Unit 1 ASO2 - Brain Function (DP2,4,6)

Question 1

Weight of the brain

Answer 1

about 1.4kg

Question 2

Localisation

Answer 2

different areas of the brain have different functions.

Question 3

Lateralisation

Answer 3

Each hemisphere appears dominant for particular activities.

Question 4

The cerebellum

Answer 4

-Coordinated smooth and precise voluntary muscle movements.
-Regulates posture and balance.
-Involved in learning and memory storage associated with movement.

Question 5

Pons

Answer 5

-Involved in arousal, sleep, daydreaming, waking, breathing.

Question 6

Medulla Oblongata

Answer 6

-Controls automatic bodily functions that are essential for survival such as breathing, heart rate and blood pressure.
-Responsible for automatic (involuntary) reflexes such as vomiting and sneezing.

Question 7

Reticular formation

Answer 7

-Screens incoming information
-Alerts higher brain centers to important information
-Regulates arousal and alertness

Question 8

Reticular activating system (RAS)

Answer 8

-Regulates arousal by either increasing or dampening activity (e.g. RAS is less active when we go to sleep)
-Influences what we pay attention to by ‘highlighting’ information of potential importance.

Question 9

Hypothalamus

Answer 9

-Influences behaviors associated with basic biological needs, such as: hunger, thirst, and sleep.
-Releases hormones from various glands in the body

Question 10

Thalamus

Answer 10

-Filters all sensory information (except smell)
-Damage to the thalamus results in lowered arousal, ranging from lethargy to coma.

Question 11

Cerebrum

Answer 11

-Responsible for almost everything we consciously think, feel and do.

Question 12

The Cerebral Cortex

Answer 12

-Covers the outer portion of the forebrain.
-A thin layer of cells, only 2-3mm thick.
-Main function of the cerebral cortex is integration of sensory information.

Question 13

The cerebral cortex is deeply folded. The folds:

Answer 13

-Allows a large surface area to fit inside quite a small container (human skull.)
-Increases the surface area of cerebral cortex.

Question 14

Larger the cerebral cortex an organism has….

Answer 14

the more it seems able to display intelligent behavior such as thinking and problem solving.

Question 15

Sensory areas

Answer 15

-Somatosensory (touch) - parietal lobe
-Auditory (sound) - temporal lobe
-Vision - occipital lobe

Question 16

Motor Cortex

Answer 16

-Sends information about various bodily movements.
-There is only one primary motor cortex located in the frontal lobe.

Question 17

Association Area

Answer 17

-Integrates information from sensory and motor areas.
-Involved in higher mental brain functions like decision making, planning, etc.

Question 18

The Frontal Lobe - Association Area

Answer 18

-Involved in higher mental functions including thinking, organizing, planning, abstract reasoning, judging and deciding.
-Expression of emotional behaviors and with certain personality characteristics especially with those that relate to temperament.

Question 19

Damage to frontal lobe

Answer 19

-People with damage to the frontal lobe have difficulty coordinating complex sequences of behaviors, as well as difficulty with making and carrying out plans.
-People with damage to the frontal lobe also have difficulty displaying appropriate emotional responses in social situations.

Question 20

The Frontal Lobe - Primary Motor Cortex

Answer 20

-Directs and controls voluntary movements of skeletal muscles.
-Amount of motor cortex devoted to a body part is related to the precision of movement, not to the size of the body part.

Question 21

Broca’s Area

Answer 21

-Responsible for the production of articulate (clear and fluent) speech.
-Coordinates the movements of the physical components of speech (facial muscle and larynx) and sends this information to the motor cortex.
-Concerned with the grammatical structure of a sentences and with parts of speech such as adjectives, conjunctions, etc.

Question 22

Where is broca’s area located?

Answer 22

left frontal lobe

Question 23

Damage to Broca’s area

Answer 23

Broca’s Aphasia:
-An inability to produce fluent speech without disruption to comprehension of spoken or written language.
-Typically comprises short sentences of just three of four words that consist mainly of nouns and verbs e.g. ‘got phone, spoke friend.”

Question 24

The Parietal Lobe - Association Area

Answer 24

-Processes sensory information felt by your body as it moves. This enables us to monitors our body limb position in space.
-Integrates visual information, including visual attention and spatial reasoning. This enables us to determine the spatial positions of object.

Question 25

Damage to the right parietal lobe can cause special neglect:

Answer 25

-An attentional disorder in which the sufferer fails to notice or attend to stimuli on the left side of their body. -Some patients of this disorder may recover as function can develop in different region of the brain known as brain plasticity.

Question 26

The Parietal Lobe - Primary Somatosensory Cortex

Answer 26

-Receives and processes sensory information from various sensory receptors in the skin and skeletal muscles throughout the body. -This sensory information includes touch, pressure, pain, temperature, muscle movement and position. -Amount of somatosensory devoted to a body part is related to the sensitivity of that body area, not the size of the body part.

