A Brief Intro to Psychology & the

Limbic System Relationship

M.Khalifa

“Where ID is, there shall ego be”

–Sigmund Freud 1932

Contents

Integrative functions ( cognitive & behavioural )

Effects of stroke ( physically & emotionally )

The limbic system

Integrative Functions

A.Cognition

1. Intelligence

2. Language & Speech

3. Memory & Learning

4. Concentration & Attention

5. Planning - Executive functions - DCD

Intelligence

What is intelligence?

““The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.”

-Albert Einstein (IQ 160-190)

The vast majority of psychologists agree that intelligence includes three main characteristics:

(1) abstract thinking or reasoning abilities,

(2) problem-solving abilities,

(3) the capacity to acquire knowledge

Intelligence Quotient

(IQ) An index of intelligence that reflects the degree to which a person’s score on an intelligence test deviates from the average score of others in the same age group.

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale

Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children

Stanford-Binet , Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities, Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children, the Cognitive Assessment System, and the Differential Ability Scales.

Flynn Effect

When a new version of an IQ test is normed, the standard scoring is set so performance at the population median results in a score of IQ 100. The phenomenon of rising raw score performance means if test-takers are scored by a constant standard scoring rule, IQ test scores have been rising at an average rate of around three IQ points per decade.

Other Lovely Tests

Achievement measures / GCSE

Aptitude test / SAT , اختبار القدرات

William James Sidis

IQ 250-300

Language & Speech

Language / symbols and a set of rules for combining them that provide a vehicle for communication.

Speech=Phasia

Wernicke’s Aphasia

Broca’s Aphasia

Global Aphasia

Wernicke’s Aphasia

• Often say many words that don’t make sense.

• May fail to realise they are saying the wrong

words; for instance, they might call the moon a “spoon.”• May string together a series of meaningless words

that sound like a sentence but don’t make sense.

• Have challenges because our dictionary of words is

shelved in a similar region of the left hemisphere, near

the area used for understanding words.

Broca’s Aphasia

• Can have great difficulty forming complete sentences.

• May get out some basic words to get their message

across, but leave out words like “is” or “the.”

• Often say something that doesn’t resemble a sentence.

• Can have trouble understanding sentences.

• Can make mistakes in following directions like “left, right,

under, and after.”

Global Aphasia

• May have great difficulty in understanding words and sentences.• May have great difficulty in forming words and sentences.• May understand some words.• Get out a few words at a time.• Have severe difficulties that prevent them from effectively communicating.

Therapy for Aphasia

Aphasia vs. Apraxia

Aphasia is impairment in the ability to use or comprehend words- may cause difficulties in ;

• Understanding words.• Finding the word to express a thought.• Understanding grammatical sentences.• Reading or writing words or sentences.

Apraxia of speech (verbal apraxia) is difficulty initiating and executing voluntary movement patterns necessary to produce speech when there is no paralysis or weakness of speech muscles-may cause difficulties in ;

• Producing the desired speech sound.• Using the correct rhythm and rate of speaking.

Therapy for Apraxia

Memory & Learning

The ability to alter behaviour on the basis of experience.

Learning / is acquisition of the information that makes this possible.

Memory / is the retention & storage of that information.

Learning

Sights, Sounds, & Other Stimuli

Novel stimuli - things we have not experienced before tend to attract our attention.

Habituation - The process of adapting to stimuli that do not change.

The reappearance of your original response when a stimulus changes is called dis-habituation.

Sensitisation

Appears as an increase in responsiveness to a stimulus.

Cerebral cortex imaging

during a language-based activity

Observational Learning: Learning by

Imitation

Active Learning

Skill Learning

Memory

Forms of Memory

Explicit ( declarative memory )

Implicit ( non-declarative memory )

Explicit Memory ( Consciousness )

The process of intentionally trying to remember something

For its retention /

Hippocampus

Medial temporal lobe

Subtypes

Semantic memory for facts

e.g. words,language, & rules

Episodic memory for events

Implicit Memory ( Unconsciousness )

The unintentional influence of prior experiences.

Implicit memory is important for training reflexive motor or perceptual skills

Priming is the facilitation of the recognition of words or objects by prior exposure to them and is dependent on the neocortex

Procedural memory includes skills and habits, which, once acquired, become unconscious and automatic.

This type of memory is processed in the striatum.

Associative learning relates to

classical & operant conditioning in which one learns about the relationship between one stimulus and another.

This type of memory is dependent on;

amygdala for its emotional responses

the cerebellum for the motor responses.

Click me Please

Non-associative learning includes habituation and sensitisation

Is dependent on various reflex pathways.

Storing New Memories

Sensory memory / A type of memory that holds large amounts of incoming information very briefly, but long enough to connect one impression to the next.

Sensory memory helps us experience a constant flow of information, even if that flow is interrupted.

Short-term memory / lasts seconds to hours, during which processing in the hippocampus & elsewhere lays down long-term changes in synaptic strength.

Long-term memory / stores for years & sometimes for life,

Working memory is a form of short-term memory that keeps information available, usually for very short periods, while the individual plans action based on it.

Maintenance (holding information in short-term memory)

Manipulation (working on that information).

Concentration &

AttentionIs there a

difference?

Attention

Attention is the process of directing and focusing certain psychological resources to enhance perception, performance, and mental experience.

Types of Attention

Sustained Attention

Directed focus on stimulus for duration of cognitive task.

Divided Attention

Multitasking

Alternating Attention

e.g. reading and then making a recipe, singing whilst dancing or moping.

