Chapter 17 Flashcards
(105 cards)
disconnection
the cutting or resetting cerebral connection
Disconnection syndrome
the ensuing behavioral effects of disconnection
Intact Monkey - anatomically intact
- hemispheres connected by commissures including…
- optic chiasm - where two hemiretinas intersect
- corpus callosum - bundle of fibers that interconnect the two hemispheres

tame monkey
commissures disconnected, left amygdala removed
- If the objects were presented to the eye ipsilateral to the hemisphere with the ablated amygdala, the animal appeared tame even if the objects were typically frightening to monkeys.
- when the right eye is covered, and the left amygdala removed, visual info is unavailable to motor system

wild monkey
commissures disconnected, left amygdala removed
- If the objects were presented to the eye ipsilateral to the intact amygdala, the animal made its usual specie’s typical responses to threats and appeared wild.
- left eye covered, the circuit in the right hemi for activating species typical behavior is intact.

disconnection monkey experiment results
+ steps
- for an animal to display species’s typical responses to a visual stimulus, information must project from the eye to the visual cortex, passing through the temporal lobes to the amygdala and from the amygdala then to the brain stem and frontal cortex
- these connections activate respectively the autonomic responses, movements and facial expressions.
- If that hemisphere contains an intact amygdala, the circuit for activating specie’s typical behavior is complete and behavior would be typical.
- If the amygdala in the hemisphere is not intact, visual information will be disconnected from modal systems and can not elicit specie’s typical behavior.
three major types of neural fiber pathways connecting to neocortex:
- association pathways
- projection pathways
- commissural pathways
association pathways
- made of long fiber bundles that connect distant neocortical areas
- short, subcortical, U-shaped fibers that connect adjacent neocortical areas

projection pathways
- include ascending fibers from lower brain centers up to the neocortex
- ex: projections from the thalamus, and descending fibers from neocortex to brainstem and spinal cord
commissural pathways
- connect the two hemispheres
- include principally: corpus callosum, anterior commissure, and hippocampal commissures
- among areas that do receive interhemispheric connections, the density of projections is not homogeneous
- Cortical areas that represent the body’s midline, including the central meridian of the visual field, auditory fields, and the track of the body on the somatosensory and motor cortex, have the densest connections

commissural connection in primary visual cortex (V1)
- no interhemispheric connections, except for that part representing the midline of the visual world (visual meridian)
- V1 represents the visual world topographically, and there is no need for one half of the representation to be connected to the other
commissural connections in motor and sensory areas
- motor and sensory areas for distal parts of the limbs, mainly hands and feet, lack commissural connections
- bc essential function is to work independently of one another, it could be argued that the connections are not necessary
callosal connections (3)
- most callosal projections connect to homotopic areas, presumably to meet the two areas together functionally
- projection zones within a hemisphere also connect to homotopic zones in the contralateral hemisphere
- ex: area V1 is connected to area V2, not only within a hemisphere, but also across hemispheres, because area V1 in one hemisphere also sends connection to area V2 in the opposite hemisphere
- a group of projections has a diffuse terminal distribution
- possibly to alert appropriate zone in one hemisphere that the other is active
homotopic areas
identical points in the two cerebral hemispheres that are related to the body’s midline


genu
- anterior part of corpus callosum
- contains the fibers projecting from the prefrontal cortex
- Fibers through the body of the corpus callosum, proceeding from front to the back, project from the premotor, motor, somatosensory, and posterior parietal cortices
splenium
Fibers in the posterior callosum, or splenium, project from the superior temporal, inferior temporal, and visual cortices.
anterior commissure
much smaller than the corpus callosum and connects parts of the anterior temporal lobe, amygdala, and the paralimbic cortex of the temporal lobe surrounding the amygdala
humans born without corpus callosum
anterior commissure
the anterior commissure is greatly enlarged to connect far greater regions of the neocortex
connectome studies
goals
- demonstrate that large scale neural networks underlie complex cognitive operations
- seek to unravel neural network architecture and how networks relate to cerebral functions
Diffusion Tensor Imaging and DTI tractography
they can be mathematically described as comprising sets of nodes, neuronal elements and edges

graph theory
- nodes (neuronal elements) interconnect with related nodes and clustering to functional modules
- Individual modules maintain mutual nodal connections, but form few connections called hubs, to other modules
- Mathematical analysis have identified a specific and especially densely connected set of hub regions that require disproportionately high metabolic activity and are believed to factor in efficient communication and functional integration across the brain.

connector hub
nodes that connect with connector hubs in other modules
provincial hub
nodes that connect primarily to similar nodes in the same module















