Neuropsychology Overview Quiz

Neuropsychology Seminar Fall 2024

• Dr. Tim J. Möller, instructor, uses He/him pronouns.
• The seminar is offered by the following institutions: Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany; Department for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité University Medicine, Berlin, Germany; St. Hedwig Krankenhaus, Berlin, Germany; International Psychoanalytic University Berlin, Berlin, Germany; Touro University, Berlin, Germany; and German federal armed forces Hospital, Berlin, Germany.

Important Information

• Midterm Assignment: A 7-page term paper is required, including scientific references.
• Topic: A section must explain why the student chose the topic, and the topic selection should be discussed beforehand.
• Deadline: Submit the term paper by December 5th.
• Bonus Opportunity: Submitting a printed version by November 14th earns feedback by November 21st.
• Extra Session: A review session is scheduled for Monday, December 16th, from 9:00 AM to 11:30 AM.
• Final Exam: Scheduled for December 19th.

No Meetings

• Video recordings for the following dates: September 19th, September 26th
• October 3rd
• October 17th
• October 24th
• November 28th
• December 26th

Marking/Grades

• Attendance/participation/extras – 10%
• Midterm exam – 40%
• Final exam – 60%

Outline

• The course will cover the following topics: Introduction, Organisation of the Nervous system, Organisation of sensory systems, Organisation of the motor system, The occipital lobes, The parietal lobes, The temporal lobes, The frontal lobes, Learning and memory, Language, Emotion, Spatial behavior, Attention, Development and plasticity, and Recovery and rehabilitation in the adult brain.
• Specific page numbers for each topic are listed.

Suggested Reading

• Kolb, B., & Whishaw, I. (2008). Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology (6th edition). New York: Worth Publishers. (approximately 55 EUR)

Sparking Interest in Neuropsychology

• Optogenetics: (YouTube video links provided)
• Neurosurgery while playing an instrument: (YouTube video link provided)
• Diffusion Tensor Imaging: (YouTube video link provided)

Neuroanatomy

• There are four central brain regions

The brains of the "animals" rat, cat, baboon, human

• Diagrams of various animal brains

Organization of the Nervous System

• Diagrams about anatomical orientation, and radiological/neurological conventions for looking at images of the brain
• Anatomical Divisions: Diagram showing central and peripheral nervous systems, spinal cord, somatic, and autonomic nervous systems

Organization of the Nervous System

• Diagrams of the from neuronal activity to the haemodynamic response, including fMRI BOLD response
• Stroke - a cerebrovascular accident. 80% ischemic, 20% hemorrhage

Organization of the Nervous System

• Stroke - a cerebrovascular accident. 80% ischemia (narrowing/blockage), 20% hemorrhagic (rupture).
• Early recognition matters;
• Statistics of stroke outcomes and prevalence.

Structures of the CNS: White matter and gray matter

• Diagrams of the brain structures to show white matter and gray matter.

HO: Main Divisions

• Diagram of the brain with labeled divisions.

Structures of the CNS: Main Divisions

• Diagrams illustrate the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, midbrain, occipital lobe, cerebellum, pons, and spinal cord.

Structures of the CNS: Cortical Lobes, Fissure, Gyrus and Sulcus

• Diagrams are provided illustrating parts of the brain

Sidenote

• References to cartoon characters from the Powerpuff Girls.

Todays seminar in less than 2 minutes:

• YouTube video link

Seminar 2

• Nothing specific noted

Recap

• Figures: Fissures, Sulci, and Gyri

Fissures, Sulci, and Gyri

• Diagrams showing different views (dorsal, ventral, lateral, medial view) of the brain focusing on fissures, sulci, and gyri.

Superhuman power

• A youtube video link is provided

Limits of sensory systems

• Diagram showing the electromagnetic spectrum, with examples of infrasound, acoustic, and ultrasound

Limits of sensory systems

• Sensory systems are sensitive to a fraction of the energy spectrum.

General Principles

• Sensory transduction: Receptors convert energy to electrical potentials.
• Receptive field: Area of a stimulus affecting firing rate.
• Adaptation: Response fading over time.
• Sensitivity: Lowest needed amount of energy perceived.

Multiple (topographic) representations

• Diagrams showing different animals brains (squirrel, cat, owl monkey, rhesus monkey)
• Key showing areas in the brain for somatic cortex, auditory cortex, and visual cortex

Basics of human vision

• Illustration of the human eye, defining cornea, iris, pupil, lens, sclera parts
• Details about the retina, receptive field, fovea, and optic nerve
• Explain function of rods and cones

Organisation of Se

• Diagram showing the visual pathway, including optic nerve, optic chiasm, optic tract, lateral geniculate nucleus, and optic radiations.

