1: Functional Neuroanatomy Flashcards
(17 cards)
What is phrenology?
- Focused on measurements of the human skull (bumps on the skull)
- based on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind
- brain is composed of thirty-one personality organs each with a specific mental function and each found at a specific location in the cerebral convolutions of the brain
- Conclusions based on “extremes of society” such as criminals or clergyman: empirically not valid
What is cytoarchitectonics
- one of the ways to parse the brain, by obtaining sections of the brain and staining them with chemical agents that reveal how neurons are “stacked” into layers.
- Organizing the brain based on type of neurons, stacking of neurons, the different chemicals in neurons, etc
- They didn’t know what the functions were for these different regions
Who was Wilder Penfield?
- Treated patients with severe epilepsy by destroying brain regions (nerve cells) where the seizures originated
- He stimulated the brain with electrical probes while the patients were conscious and observed their responses.
- The technique also allowed for the creation of maps of the sensory and motor cortices of the brain showing their connections to the various limbs and organs of the body.
What is the homonculus (little person)?
– Representation of the human body in the sensory or motor cortex; any topographical representation of the body by a neural area
What is topographic organization?
- neural spatial representation/ordering of the body or areas of the sensory world perceived by a sensory organ (ex. lips, face, eye, jaw right next to each other)
What type of memory is the amygdala associated with?
emotional memory
What type of memory is the cerebellum associated with?
conditioned timing
What type of memory is the cerebral cortex associated with?
perceptual memory, semantic memory, priming
What type of memory is the hippocampus associated with?
– declarative memory (episodic/semantic)
What type of memory is the prefrontal cortex associated with?
working memory
What is the basal ganglia made up of?
- Caudate Nucleus
- Putamen
- Globus pallidus
- Subthalamic Nucleus
- The Substantia Nigra
a. Pars compacta
b. Pars reticulata
What is the basal ganglia?
The basal ganglia are a collection of nuclei found on both sides of the thalamus involved in the coordination of movement and posture
– The basal ganglia also regulates motivation (damage to it can cause people to show little to no interest in anything, however they do not feel bored or frustrated by their state)
What does toxoplasma gondii do to the brain?
- After infection, the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii latently persists in the brain for the life of an infected host
- Blocks the innate aversion of rats for cat urine, producing an attraction to the pheromone (this may increase the likelihood of a cat predating a rat)
What is the function of the hypothalamus?
- controls the endocrine system by sending signals to the pituitary gland (an endocrine gland that releases several different hormones that affect other glands as well as other cells) meaning it regulates important behaviours
- makes sure key functions like food and water intake, energy expenditure, circadian rhythm, and body temperature are kept at appropriate levels (homeostasis)
What type of behaviour will be affected by electrical stimulation to different nuclei of the hypothalamus?
goal-directed behaviours, such as:
- Eating and drinking
- Digging
- Displaying fear
- Predatory or attack behaviour
- Reproductive behaviour
What is aphagia?
– Failure to eat; may be due to an unwillingness to eat or to motor difficulties, especially with swallowing; observed following lesions to the lateral hypothalamus
What is hyperphasia?
– Disorder in which an animal overeats, leading to significant weight gain; observed following lesions to the ventromedial hypothalamus or the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus
