Neurophysiology of Higher Cognition (Karius)

Question 1

at a neuronal level, cognition is produced by what?

What is included under the umbrella of “cognition”

Answer 1

extensive synaptic interactions produced by the pyramidal neurons of the neocortical association cortices

language, social cognition, decision making, executive functioning, memory, visuospatial processing

Question 2

What are the four components of the language pathways?

Answer 2

• conceptual pathway-what concepts are you trying to communicate
• mediational pathway-concepts relayed via medial pathway to language implementation pathway
• language implementation pathway-Broca’s and Wenicke’s
• Speech

Question 3

Learning Language in Infancy

Answer 3

no distincition between relevant and irrelevant phenomes

6-9 months-begin to eliminate irrelevant phenomes

1yr-first words indicate that all irrelevant phenomes are gone

all spoken words are intermingled regardless of language in the same speech areas

Question 4

Language learning in adulthood (after the language aqcuisition phase)

Answer 4

new language is coded for in neighboring areas of the brain, instead of the primary speech areas

Question 5

Emotion Comprehension occurs by recognizing facial expressions in which brain regions?

Answer 5

superior temporal sulcus

fusiform gyrus

Question 6

Recognizing emotions occurs where?

Answer 6

in mirror neurons, amygdala and via prosody

Prosody: tune and rhythm of speech and how these contribute to meaning

Question 7

Prosody occurs where?

Answer 7

primary auditory cortex

posterior superior temporal sulcus-for meaning

frontal cortex-for emotional content

Question 8

What is the Theory of Mind?

Answer 8

takes emotional cognition to a higher level, not just recognizing the emotion, but recognizing the beliefs that lead to that emotion and that different people have different beliefs

Question 9

Theory of Mind requires which brain regions?

Answer 9

amygdala, medial temporal lobes, orbitofrontal regions, accessory paths

Question 10

What provides the visual input that we work with?

What identifies the emotion?

What identifies the purpose of the emotion?

Answer 10

posterior sector of the superior temporal sulcus

posterior mirror neuronal system

anterior mirror neuronal system

Question 11

What are the three neural components needed to make decisions about risks

Answer 11

stimulus encoding system

expected reward system

action selection system

Question 12

What is the function of the stimulus encoding system?

Answer 12

decisions with known risks

orbitofrontal cortex, ventromedial frontal, striatum

predicts the consequences of actions

Question 13

What is the function of the expected reward system?

Answer 13

decisions with ambiguous risks

components: amygdala, basal ganglia, insular cortex, intraparietal cortex

predicts reward

Question 14

What is the function of the Action Selection System?

Answer 14

decisions with ambiguous risks

anterior cingulate cortex

learning from mistakes, encodes results, does error detection

Question 15

What systems are used in decision making with ambiguous risk?

Answer 15

decisions in which the risks are unknown rely most heavily on the expected reward system and then on the action selection system

Question 16

What system is used in decision making for explicit risks?

Answer 16

a decision in which the risks are explicit (known) relies most heavily on the stimulus encoding system

Question 17

What is the process of prosody in emotional comprehension?

Answer 17

step 1: 1’ auditory cortex is required for the basics of sound processing, including identiy of pitch, volume, etc.

step 2: info from step 1 is sent to the right posterior superior temporal sulcus where we figure out the meaning of the sounds

step 3: final judgment of the emotional stimulus is determined in the frontal cortex

Question 18

Emotional Recognition:

what provides the visual input?

what identifies the motor action?

what identifies the goal of the action?

Answer 18

posterior sector of superior temporal sulcus

posterior mirror neuron system

anterior mirror neuron system

Question 19

Where is the structure located for imitating emotional and motor behavior?

Answer 19

the insula

Question 20

What happens with damage to the amygdala?

Answer 20

person will spend very little time looking at eyes of another person and will not methodically scan the face for emotional cues

Question 21

What role does the amygdala play in recognizing emotions in others?

Answer 21

directs eye movements to face in a triangle at the eyes, nose and mouth

Question 22

What does the conceptual system do?

Answer 22

provides concepts underlying our language

like noun mediation area receives input from ventral visual pathway and provides us with the names of things

Question 23

What is the mediational system?

Answer 23

areas in temporal, parietal, and frontal association areas

relays info to the language implementation system from the third system i language production

Question 24

Cognition requires extensive synaptic interactions between what?

Answer 24

pyramidal cells of all neocortical association areas