SEMINAR

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

DR.NARKEESH PARNEET KAUR
MPT 1st Year
Roll No. 4806
 JUDGEMENT AND REASONING

“HIGHER MENTAL FUNCTION OF HUMAN BRAIN”

The HUMAN BRAIN contains about 10 billion nerve cells, or
neurons. On average, each neuron is connected to other
neurons through about 10 000 synapses.
The brain's network of neurons forms a massively parallel
information processing system.
This contrasts with conventional computers, in which a single
processor executes a single series of instruction. Despite of
being built with very slow hardware, the brain has quite
remarkable capabilities.
• Its performance tends to degrade gracefully under
partial damage. In contrast, most programs and
engineered systems are brittle: if we remove some
arbitrary parts, very likely the whole will cease to
function.

• It can learn (reorganize itself) from experience.

• This means that partial recovery from damage is

possible if healthy units can learn to take over the
functions previously carried out by the damaged
areas
LOBES OF HUMAN BRAIN
• The brain is not homogeneous. At the largest
anatomical scale, we distinguish cortex, midbrain,
brainstem, and cerebellum.

• Each of these can be hierarchically subdivided into

many regions, and areas within each region, either
according to the anatomical structure of the neural
networks within it, or according to the function
performed by them .

• The overall pattern of projections (bundles of neural

connections) between areas is extremely complex, and
only partially known.
Judgement and Reasoning….Functions
Of Human Brain
JUDGEMENT AND REASONING :The use of available
evidence or facts to formulate a rational opinion or to make a
correct decision
The manifestations of a frontal lobe
syndrome in any patient depend on many
factors, including baseline intelligence and
education, site of the lesions, whether the
lesions developed slowly or rapidly, age,
possibly sex, and function of nonfrontal brain
regions.
Causes of frontal lobe dysfunction include
mental retardation, cerebrovascular disease,
head trauma, brain tumors, brain infections,
neurodegenerative diseases including
multiple sclerosis, and normal pressure
hydrocephalus.
• Frontal Lobe function

• Problem solving, abstract thinking

(Bertoti, 2004), language tasks of
math, reasoning, attention, planning,
tasks that require the integration of
information over time, ability to
determine similarities and
differences between things or
events, ability to recognize future
consequences resulting from current
actions
Temporal Lobe function
High-level visual processing of
complex stimuli, language-
based areas of math, plays a
role in number skills

Parietal Lobe function

Mathematical abilities, visual
and spatial tasks
• The frontal lobe
• Located at the front of each cerebral hemisphere
positioned anterior to (in front of) the parietal lobes
• Above and anterior to the temporal lobes.
• The frontal lobe contains most of the dopamine-sensitive
neurons in the cerebral cortex
• The dopamine system is associated with reward,
attention, long-term memory, planning, and drive
• A report from the National Institute of Mental Health says
a gene variant that reduces dopamine activity in the
prefrontal cortex is related to poorer performance and
inefficient functioning of that brain region during working
memory tasks
 Traditional classification systems divide the frontal
lobes into
• The precentral cortex (the strip immediately
anterior to the central or Sylvian fissure),
• Prefrontal cortex (extending from the frontal
poles to the precentral cortex and including the
frontal operculum, dorsolateral, and
superiomedial regions),
• Orbitofrontal cortex (including the orbitobasal or
ventromedial and the inferior medial regions),
• And superior medial regions (containing, primarily,
the anterior cingulate gyrus).
• The dorsolateral frontal cortex is concerned with planning,
strategy formation, and executive function.

• Patients with dorsolateral frontal lesions tend to have apathy,

personality changes, abulia, and lack of ability to plan or to
sequence actions or tasks.

• These patients have poor working memory for verbal

information (if the left hemisphere is predominantly affected)
or spatial information (if the right hemisphere bears the
lesion).
• The frontal operculum contains the center for expression of
language.

• Patients with left frontal operculum lesions may demonstrate

Broca aphasia and defective verb retrieval, whereas patients
with exclusively right opercular lesions tend to develop
expressive aphrosodia.

• The orbitofrontal cortex is concerned with response inhibition.

Patients with orbitofrontal lesions tend to have difficulty with
disinhibition, emotional lability, and memory disorders.
• Patients with such acquired sociopathy, or
pseudopsychopathic disorder, are said to have an orbital
personality.
• Personality changes from orbital damage include
impulsiveness, puerility, a jocular attitude, sexual
disinhibition, and complete lack of concern for others.

Patients with superior medial lesions affecting the cingulate

cortex typically develop akinetic mutism.
• Patients with inferior medial (basal forebrain) lesions tend to
manifest anterograde and retrograde amnesia and
confabulation.
Moral reasoning is a field that we humans often
consider our highest intellectual achievement. It is
another area in which we exhibit patterns of
behavior that have consistently puzzled
philosophers and psychologists alike. It is not simply
a matter of people holding different value systems,
or of someone being “immoral.” Even the same
individual can reason quite differently when
presented with dilemmas that appear different but
are in fact similar
For example, consider the following scenarios:
■ A trolley is headed toward five unsuspecting workers.
A switch operator can avoid killing them all by moving
the trolley to a sidetrack, on which there is only a single
worker who will die.
■ A trolley is headed toward five unsuspecting workers.
There is a large man on a footbridge just above the
trolley, and pushing this man off the bridge onto the track
will cause the trolley to run over him and derail, saving
the five workers.
Most people agree that it is morally justifiable, even
imperative, to switch the train but impermissible to push
the man off the bridge. Yet the logic of the two
circumstances is the same: sacrificing one life will save
five others.
• Judgement, insight, and social appropriateness:
No good tests exist for these functions other than
observation. Patients can score highly on the
WAIS or other cognitive tests and still be unable to
behave appropriately.
• Acquired sociopathy can occur with individuals
with orbitofrontal cortex injuries who may score
highly on all cognitive measures and yet are
unable to hold a job, make and maintain long-term
personal relationships, and exercise judgment.
 Planning requires that many brain regions work in tandem. The
orbitofrontal cortex helps us weigh immediate payoff against
later rewards. The amygdala marks what is emotionally
important. The anterior cingulate responds when we make
mistakes. The hippocampus coordinates memories of past
events. Much activity in planning takes place in the prefrontal
cortex, which is not fully developed until late adolescence.
(Image by Kathryn Born)
THANK YOU !!!!