W12

Question 1

Lobes of the cortex.

Answer 1

Frontal lobe (Stirnlappen)
Temporal lobe (Schläfenlappen)
Occipital lobe (Hinterhauptlappen)
Parietal lobe (Scheitellappen)

Question 2

Rough division of the cortex by function.

Answer 2

Frontal lobe: planning, decision making
Parietal lobe: attention (neglect syndrome)
Temporal lobe: recognition (facial recognition)

Question 3

Difference between the structures of the cortex and inner parts of the brain.

Answer 3

Neocortex has 6 layers. Different thicknesses in different areas.
Paleocortex (pyriform cortex) has 3 layers.
Archiocortex (hippocampus) has 4 layers.

Question 4

What layer of the neocortex does the Thalamus input to?

Answer 4

Mainly the 4th layer, but also 2nd.

Question 5

What layer of the neocortex outputs to the thalamus?

Answer 5

6th

Question 6

What is neglect syndrome?

Answer 6

Damage to the parietal lobe on the right side means that patients can only see things in their right field of view.
Damage to the left side in the same place would not have this effect.

Question 7

Which lobe is the “Delayed response task” associated with and what is it?

Answer 7

Prefrontal cortex: The experiment identified the neurons involved with planning in the Rheus monkey.

Question 8

What are the criteria for sleep?

Answer 8

1. reduced motoric
2. weakened response to stimulation
3. stereotypical body position
4. relatively easy to reverse
5. compensation after sleep deprevation

Question 9

What are the stages of sleep?

Answer 9

Stage I
StageII
Stage III
Stage IV
REM
Phases get shorter and depth of sleep gets less through the night. After 7 hours III stage not even reached. REM stages get longer as the night progresses. 
Stage I-IV: non-REM
Stage III-IV slow-wave (deep sleep) - high amplitude, slow frequency.

Question 10

Where are the on and off switches for sleep located?

Answer 10

On: thalamus
Off: reticular activating system

Question 11

What substance could be responsible for sleep pressure?

Answer 11

Adenosin

Question 12

What are the histologically different regions of the cerebral cortex referred to as?

Answer 12

cytoarchitectonic areas
(Brodmann's areas)- determined by different thickness of layers, cell density and distribution of cell types.

Question 13

What is the connective pathway which regulates our circadian rhythm.

Answer 13

1. The body clock is set by the melanopsin neurons in the retinal ganglion. (depolarising)
2. the axon leads to the suprachiasmic nucleus (SCN) This is thought to be the “master lock” of the circadian rhythm
3. signal goes to paraventricular neuron via interneuron.
4. Signal goes to preganglionic sympathetic neurons in the spinal cord.
5. Signal goes to superior cervical ganglia which activates the pineal gland
6. Pineal gland produces melatonin when light levels are low. Induces sleep.

Question 14

What are the two processes behind the Two-Process-Model of Borbely?

Answer 14

Process C: Circadian Rhythm

Process S: Sleep pressure increases with time of wakefulness.

Question 15

Brainstem nuclei responsible for wakefulness.

Answer 15

1. TMN in Hypothalamus (Histamine)

2. Lateral hypothalamus (orexin)

Question 16

Brainstem nuclei responsible for sleep.

Answer 16

Cholinerge neurone (Hirnstamm)
Raphe Nucleus (Hirstamm, serotonin)
Locus coerulus (Hirnstamm, noradrenalin)