Subcortical Structures Flashcards
5 Principal Components of Basal Ganglia
What’s the mneumonic device?
Caudate Nucleus
Putamen
Globus Pallidus
Subthalamic Nucleus
Substantia Nigra
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Where is basal ganglia connected to?
(where it receives inputs and projects outputs)
Receives input from all cortical areas.
Project only to areas on frontal cortex concerned with motor planning and execution.
What is a large part of basal ganglia’s function? How do we know?
Motor planning and execution.
We know based on where it projects information.
What 2 diseases are most often associated with basal ganglia?
Huntington’s Chorea and Parkinson’s Disease
What is Chorea?
involuntary dance-like movements and jerks
how many Americans have Parkinson’s? What rank common is it as a degenerative disease?
1 million Americans.
2nd to Alzheimer’s
What neurologically goes wrong in Parkinson’s?
Degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in substantia nigra.
Symptoms of Parkinson’s. What does it typically start with?
Starts with small tremors.
Then increases weakness, tremors, poor balance, difficulty in initiating movements, resting tremor
What is resting tremor?
Which disease?
Parkinson’s.
Vibratory movements in arms and hards that diminish when individual makes purposeful movements.
What are treatments for Parkinson’s?
No long-term cure.
Therapies available lose effectiveness over time.
Genetic and Environmental factors of Parkinson’s
Used to think it was genetic, but now there are unknown enviornmental facotrs through twin studies
What is a protective factor for Parkinson’s
Smoking. But not sure what chemical
What brain regions degenerate in Huntington’s Disease?
Caudate Nucleus and Putamen
Huntington Disease symptoms
Uncontrollable, jerky, involuntary movements; loss of memory, personality changes, decreased mental capacity
What is the cure for Huntington’s?
no cure. eventually causes death
When does Huntington’s typically occur?
3rd or 4th decade of life
What’s an autosomal dominant condition?
Which disease?
Huntington’s Disease.
Autosomal dominant means each child has 50% chance of inheriting the disease. And everyone who gets the gene will eventually get the disease.
Why does sex not matter for autosomal dominant conditions?
In autosomal (first 22 pairs) chromosomes, not sex chromosome.
Why is the age of onset for Huntington’s a concern?
It is after typical childbearing years, which means you will have a child before you know you have Huntington’s.
Limbic system functions
Emotions (love, fear, sorrow) and memory; sexual activity
The larger the amygdala, the stronger the _______
sex drive
What’s to note about the classification of limbic system and basal ganglia?
They are classifications that aren’t warranted (lots of disagreement and debate on them being unitary)
Which brain region is sometimes included in limbic system but sometimes not?
Hypothalamus
Brain parts in limbic system
Fornix, Amygdala, Cingulate Cortex, Septum, Mammillary bodies, Hippocampus, Hypothalamus
Why do some include hypothalamus in limbic system?
It controls release of biochemicals to mediate fear.
How important is memory in the limbic system?
Very. It helps our survival and conceptual learning.
Conceptual learning example
Being afraid of getting eaten by a bear.
(we have never experienced it, so it’s a concept)
Which system has to do with drive-related activities central to survival?
Limbic system
Which other region does our limbic system interact with? For what functions?
Cerebral cortex.
Higher-order cognitive tasks.
3 parts of the brainstem
Medulla, pons, midbrain
Where are ALL the tracts from brain to body and body to brain located?
Brain stem
Where contains nuclei of the cranial nerves?
Brain stem
A small lesion to the brain stem will cause what?
Coma
Medulla functions
Digestion, breathing, heart rate
Pons functions
conveys info about movement from cerebral hemispheres to cerebellum.
Midbrain functions
sensory and motor functions, like eye movement and visual/auditory reflexes
What 2 brain regions are required for pracitcing motor activities without much thought?
Cerebellum and pons (pons do the relaying of info)
What percent of brain’s volume is cerebellum? What percent of neurons does it contain?
10% of brain volume, more than 50% of neurons in the brain
What does the cerebellum do with regulating movement?
It adjusts the output of motor systems and corrects ongoing movements when they deviate.
What brain regions is cerebellum connected to? (3)
Motor cortex (intent), pons relay the message, and spinal cord (execution)
