21 Flashcards
(17 cards)
What are the three zones of space that are sometimes distinguished for action?
Personal Space
Space occupied by the body
Peripersonal space
Space within arm’s reach; immediate interaction area
Extrapersonal space
Space beyond arm’s reach; requires locomotion to reach
Explain the difference between route-based and map-based navigation strategies.
Route-based - landmarks - go straight and then turn left - based on recognition
Para hippocampal place area - landmark agnosia - not able to recognize landmarks
Map based- map in head- know in general relationship between various landmarks - require formation in head - studied
What are the three regions that are involved in spatial navigation beyond egocentric (close) space? What types of information are these areas processing?
Parahippocampal region
Processes landmarks and environmental layout
Retrosplenial cortex
Integrates egocentric and allocentric views, useful for flexible navigation
Hippocampus
creates and uses cognitive maps, encodes spatial memory
What are the “vaguely spatial” functions in the inferior posterior parietal lobe? How are they spatial?
Functions: Language processing, arithmetic, theory of mind, and body schema.
Spatial: They involve abstract spatial representations, like arranging numbers or words in mental space.
What are some of the reasons that arithmetic is hypothesized to be processed in
the inferior posterior parietal lobe?
Reasonings:
mental manipulation of quantities, like on a mental number line
Spatial reasoning (e.g., estimating distances between numbers)
Overlaps with areas used in finger counting, tying it to bodily space representation.
What are four types of attentional processes, which areas of the brain appear to
have a large role in these processes?
Selective attention: choosing one stimulus over others (parietal and frontal lobes)
Sustained attention: maintaining focus over time (right frontal and parietal lobes)
Divided attention: managing attention between tasks (prefrontal cortex)
Shifting attention: moving focus between stimuli (superior parietal lobule and frontal eye fields)
What type of attention is the parietal lobe very important for?
selective attention
How are dizziness and vertigo different?
Dizziness- light headed , vague
Vertigo - dizzy, very specific connotation of world spinning around you - feeling for no reason - real characteristic with vestibular disorders- hard time staying upright
What are the symptoms of Menière’s disease? What is thought to be the cause?How common is it? How is it treated?
Not common
Sudden vertigo attacks - loss of hearing
Tinnitus- ringing/rushing sound - common
World is spinning - nauseous - inconvenient and unpredictable
Excess endolymphatic fluid in the inner ear
Affects roughly 0.2–0.5% of the population
Dietary changes (low sodium)
Diuretics
vestibular suppressants (like meclizine)
Surgery or injections in severe cases
Why is there a division between somatosensory and posterior parietal disorders?
somatosensory disorders focus on disorders that affect touch
posterior parietal disorders focus on disorders that affect spatial recognition
The Anterior zone of the parietal lobe is for somatosensitization (touch, proprioception, temperature)
The Posterior zone is for integration of input from vision and other senses, for the purpose of movement (Orientation)
What are the symptoms in cases of focal lesions in postcentral gyrus?
Loss or reduction of:
Tactile sensation (touch)
Proprioception
Two-point discrimination
Stereognosis (identifying objects by touch)
How are sensory thresholds measured?
Through psychophysical tests:
Applying gradually increasing stimuli (e.g., pressure, vibration)
Asking patients when they first detect the stimulus
What are phantom limbs, and phantom limb pain?
*Sensation that missing limb is still moving or (often) causing pain
What is a mirror box in the context of phantom limbs, and what is it used for?
A visual therapy tool to reflect the intact limb, creating the illusion of the missing limb moving.
Helps reduce phantom limb pain by helping the brain “see” and control the absent limb.
What does the mirror box substitute that is missing in people with phantom limbs?
reflects limb that looks like missing one
What is astereognosis (also astereognosia) and how is it assessed?
-Inability to recognize object by touch
Integrate info from somatosensory cortex in order to construct object - dig into pocket to find out object - look for certain shapes - use a lot
Cannot recognize objects by touch - close eyes - easy to test
What are asomatognosias? What are autopagnosia and how is finger agnosia related to autopagnosia? What is anosognosia?
Asomatognosias: loss of knowledge or sense of own body or bodily condition
*Anosognosia: unawareness or denial of illness
*Autopagnosia: inability to localize and name body parts
-Common version: Finger agnosia: inability to recognize, name, or distinguish between fingers, including the fingers of others, and drawings of fingers
