Neocortical Function

Question 1

Spinal animal

Answer 1

• Spinal cord is disconnected from brain
• Remain alert
• Can talk and express emotion
• Reflexes

Question 2

Low decerebrate

Answer 2

• Hindbrain and spinal cord disconnected from brain
• Comatose state
• Sensory stimulus elicits movement and affective behaviour

Question 3

High decerebration

Answer 3

• Midbrain, hindbrain, and spinal cord disconnected from brain
• Can respond to distant objects moving toward them
• Move toward auditory and visual stimulation, show no evidence of vision
• Effectively perform voluntary movements
• Effectively perform automatic movements
• No spontaneous movement and no habituation
• Cortex is important for attenuating and inhibiting motion, but not for producing it

Question 4

Diencephalic

Answer 4

• Diencephalon, midbrain, hindbrain, and spinal cord are disconnected from brain
• Do not eat or drink even to sustain themselves
• Behaviours become energized and sustained
• Sham rage and motivation

Question 5

Decorticate

Answer 5

• Remove neocortex
• Eat and drink enough to sustain themselves
• Normal sleep/wake cycles
• Can sequence series of movements
• Automatic and voluntary behaviours are linked
• Basil ganglia can inhibit or facilitate voluntary movement

Question 6

What are multiple representations? Why are they important?

Answer 6

• Multiple maps in each sensory modality
• Multimodel or polymodal cortex (areas o the cortex that function in two sensory systems)
• We have two parallel cortical systems: one to understand the world and the other to move us around and manipulate it
• More maps a species has, the more complex the internal representation of the external world is for the animal
• Intelligence is related to the number of maps used by the cortex to represent the world