Contralateral dominance and hemispheric specialization

• Diagram illustrating the concept

Tonotopic organisation in auditory cortex

• Diagrams illustrating functional organization.

Body Senses

• Four main somatosensory types: nociception (pain), hapsis (fine touch), proprioception (body awareness), and balance.

Somatosensory Receptors

• Diagram showing different receptors and location: Meissner's corpuscle, Merkel cells, Pacinian corpuscle, Ruffini endings.

Somatosensory Homunculi

• (New model) Diagrams illustrate primary somatosensory cortex organization with a homunculus for muscles, skin (slow), skin (fast), and joints, pressure

Processes involved in a simple movement

• Diagrams illustrating the visual information, frontal-lobe motor areas, spinal cord, motor neurons involved in movement

Initiating a motor sequence

• Diagram showing direct parietal-to-frontal routes for simpler movements and descriptions of the premotor cortex, prefrontal cortex, posterior cortex parts involved.

Neocortical motor control

• Diagrams illustrate simple, sequential, and planning movements, and blood flow changes in these circumstances.

Electrical stimulation of M1

• Description, illustrative diagram, and a brief outline of the observed results.

M1 activity in movement planning and execution

• Illustrative diagram outlining procedures and results of an experiment for the M1 activation based on different conditions.

M1 activity without execution

• Diagrams and descriptions of an experiment.

M1 activity without execution

• Diagram outlining results of an experiment based on different types of verbal cues.

Motor simulation theory

• Description of the theory about covert actions, simulated actions and execution actions

An integral view: motor cognition – imitation

• Definitions and descriptions of mimicry and imitation.

Basal ganglia

• Diagram comparing normal functioning of the basal ganglia to a Parkinson's disease case scenario.

Basal ganglia

• Diagram comparing normal, and Chorea basal ganglia function scenarios.

Cerebellum

• Diagram Illustrating cerebellum and its relation to body.

Involved in: acquiring and maintaining motor skills, timing of movements, and movement accuracy.

Seminar 4

• Discusses specific brain structures: Occipital lobe, Frontal lobe, Parietal lobe, Temporal lobe, Brain stem, and Cerebellum.

Ventral (temporal) path

• Dorsal (parietal) path;
• Descriptions and illustrations of Visual pathways

Retinotopic organisation

• Describes the representation of vertical & horizontal visual field in visual cortex with illustrations.

Representation of visual eccentricity in visual cortex

• Illustration shows representation of the visual field in relation to central, parafoveal, and peripheral areas in the visual cortex.

Visual processing hierarchy

• Description of early and mid-level versus higher-level visual processing regions, and illustration highlighting object versus scrambled object picutre.

Areas in the left hemisphere

• The diagram illustrates areas showing preferential activations to object categories (somatosensory, words, illusory contours, motion, body parts, kinetic animals, objects, objects, chairs, tools, faces, buildings).

Summary of visual processing hierarchy

• Description of hierarchical sequence and specialization in visual processing regions across temporal-parietal-occipital regions, visual field, faces, objects and places.

Summary (textbook)

• Visual functions are broadly based within the occipital lobe. Provides a summary of different visual pathways: dorsal stream for action, ventral stream for visual exploration and visual recognition, and different frame references for coding visual space. Summarizes visual attention details.

Development of ventral-dorsal stream interactions

• Description showing scale errors that offer evidence for perception-action dissociation early in life

Visual field representation in visual cortex

• Illustration showing visual field representation in the primary visual cortex with sections of the brain.

Visual pathway lesions & visual field deficits

• Brief overview of visual fields, anopia/hemianopia, amblyopia, homonymous deficits, and scotoma, and related daily life challenges for patients.

Agnosia

• Loss of ability to recognize despite intact sensory input and memory

DF: Visual form agnosia

• Description of visual form agnosia in relation to ability to perceive object orientation, reaching and movements, and orientations.

PS: Prosopagnosia

• Selective impairment in acquiring and recognizing faces.

Cortical lesions

• Case study: Patient (not named) unable to recognize themselves or their family members.

The parietal lobes

• Description and illustration explaining the relationship between superior-medial parietal lobe and angular gyrus.

Dimension II:

• Descriptions of four dimensions: object recognition, guidance of object recognition, sensorimotor transformation, and spatial navigation.

Posterior Parietal Damage

• Illustration of the damage's effects on space exploration and related disorders.

Posterior Parietal Damage

• Descriptions of different types of damage and their impact and theories on neglect.

Posterior Parietal Damage

• Discussion on apraxia and different classification of deficits.

