The prefrontal cortex Flashcards
It is thought the prefrontal lobes are associated with personality and inhibition control. Give 2 case study examples that support this.
- Phineas Gage sustained damage to the PFC
2. Welt in 1888: fell from a window, damaged the PFC and became aggressive and malicious.
Define experimental neurosis.
Whereby a subject is given problems that are beyond their capacity to solve. It is a learned helplessness paradigm: inevitable failure leads to aversive behaviour.
Basically subjects consistently fail and begin to stop even trying.
Give 2 examples of animal work in deducing the function of the PFC.
- Ferrier, 1843-1928: monkeys given PFC lesions lost intelligent observation and attention.
- Jacobsen, Wolf and Jackson, 1935: PFC lesions reduced temper tantrums in experimental neurosis with monkeys.
Modern theory is that the PFC is necessary but not solely responsible for executive function. What is executive function?
Cognitive control or supervisory attention: a management of processes that include working memory, reasoning, task flexibility, planning, problem solving etc.
Define working memory.
Short-term memory used in immediate conscious perception and linguistic processing.
Basically memory that allows you to understand what is going on right now.
What is a schema?
Schemas specify a series of actions that vary based on environmental conditions. Each stimulus activates a different schema.
What is contention scheduling?
The activation of appropriate schema for well-learned, routine situations.
What is the Supervisory Attentional System (SAS)?
The activation of schema in unique, non-routine procedures.
What is the Supervisory Attentional System (SAS)?
The activation of schema in unique, non-routine procedures. SAS also controls contention scheduling, to stop you acting inappropriately to routine situations.
Who discovered/modelled SAS?
Burgess and Shallice in the 1980s.
Frontal lobe disorder results from trauma to the PFC. What happens to executive function?
It becomes fragmented, organisation of higher mental function deteriorates.
Frontal lobe disorder results from trauma to the PFC. What happens to executive function?
It becomes fragmented, organisation of higher mental function deteriorates. Basically you are unable to process and respond accordingly to your environment.
Throughout history lesions to the PFC have causes multiple problems. Now what do theorists think about its function?
It is ‘cognitively silent’: it does not perform cognition itself but regulates many other processes in multiple brain areas.
