LESSON 4- DISCONNECTION

Disconnection is the cutting of cerebral connections, and the resulting

behavioral effects are called disconnection syndromes. Behavioral
changes from disconnection of cerebral regions differ from behavioral
changes from damage from cerebral regions while remaining connected.

An example of a study performed by Downer and colleagues,

- they severed all commissures connecting the two halves of the
monkey’s brain (corpus callosum and optic chiasm)

-they removed the amygdala on the left side.

Objects presented to the eye ipsilateral (same side) of the amygdala-

absent hemisphere (i.e. left hemisphere), illustrated the animal to be
tame, despite how frightening the objects presented might appear (i.e.
snakes, images of snakes etc.)

On the other hand, objects presented to the eye ipsilateral (same side) of the
amygdala- intact hemisphere (i.e. right hemisphere), illustrated the
animal (monkey) to make its usual species-typical responses to threats and
appeared “wild” (aggressive).

For an animal to display species- typical responses to a visual stimulus,

information must project from:

1. Eye to the visual cortex

2. Through the temporal lobes to the amygdala
3. From the amygdala to the brainstem
4. and to the frontal cortex.

Eye Visual Cortex Temporal lobes Amygdala Brainstem

Frontal cortex

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 These connections activate, respectively, autonomic responses, movements
and facial

Expressions.

When the commissures are disconnected, visual information from one eye
can project only the ipsilateral hemisphere (on the same side). If that
hemisphere contains an intact amygdala, the circuit for activating
species-typical behavior is complete, and behavior will be typical.

If the amygdala in that hemisphere is not intact, visual information will be

disconnected from motor systems and the animal will not be able to elicit
species-typical behavior.

Amygdala: Plays a role in eliciting hemisphere corresponding motor

responses.

ANATOMY
There are three major types of neural fiber pathways connect the cortex:

1. Association pathways

They are distinguished as either:

i) Long fiber bundles that connect distant cortical areas
ii) Short, subcortical, U-shaped fibers that connect adjacent cortical
areas.

2. Projection pathways.

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Projection pathways include ascending fibers from lower brain centers to the
cortex, such as projections from the thalamus, and descending fibers from
the cortex to the brainstem and spinal cord.

3. Commissural pathways
Commissural pathways connect the two hemispheres and include principally
the corpus callosum and the anterior commissure. The corpus callosum
provides the major connection of cortical areas. (200 million to 800
million fibers).

There are also a few areas within the cortex that are devoid of
interhemispheric connections.
***Most of the primary visual cortex (area V1) is devoid of interhemispheric
connections.

V1 represents the visual world topographically, and there is no need for one
half of the representation to be connected to the other.

Some of the motor and sensory areas for distal parts of the limbs (mainly
hands and feet) also lack commissural connections. This is because their
function is to work independently of one another, it could be argued that
connections are not necessary.

The Corpus Callosum

Corpus Callosum is a bundle of nerve fibers which serve to connect the right
and left hemispheres.

Anterior portion of the corpus callosum contains fibers connecting the

prefrontal cortex.
Body of the corpus callosum containing fibers connecting premotor, motor,
somatosensory, and posterior parietal cortices, from anterior to posterior.

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Posterior portion of the corpus callosum contains fibers connecting the
temporal and visual cortices.

The anterior commissure connects amygdala and medial temporal lobe areas

Disconnection

What is Disconnection?

Disconnection is the cutting of cerebral connections between

hemispheres.

According to Liepmann, some apraxias might result from disconnection.

Apraxia is the loss of ability to execute or carry out skilled

movement and gestures, despite having the physical ability or
desire to perform them.

Liepmann proposed that, if a patient was given a verbal command to use the
left hand in a particular way, only the verbal left hemisphere would
understand the command.

To move the left hand, a signal would then have to travel from the left
hemisphere through the corpus callosum to the right hemispheric region that
controls movements of the left hand.

Interrupting the part of the corpus callosum that carries the language
command from the left hemisphere would disconnect the right hemisphere’s
motor region from the language command.

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This is also different from apraxia caused by a lesion of the right-hemisphere
motor cortex, which controls the actual movement of the left hand.

NOTE:

If incoming sensory information was allowed separate access to

each hemisphere, each hemisphere could be shown to have its own
independent perceptual, learning, and memory processes.

• The corpus callosum serves an important function → it connects these

otherwise separate hemispheric functions.

Callosal Agenesis and Early Transections.

