APSY 654 FINAL EXAM

Neurobiological & developmental Bases of Learning and Behaviour Final Examination (Take-Home)

France Goulard APSY 654

Section 1: Match items in columns A and B. In the space before the items in column B, put the letter of the matching item from column A: Column A A. Neglect B. The Bell Curve C. Aphasia D. Language Acquisition Device E. LGN F. Myelin G. Executive function H. Hemiparesis I. HPA axis J. Amnesia Column B E visual system I responds to stress G mental flexibility, for instance A Visual-spatial disorder J memory disorder H unilateral weakness or paralysis C language disorder D Noam Chomsky F facilitates fast neural impulses B Proposed genetic basis for racial IQ differences

Mark:

_____ / 20

Section 2: Short Answer Questions. Choose 10 of the following 14 questions. Feel free to use point form. Each question is marked out of 3, so answers should require no more than 3 sentences. 1. What embryonic structure(s) become(s) the ventricular system? List the ventricles in the human brain. During early development of the vertebrate embryo, a longitudinal groove on the neural plate gradually deepens as ridges on either side of the groove become elevated, and ultimately meet, transforming the groove into a closed tube, the ectodermal wall of which forms the rudiment of the nervous system. This tube initially differentiates into three vesicles (pockets): the prosencephalon at the front, the mesencephalon, and, between the mesencephalon and the spinal cord, the rhombencephalon. (By six weeks in the human embryo) the prosencephalon then divides further into the telencephalon and diencephelon; and the rhombencephalon divides into the metencephalon and myelencephalon. As the vertebrate grows, these vesicles differentiate further still. The telencephalon differentiates into, among other things, the striatum, the hippocampus and the neocortex, and its cavity becomes the first and second ventricles. Diencephalon elaborations include the subthalamus, hypothalamus, thalamus and epithalamus and its cavity forms the third ventricle. The tectum pretectum, cerebral peduncle and other structures develop out of the mesencephalon, and its cavity grows into the mesencephalic duct (cerebral aqueduct). The metencephalon becomes, among other things, the pons and the cerebellum, the myelencephalon forms the medulla oblongata, and their cavities develop into the fourth ventricle. The ventricles in the human brain: 1. There are 2 lateral ventricles (each is located within one cerebral hemisphere). They are further subdivided into a body and 3 compartments termed horns: anterior, posterior, and inferior.

2. The 3rd ventricle is between the two halves of the diencephalons,

forming a midline cavity 3. The 4th ventricle is located between the brain stem and cerebellum (the medulla and pons form the floor of the fourth ventricle and the cerebellum, the roof). 2. Explain the difference between a critical period and a sensitive period. Critical Period: A time when certain conditions are necessary for normal development Sensitive Period: A time when certain conditions can influence development. 3. What postnatal neurodevelopmental process is unique to the postnatal period (i.e. we dont think it happens prenatally)? Competitive elimination is unique to the postnatal period- interaction with environment, shaped by experiences. This is a non-genetic period of neuron elimination by experiences. In contrast to pre programmed cell death, this is shaped by an interaction with the environment (e.g. experiences). It is a use it or lose it type scenario. It is also an ongoing process. 4. What are the motor and sensory homunculi? The homunculus visualizes the connection between different body parts and areas in brain hemispheres. On the left side of the body is the motor homunculus. The bigger the body parts in the picture, the more brainpower there is dedicated to controlling them. Positions of motor areas for these body parts can be seen on the top in the right hemisphere (left side of brain control the right side of the body and vise versa). The body half on the right is sensory homunculus. It is similar to the motor homunculus except that it tells how much brainpower is dedicated for sensing different body parts. More specifically, the primary motor cortex (also called the motor strip) is a section or line of the cortex on which all areas of the body are represented in greater or lesser proportions. There are very large