Posterior Parietal Damage

• Discussion focused on Shirley H Wray, M.D., Ph.D., FRCP role, and a summary about the effects of damage on skilled motor movement.

Seminar 6

• No specific details noted.

Line up: The frontal lobes

• Covers Phineas Gage, Anatomy, Connections, Functions, Depression treatment with TMS, Lesion symptoms, and Assessment.

Phineas Gage

• Details of the historic case of Phineas Gage.

Phineas Gage: Lesions and resulting deficits

• Description of the brain areas affected and the behavioral changes observed in Gage.

Phineas Gage: Lesions and resulting deficits

• Discusses premorbid personality, documented changes, injury, and the difficulty determining the exact location and extent of the brain lesion.

Anatomy

• Description and illustration of the frontal lobe: borders, subdivisions (motor cortex, premotor cortex, prefrontal cortex).

Connections: Motor and Premotor Areas

• Connections between motor areas (making movements, using spinal/cranial neurons), and premotor areas (selecting movements, directing frontal/dorsolateral motor cortex).

Connections: Prefrontal Areas

• Connections between areas(dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, and their relation with other parts, like auditory, visual, somatosensory, gustatory, olfactory cortices, and influences on the amygdala and hypothalamus.

Functions: Prefrontal Areas

• Overview of the executive functions of the prefrontal areas: planning, error detection, problem solving, behavior initiation/inhibition, sequencing behaviors, and working memory.

Functions: Prefrontal Areas

• Describes self-knowledge loss due to prefrontal injury as well as a case study illustration from a patient experiencing the issue.

Lesion symptoms: Disturbances of motor function

• Example of movement selection with Broca's area and its corresponding role with speech issues.

Lesion symptoms: Loss of divergent thinking

• Distinction between convergent and divergent thinking. Summarizes tests that measure these functions
• Word fluency and Design fluency tests, and their sensitivity to lesions affecting different brain areas

Quantify behavioral spontaneity

• Description and illustrations of tests for word and design fluency are shown

Lesion symptoms: Environmental control of behavior – Loss of response inhibition

• Definitions and descriptions of the Wisconsin Card-Sorting Test, and also Stroop Test

Assessment

• Outlines various tests for evaluating frontal lobe function (e.g., the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, word fluency, design fluency, Tower of London, tests of motor function (e.g., strength, speed, sequencing,), Token Test to assess aphasia).

Line up: Learning and memory

• Overview of memory systems, case studies, amnesia, stages of memory consolidation, and neural correlates of memory.

Learning and memory

• Overview of the unidirectionality of time compared with the unusual ability of the human brain to remember past events.

Learning and Memory

• The late development of episodic memory describes the late development of episodic memory in children.

A neural center for memory

• Discusses the impossibility of localizing a memory trace in the nervous system.

Henry Molaison (1926–2008)

• Details of case study of Henry Molaison; brain surgery's effects and its impact on memory and intelligence.

From learning to memory

• Illustrative graph showing a model of memory with a differentiation of depth of memory over time from seconds to years.

Memory

• Describes different types of memory; Stages of information processing (registration, encoding, consolidation, storage).

Memory

• Describes different categories of memory based on time (sensory, short-term, and long-term memory).

Memory

• Provides types of memory, distinguished by criteria including episodic memory, semantic memory, procedural memory, and priming.

Four principal memory systems

• Illustrations and short descriptions of the four types of memory systems.

Two principal memory systems

• Explains the difference between declarative and procedural memories, and respective brain locations.

A taxonomy of long-term memory systems

• Illustration of a taxonomy of long-term memory systems.

Case C.H.

• Overview of the naming experiment, and mirror drawing task associated with deficits in the patient's episodic memory.

Traumatic events and time-dependent amnesia

• Overview of traumatic events, amnesia, coma, retrograde amnesia, anterograde amnesia, and restoration of memory

Memory consolidation phases

• Discusses the perseveration-consolidation hypothesis in memory.

Theories of retrograde amnesia

• Overview of consolidation theory (relationship with hippocampus and neocortex).

Theories of retrograde amnesia

• Explains reconsolidation theory (multiple trace theory). The gradient of temporal memory loss

A modern account...

• Overview describing memory distortion in the O.J Simpson trial 15 and 32 months after the event.

A modern account...

• Diagram showing a three step model: Initial encoding, recent retrieval, and remote retrieval involving the hippocampus in a de- and re-contextualization process.

A modern account...