Anagenesis of the corpus callosum is a surprisingly common cerebral

malformation in humans, with an incidence ratio of about 0.005 in the
general population and an incidence ratio of 0.02-0.03 in children
with developmental disabilities.

Although several different chromosomal abnormalities are found in many,

but not all patients, the cause of callosal agenesis is not known.

- These patients often have significant neuropsychological deficits,

although most patient samples are small, so there is considerable
variability in findings.

- Majority of patients also have impaired expressive and receptive

language deficits, impairments in visual and spatial reasoning.

- Many patients also have impaired motor skills and difficulties in

processing speed.

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Research into Callosal Agenesis

Researchers compared performance of five children (aged 6 to 16) on

interhemispheric transfer of tactile information and motor learning.

Younger children with their CC severed , or CC severed from birth indicated

better performance. This proves the suggestion that younger children tend to
rely on ipsilateral pathways to obtain information and execute movements.
(possible effects of plasticity and brain reorganization of pathways)

The fact that the older children are more impaired suggests that, if
transections are done early or if the individuals is born without a CC:

• ipsilateral pathways may make new connections

• ipsilateral pathways become more functionally active

• or possible reliance on the anterior commissure (if present)

COMMISSUROTOMY

Commissurotomy refers to the surgical severing of the cerebral

commissures.

It is a procedure done in violently epileptic patients which involves surgically

splitting the corpus callosum.

It is used in epilepsy cases in which medication proves ineffective.

This surgery also isolates speech in persons with lateralized speech (i.e., in
people whose speech only comes from one hemisphere). As a result, the

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dominant hemisphere (usually the left) is able to speak and process
language (read, write), and the non-dominant hemisphere (right) is not

About a year or so is required for recovery from the surgical trauma of a

commissurotomy

Within 2 years, the typical commissurotomy patient is able to return to

school or work and “normal life”

Disconnecting Sensorimotor Systems

Olfaction:

Of all the senses, the olfactory system is the only sense that has NO
crossed connections. Olfaction also does not pass through the thalamus.
Input from the left nostril goes straight back to the left hemisphere, and
input from the right nostril goes directly to the right hemisphere.

Fibers travelling through the anterior commissure join the olfactory regions in
each hemisphere so that scent information can be passed between the
hemispheres

In the case of using the hand to select the object, no connection with speech
is necessary

• Smells presented to the RIGHT nostril, will travel to the right hemisphere
and can direct the LEFT hand to select the object

• Smells presented to the LEFT nostril, will travel to the left hemisphere and
can direct the RIGHT hand to select the object

• Thus, the patient appears intact using one hand

and anosmic (lacking the sense of smell) with the other hand

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Left Hemisphere specialty: Language Processing and speech execution

Right Hemisphere specialty: Analyzing visuospatial information.

Agnostic: inability to recognize

Aphasic: Language disorder; unable to communicate effectively with others.

Movement

Because the motor system is largely crossed, we might predict that

hemispheric disconnection will induce motor difficulties. On any task in
which the left hand must either respond to a verbal command or write in
response to verbal material— a form of apraxia and agraphia could be
expected — because the left hand would not receive the verbal instructions
from the left hemisphere.

That is, the left hand would be unable to obey the command (apraxia) or to
write (agraphia). These disabilities would not be seen in the right hand
because it has access to the left, verbal, hemisphere.

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LESSON 3- THE OCCIPITAL LOBE

Occipital lobe of the brain is located underneath the occipital bone of the
skull.
It is distinguished from the parietal lobe by the parietal-occipital sulcus.

No clear landmarks separate the occipital lobe from the temporal lobe on the
cortex.

Calcarine Sulcus: The most important region on the occipital lobe.

The Primary visual cortex (V1) can be found here (on the occipital lobe),
and the calcarine sulcus divides our visual world into halves – the upper half
and the lower half.

Essential eye parts in relation to the occipital lobe:

 The macula: The part of your eye that processes what you see
directly in front of you. (your central vision).
It is a part of your retina.
 The retina is the light-sensitive layers of nerve tissue at the back of
the eye that receive images and sends them as electric signals through
the optic nerve to the brain.

NOTE: When the stimuli seen with the eyes reach the retina, they are in a
backward and upside-down orientation. (i.e. left is on the right, right is on the
left) (top is on the bottom, bottom is on the top)

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In Visual fields diagram, Central darker circle represents macular zone and
lighter shades of image projection represent monocular fields.

After visual information is being processed in the retina, the visual stimuli are
sent to the thalamus (specifically the lateral geniculate nucleus; LGN;
responsible for vision information) and then to the visual cortex.

