Frontal lobe functions

Question 1

Prefrontal Region (function) - 4

Answer 1

1. Complex cognitive behaviour (i.e. working memory, reasoning, task flexibility & problem solving).
2. Personality expression
3. Decision making
4. Moderating social behaviour

Question 2

Broca’s Area (function) - 2

Answer 2

1. Language production

2. Speech-associated gestures

Question 3

Frontal lobe deficits - 11 w/ description

Answer 3

1. Impaired initiation of mental activities (i.e. generative word lists)
2. Distractibility & inattention (i.e. serial 7s subtractions)
3. Impaired ability to shift mental set (i.e. drawing multiple loops)
4. Pull to perceptual features (i.e. “10 after 11” clock drawing)
5. Impaired abstraction
6. Impaired planning & goal setting
7. Impaired self-monitoring & use of feedback
8. Impaired self-awareness (i.e. “silent stranger” in the mirror)
9. Personality changes (i.e. apathy, rudeness, disinhibition, poor insight)
10. Impairment in Theory of Mind (i.e. false belief tasks - know all information but look at another person’s perspective)
11. Broca’s aphasia: non-fluent speech, good comprehension, poor repetition, poor naming.

Question 4

Superior & inferior parietal lobules

Answer 4

Body & spatial awareness

Question 5

Parietal association cortex & Angular Gyrus

Answer 5

1. Reading, writing, math

Question 6

Angular Gyrus

Answer 6

Episodic memory retrieval (events)

Question 7

Parietal lobes deficits

Answer 7

1. Hemineglect
2. Apraxia (inability to execute learned movements)
3. Poor perception & memory of spatial relationships (i.e. poor map-drawing abilities)
4. Inaccurate reaching & grasping (due to poor spatial coordination, not poor motor control)
5. Poor control of eye movements (i.e. Balint’s Syndrome)
6. Gerstmann syndrome = destruction of angular gyrus.
   - Asterognosis & agraphesthesia - lesions to secondary somatosensory cortex
   - Finger agnosis (part of Gerstmann’s syndrome) is due to a dominant parietal lesion (inferior parietal lobule)

Question 8

Balint’s Syndrome

Answer 8

Poor control of eye movements

Question 9

Gerstmann Syndrome

Answer 9

Destruction of angular gyrus

-Finger agnosis

Question 10

Wernicke’s Area - location & function

Answer 10

Temporal lobe, behind primary auditory cortex. Receptive language (comprehension)

Question 11

Hippocampus

Answer 11

Visual memory (episodic & semantic)

Question 12

Parahippocampal gyrus

Answer 12

Scene processing and faces

Question 13

Wernicke’s aphasia

Answer 13

Fluent speech, poor comprehension, poor repetition, poor naming. Temporal lobe deficits.

Question 14

Prosopagnosia Agnosia

Answer 14

Difficulty recognizing faces. Temporal lobe deficits

Question 15

Primary Visual Cortex

Answer 15

• Above & below the calcarine fissure

- Receives retinal input

Question 16

Visual association area

Answer 16

-Surrounds primary visual cortex w/n occipital lobe

Question 17

Dorsal stream

Answer 17

-Up towards parietal lobe. Associated w/ motion detection, object location, eye (saccades)

Question 18

Ventral stream

Answer 18

-Down towards temporal lobe. Associated w/ form recognition, object representation.

Question 19

Occipital lobe deficits

Answer 19

1. Visual field losses (peripheral/central)
2. Agnosia, learning/memory (ventral stream damage)
3. Impaired spatial orientation, motion detection, saccades + guided arm movements (dorsal stream damage). Damage to the occipitotemporal & occipitoparietal association areas rather than the occipital lobe (striate cortex).

Question 20

Ventral stream damage

Answer 20

1. Agnosia, learning/memory

Question 21

Dorsal Stream damage

Answer 21

1. Impaired spatial orientation, motion detection, saccades + guided arm movements