• Diagram highlighting interactions between hippocampus, neocortex, recent reactivation, remote reactivation, intact, and amnesia conditions

Theories of retrograde amnesia

• Temporal gradient of retrograde amnesia - consolidation theory. Illustrative Ribot gradient

Posterior Parietal Damage

• Discussion about apraxia in the context of the parietal lobe damage. Summarization of possible characteristics and their relation.

Spatial deficits in humans

• Overview of egocentric disorientation.

Spatial deficits in humans

• Overview of heading disorientation.

Spatial behavior

• Discussion of the difficulty recognizing environments or directions associated with deficits.

Spatial deficits in humans

• Description of anterograde disorientation, presenting the challenges of adapting to new environments associated with the damage.

Spatial deficits in humans

• Describes different pathways for spatial processing; dorsal stream (egocentric spatial behavior), and ventral stream (allocentric spatial behavior)

Hippocampus

• Description of place cells, head-direction cells, and grid cells in relation to spatial behavior and navigation.

Line up: Attention

• Discusses the History (Behavior) and (Neurophysiology) of attention, neglect considerations, rehabilitation.

History (Behavior) > Definition

• The importance of attention, its use in separating various stimuli and responses, and various states.

History (Behavior) > Visual identification of a target

• Illustrations of examples involving the difficulty in target identification when distractors are more present.

History (Behavior) > Visual identification of a target

• Illustrations of examples of identifying visual features and the influence of item numbers.

History (Behavior) > Treisman's model of feature search

• Diagram illustrating how focused attention selects features, integrates them, and creates a recognition process.

Attention

• Presents different models (Early Filtering, Broadbent; and Attenuation, Treisman; and Late Filtering, Deutsch & Deutsch) regarding stage of selection

History (Neurophysiology) > selective attention

• Explains the role of V4 in recognizing rewarded locations vs. unrewarded locations.

Is Multitasking possible?

• Overview of possibilities, feasibility, and resource competition

Is Multitasking possible? Wickens Multiple Resource Model

• Illustration and description of how modality affects multitasking efficiency.

Line up: Development and Plasticity

• Stages of brain development, Imaging studies, Environmental effects, Plasticity in healthy brain, and maladaptive plasticity.

How could behavioral changes resulting from changes in neural function be identified

• Ways to analyze behavior changes linked with neural function changes.

Definitions and questions

• What is neuroplasticity? Definition given, and questions related to experience, change, and the brain.

Definitions and questions

• How long does it take to induce changes in neuroplasticity, and how long do these changes last? Limits of change, critical periods

Definitions and questions

• Overview of brain area plasticity, amounts of residual tissue required for compensation, functional/structural changes, and maladaptive effects of sensory deprivation.

Neural maturation > stages of brain development

• Sequential timeline and diagrams highlighting stages (cell birth, cell migration, cell maturation, synaptogenesis, cell death, synaptic pruning, myelogenesis).

Neural maturation > stages of brain development > cell maturation

• Description and illustrative material focusing on postnatal maturation of Broca's area across different ages

Neural maturation > stages of brain development > synaptogenesis & pruning

• Overview of synaptogenesis, its independence of experience during different phases, and how these processes impact brain development.

Neural maturation > imaging studies of brain development

• Description of gray matter density and visual cortex maturation changes based on longitudinal studies

Neural maturation > imaging studies of brain development

• Overview of MRI data and longitudinal studies revealing brain development patterns

Environmental effects on brain development > early deprivation

• Overview of findings from studies examining the cognitive outcomes of Romanian adoptees with early deprivation experience in relation to those without.

Environmental effects on brain development > early deprivation

• Results summarizing implications and showing the relation to age and compensation patterns associated with different periods of deprivation

Environmental effects on brain development > early deprivation

• Effects on auditory cortex and cochlear implantation on deaf children. Results shown

Plasticity in the healthy brain > auditory cortex of musicians

• Overview of the cortex in musicians and their relation to experiences related with tuning to certain frequencies

Plasticity in the healthy brain > mechanisms of perceptual learning

• Overview describing the role of attention, TMS, and optimized sensory input in perceptual learning

Maladaptive plasticity > phantom limb pain

• Overview covering phantom limb pain in relation to cortical changes, different brain mapping studies involving amputees compared with healthy controls, and impact on different areas of the body mapping in the brain

Maladaptive plasticity > phantom limb pain

• Describes the telescoping phenomenon and the correlation with phantom limb pain intensity, as well as different studies showing the impact on the brain from different types of training, and using different types of prosthetic aid.

Test your knowledge on the latest concepts in neuropsychology, including the Multitasking Resource Model and the impact of stimulation on brain development in children. This quiz covers essential topics like brain functionality, exam requirements, and participation grading. Refresh your understanding of neuropsychological principles and their implications for child development.