Neuroscience Fundamentals for Communication Sciences and Disorders - Chapter 6 (Cerebrum & Cortex) — Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering the key terms and concepts from the notes on the diencephalon, cerebrum, cerebral cortex, and limbic system.

Cerebrum

Largest part of the CNS; develops from the embryonic prosencephalon; consists of two hemispheres and is the seat of conscious thought, perception, and voluntary action.

Cerebral cortex

2–4 mm thick gray-matter layer that covers the cerebrum; site of information processing; organized into six layers (I–VI) and various functional areas.

Lobes of the cerebrum

Frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital lobes (with the insula sometimes considered a fifth lobe). Each has distinct topography and function.

Insula

Buried cortical region sometimes considered a fifth lobe; highly connected and involved in sensory, emotional, language, and cognitive processing.

Frontal lobe

Cognitive and motor control center; planning, decision-making, and voluntary movement; contains M1, PMA, SMA, FEF, Broca’s area, and PFC regions.

Precentral gyrus

Location of the primary motor cortex (M1); rostral to the central sulcus and parts of the body map (somatotopy) on the motor cortex.

Central sulcus

Landmark separating the frontal and parietal lobes; demarcates the border of M1 and S1.

Frontal eye fields (FEF)

Frontal lobe region that controls conjugate eye movements via brainstem oculomotor nuclei; injury can cause conjugate deviation.

Broca’s area

Left inferior frontal gyrus (pars triangularis and pars opercularis); essential for planning and coordinating speech production.

Wernicke’s area

Left temporal lobe region (posterior superior temporal gyrus) responsible for language comprehension and processing.

Primary motor cortex (M1)

Region in the precentral gyrus that initiates voluntary motor commands; contains pyramidal tract neurons forming major descending pathways.

Pyramidal tract neurons

Neurons in M1 that give rise to the corticobulbar and corticospinal tracts, crucial for voluntary movement.

Homunculus

Illustrated body map over M1 showing disproportionally large regions (lips, tongue, hands) reflecting skilled motor control.”

Premotor area (PMA)

Frontal lobe region anterior to M1; plans and prepares actions; feeds plans to M1(primary motor cortex) and SMA (supplementary motor area).

Supplementary motor area (SMA)

Dorsal to PMA; involved in sequencing and timing of motor actions; subdivided into pre-SMA and SMA proper.

Motor and sensory association areas

Frontal association areas coordinate planning and execution with sensory inputs; include FAA, TAA (temporal association areas), PAA across lobes (parietal association areas)

Mirror neurons

Neurons in premotor and inferior frontal areas that fire during observed and executed actions; implicated in social learning and imitation.

Prefrontal cortex (PFC)

Executive function hub; coordinating, planning, and regulating other brain regions; divided into DLPFC, VLPFC, OFC, VMPFC, MPFC.

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)

PFC subregion supporting cognitive control, working memory, and goal-directed behavior.

Ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC)

PFC subregion involved in various executive and cognitive control processes (location along lateral frontal surface).

Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)

PFC ventral surface; assigns emotional value and reward significance to stimuli; interfaces with amygdala and hypothalamus.

Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC)

Midline ventral PFC region involved in emotion regulation and valuation; connected to DLPFC and OFC.

Medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC)

Frontal lobe tissue on the medial wall; linked to social cognition and self-referential processing; often included with MPFC in PFC discussions.

Parietal lobe

Somatosensory processing center; subdivided into S1, SPL, IPL, and precuneus; integrates sensory information to guide action.

Primary somatosensory cortex (S1)

Postcentral gyrus; initial cortical processing site for touch, proprioception, pain, and temperature; somatotopic map.

Superior parietal lobule (SPL)

Dorsal PPC region; directs attention and integrates visual and somatosensory inputs for action planning.

Inferior parietal lobule (IPL)

Bottom PPC region; supports language, mathematics, and semantic processing; contains SMG and ANG.

Supramarginal gyrus (SMG)

Part of IPL; involved in phonological processing, language, and verbal working memory; supports speech production networks.

Angular gyrus

Part of IPL; supports reading, semantic processing, and numeric/arithmetical processing; integrates language and spatial info.