Pathway of visual information in the brain:

Retina- Thalamus (specifically LGN)- Visual cortex.

***When the stimuli reach the visual cortex, they are organized around the
calcarine sulcus.

RULES:

1. Left side of retina, left thalamus, left visual cortex (same for right side)
2. Macular vision more posterior, Peripheral vision more anterior
3. Top of the retina, top of the calcarine sulcus; bottom on the bottom

The cortex is said to be divided into 6 cellular layers, however in the visual
cortex, there appears to be much more going on:

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When V1 is stained, we are able to see structures that appear like “blobs”

- The areas that appear like blobs are responsible for color
perception
- The area in between the blobs (inter-blob region) is responsible for
form and motion.

As well, when V2 is stained, patterns of thick and thin stripes emerge.

When we stain the secondary visual cortex, V2, instead of blobs, we see a
stripe pattern.

The thin stripes participate in color perception.

Thick stripes are involved in form perception.

Pale stripes (inter stripe regions) are involved in motion perception.

NOTE: Although many regions of the occipital lobe are involved in color
perception, V4 is the major region for color processing

○ There are a series of interconnected systems within the visual cortex.

○ Every visual signal from the thalamus goes to V1*

● The three streams:

○ Dorsal Stream – Parietal pathway – Visual guidance of movement

○ Ventral & STS Stream – Temporal pathway – object perception, and

perception of certain kinds of movement.

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Function.
Primary Visual Cortex: The “Primary” region where visual stimuli are
processed in the brain.

From there, they are passed to V2, which much like V1, help to process the
incoming stimuli.

V2 more advanced in the processes of visual information.

The remaining areas of the visual cortex V3, V4, V5 are more specialized
regions and have their own specific functions

V3= form and dynamic form

V4= detecting color

Individuals with damage to V4 are only able to see in shades of grey. Not
only that but they are also unable to recall what colors were (before the
damage to V4) and they’re unable to imagine colors. Essentially, they’ve lost
the ability to think about color.

V5= motion perception

An important aspect of V3, V4 and V5 is that they all get their input from V1.

When someone has damage to V1, they act and feel as if they’re blind. (V1 is
damaged and can’t pass anything on to other regions)

BUT… visual information can still get through to these higher levels !!!

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Some research suggests that the LGN sends most of its information to V1,
but it also sends some directly to V2.

Therefore, even if V1 gets damaged, some incoming visual information will

be sent to V2.

Research has also identified three Visual streams where Vision is processed
aside the occipital lobe only.

1. STS Stream: Projects to the temporal lobe. (this one is slightly higher)
2. Visual Stream: Projects to the temporal lobe (this one is slightly lower)
3. Dorsal Stream: Projects to the parietal lobe.
(used for actions)

PROCESSING VISUAL INFORMATION

i) Almost all incoming information goes to V1

(some might be able to go directly to V2)

ii) V1 transmits information to V2 --- or V3 & V5

Direct transmission for action could be protective.

(Sometimes we need to make a movement without taking in

all aspects such as color or form)

iii) V3 & V5 together will form the dorsal stream used for actions.
[Spatial location]

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 (i.e. interaction with objects, recognizing the action of objects, etc)

V2 can also be involved in action.

iv) V2 mostly projects to V3 and V4 to form the ventral stream for

recognition.
To recognize an object, we need V2 to elaborate on the information
and give us some time to further process the information.

NOTE:

These streams have also been confirmed through brain imaging.

Brain imaging can be used to detect blood flow and indicate which
regions of the brain are particularly active at any given moment , or
in response to a particular task.

Prosopagnosia is a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to

recognize faces. Prosopagnosia is also known as “face blindness”.

It results from damage in the fusiform face area. It can result from either
damage to the ventral stream, or damage to the specific gyrus itself . (e.g.
stroke)

AGNOSIA

There are also a few different types of agnosia

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For example, there are two separate types of visual agnosia

1. Object agnosia
Apperceptive: Failure in object Recognition BUT basic visual functions
(acuity, colour, motion) are preserved.

The fundamental deficit is an inability to develop a percept (perception) of

the structure of an object or objects

Associative: This is the inability to recognize an object despite its apparent

perception

2. Other agnosias
Prosopagnosia (Facial Agnosia): Patients with facial agnosia cannot
recognize any previously known faces, including their own, as seen in a
mirror or photograph.

Alexia: This is the inability to read (or no longer read).

Alexia is most likely to result from damage to the left fusiform and lingual
areas (path travelling from occipital to temporal).

