Behavior, Emotions, Decision Making, and Personality

Question 1

what are the association areas of the brain?

Answer 1

temporal pole (ant end of the temporal lobe)

pre-frontal cortex (lat, med, ventral, and cortico-basal ganglia-thalamus circuit)

Question 2

what are the fxns of the association areas?

Answer 2

goal-directed behavior, emotions, decision making, social behavior, and personality

Question 3

where is the dorsal cingulate cortex located?

Answer 3

part of the med prefrontal cortex

Question 4

where is the rostral cingulate cortex located?

Answer 4

part of the ventral prefrontal cortex

Question 5

t/f: the association areas are not directly involved in motor and sensory fxns, but pass info bw motor and sensory structures

Answer 5

true

Question 6

what are the fxns of the lat prefrontal cortex?

Answer 6

executive fxn and divergent thinking in goal directed behavior

Question 7

what is executive fxning?

Answer 7

deciding on a goal

planning on how to accomplish goals

exciting the plane

monitoring the execution of the plan

Question 8

what is divergent thinking?

Answer 8

ability to think about alternatives

Question 9

what structures are involved in the goal-directed behavior loop

Answer 9

GP, VA, head of caudate, and lat prefrontal cortex

Question 10

t/f: goal-directed behavior requires working memory, judgement, planning, abstract reasoning, dividing attention, and sequencing activity

Answer 10

true

Question 11

what is the role of the med prefrontal cortex and temporal pole?

Answer 11

to identify emotional stimuli, generate, and perceive emotions (of your own and of others)

emotional regulation

Question 12

what structures are involved in automatic emotional regulation?

Answer 12

rostral cingulate cortex, med and ventral prefrontal cortex

Question 13

what structures are involved in voluntary emotional regulation?

Answer 13

rostral cingulate cortex and ventral prefrontal cortex

Question 14

what are the 5 strucutures involved in recognizing emotional stim, perceiving, and generating emotion?

Answer 14

1) amygdala
2) area 25
3) medial thalamic nucleus
4) ant insula
5) ventral striatum

Question 15

what NT is involved in reward seeking behavior?

Answer 15

dopamine

Question 16

what is involved in the reward seeking pathway?

Answer 16

ventral tegmental area (VTA in midbrain) to ventral striatum

dopamine to the central striatum

Question 17

what is involved in the aversion pathway?

Answer 17

VTA –>mPFC

Question 18

what structures are involved in motivation and emotion?

Answer 18

mPFC

ventral striatum

med thalamic nuclei

Question 19

what is involved in the social behavior pathway?

Answer 19

reward and emotion in of used to guide behavior and inhibit undesirable behavior

activated when making social decisions

self control

Question 20

what is involved in decision making?

Answer 20

lat PFC, emotional/limbic system, and social behavior loops of the basal ganglia

Question 21

what is the stimulus coding system?

Answer 21

value of the stim

ventromedial PFC

Question 22

what is the action selection system?

Answer 22

what do you do next?

ant cingulate, lat prefrontal, parietal corticies

Question 23

what is the expected reward system?

Answer 23

ventral striatum, amygdala, ant insula

Question 24

what is the psychological and somatic interaction with stress?

Answer 24

there is chemical signaling bw the NS and immune system in response to stress

NT and hormones modulate immune cells

cytokines regulate the neuroendocrine system

Question 25

what is the stress response?

Answer 25

rxn to experiences disrupting hormones

Question 26

when there is sympathetic activation, what is released?

Answer 26

cytokines

Question 27

what is the loop of the stress inducede interaction of the psychological and somatic systems?

Answer 27

sensation-->amygdala and prefrontal cortex interpret the stimuli as a threat--> hypothalamus-->pituitary, autonomic NS-->immune system-->immune cells, cytokines--> hypothalamus and so forth

Question 28

what happens in the somatic NS with stress?

Answer 28

increased muscle tension (ie tight UT)

Question 29

what happens in the autonomic NS with stress?

Answer 29

increased sympathetic activity increased blood flow to the muscles decreased blood flow to the skin, kidneys, and digestive tract

Question 30

what happens in the neuroendocrine system with stress?