Precuneus

Medial PPC region; core node of default mode network; involved in self-awareness, memory, and visuospatial processing.

Temporal lobe

Auditory processing, language comprehension, memory, and complex object recognition; contains auditory and memory-related areas.

Primary auditory cortex (A1)

Situated on the superior temporal gyrus; tonotopically organized; initial cortical site for auditory information from the thalamus.

Temporal association areas (TAAs)

Regions abstracting semantic meaning and linking auditory/visual inputs with language; important for object recognition and memory.

Medial temporal lobe

Includes hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus, entorhinal cortex, and uncus; critical for memory formation and retrieval.

Hippocampus

Key structure for learning, memory consolidation, and spatial navigation; essential for transferring short-term to long-term memory.

Dentate gyrus

Part of the hippocampal formation; involved in pattern separation and memory encoding.

Parahippocampal gyrus

Memory-related region surrounding hippocampus; important for retrieval and encoding of memories.

Entorhinal cortex

Major input to hippocampus; supports memory formation via the perforant pathway.

Fornix

C-shaped white matter tract that outputs from the hippocampus to the mammillary bodies, thalamus, and prefrontal regions.

Amygdala

Almond-shaped limbic structure; processes threat, fear, anxiety, and aggression; modulates autonomic and hormonal responses.

Cingulate gyrus

Limbic structure with anterior and posterior segments; involved in emotion, attention, memory, and motor aspects of behavior.

Anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG)

Part of the cingulate involved in emotion regulation, affect, and motor response selection; connected to SMA and premotor areas.

Posterior cingulate gyrus (PCG)

Memory and visuospatial processing node; part of the default mode network; linked to episodic memory recollection.

Hippocampal formation

Includes hippocampus, dentate gyrus, and subiculum; central to learning and memory consolidation; connected via the fornix.

Septal area

Limbic structure involved in reward and hedonic processing; receives hippocampal and amygdalar inputs and projects to hippocampus and hypothalamus.

Hypothalamus

Regulates homeostasis and autonomic function; coordinates neuroendocrine responses via the pituitary; integrates limbic inputs.

Thalamus

Relays sensory information (except smell) to cortex; motor relay and thalamic modulation; contains distinct nuclei with specialized roles.

VPM (ventroposteromedial nucleus)

Thalamic nucleus; relays somatosensory input from the face and head (and gustatory signals) to the cortex.

VPL (ventroposterolateral nucleus)

Thalamic nucleus; relays somatosensory information from the body to the cortex.

LGN (lateral geniculate nucleus)

Thalamic visual relay to V1; organized retinotopically for visual processing.

MGN (medial geniculate nucleus)

Thalamic auditory relay to A1; involved in auditory processing.

Pulvinar

Association thalamic nucleus with widespread cortical connections; implicated in attention and higher-order visual processing.

Cortical layers (I–VI)

Six-layer organization of the cortex; layer I is the molecular layer; II external granular; III external pyramidal; IV internal granular; V internal pyramidal; VI multiform; layers receive/modify inputs and send outputs.

Cortical column

Vertical cylinder-like group of neurons spanning layers I–VI; functional unit that shares inputs and processes information coherently.

Brodmann’s areas (BA)

Cytoarchitectonically defined cortical regions (e.g., BA4 primary motor; BA17 primary visual; BA22 Wernicke’s; BA44/45 Broca’s) used to link structure to function.

Dorsal vs. ventral streams

Parallel processing pathways: dorsal (parietal) = spatial/where/how information; ventral (temporal) = form, color, identity; project to frontal association areas.

Default mode network (DMN)

Network active at rest; includes precuneus and posterior cingulate; involved in self-referential and resting-state activity.

Cerebral dominance

Hemispheric specialization; typically left for language and analytic tasks, right for emotion and holistic processing; involves interhemispheric coordination.

Long-term potentiation (LTP)

Synaptic mechanism of memory; strength of synapses increases with timing/occurrence of activity; basis for learning and plasticity.

Thalamic association nuclei

Nuclei (e.g., pulvinar, DM, AN, LP) that relay to widespread cortical association areas and modulate higher-order cognitive processing.