EBH 316 Final Review

The ________________________ suggests that encephalization of species determine the degree of their foraging behavior (strategically vs. opportunistically).

"Clever foraging hypothesis"

Cerebellum

- 80% of neurons in human brain - 10 layers - originally rhombencephalon - Anterior cerebellum connects to sensorimotor areas - Posterior cerebellum connects to higher association areas

Concerted hypothesis

- All regions enlarge coherently - Changes in the relative size of individual structures is constrained by the order of neurogenesis resulting in a regularity of scaling relationships between structures - Allometry: Shifts in slope between different brain structures

Which of the following statements does conform with the concerted hypothesis of brain evolution?

- Changes in the relative size of brain structures happens in a predictable manner according to the neurogenetic schedule. - The principle target of selection in the brain is overall brain size. - All brain regions enlarge proportionately. - Changes in the relative size of individual structures are constrained by the order of neurogenesis resulting in a regularity of scaling relationships among structures.

Which of the following does properly characterise the mammalian neocortex?

- It has six lamina - Outputs connect to the other parts of the cortex, the spinal cord, and subcortical areas - Axons enter the cortex radially - Neurons display columnar organisation

What of the following statements about the hypoglossal nucelus is true?

- It is 24% larger than predicted in humans - It is a nucleus in the brainstem - It innervates the tongue - In humans, cortical motor areas are directly connected with the hypoglossal nucleus

What of the following statements about the Ventral Premotor area is TRUE?

- It is a brain area specialised in precision grip - It carries information linked to forelimb movements - It is a brain area specialised in fine hand-to-mouth coordination - It carries information representing orofacial expressions

Which of the following statements is TRUE?

- Primates have more premotor areas than other mammals - The ventral premotor area (VPM) is unique to primates and is specialised in prehensile movements of the mouth and hand - The dorsal premotor area (PMD) is specialised in orienting and reaching movements - The VPM and PMD are important for visually guided reaching and grasping

anterior cingulate cortex

- Reward based learning - Modulation of emotional responses - Motivation and attention

Mosaic hypothesis

- Some regions enlarge independently - The relative size of individual structures change in response to behavioral selective pressures and may do so independently of overall size - Allometry: Shifts in intercept between groups of species

parcellation hypothesis

- Visual system: no! - Motor-somatosensory system: sort of... - Rubrospinal system: yes! Very little evidence that brains become more complex only by loss of connection (=true parcellation) Some evidence that brains become more complex predominantly by loss of connection (=moderate parcellation) In moderation, this may occur As brains grow larger, they can't be connected to everything => they need to become more modular

Which factors have changed human brain size

- bipedalism - changing habitat

Great apes relative brain size rate

0.23

If we do not account for a possible difference in the brain-to-body scaling coefficients among different groups of mammals, what would the mammalian brain-to-body scaling coefficient be?

0.67

Hominins relative brain size rate

1.1

Most of the human neocortex is composed of __ layers of cells.

6

The Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event, which occurred approximately __________ millions of years ago, influenced the massive radiation of mammals on Earth.

66

The prefrontal cortex in humans has massively expanded through evolutionary time. How much larger is that change in relative size in relation to other primates (non-Great Apes)?

8x

Which of the following statements is FALSE?

All areas of the prefrontal cortex are unique to primates

You compare 100 species of mammals and find that brain size increases disproportionately with body size. Which principle describes how brain size and body size have evolved in relation to one another?

Allometry

What statement about the sensory capacities of early mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians is TRUE?

Amphibians, birds, and reptiles all have high visual capacities compared to early mammals

The "principle of proper mass" states that the mass of neural tissue controlling a particular function is:

Appropriate to the amount of information processing involved in performing the function.

Early primates were:

Arboreal, nocturnal, and had large, forward facing eyes

Which cytoarchitectural feature of the brain is unique in mammals?

Axonal connections enter the cortex radially

Why is the cerebellum a crucial component of the learning mechanisms in animals?

Because it is associated with automating cortical information processing.

Which of the following regions are responsible for the 'emotional' aspects of decision making?

Both orbital prefrontal and anterior cingulate.

In the context of brain region evolution, 'late equals large' means that:

Brain regions that develop later in ontogeny, will be disproportionately larger across species.

When determining whether a given structure is homologous across species, which of the following is NOT used in initial character identification?