Visuospatial Agnosia (Spatial): Visuospatial agnosias are disorders of

spatial orientation.

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LESSON 1- TEMPORAL LOBES

The temporal lobes comprise all of the tissue that lies below the lateral
(Sylvian) fissure and anterior to the occipital cortex.

Gross Anatomy of the Temporal Lobe

(A) Three major gyri are visible on the lateral surface of the temporal lobe.

(B) Brodmann’s areas on the lateral surface, where auditory areas are shown
in yellow and visual areas in purple.

(C) The temporal-lobe gyri is visible in a medial view. The medial temporal
lobe includes structures such as the pyriform cortex, the uncus, and
extensions of the hippocampal formation.

Lateral view of the left hemisphere shows relative positions of the

AMYGDALA and HIPPOCAMPUS buried deep within the temporal lobe.

Subdivisions of the Temporal Cortex.

Auditory Regions: Brodmann’s areas 41, 42, and 22

Ventral Visual Stream (on the lateral temporal lobe): 20, 21, 37 and 38

The Olfactory region is the pyriform cortex, which is area 27 on the

medial surface of the temporal lobe.

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The temporal sulci enfold a lot of cortices, as you can see in the frontal
views.

In particular, the lateral (Sylvian) fissure contains tissue forming the insula,
which includes the gustatory cortex as well as the auditory association
cortex.

The superior temporal sulcus (STS) separates the superior and middle
temporal gyri and houses a significant amount of cortex as well.

Connections of the Temporal Cortex

The temporal lobes have a lot of internal connections--- afferent projections

from the sensory systems and efferent projections to the parietal and frontal
association regions, limbic system and basal ganglia.

1. A sensory pathway that allows for stimulus recognition.

The visual projections that form the ventral visual stream, and
auditory projections both form parallel ventral streams of
processing.

2. A dorsal auditory pathway is concerned with directing

movements with respect to auditory information.
Projecting from the auditory areas to the posterior parietal cortex, this
pathway likely plays a role in detecting the spatial location of auditory
inputs.

3. A polymodal pathway probably underlies stimulus

categorization
Polymodal: responding to several different forms of sensory

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 stimulation

The superior temporal sulcus (STS) separates the superior and middle
temporal gyri and houses a significant amount of cortex as well.

4. A medial temporal projection is crucial to long-term memory.

The projection from the auditory and visual association areas into the medial
temporal, or limbic, regions go to the hippocampal formation and/or the
amygdala.

5. A frontal-lobe projection is necessary for various aspects of

movement control, short-term memory and cognition.

This series of parallel projections reaches from the temporal association

areas to the frontal lobe.

Auditory and visual information goes to three prefrontal regions: areas 8

and 46 on the dorsolateral surface and area 13 in the orbital region.

6. Olfactory projections (to the pyriform cortex) are related to

odor perception and memory.

Connections run from the olfactory bulb to the temporal pyriform cortex
which has connections to the hippocampal areas involved in memory.

FUNCTION

A. Sensory Processes (STS)

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This process of matching visual and auditory information is called cross-
modal matching.
It likely depends on the cortex of the superior temporal sulcus. (STS)

These long-term memory processes depend on the entire ventral visual

stream as well as the paralimbic cortex of the medial temporal region.

The olfactory projection to the pyriform cortex en route to the

hippocampus links the odor to the visual and auditory memories.

B. Affective (Emotional) Responses. (and their relation to our

memories)
Your affective response, which characterizes your subjective feelings about a
stimulus, is a function of the amygdala.

C. Spatial Navigation
You use the hippocampus, which contains cells that code places in space to
allow you to navigate in space and to remember where you are.

Additional Functions of the Temporal Lobe:

1) Biological motion

NOTE: The Superior Temporal Sulcus (STS) is responsible for detecting

biological motion

Biological motion are movements that have particular relevance to a

species.

2) Detailed Visual Processing

NOTE:

The Fusiform face area (FFA) is active for faces, and the

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Para hippocampal place area (PPA) is active for scenes.

Lesions to the right temporal lobe have a greater impact on the ability to
process faces than do lesions to the left temporal lobe

3) Auditory Processing

Cells in the auditory cortex respond to different frequencies and help

humans differentiate
between three prominent sound types:

• Speech
• Language
• Music

4) Olfactory Processing

The posterior portion of the pyriform cortex is contained within the temporal
lobe

The posterior pyriform cortex connects with the entorhinal and perirhinal
cortices and the amygdala, connecting olfactory sensations to memory and
emotion.

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