Week 1: Lecture Flashcards
What is the goal related to brain anatomy?
To learn the organisation of the brain and the brain anatomy of the parietal and occipital lobes as well as the basal ganglia.
What is the goal related to motion and perception?
To understand how motion and perception are processed in the brain.
What is the goal related to brain lesions?
To link lesions of the parietal and occipital lobes to motion and perception disorders.
What is cognitive neuroscience?
A branch of psychology studying the brain mechanisms in relation to cognitive and behavioural processes.
What allowed progress in understanding brain mechanisms?
Modern imaging techniques.
What can strokes result from?
Cerebral haemorrhage or cerebral ischemia.
What is cerebral haemorrhage?
Bleeding in the brain.
What is cerebral ischemia?
Disruption of blood supply.
What are causes of cerebral ischemia?
Thrombosis, embolism, arteriosclerosis.
What is epilepsy characterized by?
Excessive and abnormal brain activity causing transient loss of consciousness.
What degenerative disorder affects the basal ganglia?
Parkinson’s disease.
What are signs of Parkinson’s disease?
Reduction of dopamine and difficulty initiating behavior.
What disorder involves degeneration of cortex neurons?
Alzheimer’s disease.
What are signs of Alzheimer’s disease?
Attentional deficits, forgetfulness, personality changes.
What genetic disorder affects the striatum?
Huntington’s disease.
What are signs of Huntington’s disease?
Motor impairments followed by cognitive decline.
What is Korsakoff’s disease?
Degeneration of the diencephalon due to alcoholism and malnutrition.
What is the main symptom of Korsakoff’s disease?
Amnesia.
What does multiple sclerosis affect?
Myelin surrounding the axons.
What type of disorder is multiple sclerosis?
Autoimmune disorder.
What does EDA measure?
Sympathetic system activation related to physiological arousal.
What does EEG measure?
Electrical signal from pyramidal cells in the brain.
What is the BOLD signal?
Blood-oxygen level-dependent signal used in fMRI as an index of neural activation.
What does fMRI measure?
Metabolic signals from blood oxygen levels.
What does PET stand for?
Positron Emission Tomography.
What is the medulla derived from?
Myelencephalon.
What is the hindbrain derived from?
Metencephalon.
What is the midbrain derived from?
Mesencephalon.
What structures come from the diencephalon?
Hypothalamus and thalamus.
What comes from the telencephalon?
Cerebral cortex and sub-cortical structures.
What is the function of ventricles in the brain?
Reduce brain shock and remove waste via cerebrospinal fluid.
What does the somatic nervous system control?
Our senses.
What does the autonomic nervous system reflect?
Emotional responses.
What is the primary motor cortex responsible for?
Action maps and object recognition by touch.
What is the secondary motor cortex responsible for?
Programming of movements.
What does the premotor cortex include?
Mirror neurons.
What is the role of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex?
Intentional action initiation.
What does the posterior parietal lobe integrate?
Visual, sensorimotor, auditory, and attentional information.
What is the role of basal ganglia?
Modulation of motor output and cognitive functions.
What is the function of the cerebellum?
Integrates information from M1 and M2 with external input, involved in motor learning.
What is apraxia?
Disorder of voluntary movements not due to muscle deficits.
What type of apraxia affects object-related actions?
Ideational apraxia.
What type of apraxia affects repeating or copying movements?
Ideomotor apraxia.
What is contralateral neglect?
Inability to respond to stimuli on the opposite side of the body.
Which brain part is involved in apraxia?
Left posterior parietal cortex.
Which brain part is involved in contralateral neglect?
Right posterior parietal cortex.
How is sensory information processed?
Through a distributed hierarchical system.
What is agnosia?
Inability to recognize objects based on the sensory system.
What is the function of the primary visual cortex (V1)?
Receives and integrates visual inputs.
What is the function of secondary visual cortex (V2)?
Perception of motion and analysis of visual inputs.
What are the two visual pathways?
Dorsal occipito-parietal (WHERE) and ventral occipito-temporal (WHAT).
What happens if the ventral pathway is lesioned?
Patients can’t describe objects but can reach them.
What happens if the dorsal pathway is lesioned?
Patients can describe objects but can’t reach them.