Question 27

The Occipital Lobe - Association Area

Answer 27

-Brings together visual information and information from other areas of the cerebral cortex. -Selects, organizes and integrates features of the visual stimulus into meaningful visual perceptions. -Visual stimulus interacts with other information from association areas enabling us to think, visually and to remember visual images.

Question 28

The Occipital Lobe - Damage to Association Area

Answer 28

-Damage to association area is unlikely to cause blindness or gap in sight; however, may affect ability to recognize things by sight.

Question 29

The Occipital Lobe - Primary Visual Cortex

Answer 29

-Receives and is responsible for the initial processing of visual information from both eyes.

Question 30

The Occipital Lobe - Damage to Primary Visual Cortex

Answer 30

may be unable to process visual stimuli - person is blind.

Question 31

Left visual cortex processes:

Answer 31

-Information from the right visual field. -Inputs from the left half of each eye. -And vice versa

Question 32

The Temporal Lobe - Association Area

Answer 32

-Memory formation: -People who have experiences anterograde amnesia are often found to have damaged temporal lobe. -Object Identification: what an object is -Facial recognition

Question 33

Damage to temporal lobes may lead to..

Answer 33

facial agnosia, unable to recognize the face of someone they know (they are able to describe the facial features, identify the sex and appropriate age of that person.)

Question 34

Temporal Lobe - Primary Auditory Cortex

Answer 34

-Receives auditory information from the ears, such as the frequency (pitch) and amplitude (loudness) of the noise, and processes them into meaningful sound sensations (words or music).

Question 35

Left temporal lobe mainly processes...

Answer 35

verbal sounds (e.g. words)

Question 36

Right temporal lobe processes mainly....

Answer 36

non-verbal sounds (e.g. music)

Question 37

Wernicke's Area

Answer 37

-Is responsible for understanding/spoken written words concerned with putting them into meaningful sentences. -Contains our semantic (word meaning) analyser, is responsible for locating and retrieving words from memory to express intended meanings when we speak.

Question 38

Damage to Wernicke's Area

Answer 38

Wernicke's Aphasia: -An inability to comprehend meanings of spoken words or written language. -Speech production or fluency of speech is not disrupted; however, the person's speech is meaningless. -Can string together long word sequences and phrases but not in an understandable way.

Question 39

Where is Wernicke's Area located?

Answer 39

left temporal lobe

Question 40

Aphasia

Answer 40

Language disorder apparent in speech, writing or reading produced by injury to the brain specialized for these functions.

Question 41

Hemispheric Specialization

Answer 41

-Hemispheric specialization refers to the tendency for one hemisphere to be dominant in certain brain functions that the other. -Hemispheres continually interact and are involved in nearly all functions, despite each having its own specialties.

Question 42

The Corpus Callosum

Answer 42

-Physically connects the two hemispheres. -Transmits information registered in one hemisphere for processing. -Exchanges and integrates information continuously from both hemispheres.

Question 43

Left Hemisphere

Answer 43

-Receives somatosensory information from the right side of the body. -Controls voluntary muscle movement in the right side of the body -Verbal functions: involving the use of language e.g. reading, writing, speaking and comprehension -Analytical functions: mental abilities involving logical reasoning, analyzing, organizing , and interpreting data.

Question 44

Damage to left hemisphere

Answer 44

-Damage is associated with language disorders, aphasia.

Question 45

Damage to Right Hemisphere

Answer 45

-Damage is associated with visual-spatial disorders, spatial neglect.

Question 46

Right Hemisphere

Answer 46

-Receives somatosensory information from the left side of the body. -Controls voluntary muscle movements in the left side of the body. -Non-verbal functions: do not require the use or recognition of language, including: -Spatial and visual thinking -Recognizing faces, objects, patterns and tunes -Recognizing emotional expression and facial cues -Music and artwork appreciation -Fantasy and creativity.

Question 47

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy

Answer 47

-CTE is a progressive (gradually increasing), degenerative (worsening), and fatal brain disease associated with repeated blows to the head over a long period.

Question 48

stages of CTE

Answer 48

Stage one: -Headaches, loss of attention and concentration, mild short-term memory deficits. Stage two: -anxiety, depression, suicidality, irritable mood and increased aggression, lack of impulse control. Stage three: -cognitive impairment and problems with executive functions, specifically planning , organisation, multi-tasking and judgement, more severe memory loss and apathy. Stage four: -a form of dementia

Question 49

Diagnosis of CTE

Answer 49

-As many of the symptoms of CTE are similar to that of Parkinson's or Alzheimer's disease, diagnosis is difficult. -CTE currently can only be definitively diagnosed if it was fatal for a person.

Question 50

Treatment for CTE

Answer 50

-No known cure for CTE. -Supportive treatments are usually what is used for those with CTE. -Behavior therapy, regular exercise and good nutrition help prevent the onset of CTE symptoms.