HE ED221 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Cohort Study, Visual Perception, Prefrontal Cortex

• School: University of Alberta
• Department: Health Education
• Course: HE ED221
• Professor: Valerie Carson

Document Summary

This lecture focuses on understanding the different components of cognitive development and functioning, and understanding the role physical activity and sedentary behavior play on cognitive development and functioning across the lifespan. Health outcomes can include obesity, cv disease, and cancer, there are however other mental health outcomes. Other examples include increased cognitive performance and clinical status (particularly for executive function and memory systems), decreases de(cid:373)e(cid:374)tia risk (cid:894)particularly alzhei(cid:373)er"s disease(cid:895) a(cid:374)d a decrease in depressive symptoms. Executive function (or cognitive control) refers to a subset of self-regulatory processes that underlie perception, memory, and action. Situations that require executive function include: novel tasks, planning, problem solving, conscious choices among alternatives. The prefrontal cortex and their interconnecting pathways and structure have a major role in executive function. Dysfunction in these areas leads to disruption in the organization and control of behavior. If our left prefrontal cortex is less active, then negative emotions (eg. being depressed) may be expressed more frequently and more intensely.