Higher mental function

Question 1

Which area of the brain is the primary visual cortex?

Answer 1

Area 17

Question 2

What cortex recognises where an object is?

Answer 2

Posterior parietal association cortex

Question 3

What cortex recognises what an object is?

Answer 3

Inferotemporal association cortex

Question 4

How is primary visual cortex connected to posterior parietal association cortex?

Answer 4

Superior longitudinal fasciculus

Question 5

How is primary visual cortex connected to inferotemporal association cortex?

Answer 5

Inferior longitudinal fasciculus

Question 6

What shape receptive fields do ganglion cells in the retina have?

Answer 6

Circular

Question 7

What do you call ganglion cells with an excitatory centre?

Answer 7

On-centre cells

Question 8

How do on centre ganglion cells respond if a spot of light is shone in the centre of their field?

Answer 8

They fire action potentials

Question 9

What happens if a spot of light is shone on the surrounding region of on-centre cells?

Answer 9

Firing of action potentials is reduced?

Question 10

What is the effect of diffuse light which illuminates both areas?

Answer 10

No effect

Question 11

What do you call a ganglion cell with inhibitory centre and excitatory surround?

Answer 11

Off-centre, on-surround cell

Question 12

What happens is light is shone on the centre of an off-centre, on-surround cell?

Answer 12

Firing of action potentials is inhibited

Question 13

What happens if light is shone on surrounding region of off-centre, on-surround cell

Answer 13

Cell firing is increased

Question 14

How do receptive fields in lateral geniculate nucleus appear?

Answer 14

Similar shape to those in the retina

Question 15

What stimulation do cells in the primary visual cortex respond best to?

Answer 15

Binocular stimulation with bars or edges of a particular orientation: simple visual receptive field

Question 16

In cells with simple receptive fields, what is the effect of bars of light having incorrect orientation?

Answer 16

Stimulates both excitatory and inhibitory so fails to excite cell

Question 17

How can simple cells be formed by convergence of centre surround cells?

Answer 17

Particular set of afferents with circular receptive fields converge onto a cortical cell giving it a bar-shaped receptive field

Question 18

How can a bar shaped receptive field anywhere within large area of retina be produced?

Answer 18

Particular set of cortical cells with bar shaped receptive fields converge onto another cortical cell

Question 19

What information do complex cells have in terms of orientation and position?

Answer 19

Orientation information maintained: orientation specific

Position information discarded: position independent

Question 20

What are V4 and V8 sensitive to?

Answer 20

Colour of objects

Question 21

What are V3 cells sensitive to?

Answer 21

Movement of objects

Question 22

What are V7 cells sensitive to?

Answer 22

Size of objects

Question 23

What is meant by feature detection theory of visual perception

Answer 23

When an object is recognised, hierarchy of cells is active
V1 cells: edges and corners of object
Simultaneously active set of these cells feed into gnostic cells that responds to basic outline of shape

Question 24

Where do the neurones that recognise colour size and movement have inputs into

Answer 24

Inferotemporal cortex

Question 25

How is inferotemporal cortex involved in recognition of an object?

Answer 25

Activity of particular subset of neurone activates one or a small group of cells in inferotemporal cortex. This generates concious recognition of the object

Question 26

What is meant by bottom up perceptual processing?

Answer 26

Information passing up through a hierarchy of neurones with ever-increasing specificity of receptive field to final cell(s) that represent consciousness

Question 27

What is meant by the top down component of perception?

Answer 27

The brain can set thresholds for activations of cells in different hierarchies because it has a sense of expectation of what is will see

Question 28

What part of the brain computes the separation of an object from its background, and the objects relative location?

Answer 28

Right posterior parietal association cortex

Question 29

Name 5 symptoms of damage to right posterior parietal association cortex?

Answer 29

Piecemeal perception
Constructional apraxia
Optic apraxia
Discalculi
Contralateral disregard

Question 30

What is piecemeal perception?

Answer 30

Inability to observe more than one object at a time

Question 31

What is constructional apraxia?

Answer 31

Inability tto construct 3 dimentional objects using other objects

Question 32

What is optic apraxia?

Answer 32

Clumsiness in searching for objects, inability to state relative size of objects

Question 33

What is discalculi

Answer 33

Difficulty is counting objects

Question 34

What is contralateral disregard?

Answer 34

Subject ignores left side of body

Question 35

What is prosopagnosia and what is its most common cause?

Answer 35

Loss of ability to recognise faces

Bilateral damage to part of inferotemporal cortex

Question 36

Neurons in what area of the brain are activation during facial recognition?

Answer 36

Fusiform gyrus

Question 37

How to the brain work to recognise faces and put names to faces?

Answer 37

Right inferotemporal cortex identifies face, and information is sent to left inferotemporal cortex to put name to face

Question 38

What is the main/ general function of the dorsolateral frontal association cortex?

Answer 38

Decision making systems

Question 39

How is damage to dorsolateral frontal association cortex assessed?

Answer 39

loss of digit span memory (can you repeat back numbers)
ability to extract meaning from proverbs
Wisconsin card sorting test