unit 7a

Question 1

Phineas gage

Answer 1

survived accident -had rod shot thru prefrontal cortex
→ had drastic personality changes as a result

His case infl. 19th century thinking abt brain & localization of its func.s & was perhaps 1st to suggest that damage to specific brain region might affect personality & behavior

Question 2

Lobotomy

Answer 2

procedure where icepicks are placed in orbital sockets → up into prefrontal cortex & wiggled around, destroying tissue in order to treat wide variety of mental illnesses

Question 3

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)

Answer 3

highest cortical area resp. for motor planning, organization, & regulation

• which is involved in integration of sensory & memory info + regulation of intellectual func. & action (EXECUTIVE FUNCTION) & also involved in WORKING MEMORY

Question 4

Executive function

Answer 4

cognitive tasks such as working memory, cognitive flexibility, planning, inhibition, & abstract reasoning

Question 5

Working (short-term) memory

Answer 5

limited, active, transient traces of experiences that happened in very recent past (no longer than a few seconds ago)

Its the “RAM” of human memory

Question 6

Frontal convexity syndrome

Answer 6

disorder characterized by apathy, indifference, occasional outbursts, loss of self, stimulus-bound behavior, lack of planning, psychomotor retardation, MOTOR PRESERVATION & programming deficits, poor word list generation, poor abstraction & categorization + WORKING MEMORY DEFICITS

Question 7

Preservation

Answer 7

persistent use of a specific strategy to solve a problem, desire fact that strategy is wrong or rule of task has changed

Question 8

Wisconsin Card sorting Task

Answer 8

1 ex of a test that can reveal problems w/ executive function assoc. w/ DLPFC damage

Question 9

Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)

Answer 9

part of cortex that subserves primarily executive func.’s related emotional control & reward system

Plays key roles in decision making, empathy, & reward anticipation + involved in autonomic funcs like blood pressure & heart rate (together w/ brain stem)

Question 10

Medial front syndrome

Answer 10

syndrome characterized by AKINETIC MUTISM
- a paucity of spontaneous mvmt & gesture, sparse verbal output, lower extremity weakness & loss of sensation, incontinence

Caused by: damage to medial wall of frontal lobe, usually incl. anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)

Treatments varies by patient: stimulants, L-Dopa

Question 11

Orbitofrontal cortex

Answer 11

Cortex that is involved in:
-sensory integration, affective value of reinforcers, decision making, expectation, taste, flavor, & regulates planning behavior assoc. w/ sensitivity to reward & punishment

Question 12

orbitofrontal syndrome

Answer 12

syndrome caused by damage to orbitofrontal cortex that is characterized by DISINHIBITED & impulsive behavior, inappropriate jocular effect (laughing/excited moot), emotional lability (lrg /rapid shifts in emotions), poor judgement + insight (understanding of self & disease), sexual disinhibition (wilder sexual habits), lack of concern for others + distractibility

Question 13

Antisocial personality disorder

Answer 13

personality disorder: an enduring pattern of inner experience + behavior that deviates f/ norm of indiv’s culture

antisocial personality disorder: a condition in which an adult has a long-term pattern of manipulating, exploiting, or violating rights of others.
- thought to be assoc. w/ criminal behavior
- related terms: psychopathic & sociopathic disorder
→ Dissocial personality disorder = proposed term to cover all

NO recog. treatment

Question 14

Conduct disorder

Answer 14

juvenile diagnosis that may turn into antisocial personality disorder in adult
- behaviors include: bedwetting, animal abuse, pyromania, + general problems w/ authority

Question 15

Tourette’s syndrome

Answer 15

a syndrome in which patients exhibit multiple motor tics & at least 1 vocal tic- which change over time

Typical onset is during childhood & may be common in 1 in 100 children
~10% have COPROLALIA

Freq. co-occurs w./ OCD, ADHD, anxiety/depression

Causes: likely genetic causes that affects frontal lobe & basal ganglia development
- decreased size of caudate nucleus of basal ganglia is correlated w/ incr. severity of symptoms. Tics worsen w/ stress

Treatments: Behavioral- CBT, habit reversal training
DBS- can have dramatic symptom improvement but invasive
Medications- variable effect; antipsychotics for tics, antidepressants SSIRs, blood pressure medications

Question 16

Coprolalia

Answer 16

a condition assoc. w/ Tourette’s syndrome
- person has vocal tic consisting of socially inapprop. exclamations

ONLY 10% of patients have this

Question 17

Motor & vocal tics

Answer 17

mvmts/vocalizations characteristics of Tourette’s syndrome that are stereotypic, temporarily suppressible, non-rhythmic & often preceded by unwanted premonitory urge (like feeling need to sneeze)

Patients can suppress tics for a little while but then will typically have rebound effect of more tics

Possible treatments target symptoms & include: behavioral approaches (habit reversal training, CBT, DBS (of basal ganglia) & medications (antipsychotics that decrease dopamine; antidepressants, blood pressure meds)

Question 18

Klüver-bucy syndrome

Answer 18

syndrome characterized by placidity, diminished fear of responses, inability to recognize emotional importance of an event, eating inapprop. objects, over-eating, hyper-orality, altered sexuality (compulsive sex drive, sex w/ inapprop. items), visual agnosia, & hypermetamorphosis

Causes: thought to be caused by damage to amygdala (fear response region) of limbic system & connections b/t limbic syst. & frontal cortex

Treatment: not very good; target symptoms & include antipsychotic meds to dec. ↓ dopamine

Question 19

hypermetamorphosis

Answer 19

impulse to notice & react to everything w/in sight