Psych 454 - Exam 3 Study Materials, University of Wisconsin Madison

Cognitive control

Flexibly adapting behavior to current goals and context

Where is cognitive control done mostly?

Done in the prefrontal cortex

What area of the frontal cortex represents concrete goals?

posterior prefrontal cortex

What areas of the frontal cortex represent abstract goals?

anterior prefrontal cortex

What is cognitive control?

Core and higher-order executive functions

How is the prefrontal cortex organized?

Anterior-posterior, dorsal-ventral, and medial-lateral organization

What is the general role of the prefrontal cortex in cognitive control?

The prefrontal cortex plays a crucial role in cognitive control by managing various executive functions

What are the types of working memory?

Visuo-spatial working memory and Phonological working memory

What is visuo-spatial working memory?

holding and manipulating visual and spatial information

What is phonological working memory?

holding and manipulating auditory information

How does sustained firing of action potentials enable working memory?

by keeping information active over short periods

What role do feedback/recurrent connections between neurons play in working memory?

enable sustained firing, contributing to working memory

How are rules defined in the context of cognitive control?

Rules are context-dependent mappings of cues to actions

How do neurons in the prefrontal cortex represent rules?

by encoding and maintaining associations between cues and actions

What is the mechanism underlying working memory?

Sustained firing of neurons

What are concrete and abstract rules?

Concrete rules involve specific instances, while abstract rules are more general principles

How are rules represented in the prefrontal cortex?

hierarchically

What are core executive functions?

inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive flexibility

What is inhibitory control?

response inhibition, resisting impulses, and selective attention

What is working memory?

the ability to hold information in mind and manipulate it, even when that information is not perceptually present

What is cognitive flexibility?

set shifting and thinking "outside the box"

In what dimension do concrete goals, closely linked to actions, and abstract goals primarily reside in the prefrontal cortex?

Anterior-posterior

What dimension of the prefrontal cortex is associated with hot/value-related or cold processes?

Medial-lateral

What types of goals are associated with the anterior prefrontal cortex?

Abstract goals

What types of goals are associated with the posterior prefrontal cortex?

Concrete goals, more closely linked to actions.

Where are "where" or "how" processes located in the prefrontal cortex?

Dorsal part of lateral prefrontal cortex

What processes are associated with the ventral part of the lateral prefrontal cortex?

What processes

Where are "where" or "how" processes located in the prefrontal cortex?

dorsal part of the lateral prefrontal cortex

What types of processes are associated with the medial prefrontal cortex?

Hot or value-related processes

What function does the prefrontal cortex serve in information processing?

integrates and synthesizes information from various sources

From which areas does the prefrontal cortex gather information?

sensory, motor, and other cortical areas, along with subcortical areas involved in learning and reward

How does the prefrontal cortex regulate information flow in the brain?

by exerting top-down control over sensory information and selecting action plans

What does "top-down control of sensory information" in the context of the prefrontal cortex mean?

the prefrontal cortex's ability to influence the processing of sensory information based on cognitive processes

What role does the prefrontal cortex play in action planning?

coordinating responses based on cognitive goals and environmental cues

With which brain regions does the prefrontal cortex interact?

sensory, motor, and other cortical areas, as well as subcortical regions involved in learning and reward processing

What types of processes are associated with the lateral prefrontal cortex?

Cold or cognitive processes

Working memory

Actively manipulating and holding visual-spatial information

Anterior

The more abstract a thought is the more ____________ it is

Posterior

The more concrete a thought is the more ____________ it is

Top down control

When the PFC gives feedback to sensory cortexes, helps with selective attention

What are the different components of our memory system?

Working memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory

What are the characteristics of working memory?

limited storage capacity of about 3-4 items, is susceptible to interference, and individuals are consciously aware of the stored information

How does short-term memory differ from working memory?

Short-term memory involves temporary information storage without manipulation and is considered a part of or related to working memory

What are the characteristics of long-term memory?

stable information storage over long intervals and has a large storage capacity

What are the different types of working memory?

Phonological (auditory-verbal) working memory and visuo-spatial working memory

What are the characteristics of phonological (auditory-verbal) working memory?

It holds recently heard or internally generated auditory information for approximately 2 seconds or while rehearsed. It consists of two basic parts: a speech/acoustic store and a subvocal articulatory rehearsal process.

What is the proposed function of phonological working memory?

facilitating language acquisition and controlling behavior through self-instruction

What are the characteristics of visuo-spatial working memory?

holds a limited amount of visual information while individuals attend to it, survives eye movements, blinks, and other visual interruptions

What are the proposed functions of visuo-spatial working memory?

maintaining continuity across eye movements and creating and maintaining images when imagining or describing an object or scene

How does visuo-spatial working memory differ from visual iconic memory?

visuo-spatial working memory holds visual information while individuals attend to it and survives interruptions, while visual iconic memory provides detailed visual representation for up to around 300 milliseconds

What is the main idea behind Baddeley and Hitch's model of working memory?

