Brain Function Flashcards
(27 cards)
What are the cerebral cortex layers? What are some of their characteristics?
- IV: termination of most incoming specific sensory signals
- V and VI: origin of most output signals, fibers to thalamus from VI
- I,II,III: intra cortical association functions
What happens when thalamic connections are cut?
-functions of the corresponding cortical areas become almost entirely lost
What are the primary cortical areas? What are functions of these cortical areas?
- primary motor areas: direct connections with specific muscles
- primary sensory areas: detetc specific sensations
- secondary motor areas: provide patterns of motor activity
- secondary sensory areas: analyze meanings of specific sensory signals
What lies along the central sulcus?
- voluntary motor
- somatosensory
- sensory II hearing
What are association areas?
-receive and analyze signals simultaneously from multiple motor and sensory cortices
What are the association areas?
- prefrontal association area
- Broca’s area
- Wernicke’s area
- limbic association area
- parietalis-occipitotemporal association
What are subareas of the parieto-occipitotemporal association area?
- area for analysis of spatial coordinates
- Wernicke’s area
- angular gurus area
- area for naming objects
What is the prefrontal association area?
- receives pre analyzed sensory information (spatial coordinates) necessary for planning effective movements
- output passes through caudate portion of basal ganglia
- carries out thought processes in the mind
What is Broca’s area responsible for?
- provides circuitry for word formation
- works closely with Wernicke’s area
- almost always dominant on left side of brain
What is the limbic association area responsible for?
-concerned with behavior, emotions, and motivation
What is Wernicke’s area responsible for?
- language comprehension
- area where somatic, visual, and auditory association areas all meet one another in the posterior part of the superior temporal lobe
- located predominantly on the left side
What area plays the greatest single role of any part of the cerebral cortex for intelligence?
-Wernicke’s area
How does Wernicke’s area function?
-activation of Wernicke’s area may be able to call forth complicated memory patterns involving more than one sensory modality
What associations are not bilaterally symmetrical?
- Wernicke’s area
- Broca’s area
- hand control -> typically dominant in left hemisphere
Where is the facial recognition area?
- occipital portion of facial recognition area is next to the visual cortex
- temporal portion closely associated with the limbic system
What is prospagnosia?
-damage to the facial recognition area resulting in an inability to recognize faces
What does a prefrontal lobotomy result in?
- loss of ability to solve complex problems
- inability to string together sequential tasks to reach complex goals
- inability to do several parallel tasks at the same time
- decrease level of aggressiveness (ambition)
- inappropriate social responses
- inability to carry through long trains of through
- loss of purpose while performing usual motor pattern functions
What are you able to do through working memory?
-prognostication
-planning for the future
-delay in response to incoming sensory signals
-ability to consider
consequences of motor actions
-ability to solve complicated math, legal, and philosophical problems
-control of activities in accord with moral law
What is the corpus callosum?
- major commissure between the two hemispheres
- transfers info from Wernicke’s area to no dominant motor cortex
- transfer of somatic and visual info from right hemisphere to Wernicke’s area
- cutting of corpus callosum results in two entirely separate conscious portions of the brain
What is declarative memory?
-refers to memory of various details of an integrated thought
-includes:
+memory of surroundings
+memory to time relationships
+memory of causes of experiences
+memory of meaning of experience
+memory of deductions as a result of experience
What is reflexive/skill memory?
-associated with motor activities
What is short term memory?
- lasts only as long as person thinks of number of facts (seconds)
- exemplified by memory of a telephone number
What is intermediate long term memory?
- lasts many minutes or weeks
- may become long term memory if memory traces are activated enough
How does memory facilitation occur physiologically?
- stimulation of facilitator presynaptic terminal at the same time that sensory terminal is stimulated cases serotonin release at facilitator synapse
- serotonin receptors in sensory terminal membrane activate adenyl cyclase (cAMP)
- cAMP activates part of a K+ channel
- K+ channel is blocked for minutes to weeks
- lack of K+ conductance causes greatly prolonged AP in synapse terminal
- prolonged AP causes prolonged activation of Ca+2 channels, prolonging transmitter release
