Occipital lobes
1b. Which visual cortical area (V1, V2, V3, V4, V6, V8) is also known as the ‘primary visual cortex’ and ‘Brodmann’s area 17’?
V1 is also known as the primary visual cortex and V4 is also known as Brodmann’s area 17.
1c. Why is this area called the ‘PRIMARY visual cortex’?
This area receives all the rough data from the eyes and sends these to the other brain areas. It is the first area to receive visual information.
2. Match the visual cortical area with the most appropriate function listed below:
“Dynamic form” perception + V3 (extrastriate cortex)
Any kind of visual input + V1 (striate cortex)
Color perception + V4 (extrastriate cortex)
Motion perception + V5 (extrastriate cortex)
3. a) which two cortical streams of visual processing could be distinguished? b) To which lobes do these streams project information from V1? c) Which stream is also called the ‘where’ stream and which the ‘what’ stream? d) Which stream is mostly involved in conscious vision and which more in subconscious vision? e) What problems could occur in case of damage to those two pathways?
a) stream | Dorsal | Ventral |
b) projects to | Parietal lobe | Temporal lobe |
c) what/where | Where | What |
d) (sub)consciousness vision | Subconscious | Conscious |
e) damage | Disrupts the ability to know where objects are in relation to the body | Disrupts the ability to recognize what you’re seeing (agnosia) |
4. What is the blind spot?
Inability to see due to naturally occurring lack of photoreceptors.
5. Agnosia is the inability to recognize sensory stimuli. Indicate the inability and location of the damage related to each of these types of visual agnosias.
Form of visual agnosia | Inability to | Damage location |
Apperceptive agnosia | Recognize objects (basic visual functions are preserved) | Bilateral lateral occipital lobe |
Associative agnosia | Recognize objects despite its apparent perception | Anterior temporal lobe damage |
Prosopagnosia | Recognize faces | Bilateral damage below the calcarine fissure at the temporal junction |
Alexia | Read | Left fusiform and lingual areas |
Topographic disorientation | Find one’s way around familiar environments | Right medial occipitotemporal damage, including at the fusiform and lingual gyri |
Parietal lobes
6. What does the drawing of the primary somatosensory cortex represent (homunculus)?
The Homunculus is a representation of a small human being. It’s a neurological map which represents all the brain areas with regards to motor functions and sensory functions for different parts of the human body.
7. At the anterior side of the central sulcus (in the frontal lobe), such a representation is present as well. What is the name of this cortex?
Primary motor cortex
8. Damage to the anterior parietal cortex could lead to somatosensory agnosias. Match the name of the somatosensory agnosia with the accompanying inabilities.
Somatosensory agnosia | Inability |
Asterognosis | Inability to recognize objects by touch |
Asomatognosia | Loss of knowledge or sense of one’s own body and bodily function |
Anosognosia | Unawareness or denial of illness |
Anosdiaphoria | Indifference to illness |
Autopagnosia | Inability to localize and name body parts |
Finger agnosia | Unable to point to various fingers of either hand or to show them to an examiner |
Asymbolia for pain | Absence of typical reactions to pain |
9. Damage to the anterior parietal cortex could also lead to afferent paresis. Which sensory information is lacking in patients with afferent paresis?
There is a lack of feedback about the exact positions of the fingers, which causes the finger movements to be clumsy.
10. Damage to the posterior parietal cortex could result in apraxia. Patients with apraxia are unable to make voluntary movements in the absence of paralysis. Two forms of apraxia are ideomotor apraxia and constructional apraxia. What problems occur in patients with these forms of apraxia?
Ideomotor apraxia: unable to copy movements or to make gestures
Constructial apraxia (visuomotor disorder): spatial organization is disturbed, patients are not able to create a puzzle, to make a drawing, to copy facial movements
11. Some symptoms occur more often after right posterior parietal cortex damage, while others occur more often after left posterior parietal cortex damage. Fill in for each symptom in the table below whether it is more common after left or right posterior parietal cortex damage.
Symptom | Right/left |
Deficits in writing (agraphia) | Left |
Right-left discrimination | Left |
Contralateral neglect | Right |
Deficits in spatial cognition | Right |
Deficits in arithmetic calculations (dyscalculia) | Left |
Temporal lobes
13. Match the four functional zones of the temporal lobe with the processes in which they are involved
Functional zone | Processes |
Superior temporal gyrus | Auditory processes |
Inferotemporal cortex | Visual processes |
Amygdala | Emotion |
Hippocampus and associated cortex | Spatial navigation, spatial and object memory |
14. The parietal lobe and the temporal lobe both process spatial location. What is the difference between the two lobes with respect to the spatial location process?
Parietal lobe: processes spatial location with respect to movement.
Temporal lobe: uses spatial location both as a feature of object recognition and for developing memories for object location
15. Damage to different regions of the temporal lobes lead to different deficits. Match the region of damage with the deficits.
Region of damage of temporal lobe | Deficits in |
Auditory regions, left | Recognizing language |
Auditory regions, right | Recognizing music |
Visual regions | Recognizing complex visual stimuli |
Medial regions | Affect, personality, spatial navigation, object memory |
Hippocampus | Long term memory |
Frontal lobes
17. Match the functional zones of the frontal lobe with the function in which they are involved.
Functional zone | Function |
Primary motor cortex (M1/Brodmann’s area 4) | Specifies elementary movements |
Premotor cortex | Selects complex movements from a stored movement lexicon |
↪ lateral area | Selects behaviours in response to environmental cues |
↪ supplementary area | Selects behaviours on the basis of internalized knowledge |
Prefrontal cortex | Controls cognitive processes that select appropriate movements at the correct time and place |
↪ dorsolateral prefrontal cortex | Selects behaviour with respect to temporal memory |
↪ orbitofrontal cortex | Decision making related to emotion and reward |
↪ ventromedial prefrontal cortex | Selects behaviour with respect to context (current or based on previous knowledge) |
18. Just as you’re about to complain to a friend about the unjustly bad grade you received on a recent exam, you recognize your professor approaching. You manage to smile and withhold your angry comments until he passes out of earshot. Describe the brain regions and their respective functions likely to have been particularly involved in helping you to avoid this potentially embarrassing social situation.
This behavior could be described as emotional regulation or response inhibition. Instead of lashing out with an angry comment that could be overheard (a behavior that would be socially inappropriate), your prefrontal cortices, and more specifically ventral medial prefrontal cortex, mediates the more socially acceptable smile. The amygdala projections to frontal regions are also likely to contribute.
20. What happens in case of damage to the premotor cortex?
Have difficulty with learning to respond to visual cues with specific movements (pushing the breaks when the traffic turns red), even though they understand what they are supposed to do.
Finding it hard to move in response to spoken demands (raising a hand when asked).
Finding it hard to select the right muscles to begin new movements.
