein produced from the bad gene causes aggregates in the
basal ganglia, protein is heavily expressed in the input nuclei of the basal ganglia (the striatum - caudate nucleus and putamen)
103
Huntington’s disease is characterized by
severe lack of coordination, uncontrollable jerky limb movements, and eventually dementia followed by death
104
What is Parkinson’s disease associated with?
Associated with degeneration of dopamine neurons in the midbrain, specifically in the substantia nigra
105
Parkinson's disease is characterized by
Shaking, muscular rigidity, slowness of movement, eventually dementia
106
Causes of Parkinson's are largely unknown (genetic, environmental), however the death of midbrain ____ neurons seems to relate to aggregation to the protein ____
dopamine, alpha synculein
107
Alpha-synuclein:
protein that is heavily expressed in dopamine neurons, tends to aggregate at some rate
108
Lewy body:
aggregate of misfolded alpha-synuclein protein; found in the cytoplasm of midbrain dopamine neurons in Parkinson’s patients
109
Reduced dopamine signaling in the ___ disrupts movement
basal ganglia
110
L-dopa (as a treatment drug) has to be taken instead of dopamine because
Dopamine cannot cross the blood-brain barrier
111
What other cellular components are involved in Parkinson’s disease?
Ubiquitin, parkin and proteasome
112
Ubiquitin:
protein that is put on faulty/old/misfolded proteins, which targets them for degradation
Ubiquitinated proteins get brought to proteasomes, which breaks them into their constituent amino acids for recycling
113
Parkin:
protein that plays a critical role ubiquitination
Mutated parkin is a cause of familial Parkinson’s disease
If parkin is defective, misfolded proteins accumulate, aggregate, and eventually kill the cell
114
Proteasome:
organelle responsible for destroying ubiquitinated proteins within a cell
Dopaminergic neurons are especially sensitive to loss of parkin function and alpha-synuclein aggregation
115
What is toxic gain of function?
Genetic disorder caused by a dominant gene mutation that produces a protein with toxic effects
116
Mutations in alpha-synuclein gene cause
Parkinson's
117
Mutation in in huntingtin gene cause
Huntington's
118
What is loss of function?
Genetic disorder caused by recessive gene mutation that fails to produce a protein that is necessary to avoid problem
119
example of loss of function
Loss of or mutations in the parkin gene can cause misfolded alpha-synuclein protein to not be degraded/discarded
120
What is dementia?
Progressive impairments to memory, thinking and behavior as a result of a neurological disorder
121
What is Alzhemier’s disease?
Neurodegenerative disorder that causes progressive memory loss, motor deficits and eventual death
122
Alzheimer's is associated with aggregates of misfolded ____ protein and severe degeneration within and around the ____ and ____
B-amyloid, hippocampus, neocortex
123
B-amyloid precursor protein (APP):
gene for this protein is located on chromosome 21
124
Secretase:
class of enzymes that cut the B-amyloid precursor protein into smaller fragments, including B-amyloid
125
Presenilin:
protein that forms part of the secretases that cut APP
126
Mutations in ___ can cause it to preferentially generate the abnormal long form B-amyloid, which causes early onset Alzheimer’s disease
Presenilin
127
Apolipoprotein E (ApoE)
glycoprotein that transports cholesterol in the blood and plays a role in cellular repair
128
Presence of the E4 allele of the ____ increases risk of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease
apoE gene
129
What is ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis)?
Motor neuron disease that attacks spinal cord and cranial nerve motor neurons
130
ALS is characterized by
spasticity, exaggerated stretch reflexes, progressive weakness and muscular atrophy
131
Is ALS genetic?
90% of cases are sporadic
Mutations in 2 or more genes are usually required to cause the disease
10% are inherited, 10-20% of these cases caused by mutation in the gene that produces the enzyme superoxide dismutase 1, found on chromosome 21
132
(ALS) mutation in the gene that produces the enzyme superoxide dismutase 1 causes
toxic gain of function that leads to protein misfolding and aggregation, impaired axonal transport, and mitochondrial dysfunction
133
What is schizophrenia?
Social withdrawal, disorganized thinking, abnormal speech and inability to understand reality
Affects ~1% of world’s population
Symptoms typically come on gradually, beginning in young adulthood
About 30-50% of patients do not believe they have an illness
134
What are the symptoms of schizophrenia? 3 categories
Negative: absence of behaviors
Social withdrawal, reduced emotional expression, poverty of speech, reduced motivation
Typically emerge first
Cognitive: disorganized/irrational thinking
Deficits in learning and memory, poor abstract thinking and problem solving
Positive: presence of delusions
Of persecution, grandeur, control: beliefs that contradict reality
Hallucinations: perception of stimuli that are not actually present
Typically emerge last
135
How can schizophrenia be treated?
Main treatment is medication, often in combination with psychological and social supports
Antipsychotics: target the positive symptoms of schizo: typically block the dopamine D2 receptors
But not negative
136
What is the Dopamine Hypothesis?
Excessive D2 receptor activity underlies positive symptoms of schizo
137
___ tend to elicit certain aspects of psychosis in people
Dopamine receptor agonists, like meth
138
Possible that schizos have too little dopamine in the _____, and too much elsewhere
prefrontal cortex
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