Neurophysiology of Higher cognition

Question 1

what does cognition require between all the neocortical association areas

Answer 1

synaptic interactions between pyramidal cells of all neocortical areas

Question 2

what is the systematical order for producing language

Answer 2

Language conceptual system
Language mediational system
Language Implementation system
Spoken Language

Question 3

What is the anatomical area of the Language implementation system

Answer 3

Wernickes Area
Arcuate Fasciculus
Brocas Area

Question 4

What is the anatomical area of the language mediational system

Answer 4

Number of areas

Temporal, Parietal, and frontal association areas

relays information to the language implementation area

Question 5

What is the job of the conceptual system for language

Answer 5

broadly distributed set of structures that provides the concepts underlying our language

Question 6

What are babies younger than 6 months refered as in retrospect to our language

what happens at 6-9 months

what happens at 1 year

Answer 6

Language universalists

they reckognize all sounds that might be language as distinct sounds

between 6-9 months they start to recognize specific language sounds of their native language with this change babies drop the use of phenomes that dont occur in their language

this process is complete at about the age of 1 year and at this point the childs babbling will begin to convert to true spoken language

Question 7

Where is a learned second language stored in the brain during vs after the language acquisition phase

Answer 7

during the language acquisition phase the second language activates the same pathway as the first

while a second language learned after the language acquisition phase activates an adjacent region of Brocas area

Question 8

What are the two components of social cognition

Answer 8

Emotion Comprehension (recognition)

Theory of mind

Question 9

Step 1 in Emotion Comprehension

Answer 9

Perception of facial expressions requires that we identify a face as something special and that is done by the Superior temporal sulcus and the fusiform gyrus (fusiform face area)

Question 10

Step 2 of the emotional comprehension

Answer 10

Bring in the emotional component

Amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex, and prefrontal cortex

Question 11

what is important about the neural circuits for recognizing emotion

Answer 11

They are the same circuits that produce the emotions in ourselves

Question 12

what controls the use of our eyes as we scan an individuals face for emotion and what happens if it is damaged

Answer 12

The amygdala makes us look at the eyes nose and mouth of the individual

if the amygdala was damaged we would spend very little time looking at the eyes and wont methodically scan the face

Question 13

What is the mirror neuron system

Answer 13

Mirror neurons fire both when you do something and when yo see someone else do that action

helps in imitation and imitative learning and important in emotional processing

Question 14

what are the three steps of imitiative behavior

Answer 14

1 is the Posterior sector of the superior temporal gyrus which provides the visual input

then the Posterior mirror neuron system Identifies the motor action

then the Anterior mirror neuron system identifies the goal of the action

this circuit also interacts with the limbic structures to imitate the emotions as well

Question 15

What is Prosody

Answer 15

Is the study of the tune and rhythm of speech and how these features contribute to meaning

Prosody is the study of those aspects of speech that typically apply to a level above that of the individual phoneme and very often to sequences of words in prosodic phrases

Question 16

Perception of prosody

Answer 16

Primary aditory cortex is required for the basics of sound processing, including identity of pitch, loudness, and other characteristics of the sound

that information is then sent to the right posterior superior temporal sulcus where we befin to piece together the meaning of the loudness and pitch of the vocalization

Finally the judgement of the emotional stimulus is then determined in the frontal cortex

Question 17

What is theory of mind

Answer 17

The ability to understand the mental states (beliefs, desires, and intentions) of others and to appreciate how these differ from our own

Question 18

What are the Requirements of the theory of mind

Answer 18

Core pathway: amygdala and connections to the medial temporal lobes (memory, sensory processing) and orbitofrontal areas (sensory and emotional processing)

Accessory pathways

• language
• Executive functioning (frontal lobes)

Likely that the emotion comprehension is required for theory of mind to exist

Question 19

What does the stimulus encoding system do in decision making

Answer 19

THis system evaluates the evidence available in making the decision

done by the orbitofrontal cortex
Ventromedial prefrontal cortex
striatum

Question 20

What does the action selection system do in decision making

Answer 20

This system learns and encodes the subjective value of the results. it also is involved in error detection

An action selection system is done by the anterior cingulate cortex

Question 21

WHat is the expected reward system

Answer 21

Basal ganglia
Amygdala
Insular cortex: processing of social emotions
intraparietal cortex: somatosensory processing and planning

THis system predicts the expected reward

Question 22

A decision in which the risks are explicit or known relies on the?

Answer 22

Stimulus encoding system

Question 23

A decision in which the risks are unknown rely heavily on?

Answer 23

the expected reward system and on the action selection system