Module 3

Question 1

Is dementia a disease?

Answer 1

No, it is a clinical label

Question 2

What is dementia?

Answer 2

A clinical syndrome characterized by a decline in cognitive function (memory, language, executive function)

Question 3

What is crystallized function?

Answer 3

When a function stabilizes over time (in the case of vocabulary proficiency, it actually increases)

Question 4

What is the distinction between cognitive impairment and dementia?

Answer 4

The severity of affected function

Question 5

What is crucial for implementing effective treatment of Alzheimer’s?

Answer 5

Early detection

Question 6

What is speech prosody?

Answer 6

the intonation in voice marking emotional speech

Question 7

Generally, what do we think the left hemisphere is responsible for?

Answer 7

Language and speech

Question 8

What do we think the right hemisphere is responsible for?

Answer 8

Spacial processing, face perception, music perception, speech prosody

Question 9

Why is hemispheric specialization more efficient?

Answer 9

it reduces the length of axial connections and reduces redundancy

Question 10

Where is the right hemisphere larger than the left?

Answer 10

in the anterior brain

Question 11

Where is the left hemisphere larger than the right?

Answer 11

in the posterior brain

Question 12

What is the planum temporale responsible for?

Answer 12

speech perception (is larger in the left hemisphere)
- language comprehension

Question 13

What is the corpus callosum?

Answer 13

A fibre bundle connecting the two hemispheres

Question 14

How do we study lateralized functions in the brain?

Answer 14

• lateral lesions
• commissurotomy
• dichotic listening experiment (audition)
• PET, fMRI, ERP

Question 15

Describe the connections of the corpus callosum?

Answer 15

• homologous sites in the contalateral hemisphere
• projection sites of a homotopic area (fibres go to projection sites)
• diffuse projections

Question 16

Do primary cortical areas project contralaterally?

Answer 16

They tend not to

Question 17

What happens in split-brain procedures?

Answer 17

• The corpus callosum is severed, therefore the hemispheres cannot communicate with each other
• the hemispheres still receive and control contralateral muscles

Question 18

Where do motor and somatosensory input cross over?

Answer 18

At the brain stem

Question 19

What happens in normal individuals when they see a stimulus?

Answer 19

The info in the left visual field is projected to the right visual cortex, which sends it to the left for communication
- in split brain individuals, the right hemisphere sees it but cannot communicate what the information is

Question 20

How are the left and right hemispheres different neuroanatomically?

Answer 20

• planum temporale is larger (up to 10x) in the left than the right
• Broca’s area is larger on the left than the right

Question 21

How are the left and right hemispheres different at the cellular level?

Answer 21

• columns of cells are more spread out in auditory areas of left than right
• more pyramidal cells in the left than the right

Question 22

How are the hemispheres different neurochemically?

Answer 22

• there is more noradrenaline in the right thalamus than the left
• there is more dopamine in the left basal ganglia than in the right

Question 23

Who discovered hemispheric specialization?

Answer 23

Paul Broca

Question 24

What does the right brain excel at that the left brain does not?

Answer 24

Spatial and non-verbal tasks

Question 25

Where is language processing for right handed people?

Answer 25

In the left hemisphere

Question 26

What does damage to the right hemisphere cause?

Answer 26

Impairment in line orientation distinction, facial recognition, tones of sound and pitches of voice, and ability to interpret emotional facial expressions

Question 27

What is cerebral dominance?

Answer 27

The idea that one hemisphere dominates a mental function

Question 28

What is a commissure?

Answer 28

Structures that connect the hemispheres

Question 29

What is the Wada technique?

Answer 29

a technique that anesthetizes one half of the brain

Question 30

What is a better way to think about how the brain organizes function?

Answer 30

The hemispheres aren’t really divided by WHAT is being processed, but HOW it is processing it

Question 31

How does the left hemisphere process information?

Answer 31

In an analytical fashion in which information is broken down into smaller components (ex. seeing vegetables or z)

Question 32

How does the right hemisphere process information?

Answer 32

In a holistic fashion in which information is integrated into a whole (ex. seeing a face or M)

Question 33

What is perceptual asymmetry?

Answer 33

the asymmetry of the perception of stimulation, depending on what part of the sensory system is stimulated

Question 34

What is the direct access theory?

Answer 34

The theory that states that the info is processed in the same hemisphere that it was received in

Question 35

What does the callosal relay model describe?

Answer 35

The theory that states that info is sent to the hemisphere that can process it better

Question 36

What is the wharfium hypothesis?

Answer 36

The idea that language shapes our perception

Question 37

How fast is information transmitted from one hemisphere to another?

Answer 37

approximately 15-20 milliseconds

Question 38

What is special about left handed people?

Answer 38

They hold a lot of exceptions in lateralization
- 70% still hold language processing in the left hemisphere, but some can have bilateral language processing abilities, or even contralateral processing

Question 39

What are preferred cognitive modes?

Answer 39

left = verbal, analytical 
right = spatial, synthetic (synthesizes), Gestalt

Question 40

What is cognitive reserve?

Answer 40

Better cognitive function in the face of brain pathology due to level of education, language fluency, etc.