chapter 13/ thalamus & hypothalamus

prefrontal cortex

• area anterior to supplementary motor area; houses the frontal association area

Frontal association area

• Important for:

  • Arousal 

  • Emotions

  • Planning

  • Problem solving

  • Working memory

  • Attention

• Important for executive functioning skills.

• Helps humans adjust their behavior to moral and social norms

• High levels of serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine found in this area

• lesions lead to personality changes

parietal association area

• Important for spatial orientation - processes position and movement of objects, people and self in space

• Right side - attention in space

• Left side - attention in time

• Works with prefrontal cortex to help one decide what to focus on and what to filter out.

posterior parietal cortex

• located right behind the primary sensory area; house the parietal association area

parietal association area lesion

lesion in the non dominant hemisphere leads to contralateral neglect

temporal association areas

• Temporal association area important to recognize stimuli or patterns

• Lateral surface of temporal lobe is important in recognition of patterns related to language

Fusiform Gyrus

• medial surface of temporal lobe where visual stimuli of a face or object is located

temporal association area lesion

-agnosia

-Not to be confused with neglect. Person with agnosia acknowledges the stimulus but doesn’t recognize it. 

• Prosopagnosia - inability to recognize faces

left hemisphere

main center for language

important for paralinguistic skills

brocas area

• located in inferior frontal gyrus; responsible for production of oral language, written language, sign language 

wernickes area

•  located in superior temporal gyrus and extends around the lateral fissure into the parietal region; important for comprehension of language

Arcuate Fasciculu

• connects the two areas of language and facilitates the repetition of words

Aphasia

• Acquired deficit in the ability to produce/comprehend written/spoken language due to damage to the brain.

Dysarthria

 motor speech impairment; lesion to the muscles of the face, larynx, pharynx, tongue

brocas aphasia

• A type of aphasia characterized by difficulty in speech production, while comprehension remains relatively intact.

wernickes aphasia

• A type of aphasia where speech production is fluent but lacks meaning, and comprehension is significantly impaired.

conduction aphasia

• A type of aphasia characterized by the inability to repeat words or phrases, while speech production and comprehension are relatively intact.

right hemisphere dysfunction

• Generally caused by a stroke

• Result in  nonlinguistic elements of communication - prosody, inflection

mirror neuron system

• A network of neurons that activates both when an individual performs an action and when they observe the same action performed by another, believed to play a role in empathy and social understanding.

sexual differences in cerebral cortex

• Differences may explain reproductive, non reproductive and gender identity 

• White matter tracts

  • Corpus callosum - splenium is larger in females

• Cortex - males and females may process information differently but the outcomes are generally the same

  •  Phonological tasks - females are more bilateral

  • Visual spatial tasks - males are more bilateral

internal carotid arteries

anterior supply of blood to the brain

vertebral arteries

posterior supply of blood to the brain

Anterior cerebral arteries

• ravels along the interhemispheric fissure; the paired left and right anterior cerebral arteries – supplies blood to the frontal and parietal lobes, basal ganglia and corpus callosum (connected together by the anterior communicating artery)

Middle cerebral arteries

• travels along the lateral fissure; course laterally to supply Broca’s area, Wernicke’s area, temporal lobes and primary motor cortex

anterior choroidal artery

• Arises from the internal carotid

• Travels to the choroid plexus in the lateral ventricle

• Provides blood supply to deep structures of temporal and occipital lobes, internal capsule, parts of basal ganglia (globus pallidus, tail of caudate nucleus)

vertebral artery

• Course superiorly through the cervical vertebrae

• Come together to form the basilar artery

• The basilar artery then joins the posterior section of the circle of Willis

Once it reaches the circle of Willis, it branches into the posterior cerebral arteries which delivers blood to the occipital lobe, cerebellum and inferior temporal lobe.

vertebral- basilar system

A network formed by the vertebral arteries and the basilar artery that supplies blood to the posterior part of the brain, including the occipital lobe and cerebellum.