representation of the hand, face and tongue, and the larynx relative to other parts of the body (trunk, hip, and foot). The motor homunculus (also known as the little person), is a representation on the cortex in respect to muscular control. The thumb has a huge representation compared to the leg and foot. Other big parts include the hands, muscles around and inside the mouth, and our vocal apparatus. The motor homunculus has disproportionate arms, lips and tongue and has very huge hands. It is what we would look like if the size of our body parts were directly proportional to their representation on the motor strip. The sensory homunculus is a disproportionate representation of certain areas of the body along the primary sensory cortex. The left side has a great deal of sensory output around the mouth and the hand. Similarly to the motor homunculus, the sensory homunculus has a disproportionate representation of the lips, tongue, and hands. It shows us on how much information we rely on come from some interesting places in our body. The information we get through our hands as well as through our lips and mouth. 5. What is Apraxia? Apraxia is the inability to perform precise movements or actions due to a neurological disorder. A person with apraxia may want to perform a specific action or make a gesture, and have the physical ability to do so, but their brain prevents them. Apraxia occurs when the cerebral hemispheres of the brain malfunction in such a way that a person is unable to control specific types of fine motor control. Depending on which activities a person has difficulty with their apraxia can fall into a number of specific categories. A person may have one or more types of apraxia at the same time. 6. What is the circuit of Papez? The circuit of Papez is one of the major pathways of the limbic system in the brain and is chiefly involved in the cortical control of emotion. The Papez circuit plays a role in storing memory. More specifically, Papezs circuit is a loop in the formation of long-term memories. Which are also considered to be part of the limbic system as is the cingulated cortex. The cingulated cortex is a band of cortex that is adjacent to the ventricles. It travels all the
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way from the frontal regions of the brain all the way posterially to the parietal regions and then from the temporal lobe there is the hippocampus and the entorhinal cortex which are the memory structures. Adjacent to the hippocampus, you have a structure called the amygdala. The amygdala is very important in the emotion reactions and responses. 7. What functions are related to Brocas and Wernickes areas, respectively? Brocas Area: Is a functionally defined structure in the left frontal lobe of about 97% of humans (including a large majority of left-handers). It is involved mainly in the production of spoken and written language and also in language processing and comprehension. Wernickes Area: Is a defined structure that is involved in language comprehension. In about 97% of humans (including a large majority of left-handers) major language functions are contained in the left hemisphere of the brain and for most people, this area is lateralized to the left side. 8. Identify two major traditions in the development of intelligence testing. Alfred Binet (French psychologist) o Published the first real intelligence test in 1905 David Weschsler o Unhappy with the Stanford-Binets heavy reliance on verbal abilities o Added elements from the army beta test to commonly used verbal tasks o Published the WAIS (1939) and the WISC (1949).

9. List the components of Lurias model of executive functions. 1. First functional unit (Brain Stem)-cortical arousal and wakefulness 2. Second functional unit (posterior structures)-responsible for receiving, analyzing, and storing information

3. The third functional unit (prefrontal structures)-regulation, integrates and analyzes environmental and organismic inputs, prioritization of goals, planning-anticipating, self-monitoring and self-correction, staying on task, ability to delay gratification, and inhibition of goal irrelevant (impulsive) behaviours. Top-down effects on first and second unit functions. 10. What distinguishes Aspergers disorder from Autism? One of the major differences between Asperger's Disorder and autism is that there is no speech delay in Asperger's. In fact, children with Asperger's Disorder frequently have good language skills. What truly distinguishes Asperger's Disorder from Autism Disorder is the severity of the symptoms and the absence of language delays. Children with Asperger's Disorder may be only mildly affected and frequently have good language and cognitive skills. To the untrained observer, a child with Asperger's Disorder may just seem like a normal child behaving differently. 11. Choose one of the Pervasive Developmental Disorders or one Learning Disability. Suggest 2 intervention strategies you might use if you are planning to work with an individual who has the condition you have chosen. Intervention strategies for an individual diagnosed with Asperger's Disorder: 1. Group therapy and social skills training can improve these problems and help children with Asperger's learn how to take others into consideration in their daily interactions. 2. Cognitive behavioral therapy, a type of talk therapy that can help the more explosive or anxious children to manage their emotions better and cut back on obsessive interests and repetitive routines 3. Medication, for co-existing conditions such as depression and anxiety 4. Occupational or physical therapy, for children with sensory integration problems or poor motor coordination 5. Specialized speech/language therapy, to help children who have trouble with the pragmatics of speech the give and take of normal conversation 6. Parent training and support, to teach parents behavioral techniques to use at home
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Mark: ______ / 30 Section 3: Long answer questions. Choose 4 of the following 7 questions. Each question is worth 10 marks. Answers should not be more than 1 page in length. Feel free to use point form if you wish 1. List and briefly describe at least 5 disorders of muscle tone. Paralysis: i. no movement- due to spinal chord injury. Location of injury indicates the severity. The higher the injury the higher risk for paraplegic. Paresis: i. attenuated movement (weakness)- injury to the primary motor cortex. Lose some of your control through involuntary movement. Stroke or acquired brain injury and results in attenuated movement. Spasticity: i. resistance increases with strength/speed of manipulation. The state of muscles in one of the limbs. For example, if an arm is spastic, the muscles resist for you to manipulate them. Therefore, it is very hard to treat. Rigidity: i. resistance independent to strength/speed of manipulation. It doesnt matter how hard you push on a muscle it still has the same type of rigidity. Although it is a little bit easier to work with during physiotherapy. Dystonia: i. involuntary muscle contractions, repetitive movements, abnormal postures. For example, one might have their head tilted to one side. These muscle contractions are quite dramatic and fairly random. Very abnormal and atypical movements. Really poorly executed movements. Hypotonia:

i. reduced resistance to manipulation. Really poor muscle

tone. Hard to rehabilitate. Can still execute voluntary movements (weak movements). 2. List and briefly describe 5 disorders of visual perception (Hint: 4 of these are subtypes of a single category). Visual perception disorder or recognition of objects. o Discrimination disorder: trouble with: Salient aspects Distinction from background Completion of partial features
o Agnosia- inability to recognize familiar object despite intact