Answer 30

sympathetic nerve stimulation of the adrenal medulla releases epinephrine increases HR, cardiac contractility, metabolic rate relaxes intestinal smooth muscle

Question 31

what do sympathetic nerve endings in the thymus, lymph nodes, spleen, and bone marrow release?

Answer 31

NE and peptide

Question 32

what do the sympathetic nerve endings in the adrenal medulla release?

Answer 32

epinephrine

Question 33

what do the sympathetic nerve endings in the sympathetic NS release?

Answer 33

NE

Question 34

what does the pituitary activation of the adrenal cortex release?

Answer 34

cortisol

Question 35

what do blood platelets release?

Answer 35

secrete more ATP

Question 36

what happens if there is a prefrontal cortex lesion?

Answer 36

loss of prefrontal cortex emotional regulation lat prefrontal syndrome med prefrontal syndrome

Question 37

what does a loss of prefrontal cortex emotional regulation lead to?

Answer 37

emotional lability occurs in about 50% of ppl with ALS, MS, or TBI

Question 38

what is lat prefrontal syndrome?

Answer 38

loss of goal directed behavior and divergent thinking unable to set a goal, plan, execute a plan, and monitor the execution of a plan (all actions of goal directing behavior lost even with normal intelligence)

Question 39

what is med prefrontal syndrome?

Answer 39

apathy, lack of emotion, and insight bilateral damage=profound deficits and can't initiate any activities or self care impaired understanding of others' emotions

Question 40

what is the result of ventral striatum disorders?

Answer 40

apathy OCD addiction

Question 41

what is the most common behavior abnormality secondary to ventral striatum damage?

Answer 41

apathy

Question 42

what is apathy?

Answer 42

lack of initiative, spontaneous thought, and emotional responses

Question 43

what is OCD?

Answer 43

hyperactivity of the amygdala and circuit connecting the ventral striatum, ant cingulate gyrus, and ventral prefrontal cortex

Question 44

what is addiction?

Answer 44

loss of behavioral control in response to a stim combined w/continued use of a substance, regardless of the neg consequences

Question 45

substances increase what NT in the brain?

Answer 45

dopamine

Question 46

what is the affect of dopamine in addiction?

Answer 46

creates a feeling of wanting (not pleasure)

Question 47

in addiction, there is diminished ____ ____ ____ activity, enhanced ____ ____ ____ activity

Answer 47

lat prefrontal cortex, ventral prefrontal cortex

Question 48

what is ventral prefrontal syndrome?

Answer 48

inappropriate social behavior (poor judgement, defective social intelligence) intact goal directed activity and cognition (lat PFC and parietal cortex fxn dissociation of voluntary and automatic regulation of social behaviors (able to ID undesirable behaviors, but still does them) can't learn from past experiences

Question 49

what are the characteristics of ventral prefrontal syndrome?

Answer 49

severe problems w/social fxn (employment, relationships, etc) inability to feel empathy, embarrassment, guilt, or regret risky and inappropriate behaviors disinhibition, impulsiveness lack of concern about consequences

Question 50

diffuse axonal injury primarily affects what structures?

Answer 50

basal ganglia, sup cerebellar peduncle, corpus callosum, midbrain

Question 51

when someone is in a MVA, where does the damage tend to be?

Answer 51

in the prefrontal region and ant and inf temporal cortex

Question 52

what are the types of TBIs?

Answer 52

diffuse axonal injury concussion CTE

Question 53

what are the affects of concussion?

Answer 53

brief loss of consciousness, temporary amnesia, brief confusion usually no long term cognitive impairment

Question 54

what results in CTE?

Answer 54

repeated head injuries

Question 55

what does CTE result in?

Answer 55

long-term white matter pathology and neuronal loss

Question 56

what are the most frequently found s/s of post-concussion syndrome?

Answer 56

poor cognitive fxn, difficulty concentrating, irritability

Question 57

what s/s may result from TBIs?

Answer 57

poor judgement, Dec goal-directed behavior, memory deficits, slowing info processing, poor divergent thinking impaired balance, agility, and coordination