Module 5: The Cerebral Cortex

Question 1

Cerebrum

Answer 1

• Two cerebral hemispheres making up 85% of brain’s weight

- Enable perceiving, thinking, speaking

Question 2

Cerebral Cortex

Answer 2

• Intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells covering the cerebral hemispheres
• The body’s ultimate control and information processing center.
  
  • Much of what makes us human comes from the complex functions of the cerebral cortex.

Question 3

Frontal Lobes

Answer 3

• The portion of the cerebral cortex lying just behind the forehead
• Involved in speaking and muscle movements and in making plans and judgements
  
  • Think about future and consequences

Question 4

Parietal Lobes

Answer 4

• The portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the top of the head and toward the rear
• Receives sensory input for touch and body position

Question 5

Occipital Lobes

Answer 5

• The portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the back of the head
• Includes areas that receive information from the visual fields

Question 6

Temporal Lobes

Answer 6

• The portion of the cerebral cortex lying roughly above the ears
• Includes the auditory areas, each receiving information primarily from the opposite ear

Question 7

Motor Cortex

Answer 7

• An area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements.
• Stimulating left hemisphere causes movement on the right side of the body
• Brain devotes more tissue to sensitive areas and areas that need precise control

Question 8

Somatosensory Cortex

Answer 8

• An area at the front of the parietal lobes that registers and processes body touch and movement sensations.
• Receives information from skin senses
  
  • Touch and temperature
• Receives information from movement of body parts
• More sensitive the body region —-> the larger the area devoted to it.

Question 9

Association Areas

Answer 9

• Areas of the cerebral cortex that are not involved in primary sensory or motor functions
• Rather, they are involved in higher mental functions such as learning, remembering, thinking, and speaking

Question 10

Prefrontal Cortex

Answer 10

• Association area found in the forward part of the frontal lobes
  
  • Enables judgement, planning, social interactions, and processing of new memories

Question 11

Damage to frontal lobes

Answer 11

• Cannot plan ahead
• Can alter personality and remove inhibitions (voluntary or involuntary restraint of a behavior)
• Steer us away from violent actions
  
  • Damage takes away our moral compass

Question 12

Association area in temporal lobes

Answer 12

• Recognize faces

- Understand words

Question 13

Association area in parietal lobes

Answer 13

• Mathematical and spacial reasoning

Question 14

What happens when the brain is damaged?

Answer 14

• Plasticity

- Other areas of the brain pick up the slack

Question 15

Neurogenesis

Answer 15

• The formation of new neurons.

Question 16

Corpus Callosum

Answer 16

• The large band of neural fibers connecting the two brain hemispheres and carrying messages between them.

Question 17

Split Brain

Answer 17

• Condition resulting from surgery that isolate’s the brain’s two hemispheres by cutting the fibers (mainly those of the corpus callosum) connecting them.

Question 18

Visual Wiring

Answer 18

• Each eye receives sensory info from entire visual field
  
  • Information from left half of field of vision goes to right
    hemisphere and right half of field of vision goes to left
  • Information from either hemisphere is transmitted to the other across the corpus callosum

Question 19

5 steps in reading a word out loud

Answer 19

1. Visual cortex (receives written words as visual stimulation)
2. Angular gyrus (transforms visual representations into an auditory code)
3. Werinicke’s area (interprets auditory code)
4. Broca’s area (controls speech muscles via the motor cortex)
5. Motor cortex (word is pronounced)

Question 20

Left hemisphere

Answer 20

• Thoughts and logic
• Details such as “trees”
• Language: words and definitions
• Linear and literal calculations
• Pieces and detail

Question 21

Right hemisphere

Answer 21

• Feelings and intuition
• Big picture such as “forest”
• Language: tone, inflection, context
• Perceptions
• Wholes, including the self