intelligence and sensory skills: (not related to a language problem). Brain regions that are typically involved in Agnosia are the parietal cortex (primary) parietal/somatosensory, parietaly/association area and well as occipital/vision, and auditory. Simultanagnosia: rare condition. People cant abstract meaning of the component parts of a stimulus. No meaning from a complex scene. Object Agnosia: condition where familiar objects taken one at a time cannot be identified. Cannot identify the overall object. For instance, one can recognize the tail and the whiskers from a cat but cannot identify the cat as a whole. Prosopagnosia: rare condition where people cannot recognize faces. Different types: some people can recognize famous faces from the media and not their own family members or vice versa. Capgras syndrome is where someone is convinced that their family has been replaced by strangers. Colour Agnosia: where people cant recognize colours. They can match shades of colors but cant recognize which color it is. o Neglect: Most frequently right-sided injuries
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 Ignoring left side of the visual field Ignoring left side of the body Other visual disorders: visual construction problems: puzzle assembly copying sample drawing
3. What, according to nativist and non-generative

perspectives, do children require for language development to proceed normally? Nativist perspectives: Humans are hard-wired for language. In this nativist theory, Noam Chomsky described that we have an innate sensitivity to linguistic rules. He believes that with instruction and practice, this is transformed into a set of language rules that we can apply creatively (not have been modeled by anyone) in new situations. Universal grammar: o Innate principles-possessed by all languages. Ex., having a subject, object and a verb in a sentence. o How the principles are expressed (parameters)- vary between languages. Language acquisition device (LAD) o Childrens brains are organized in a way that facilitates learning of linguistic rules o Allows children to figure out the structure of their language through exposure. The childs brain does the rest in regards to language teaching partly because of the way their brain works. Support for the nativist view: Critical period (certain things must happen) o Biological events (lateralization of function) o Linguistic events (language exposure) o Both must occur in early years for language to develop normally

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o If the hard wired system doesnt get that input them the hard wire language system will not work fully. Poverty of stimuli: o Surpasses the extent of a childs experience (deficiency of data) o Some knowledge of rules is acquired without formal instruction Negative evidence has minimal effects o Children often ignore correction of their grammar as they are mastering grammatical rules. It is an innate hardware process that follows its own time. Language is modular o Language processes can be localized to particular regions of the brain Non-generative perspectives: 1. Language is acquired through general principles of learningno language-specific modules. Language is learned like anything else. No specific trajectory 2. Communication is primary function of language-no universal grammar (properties). This is where they take issue with the nativist perspective 3. Individual differences in course of language development depend on the grammatical structure of language and individual experience. Nativist and non-generative agree that children need the following to acquire language: 1. Biological prerequisites: (spoken language) a. Sensory acuity b. Grossly normal cognitive development 2. Environmental prerequisites: a. Quantity and quality of language exposure. Need to be exposed to language at a young age. 3. Psychological prerequisites: a. Relationships that foster development of interpersonal nature of language- shared reference points. Language as a communication tool, sharing information.

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Compare and contrast Brocas and Wernickes aphasias. Which language abilities should one assess in order to accurately identify aphasia subtypes? Aphasia is an acquired language disorder. There are 2 general types: nonfluent and fluent aphasia. There are a number of aspects that you need to assess. Auditory comprehension Repetition Verbal fluency (expressive language abilities) o Amount o Grammar o Prosody o Articulation o Ability to initiate and elaborate Object naming (retrieve and express the correct label in familiar objects) Brocas Aphasia: (non-fluent aphasia) Dysarthria- articulation problems that are motor in nature. Muscular control to pronounce words. Output (if any) is agrammatic, aprosodic and telegraphic (only contains the essential elements). Speech apraxia (word planning and execution of speech) Word finding problems (anomia) cant retrieve the word they want to use. Also deep problems with reading and writing (e.g. unfamiliar or nonsense words). Difficulties appreciating phonetic and grammatical properties of written texts. People diagnosed with Brocas aphasia can understand what you tell them but they cant generate speech or repeat things that are said to them. *Areas of the left hemisphere involved are: dorsolateral, opercular, and insular frontal. Wernickes Aphasia: (fluent aphasia) Fluent, but often hyperfluent with multiple word-finding and repetition errors that make expressive speech hard to understand
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 Comprehension is impaired (often reading comprehension as well) Worst type of aphasia People diagnosed with Wernickes aphasia are able to speak but is know as a mixed blessing because their speech is often hyperfluent and there are really hard to interrupt. They will often use not meaningful speech and they have a hard time understanding what you are trying to say to them. It is very hard to give them instructions. In some senses they are a little bit worst off than someone with Brocas aphasia because although they retain the ability to speak it is often not meaningful speech that they generate. They also have that impaired language comprehension that makes it hard for other people to communicate with them. Its a very difficult type of aphasia to remediate and to cope with. * Areas of the left hemisphere involved are: posterior, superior temporal Thanks again for the amazing class! France

Mark: ______ / 40

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