It proposes a multi-component structure

What is the role of the Central executive in Baddeley and Hitch's model?

acts as the control system, managing attention and coordinating information processing

How many storage systems are identified in Baddeley and Hitch's model?

What are the names of the storage systems in Baddeley and Hitch's model, and what type of information do they handle?

Visuo-spatial sketchpad, which deals with visual and spatial information, and the Phonological loop, which handles auditory and verbal information.

What is the function of the Visuo-spatial sketchpad?

temporarily holds and manipulates visual and spatial information

What is the function of the Phonological loop?

temporarily stores and rehearses auditory and verbal information

What is the role of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in visuo-spatial working memory?

provides top-down influence over representations in the visual cortex, controlling what visual content is represented in working memory

How was the prefrontal cortex's (PFC) role in working memory originally thought to be?

It was originally believed to directly represent visual content during working memory.

What is the role of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) in visuo-spatial working memory?

PPC may represent the content of visuo-spatial working memory, potentially depending on the type of information stored

What function has been suggested for the visual cortex and inferior temporal (IT) cortex in working memory?

They have neural structures to represent and presumably store detailed visual content, with growing evidence supporting the role of more anterior visual areas in working memory

What is the predominant hemisphere bias in brain networks supporting phonological memory?

Left hemisphere bias

Which brain region in the left hemisphere is associated with phonological memory?

lateral prefrontal cortex, including Brodmann area 44 and Broca's area

What is the role of the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) in phonological memory?

plays a role in storage and processing of phonological memory

Which brain region is involved in phonological memory and is related to verbal content and/or attention?

temporo-parietal junction, including Brodmann area 40

What other brain region, aside from the lateral prefrontal cortex, is implicated in phonological memory?

premotor/supplementary motor cortex

How do different cells in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) contribute to working memory during the delay period?

Different cells in the PFC respond differently during the delay period

How does prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity during the delay period depend on the higher-order thalamus?

where neurons in the PFC activate the thalamus, which subsequently activates the next cell or region involved in the cognitive task

What are subvocal articulatory rehearsal process?

keeping something in your head by repeating it keeping something in your head by repeating it. Used to teach oneself stuff

visuospatial (sketchpad)

holding visual info while you think about it, survives visual interruptions.

Purpose of visuospatial memory

stopping motion sickness and helping imagine and describe objects

Central executive

the part of working memory that directs attention and processing

posterior parietal cortex

Deals with visuospatial working memory, tells where an object is, not detailed

Visual cortex and IT (inferior temporal)

Represents and stores detailed visual content, makes sense when you think about it cause it uses the same areas that see stuff

Wernicke's area

helps with higher representation of language, language comprehension

Broca's area, Lateral PFC

Do central executive functions in working memory

recurrent neural networks

any network with neurons that send feedback signals to each other

hidden layer

The layer of neurons that reverberate info to keep it in your mind

Rule

mapping a cue to an action (party: talk loudly, movie: talk softly) neurons localized in PFC

What is a task set?

A set of cognitive processes needed to do a task

What is set shifting?

process of selecting between two competing task sets

How does the activity of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), parietal, and temporal lobes vary depending on the task set?

Different regions of the PFC, parietal, and temporal lobes are selectively active depending on the task set

Which region of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is active during both spatial and verbal tasks?

anterior PFC (the frontal pole)

Why might the anterior PFC be active for both spatial and verbal tasks?

It may help identify the type of task set (found correlation with respective brain areas)

What distinguishes the dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex in terms of task specificity?

dorsolateral prefrontal cortex does spatial tasks, while the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex does verbal tasks

What two parts of the brain are active during spatial tasks?

Dorsolateral PFC and parietal lobe

What two parts of the brain are active during verbal tasks?

Ventrolateral PFC and temporal lobe

What is the purpose of the "decision variable" (DV) in the context of the experiment described in the slide?

To compare the activity of neurons preferring leftward and rightward stimuli

How is the decision of the direction of moving stimuli made based on the decision variable (DV)?

By comparing the DV to a decision criterion, such as DV = 0

What does a positive value of the decision variable (DV) indicate?

That the activity of neurons preferring rightward stimuli is higher than those preferring leftward stimuli

Parietal lobe

Active in remembering spatial

Temporal lobe

Active in remembering verbal

Anterior PFC

very important in set shifting, does top down with DL and VL PFC to prep them

signal detection theory

How you parse through the vast quantities of noise and info

Step 1 (Perceptual decision making)

Sensory information going into sensory cortex

Step 2 (Perceptual decision making)

Sensory info is changed into a decision variable

Step 3 (Perceptual decision making)

Decision stage in PFC, where a threshold must be met that results in a decision

What is behavioral inhibition?

Blocking a behavior in an environment when you realize it's not appropriate

What is cognitive inhibition?

Blocking of some mental processes that are not relevant

What area of the brain seems to be responsible for stopping activity?

Inferior frontal gyrus

What is stop signal reaction time?

The amount of time it takes for the stop process to take over the go process