Planning An executive

function

The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is involved with "on-line" processing of information such as integrating different dimensions of cognition and behaviour.

As such, this area has been found to be associated with verbal and design fluency, ability to maintain and shift set, planning, response inhibition, working memory, organisational skills, reasoning, problem solving and abstract thinking.[

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is involved in emotional drives, experience and integration. Associated cognitive functions include inhibition of inappropriate responses, decision making and motivated behaviours.

Lesions in this area can lead to low drive states such as apathy, abulia or akinetic mutism and may also result in low drive states for such basic needs as food or drink and possibly decreased interest in social or vocational activities and sex.

The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) plays a key role in impulse control, maintenance of set, monitoring ongoing behaviour and socially appropriate behaviours.

The orbitofrontal cortex also has roles in representing the value of rewards based on sensory stimuli and evaluating subjective emotional experiences.

Lesions can cause disinhibition, impulsivity, aggressive outbursts, sexual promiscuity and antisocial behaviour

B.Behavioural

Emotions

Transitory positive or negative experiences that are felt as happening to the self, are generated in part by cognitive appraisal of a situation, and are accompanied by both learned and innate physical responses.

Biology of Emotions

CNS / several brain areas are involved in the generation of emotions, as well as in our experience of those emotions

ANS / gives rise to many of the physiological changes associated with emotional arousal.

Effects of Stroke in brief

Physical

Vision; perception problem or blindness

Sleep

Seizures

Incontinence

Paralysis;

Dysphagia, hemiparesis, spasticity, foot drop

Pain

Chronic fatigue

Cognitive/Emotional

Vascular dementia

Aphasia

Memory / verbal, visual, informational

Depression

Pseudobulbar affect

Dementia

An acquired, chronic brain disorder, characterised by generalised impairment of intellect, personality & memory, but with intact consciousness.

Forgetfulness

Loss of ‘immediate or recent’ memory

Anxiety

APA definition / anxiety is an emotion characterised by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes.

Anxiety Disorder

A condition in which intense feelings of apprehension are long- standing and disruptive.

Types of Anxiety Disorders

Generalised A.D

Phobic A.D

Panic attack

OCD

Stress-related disorders

Treatment

• The most notable treatment for anxiety is cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).

• However, anxiety can be treated medically, with psychological counselling, or independently by one’s own efforts.

The Limbic System

Or paleomammalian

brain

Limbic System

• The word limbic means border or margin, and the term limbic system was loosely used to include a group of structures that lie in the border zone between the cerebral cortex and the hypothalamus.

• The limbic system is involved with many other structures beyond the border zone in the control of emotion, behaviour, and drive; it also appears to be important to memory.

Structure

Subcallosal ,

Cingulate,

Parahippocampal gyri,

Hippocampal formation,

Amygdaloid nucleus,

Mammilary bodies

Hippocampal Formation

The hippocampal formation consists of the ;

hippocampus,

the dentate gyrus,

and the parahippocampal gyrus.

Hippocampus

The hippocampus is a curved elevation of grey matter that extends throughout the entire length of the floor of the inferior horn of the lateral ventricle.

Where does it terminate?

Dentate Gyrus

The dentate gyrus is a narrow, notched band of grey matter that lies between the fimbria of the hippocampus and the parahippocampal gyrus

Parahippocampal Gyrus

The parahippocampal gyrus lies between the hippocampal fissure and the collateral sulcus and is continuous with the hippocampus along the medial edge of the temporal lobe

Amygdaloid Nucleus

It is situated partly anterior and partly superior to the tip of the inferior horn of the lateral ventricle.

It is fused with the tip of the tail of the caudate nucleus, which has passed anteriorly in the roof of the inferior horn of the lateral ventricle.

Pathways of the Limbic System

• The alveus, the fimbria, the fornix, the mammillothalamic tract, and the stria terminalis constitute the connecting pathways of this system.

Function of the Limbic System

• The limbic system, via the hypothalamus and its connections with the outflow of the autonomic nervous system and its control of the endocrine system, is able to influence many aspects of emotional behaviour.

• These include particularly the reactions of fear and anger and the emotions associated with sexual behaviour.

Anterograde Amnesia

• A lesion of the hippocampus results in the individual being unable to store long-term memory.

• Memory of remote past events before the lesion developed is unaffected.

Additional Pain

• Artificial intelligence

• Neurogenesis

• Chunking in action

• Glasgow Coma Scale

• Dementia vs. Amnesia

Artificial Intelligence

Neurogenesis

• New neurones form from stem cells throughout life in at least two areas;

– the olfactory bulb and the hippocampus

Chunking in Action

Glasgow Coma Scale

Dementia vs. Amnesia

• Dementia is not a disease but a series of symptoms that leads to serious mental diseases. Amnesia on the other hand, is a serious mental condition affecting a person’s memory.

• Symptoms of dementia could affect a person’s memory. But it generally affects a person’s decision making. Amnesia on the other hand is a serious form of memory loss, but it does not generally affect the patient’s decision making.

• Dementia is treatable, but it depends on the cause of the disorder. Amnesia is treatable in so many different ways, whatever the cause of the condition is.

• Amnesia is not a symptom. It could be forced, like childhood amnesia. Dementia, on the other hand, is purely the effect of so many factors.

Main References

• Bernstein Psychology

• Snell’s Neuroanatomy

• Ganong’s Review of Physiology 24th ed.

• Stroke Association ( British & American )

• Quotes / GoodReads

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