Question 1

One reason that the frontal pole has received less experimental attention than the lateral prefrontal cortex is because

Accepted Answer

The most anterior region of the prefrontal cortex, which includes the frontal pole, is susceptible to imaging artifacts, making it more challenging to study using fMRI. This may have contributed to a relative lack of experimental attention compared to the lateral prefrontal cortex, which is more easily studied with imaging techniques. Choices A and B are not accurate, as the frontal pole is not particularly prone to damage by cerebral hemorrhage and actually shows considerable individual variability in its structure and function. Choice C is also incorrect, as the frontal pole is not primarily involved in olfaction but rather in a range of higher cognitive functions.

Question 2

The Baddeley working memory model is ________,suggesting that ________ is more important in determining the brain regions that will be recruited.

Accepted Answer

The Baddeley working memory model is content-based, suggesting that the type of information is more important in determining the brain regions that will be recruited.

Question 3

You conduct a single-cell recording study of a lateral prefrontal cortical cell while an animal performs a delayed-response task.Which of the following response profiles best matches the behavior of the cell if it is primarily involved in working memory function? (Each vertical line represents an action potential. )

Accepted Answer

The answer of You conduct a single-cell recording study of...

Question 4

Neuroimaging experiments have demonstrated that working memory engages the

Accepted Answer

Neuroimaging experiments have consistently found that working memory mainly engages the prefrontal cortex, but with additional involvement of more posterior brain areas that are involved in perception and mental representation, such as the parietal cortex and occipital cortex. The anterior cingulate is also typically recruited during working memory tasks, but to a lesser extent than the prefrontal cortex and more posterior areas. Therefore, choice C, which includes both the prefrontal cortex and more posterior brain areas, is the best choice.

Question 5

The idea that the prefrontal cortex filters out and inhibits irrelevant information is supported by the ERP findings of Knight and Grabowecky (1995),who found that patients with prefrontal lesions produced ________ in response to ignored tones during a dichotic listening task.

Accepted Answer

Patients with prefrontal lesions showed larger evoked potentials to ignored tones, indicating a reduced ability to filter out irrelevant information.

Question 6

Cells in the prefrontal cortex that respond selectively to information about "what" and "where" may differ from other parts of the visual pathway in that

Accepted Answer

Some prefrontal cortex cells integrate both "what" and "where" information, unlike other parts of the visual pathway that typically process these aspects separately.

Question 7

People with frontal lobe damage will likely have trouble with

Accepted Answer

The frontal lobe is involved in higher cognitive functions such as reasoning, planning, and problem-solving, which includes remembering the context in which information is learned.

Question 8

People with frontal lobe injuries and control participants learned a series of facts in the laboratory and returned about a week later to be tested for fact recall.Which of the following best describes the results of this study?

Accepted Answer

Participants with frontal lobe injuries typically have impaired source memory, even if their ability to recall facts is similar to that of control participants.

Question 9

Thompson-Schill and colleagues (1997,1998)conducted an experiment in which participants generated an appropriate verb in response to a presented noun.They found that the processing of nouns such as rope,which have many semantically associated verbs,elicited ________ activity in the inferior frontal cortex than did nouns such as scissors,which do not.This result supports the ________ hypothesis of inferior frontal lobe function.

Accepted Answer

The greater activity in the inferior frontal cortex for nouns with many associated verbs supports the hypothesis of selection, as this region is responsible for selecting the appropriate verb for a given noun. Working memory retrieval, on the other hand, would involve activation of regions such as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Therefore, A and C are incorrect options. Option D is incorrect because the study found greater activity, not less activity as this option suggests.

Question 10

The hypothesis that different regions of the brain process visuospatial and verbal information is an example of a ________ account of brain specialization.

Accepted Answer

A content-based account of brain specialization suggests that different brain regions are specialized for specific types of information processing, as opposed to a domain-general account which proposes that the brain uses the same processes for all types of information. The mention of "visuospatial and verbal information" suggests that this hypothesis is focused on specific content (visual and verbal) rather than general processes. The terms "process-general" and "process-based" imply a focus on processes rather than content, so they are not the best choice.

