Class notes
Lecture notes Neurocognition (6464CN09)
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My notes from the lectures of the Neurocognition course, part of the Clinical Neuropsychology master.
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Inhoudsopgave1. DEVELOPMENT OF COGNITION OVER THE LIFESPAN..............................................................1
BRAIN STRUCTURE & ANATOMY – REFRESHER..............................................................................................1
BRAIN DEVELOPMENT AND PLASTICITY.........................................................................................................2
DEVELOPMENT AND COGNITION....................................................................................................................3
2. GENES AND PHARMACOLOGY............................................................................................................3
GENES............................................................................................................................................................3
PHARMACOLOGY............................................................................................................................................6
3. MEMORY.....................................................................................................................................................7
WORKING MEMORY........................................................................................................................................7
LONG TERM MEMORY.....................................................................................................................................9
CLINICAL RELEVANCE..................................................................................................................................10
4. ATTENTION..............................................................................................................................................10
SELECTIVE ATTENTION.................................................................................................................................10
SELECTION HISTORY.....................................................................................................................................11
SUSTAINED ATTENTION................................................................................................................................11
DIVIDED ATTENTION....................................................................................................................................11
NEURAL CORRELATES..................................................................................................................................12
EFFECTS OF ATTENTION...............................................................................................................................13
ATTENTION DISORDERS................................................................................................................................13
5. EMOTION AND MOTIVATION............................................................................................................14
THEORIES OF EMOTION, MOTIVATION AND REWARD...................................................................................14
Core concepts..........................................................................................................................................14
Historical context....................................................................................................................................15
Theoretical models..................................................................................................................................15
NEUROBIOLOGY: CIRCUITS AND MECHANISMS............................................................................................16
Emotion...................................................................................................................................................16
Motivation...............................................................................................................................................16
Reward....................................................................................................................................................16
SITUATED EMOTION, MOTIVATION AND REWARD........................................................................................16
Relation to cognition...............................................................................................................................17
Disorders.................................................................................................................................................17
6. EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS.....................................................................................................................18
IN-DEPTH KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF EF..................................................................................18
RELATION BETWEEN EF, ATTENTION AND WORKING MEMORY...................................................................19
NEURAL SUBSTRATE OF EF..........................................................................................................................19
LIMITATIONS OF RESEARCH AND ASSESSMENT............................................................................................19
7. MOTOR FUNCTIONS..............................................................................................................................20
MOTOR CORTEX...........................................................................................................................................21
CEREBELLUM...............................................................................................................................................21
8. INTERPRETATION OF TEST RESULTS............................................................................................22
NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT..........................................................................................................22
SCIENTIFIC RESULTS.....................................................................................................................................23
OPEN SCIENCE..............................................................................................................................................25
,1. Development of cognition over the
lifespan
Brain structure & anatomy – refresher
Neurons and other cells in the nervous system
Neurons all look really different. Can be different in
shape and function (sensory, interneurons (stellate
(afferent = towards the brain), pyramidal, purkinje), motor (efferent = away from the brain)).
Thresholded and non-decremental action potentials. Triggered by summation of excitatory potentials.
Driven by varying ion permeability of cell membrane.
Synapses action potential leads to neurotransmitter release into synaptic cleft. Some neurons
release more than one neurotransmitter. Receptor cells in the postsynaptic membrane can adapt to
under- or over use. Distributing of synapses connecting to a cell influences …
Glia Cells Astrocytes, oligodendrocytes, microglial cells, ependymal cells, schwann cells. (zie pp
voor wat ze doen)
Cortical cell layers cells are organized in layers. Sensory, interneurons and motor neurons are
grouped according to function. Layers are in different cortical areas, depending on primary function.
Depending on function of the area, layer for input or output are different in thickness.
White matter tracts white because of the myelin. Not one homogonous area, but different fibers.
Connecting neurons throughout the central and peripheral nervous system, associating fibers
(connecting areas within hemisphere), commissural fibers (crossing to the other hemisphere),
projection fibers (connect outward). They’re consistent in their layout.
Major components of the central nervous system forebrain (including hemispheres),
diencephalon (including thalamic structures. Important relay station, all information in your brain goes
through thalamus and one point. Lesion here could result in wide problems.), midbrain
(mesencephalon, contribute to sensory processing, substantia nigra), hindbrain (cerebellum, medulla
oblongata, pons), spinal cord.
Basal ganglia does more than just movement, important for learning, predictive processing,
sequencing, reward system.
Limbic system cingulate, hippocampus, hypothalamus, amygdala.
Frontal lobe movement, attention, reward, short-term memory, planning, impulse control
Parietal lobe sensory integration, associating processes, language functions, spatial processing
Occipital lobe visual processing
Temporal lobe memory processing, some language processes (object identification), auditory
areas, emotion association.
1
, Lateralization symmetry and asymmetry, many functions are the same across inter-hemispheric,
functional asymmetries (language, global perception and local perception)
Gyri and sulci bumps and grooves. Recognizable landmarks (longitudinal fissure, central sulcus,
lateral fissure, precentral gyrus, post-central gyrus, superior temporal gyrus)
Ventricles open spaces in brain where cerebral spinal fluid is circulating. Lateral ventricles, 3 rd
ventricle, aquaduct, 4th ventricle, central canal. Is created in lateral ventricles from arterial blood in
choroid plexus and ependymal cells.
Meninges multiple membranes covering brain and
spinal cord, dura mater (thickest membranes around the
brain), arachnoid with subarachnoid space, pia mater.
Naming conventions multiple ways of finding your
way in the brain, Brodmann Areas. It only partly
overlaps with functional domains. Functional names,
exact location can stay vague, assumes one function per
area. Directional planes sagittal, axial and coronal
plane. Coordinate systems (Talairach coordinates, MNI
coordinates (=average of 152 brains) now even averages
of 1000s of brains) BrainVoyager Brain tutor demo.
Brain development and plasticity
To investigate a brain, we warp the individual brain to match the template. Structural different mean
often very little, but sometimes we can relate them to cognitive deficits (observative, not causally).
Cell development dendritic spine formation (based in stimulation levels and dependent on life
stages).
Neurogenesis some brain areas are known to be able to grow new neurons (hippocampus, striatum,
limbic regions)
Apoptosis (pruning), preprogrammed cell death.
With time, brain structure changes (cortical thinning, neuronal loss, white mater lesions,
inflammations, decrease in cerebral blood flow, beta-amyloid plaques, specific regions where it
happens more than in others)
Brain function changes across age increased activation for some tasks (reorganization,
compensation), different activation (understanding broader changes).
Structural plasticity through experience normal inter-individual variation, but you can also train
something specifically (pianists vs string players). Long term training can lead to brain change,
depending on aspects of training and sensitive developmental periods.
Functional pathways functions are often implemented as pathways or circuits. Hardly any
function that only need one structure, most actions need many functions and thus many pathways.
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