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BB2 > Limbic System > Flashcards

Limbic System Flashcards

1
Q

What is limbic system?

A

A group of cortical and sub-cortical nuclei found on the medial aspect of the frontal, parietal and temporal lobes.

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2
Q

All these cortical areas are interconnected by…?

A

Cortico-cortical pathways

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3
Q

What does the limbic system do?

A

Responsible for rewarding animals for doing things that promote their survival or the survival of the species –> PLEASURE
Also responsible for punishing them when they decrease their chances of survival –> PAIN
Also involved in memory/learning

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4
Q

What are the process that link reward/punishment to changes in behaviour called?

A

Motivational

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5
Q

The limbic system is also connected to what system?

A

Olfactory system

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6
Q

How might aromatherapy work?

A

Some smells are ‘hard-wired’ to pleasurable feelings, others to unpleasant feelings. Smells can trigger memories, make you feel hungry, make you feel nauseous etc… THE LIMBIC SYSTEM IS CONNECTED TO THE OLFACTORY SYSTEM.

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7
Q

What are neuronal circuits that are active when you have the sensation of pleasure/happiness called?

A

Reward circuits

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8
Q

What two parts make up the limbic cortex in the frontal and parietal lobes?
What is the third part of the limbic cortex (in the medial temporal lobe)?

A

Orbito-frontal cortex and cingulate cortex

Parahippocampal cortex

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9
Q

What two arteries are the main blood supply to the limbic cortex?

A

ANTERIOR cerebral artery

POSTERIOR cerebral artery

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10
Q

What part might the middle cerebral artery supply?

A

Tip of the temporal lobe and orbital cortex

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11
Q

The anterior cingulate cortex is activated during experience of…? (2)

A

Pain

Feelings of depression

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12
Q

What does the caudal anterior cingulate register?

A

The actual ‘quality’ of the pain (i.e how bad it is on a scale of 1-10)

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13
Q

What is the rostral anterior cingulate involved in?

A

What actions to take to deal with the pain.

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14
Q

What is a cingulotomy? What does it reduce?

A

The procedure of cutting into the cingulate gyrus to disrupt fibres passing rostro-caudally through it. It reduces the ‘emotional distress’ of pain.

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15
Q

Cingulotomy study - how many % reported improvement in the level of pain experienced? How many % indicated that they no longer required painkillers?

A

72%

50%

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16
Q

Patients with OCD have excessive activity in what area?

A

Orbito-frontal cortex

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17
Q

What is the orbito-frontal cortex associated with?

A

How to behave to an anticipated threat (i.e actions to avoid pain)

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18
Q

What is suggested to lead to OCD behaviour?

A

Prolonged pressure to make impossible choices

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19
Q

The disorientation for time and place seen in Alzheimer’s patients correlates with the loss of function in the…?

A

Posterior cingulate gyrus

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20
Q

The posterior cingulate may be involved in what type of memory?

A

Visuo-spatial memory

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21
Q

What is the parahippocampal gyrus primarily involved in?

What is it closely connected to?

A

Learning and memory

The subcortical parts of the limbic system in the temporal lobe (hippocampus and amygdala)

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22
Q

What are the subcortical parts of the limbic system?

A

Hippocampus and amygdala

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23
Q

What do the output fibres of the hippocampus form?

A

Fornix

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24
Q

What attaches the fornix to the corpus collosum?

A

Septum pellucidum

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25
Q

Where does the fornix end?

A

Hypothalamus - in the septal nuclei and mammillary body

26
Q

Neuronal connections can be traced in a loop between the hippocampus and limbic cortex. What is it called and what WAS it thought to be important for?

A

Papez’s circuit

Formation of memories

27
Q

Trace Papez’s circuit in its 5 steps.

A
  1. Information goes from the cingulate cortex to the parahippocampal gyrus
  2. From hippocampal gyrus to hippocampus
  3. Hippocampus along the fornix to the mamillary bodies (hypothalamus)
  4. From the hypothalamus to the anterior thalamus
  5. Information goes (from the anterior thalamus) back to the cingulate cortex
28
Q

Damage to any structures in the Papez loop, particularly the __________ tract, causes deficiits in ________.
What kind of cues do the mammillary bodies include in their memory of places?

A

Mammillothalamic tract
Recollective memory
Olfactory cues

29
Q

HM have intractable epilepsy traced to his medial temporal lobes - the MTLs were removed on both sides. What structures were lost/destroyed?

A

Parahippocampal cortex, hippocampus, and part of amygdala on both sides

30
Q

HM suffered severe anterograde amnesia - what is this?