Brain structure size

Jonathan Keleher, one of the handful of people who have lived without a cerebellum, is not able to:

Comprehend emotional states which are essential for social learning and empathy

Which of the following describes the phylogenetic appearance of projections to targets that did not ancestrally receive homologous inputs:

Connectional invasion

What would cause disruption of the production of spontaneous calls in monkeys?

Damage to the anterior cingulate cortex

__________________________ establishes that the more amount of axons a determined brain structure sends to a target, the higher the probability the brain structure has that it will connect to the target.

Deacon's rule

The mosaic hypothesis suggests a more direct link between ____________________ and the sizes of specific brain regions than the concerted hypothesis.

Environmental pressures

When an animal gets blinded during early development it will develop abnormally small retinal targets and visual cortices. This is an example of:

Epigenetic cascade

Which of the following behavioral requirements of stone tool making is matched with the appropriate underlying brain region?

Experience → Lateral cerebellum

Which of the following best describes the forward models of the cerebellum's sensorimotor function?

Forward models create a representation of the expected consequences of a received motor command.

The evolution of the lateral cerebellum has evidenced cases of convergent evolution in ______________________.

Great apes, dolphins, and pinnipeds

The brain to body scaling assumes that...

Harvest mice have a higher percentage of the ratio brain : body than blue whales.

What areas of the human brain, besides the medial prefrontal cortex, are activated when we imagine future events?

Hippocampus, lateral temporal, and lateral parietal

According to this graph, which species has the lowest relative brain size? Which species has the highest absolute brain size?

Hippopotamus, blue whale

What is the 'hominin predatory niche' that humans and Neanderthals both exploited?

Hunting prime age adult animals

In a species of lemur, the neocortex represents about 50% of the entire brain. In the larger-brained chimpanzee, the neocortex represents about 80% of the entire brain. The type of scaling relationship that explains these differences in the neocortex size compared to the size of the rest of the brain is _____________________.

Hypermetric/ positive allometry

How do primates differ from other mammals in terms of pairbonding?

In addition to bonding with reproductive partners, primates also bond with individuals that are not reproductive partners.

The capacity for intelligent behavior likely ____________________.

Increased several times independently among vertebrates.

A brain region is 'born' when it has gone through...

Initial neurogenesis Axon extension Refinement of connectivity Myelin formation Growth of volume Across species, the schedules may be stretched or squeezed, but not fundamentally rearranged.

Which of the following lobes of the cerebral cortex is hidden from surface view by the other four?

Insula

How does Hadrocodium (a fossil of an early true mammal) differ from confirmed protomammals?

It did not posess a postdentary trough

Which of the following does NOT properly characterise the mammalian neocortex?

It receives multimodal input

The care of injured individuals in Neanderthals suggest that they are altruistic and cooperative. What parts of their brains would have shown more activity alongside this altruism and cooperation?

Medial frontal cortex, anterior paracingulate, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and the anterior insula

Research on cerebral lesions has found that animals whose neocortex is larger take relatively more time to recover. This is an effect of which phenomenon in brain evolution?

Neocorticalization.

Which areas of the brain is active BEFORE making a voluntary decision with regards to executing a motor action?

Premotot cortex

The ________________________ is the boundary between the frontal and ________________________ lobes.

Primary sulcus : parietal

Which taxa possesses nine premotor areas; such as is found in humans?

Primates only

What type of neuron connects distant areas of the brain?

Projection neurons

lateral prefrontal cortex

Rational" aspects of decision making - Spatial location of objects - Retrieving and manipulating information about objects - novel behaviors - feedback

Out of all mammalian species, humans have the highest

Relative brain size

There are three major subdivisions of the brain that are differentiated from the neural tube. These are:

Rhombencephalon, Mesencephalon, Prosencephalon

Examining a range of mammal species of varying body sizes, what trend would be found regarding brain size?

Smaller mammals have proportionately larger brains.

The 'ancestral' condition of mammals is a 'grade' that has persisted through time and is still present in extant species such as

Squirrels

Human encephalization was made possible by a combination of:

Stabilization of energy inputs and a redirection of energy from locomotion, growth, and reproduction.

What circuitry connects Broca's and Wernicke's areas?

The arcuate fasciculus

Given the relationship between changes in brain size and reorganization is not straight forward, which of the following statements is FALSE?

