Lecture 14 Flashcards
(19 cards)
What are the two main types of behavior control?
Automatic (habitual, fast, stimulus-driven) and goal-directed (deliberative, internally guided, effortful).
Where do goals reside in the brain?
Primarily in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), a heteromodal area with widespread connectivity.
What was learned from the Phineas Gage case?
Damage to medial frontal cortex led to personality change, impulsivity, and loss of goal regulation.
Why were frontal lobes historically misunderstood?
Early theories suggested they had no clear function; early lobotomy data downplayed their importance.
What is dysexecutive syndrome?
A set of symptoms following frontal lobe damage, including preserved IQ but impaired planning, inhibition, and goal-setting.
What cognitive abilities remain intact in dysexecutive syndrome?
Language, IQ, memory, perceptual and motor function.
What is environmental dependency?
A tendency to imitate or use objects based on their presence, regardless of context or intent.
What is perseveration?
Difficulty inhibiting repetitive behavior or switching to a new rule.
Which task reveals perseveration in PFC patients?
Wisconsin Card Sorting Task.
Which tasks reveal planning deficits in frontal lobe patients?
Multiple Errands Task and Tower of London.
What is the disconnect between knowledge and action?
Patients know rules but fail to apply them (e.g., drinking from a forbidden water fountain).
What does ‘loss of goal-directedness’ look like?
Behaviors become reflexive or purposeless, e.g., jumping to a ledge without calling out to others.
What social behaviors change in frontal lobe patients?
Social disinhibition, inappropriate behavior, outbursts, despite knowing social norms.
What is the multiple-demand network?
A frontoparietal network activated during many types of cognitively demanding tasks.
What is response inhibition?
The ability to suppress inappropriate actions, measured by Go/No-Go and Stop-signal tasks.
Which brain areas are involved in stopping responses?
Inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), pre-SMA, subthalamic nucleus, and motor cortex.
What happens if the IFG is damaged?
It impairs the ability to stop actions in response inhibition tasks.
What is thought suppression?
The effortful suppression of thoughts, which reduces hippocampal activity during encoding.
How does the PFC support thought suppression?
It inhibits hippocampal activation, leading to weaker memory formation for suppressed thoughts.
