Week 12: Higher Level Cognition Flashcards
What is social cognitive neuroscience?
understanding how brain functioning supports the cognitive processes underlying social behaviour
What structure controls social cognition?
No single area is devoted to thinking about the self and other, however the prefrontal cortex plays a large role
What does self-referential processing rely on?
Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
Ventrolateral prefrontal cortex
Prefrontal cortex
Medial and lateral parietal cortex
What does memory rely on?
temporal cortex
What does emotion rely on?
orbitofrontal cortex
insula
anterior cingulate cortex
what are the disorders of social cognition?
Autism
Schizophrenia
Depression
What are the core features of autism?
Qualitative impairment in social interaction
repetitive pattern of behaviour and interests
symptoms must be present in the early developmental period
The neurophysiological measurements include eye movement and neural activity
What is present in schizophrenia?
Patients show hypo-metabolism in PFC, shows less thinking about what others were thinking and how they interact
What is present in depression?
increase of blood flow to the PFC in depressed patients
what is the self-reference effect?
enhanced memory for information processed in relation to the self
Which area is most related to thinking about oneself?
Medial Prefrontal cortex
What is the default network?
Regions most active during passive tasks, it is there to ensure we always have some idea what is going on around us
what occurs when the orbitofrontal cortex is damaged?
OFC notices what is appropriate and what isn’t
However if their is damage we are unable to change the response even if we become aware of inappropriate actions
what is the theory of mind?
ability to infer mental state of other people, we tend to use eye gaze
What is empathy?
capacity to understand and respond to the experiences of another person