Question 11

Item memory tends to rely more strongly on ________ lobe function,whereas source memory relies more strongly on ________ lobe function.

Accepted Answer

Item memory, which involves remembering details about individual items, relies more on the function of the temporal lobe. Source memory, which involves remembering where or how an item was encountered, relies more on the function of the frontal lobe. Therefore, the best choice would be D, since it matches the correct lobes for each type of memory.

Question 12

Jeff knows that Phineas Gage lived in Vermont.He cannot remember where and when he acquired this knowledge,however.He is having difficulty accessing his episodic,or ________,memory.

Accepted Answer

Source memory refers to the ability to recall the origins of information, such as where and when it was learned. In this scenario, Jeff remembers the information about Phineas Gage but cannot recall where and when he learned it, indicating difficulty accessing his source memory.

Question 13

________ refers to the repetition of a response even when that type of response is no longer appropriate or correct.

Accepted Answer

Perseveration refers to the repetitive behavior or response, despite its inappropriateness or incorrectness given the context or situation. It is commonly seen in individuals with neurological disorders or brain injuries. Option A, priming refers to the process through which exposure to a stimulus affects the response to a subsequent stimulus. Option C, object permanence is the understanding that objects exist even when they are not in one's sensory field. Option D, utilization behavior refers to the tendency to use or act upon objects in the environment without any apparent reason or goal.

Question 14

Which of the following experimental tasks would be best for testing deficits in task switching?

Accepted Answer

The Wisconsin Card Sorting Task is the best choice for testing deficits in task switching. This test involves presenting participants with cards that differ in color, shape, and number of objects displayed. Participants must sort the cards according to a specific rule that is not explicitly stated. The rule changes several times during the task, requiring participants to switch between different categorization criteria. This task measures not only task switching but also cognitive flexibility, working memory, and response inhibition. A deficit in task switching would result in difficulty adapting to new rule sets and thus poorer performance compared to healthy controls.

Question 15

The ability to organize and segregate events in memory is called

Accepted Answer

The answer of The ability to organize and segregate events...

Question 16

An inhibition-based account of prefrontal cortex function would suggest that monkeys with lateral prefrontal lesions perform poorly on the delayed-response task because they

Accepted Answer

Monkeys with lateral prefrontal lesions may struggle with the delayed-response task due to difficulty inhibiting distractions, leading them to lose track of the correct target location.

Question 17

Patients with prefrontal injuries may fail to engage successfully in goal-oriented behavior for all of the following reasons EXCEPT

Accepted Answer

Patients with prefrontal injuries typically do not have difficulty consolidating explicit memory, which is more related to the function of the hippocampus rather than the prefrontal cortex.

Question 18

One conceptualization of the prefrontal cortex,offered by Shimamura (2000),that could explain the seemingly disparate set of impairments associated with damage to this area is that

Accepted Answer

According to Shimamura (2000), the prefrontal cortex is responsible for selecting the information that is most relevant to the task at hand, which could explain the diverse range of impairments associated with damage to this area.

Question 19

Based on what you know about the possible role of the prefrontal cortex in attention,which of the following do you think best predicts the performance of a patient with damage to this area on the Stroop task?

Accepted Answer

The prefrontal cortex is known to be important for attention and inhibitory control. The Stroop task requires both of these cognitive processes, as participants need to inhibit their automatic response to read the word and instead attend to the color of the word. Therefore, damage to the prefrontal cortex could lead to deficits in attention and inhibitory control, making it more difficult for the patient to complete the Stroop task. This is likely to result in more Stroop interference compared to neurologically intact participants.

Question 20

The n-back task differs from some other commonly used working memory tasks in that it involves

Accepted Answer

The n-back task involves both maintenance (the ability to hold information in working memory) and manipulation (the ability to update and manipulate the contents of working memory). Other tasks may only involve one of these processes (such as digit span, which primarily involves maintenance).

Quiz 13: Cognitive Control