Chapter 6 - Interaction Between Cognitive Processes Of The Brain And Its Structure

Question 1

What is the cerebral cortex comprised of?

Answer 1

Left and right hemispheres.

Question 2

What connects the two hemispheres?

Answer 2

Corpus callosum.

Question 3

Explain two functions of the peripheral nervous system.

Answer 3

1. To communicate information from the body’s organs, glands and muscles to the central nervous system, including information from the outside world(Eg. Sensation on skin via sensory neurons) and from the inside world (Eg. Aches, pains).
2. To communicate information from the CNS to the body’s organs, glands and muscles via motor neurons.

Question 4

List the two divisions of the PNS.

Answer 4

• Somatic NS

- Autonomic NS

Question 5

What does the Somatic NS do?

Answer 5

Responsible for the voluntary movement of skeletal muscles (striated/’striped’ muscles).

Question 6

What does the Autonomic NS do?

Answer 6

Is mostly responsible for the communication of information between CNS and the body’s non-skeletal muscles, as well as internal organs and glands which carry out basic bodily functions necessary for survival (Eg. Digestion, heartbeat).

Question 7

How does the ANS operate? What does this let an organism do?

Answer 7

Without voluntary control or conscious awareness.
Enables an organism to have the cognitive resources to pay attention to other matters (Eg. Responding to threats or other survival needs in the external environment).

Question 8

What is the cerebrum separated by?

Answer 8

Longitudinal fissure - deep groove which runs from front to rear of cortex.

Question 9

What is the corpus callosum?

Answer 9

A bundle of nerve fibres which connects the left and right hemispheres.

Question 10

How thin is the cerebral cortex?

Answer 10

Very thin (approximately 3mm) - contains billions of neurons.

Question 11

What is the deep groove in each hemisphere?

Answer 11

Central fissure - Separates the front (anterior) of the cortex from the rear (posterior).

Question 12

What do the primary cortices do?

Answer 12

Process and interpret oncoming sensory information.

Question 13

What are the functions of the frontal lobes?

Answer 13

• Initiate movement of the body (motor functions).
• Language.
• Planning.
• Attention.
• Judgement.
• Problem Solving.
• Aspects of personality and emotion.

Question 14

What are the functions of the parietal lobes?

Answer 14

• Main function is to enable a person to perceive their own body and to perceive where things are located in the environment (Sensory information).
  
  • > This information is sent to the lobe mostly from the visual system.
• Right parietal lobe enables the perception of 3D-shapes/designs.
• Left parietal lobe has a role in reading, writing and performing mental arithmetic.

Question 15

What are the functions of the temporal lobes?

Answer 15

• Mainly responsible for processing auditory information.
• Association areas are important for processing memory.
  
  • > Connected to the hippocampus (vital for encoding information into LTM).
• Involved in aspects of visual perception.
  
  • > Ability to identify/recognise faces.

Question 16

What are the functions of the occipital lobes?

Answer 16

Entirely concerned with vision.

Question 17

What would happen if the frontal lobe were damaged?

Answer 17

• Impacts divergent thinking or flexibility and problem-solving ability.
• Evidence shows interference with attention and memory (even after good recovery from injury).
• May be unable to learn from experiences.
• Lack of foresight (likely to make mistakes in planning).

Question 18

What would happen if the parietal lobe were damaged?

Answer 18

• Damage to right = Spatial neglect.
• Damage to left = Cannot visualise and mentally move numbers around (but can do multiplication on paper).
  
  • > Unlikely to be able to point to their own body parts or remember where something is in a room.

Question 19

What would happen if the temporal lobe were damaged?

Answer 19

• Damage to right = Tend to be unable to recognise seeings, faces and paintings.
• Damaged Primary Auditory Association Cortex = Likely to experience a form of deafness.
• Damaged right ‘PAC’ = Unabke to recognise patterns of sounds that don’t have words (Eg. Phone ringing).

Question 20

What would happen if the occipital lobe were damaged?

Answer 20

• Partial damage to lobe = Person would have a gap in their visual field where there would be some specific visual stimuli that would not be processed.
• Complete damage to ‘PVC’ = Cannot process images (as if the person is blind).

Question 21

Explain the role of the Primary Motor Cortex.

Answer 21

Movement of skeletal muscles.

Question 22

Explain the roles of the Primary Somatosensory Cortex.

Answer 22

• Responsible for processing sensations (Eg. Touch, pressure, temperature, pain).
  
  • > Receives all sensory information (except for the nose) from the thalamus.

Question 23

Explain the roles of the Primary Auditory Cortex.

Answer 23

• Performs complex auditory analysis.

- > Necessary for understanding human speech or listening to music.

Question 24

Explain the roles of the Primary Visual Cortex.

Answer 24

• Different parts process different types of visual stimuli.

- Essentially process information from the retina.

Question 25

PMC and PSC function contralaterally.

Answer 25

-.-

Question 26

Association areas

Answer 26

Anything other than the four cortices: involved in the integration of information between motor and sensory areas and higher-order mental processes. - > Closer the area is to the cortex, the more it specialises in analysing and interpreting that information. - > Further away means it is more involved in the integration of information from several senses and memories.

Question 27

What are the functions of Broca's area?

Answer 27

- Responsibke for movement of mouth muscles for the articulation of a sequence of words for meaningful speech - Relies on other parts of the frontal lobe for: - > Planning sentences. - > Muscle movement to produce meaningful speech.

Question 28

What are the functions of Wernicke's area?

Answer 28

- Responsibke for interpreting the meaning of human speech - language comprehension. - Pitch of voice. - Close proximity of language and motor areas enables quick communication of the brain. - > Enables the ability to converse and communicate.

Question 29

What does the left hemisphere specialise in?

Answer 29

- Right-hand touch. - Maths. - Language. - Science. - Logic. - Problem solving. - Reasoning. - Analytical skills. - Reading/writing/speaking. - Receives/processes sensory information from right side of body.

Question 30

What does the right hemisphere specialise in?

Answer 30

- Left-hand touch. - Music appreciation. - Art appreciation. - Dance. - Sculpture. - Perception. - Fantasy. - Abstract thinking. - Understanding the whole picture. - Receives/processes sensory information from the left side of the body.