The brain connectivity patterns in strepsirrhines is different from anthropoids

How does the cerebellum contribute to humans' ability to speak a language

The harmonised, fluent, and automated execution of verbal motor plans

_________________________ describes the process in which new cortical areas develop adjacent to existing areas that share a similar function.

The hypothesis of 'organizing centers'

Formation of an internal model in the cerebellum is based on:

The integration of various mental models with external stimuli and self-generated goals.

Which of the following examples would NOT be used to support the mosaic hypothesis?

The neocortex, the latest brain region to develop, displays the greatest range of variation in size across species.

According to supporters of the concerted hypothesis, the differential evolution of brain structures is constrained by:

The neurodevelopmental schedule

A lack of sequence heterochrony in neurodevelopment schedules means that:

The order of development of different brain regions does not change across species.

Connectional invasion

The phylogenetic appearance of projections to targets that did not ancestrally receive homologous inputs

The encephalization quotient is:

The ratio of actual brain mass to the expected brain mass for an animal of a given body size.

A crucial executive function mediated by the cerebellum is:

The sequential updating of internal models expressed as 'rule-based' decision-making.

____________________ is defined as the capacity to understand people by attributing mental states to them.

Theory of mind

Which of the following statements is true about the developmental scheduling of brain region birth?

Those brain regions that are born later have a higher proportionality with overall brain size.

Which of the following statements does NOT conform with the concerted hypothesis of brain evolution?

Variation in the internal composition of the brain can be regarded as the result of selective pressures acting separately on individual brain regions.

Which of the following areas is specialized in prehensive movements of the mouth and hand, such as precision and whole-hand grip?

Ventral premotor area.

Which of the following pathways or brain regions, linked to visual object identification, likely contributed to the evolution of human language?

Ventral stream.

What is the main hypothesis for the origin of language?

Visual cues of the mouth incorporated gradually auditory elements, such as teeth chattering and lip-smacking

A great evolutionary advantage to increase the amount of net energy input during human brain evolution was ______________________.

allomaternal care

Regarding the decision-making process during foraging, the prefrontal cortex allows:

considering alternative options to decide

The concerted hypothesis assumes that a brain structure that ___________________ is ___________________.

develops for a longer time ... larger

Which of the following areas are unique to primates, is part of the thalamus, and connects with the dorsolateral prefrontal, the posterior parietal, and the inferior temporal cortex?

dorsal pulvinar

What does the Claustro-Amygdala hypothesis consider as the most reliable indicator of homology to explain the DVR homology in mammals?

embryonic development

According to the mosaic hypothesis, change in brain evolution ______________________, and ______________________.

happens as an adaptation to behavioral selective pressures | primarily involves changes in brain region sizes

The ___________________ is/are the area of the brain responsible for the control of hormones in the body.

hypothalamus

In primates, there are two pathways of visual information processing; the dorsal stream, which processes information related to _________________, and the ventral stream, which processes information related to _________________.

movement ... object identification

~Encephalization quotient:

observed brain size / expected brain size

The rubrospinal system in cats is a perfect example of __________________________.

parcellation

According to the parcellation hypothesis, brains gain complexity exclusively by __________________________.

phylogenetic segregation

In humans, the motor coordination attributed to handedness is mediated by the _______________________.

posterior cerebellum

Which human brain region matures latest in life:

prefrontal cortex

Diverse foraging strategies to exploit complex and changing environments need the incorporation of _____________________.

relative metrics

Regarding the parcellation of functions of the specialised primate visual system, we can say that the _____________________ targets to extrastriate areas in a relatively exclusive way

superior colliculi

Regarding the parcellation of functions of the specialized primate visual system, we can say that the ____________________ targets to extrastriate areas in a relatively exclusive way.

superior colliculi

Considering the evolution of reasoning, human unique specialization lies in:

the elaboration of relations among relations

Considering the mosaic hypothesis, the variation found around the regression line is:

the result of behavioral selective pressures.

Regarding stone flaking, a uniquely human cognitive specialisation is ___________________.

three-dimensional visualisation of the predicted consequences of diverse hits by a hammerstone

The ___________________ in primates is crucial for specific types of sensorimotor computations, such as fine motor coordination with their fingertips, and hand centered movement

visual dorsal stream

The ______________________________ in primates is crucial for specific types of sensorimotor computations, such as fine motor coordination with their fingertips and head-centered movements

visual dorsal stream