lecture 30 Flashcards
(31 cards)
What is the primary role of the pre-frontal cortex?
- provides executive control for working memory and cognitive control
- it tells other brain regions what to do
what are the PFC subregions
- dorsolateral PFC
- ventrolateral PFC
- medial PFC
- rostral PFC
Anatomically, where is the PFC located and what proportion of the cerebral cortex does it make up?
- it is located in the anterior region of cortex
- it constitutes approximately 1/3 of the cerebral cortex
What are some consequences of damage to the PFC
- damage results in impaired higher intellectual activity and loss of ability to plan and organize
- behavioural issues
- problems with goal-directed behaviour and inhibition
- dysfunction correlated with schizophrenia, ADHDm and possibly depressive disorder, and substance abuse
What functions are associated to a well functioning PFC
- feeling of guilt/ remorse and interpreting reality
- concentration, organization, judgement, reasoning, decision-making, creativity, regulating behaviour, abstract thinking
- planning, judgement, insight, working, memory, cognitive control and behavioural inhibition
what kind of therapies is the PFC important in
- cognitive behavioural therapy
What is working memory?
- type of short-term memory
- a ‘holding station’ to remember something long enough for it to be used to affect behaviour
- temporary retention of information just experienced or retrieved from long-term memory
What is cognitive control?
- manipulation and application of working memory for planning, task switching, attention, inhibition of inappropriate behaviour
- ex. studying 306 notes
what is transient memories?
- short lasting mental representation
- it is the first stage where information from the world enters your consciousness and potentially becomes part of long-term memory
What are the two types of transient memories
sensory: brief, transient sensation you just experienced (e.g. visual sensory memory), not dependent on PFC
short-term memory: memory that holds small amount of information for a brief amount of time (e.g. remembering a phone number just long enough to dial it), critical on PFC, affected by rehearsal, encoding and distractions
what is the capacity of our short-term memory
- “magic number 7”: on average 7 +/- 2 can be held
what is working memory used for?
- used for goal-directed behaviours or retrieving other information from LTM
What are the two types of information stored separately in working memory?
- visuo-spatial (images and space) and verbal-phonological information (sounds and words)
how is working memory controlled?
- by the central executive which functions to monitor and manipulate cognitive control
- it adds, deletes, selects, manages traffic between STM and LTM; reasoning, problem solving and planning
what is the DLPFC main function?
- provides executive function such as problem-solving, inhibiting automatic responses that adjust your behaviour when you notice a conflict
What is the Stroop Effect?
- the stroop effect is a psychological phenomenon when naming a color is easier and faster the word and the color are congruent or when the word is a random word rather than the name of a color, but more slower if the word and the color are not congruent
How does the DLPFC help during the stroop task
- It detects conflict between reading and color-naming, inhibits the automatic reading response, and helps adjust behavior.
what is cool executive function?
- it is associated with relatively non-affective abstract situations such as logic and critical analysis or inhibitory control
- not using emotional or motivational components
- DLPFC
What is the hot executive function?
- it is associated with affective, motivationally significant conditions, like a process driven by emotion
- VMPFC
Who was Penfield’s sister and what happened to her? And what did she develop
- she was an accomplished chef who lost her ability to plan and organize tasks after having a tumor removed from her prefrontal cortex.
- she developed dysexecutive syndrome
what is dysexecutive syndrome?
- a condition where the ability to think and plan are disrupted
- deficits in the executive functions and working memory
Which cognitive abilities often remain intact in people with dysexecutive syndrome?
- long-term memory and skill learning ability
What kind of memory is typically impaired in dysexecutive syndrome?
- Working memory and short-term memory (STM), such as digit span tasks.
What is the Tower of Hanoi task, and why is it relevant?
- it is a problem solving task that requires planning and inhibition
- people with PFC damage can’t complete it due to impaired executive function
