Topic 9: Executive Functions Flashcards
(49 cards)
what is executive function
cognitive, emotional, executive, and self control
T/F perception, action, attention, long-term memory, language, decision making, and emotions are part of executive control
False: not part of it, but effected by it
problem of executive function
what are we trying to achieve, and how should we go about it
important of executive control
to free us from the tyranny of the present, and act with regard to the future
challenge of executive control
what to focus on, and when to switch it
Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST)
cognitive test that involves classifying a set of cards, each showing one or more images of a simple shape, into categories based on rules that periodically change throughout the session
“banish the homunculus”
stop appealing to an ill-defined and circular self, central executive, or consciousness to explain goal-oriented behaviour
what should replace the idea of homunculus control?
a mechanistic account of executive function in terms of neural, psychological, an computational terms
working memory maintenance
- which rules have been tried
- sustained activity in DLPFC
working memory updating
- remember which colour was just tried
- gating as internally-directed action learned and initiated by basal ganglia
inhibition of prepotent actions
- don’t start a rule i’m used to using
- top-down facilitation by goal representations in DLPFC
shifting between rules, sets, and tasks with executive functions
- try each rule in turn until finding one that works
- top-down facilitation by goal representations in DLPFC
monitoring and adjusting performance using executive functions
- detecting when a rule is no longer working and responding
- detection errors and conflict by ACC
two effects of lesions in the prefrontal cortex
- perseveration
- impulsiveness
perseveration with WCST example
repetition of a particular response; sticking to a rule when it is no longer working
perseveration involves a failure of….. (3)
- monitoring
- updating
- shifting
impulsiveness involves a failure of (2)
- maintenance
- inhibition
oculomotor delayed response task
- measuring working memory
- subjects focus on central stimulus while a target appears unpredictably in the peripheral space
- they memorize the location of the target, and after a delay the cue disappears
- when it disappears, they look to that location
- testing the accuracy of final eye position
delay-period activity
in cognitive neuroscience studies of working memory, the observation of neural signals that persists while the research maintains information over time
T/F Funabashi et al. used multiunit recordings on mice’s dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)
False: used single unit recordings in monkeys
what happens to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex neurons during the delay period of an oculomotor delayed response task?
they are continually firing during the delay
T/F Neurons in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex have the greatest firing rate at preferred spatial locations, and little to no firing at a non preferred spatial location
true
what are the two tasks used to test lesions in unilateral left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and what do they test
1) oculomotor delayed response task –> memory
2) visually guided saccade task –> control
what are four other things that have been shown to be maintained in prefrontal cortex neurons
spatial locations, sensory stimuli, specific movements, and relative order of information in a sequence
