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Reticular Activating System Overview

The document summarizes several key functions of the higher cerebral functions including language skills, learning and memory, the electroencephalogram (EEG), and sleep. Specifically, it notes that the left hemisphere is dominant for language in most right-handed individuals, learning involves both short-term and long-term memory which are based on repetition and reinforcement, the EEG measures electrical brain activity through scalp electrodes and shows different wave patterns depending on neuronal activity levels, and sleep involves slow wave and REM sleep which are controlled by the reticular activating system.

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20 views20 pages

Reticular Activating System Overview

The document summarizes several key functions of the higher cerebral functions including language skills, learning and memory, the electroencephalogram (EEG), and sleep. Specifically, it notes that the left hemisphere is dominant for language in most right-handed individuals, learning involves both short-term and long-term memory which are based on repetition and reinforcement, the EEG measures electrical brain activity through scalp electrodes and shows different wave patterns depending on neuronal activity levels, and sleep involves slow wave and REM sleep which are controlled by the reticular activating system.

Uploaded by

api-19916399
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

higher cerebral

functions

by Jingying T. A
Department of
Physiology
 Be responsible for thoughts and
emotions
 Store and retrieve memories
 Generate sense
 Be able to communicate
1 language skills

 dominant hemisphere:
the left cerebral hemisphere, in 90%
right-handed people and 70% left-handed
persons.

 Specifically:
Broca’s area: speech production.
Wernicke’s area :
understand spoken languages.
Aphasia:
 expressive or motor aphasia:

can’t produce speech while retaining


comprehension of language.
 receptive or sensory aphasia:

inability to understand language.


2 learning and memory

 learning: any change in behaviour that


results from previous experience.

 based on memory:
short-term memory
long-term memory
 memory, derived from:
repeated rehearsal of information
eg. practising motor skills
revising previously studied
materials
 mechanisms of memory:
synaptic facility: transmitter release
may be enhanced, making future
activation of that pathway easier.
neural plasticity: eventually
anatomical changes happens, perhaps
involving an increase in the number or
size of synapses.
3 the electroencephalogram
(EEG)

 EEG:
The electrical activity within cerebral
neurons leads to surface potentials,
which may be detected using scalp
electrodes. And the resulting
recording is called ~.

some what analogous to the ECG.


wave patterns:

as neuronal activity increases, EEG


becomes more irregular
(desynchronized), with a rise in the
frequency and a fall in the amplitude.
 sleep: loss of consciousness, and reversible.

slow wave sleep: (SWS) low frequency delta wave. at


the same time, leads to reductions in blood pressure,
respiration, metabolic rate and gastrointestinal
activity.
paradoxical / rapid eye movement sleep: (REM)
dreaming, high frequency beta wave, with variable
heart rate and respiration, irregular muscle
movements and general reduction in muscle tone.
 control of sleep:
reticular activating system

when excited by sensory or motor


activity, reduce drowsiness.
 sleep deprivation:

tend to produce extreme disturbances of


thinking and emotion.

but the “why” is not answered.


sleep waves of dolphine

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