A

When the short-term memory is intact, but new events can’t be committed to long-term memory

31
Q

Where is memory stored?

A

Cingulate cortex

32
Q

Where is memory formed?

A

Hippocampus

33
Q

The hippocampus contains a ____ map and registers the ____ of day.
How does this help memory formation?

A

Spatial map
Time of day

This forms an important part of the ‘file names’ of new experiences - the hippocampus labels new experiences with the place and time, and other information such as who you were with and what the weather was like. This enables the experience to be stored in memory properly and be retrieved when needed.

34
Q

What does loss of hippocampal function cause?

A

Failure to transfer new experiences into long term memories

35
Q

What types of memory does damage to the hippocampus not affect?

A

Ability to learn new motor skills

36
Q

What is Korsakoff’s syndrome a form of?

Who is it most commonly observed in?

A

A form of encephalopathy

Chronic alcoholics - related to a deficiency in thiamine (vitamin B1) in the brain

37
Q

What are the classic symptoms of Korsakoff’s syndrome? (4)

A

Anterograde amnesia
Some degree of retrograde amnesia
Confabulation
Apathy

38
Q

What does confabulation mean?

A

Invented memories due to loss of ability to recall information from long term memory

39
Q

What is the treatment of Korsakoff’s syndrome?

A

IM thiamine 3x daily for 2-3 days

40
Q

Damage to what brain areas is thought to cause Korsakoff’s?

A

Hippocampus

Mammillary bodies and their projection to the anterior thalamus

41
Q

Temporal lobe epilepsy is a seizure in which parts of the brain?

A

Cortex of the temporal lobe, hippocampus and amygdala.

42
Q

What does TLE produce?

A

Disorders of memory and emotion

43
Q

What is an aura (in relation to TLE)?

A

Warnings that a seizure is approaching - intense feelings of fear, dread, or déjà vu

44
Q

What happens during a TLE seizure?

A

They may remain conscious and experience powerful emotions. They may also experience a dream-like hallucinatory state.

45
Q

Kluver-Bucy syndrome - overall, it seems patients have lost their sense of ____.
This syndrome is due to the bilateral removal of what part of the brain?

A

Fear

Amygdala

46
Q

What are the symptoms of Kluver-Bucy? (5)

A 
Psychic blindness
Oral tendencies
Hypermetamorphosis
Altered sexual behavior
Emotional changes
47
Q

What does electrical stimulation of the amygdala create?

A

Fear or anxiety

48
Q

Where is the amygdala embedded? What lobe?

A

Entorhinal (olfactory) cortex in the anterior medial temporal lobe

49
Q

The amygdala is made up of many…?

A

Subnuclei with different connections and different functions

50
Q

What does the amygdala continuously analyse?

A

The sensory input to the brain

51
Q

Where does the amygdala send commands to? Where does this send commands to? What does this activate?

A

Hypothalamus, which sends commands to the reticular formation, which activates the reticulospinal tracts and thus the sympathetic nervous system.

52
Q

The amygdala also has connections to which cortex? This explains why we have an inbuilt aversion to…? This is programmed into the amygdala at birth.

A

Olfactory cortex

Certain smells

53
Q

What are human pheromones?

A

Odours given off from sweat glands during sympathetic or sexual arousal

54
Q

Behaviour after amygdala damage. (3)

A

Misinterpretation of fearful events
Excessive risk taking
Decreased ability to recognise emotion in others

55
Q

In summary, what is the overall role of the amygdala?

A

It monitors all stimuli and detects whether a stimulus has in the past been associated with emotional content such as pleasure or pain. It then triggers appropriate autonomic responses.

56
Q

What is the amygdala’s role in memory?

A

The amygdala receives input from the temporal lobe cortex and it then ‘labels’ this new experience as pleasurable, painful etc so this information is stored in memory.

57
Q

What composes the ventral striatum? (3)

A

Accumbens nucleus, septal nuclei and basal nucleus (of Meynert)

58
Q

The accumbens receives dopaminergic fibres from what pathway?

A

Mesolimbic dopamine pathway - from brainstem regions next to substantia nigria –> accumbens

59
Q

The accumbens is involved in the initiation and termination of behaviours that…?

A

Trigger reward pathways

60
Q

Blocking dopamine receptors in the accumbens may stop motor actions involved in what type of behaviour?

A

Addictive

61
Q

What composes the dorsal striatum?

How does it decide what actions to take?

A

Caudate and putamen decides what actions to take next based on cognitive plans

62
Q

What does the ventral striatum also connect to?

A

Hypothalamus

BB2 (32 decks)

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