Psych 315A Chapter 1

Front 1

What is neuropsychology?

Back 1

Neuropsychology: Scientific study of the relationship between behavior and the brain

Front 2

What disciplines does neuropsychology draw from?

Back 2

Draws from many disciplines, including anatomy, biology, pharmacology, and philosophy

Front 3

What can experimental results from neuropsychology help us identify?

Back 3

Experimental results from neuropsychological investigations can be used to identify impairments resulting from brain damage

Front 4

What are the two main hypothesis which motivate neuropsychological research?

Back 4

The Brain Hypothesis: The brain is the source of behavior

The Neuron Hypothesis: The unit of brain structure and function is the neuron

Front 5

The brain is made up of two ___________.

Back 5

Hemispheres

Front 6

_______ define broad divisions of the cerebral cortex.

Back 6

Lobes

Front 7

What is the cerebral cortex?

Back 7

Cerebral Cortex: The brain's thin outer "bark" layer.

Front 8

________ are called gyri and ________ are sulci. The spaces between gyri are ________.

Back 8

Bumps = Gyri
Cracks = Sulci
Spaces = Fissures

Front 9

If you hold your right hand into a fist, what parts represent which lobes?

Back 9

Fingers = Frontal Lobe
Thumb = Temporal Lobe
Knuckles = Parietal Lobe
Wrist = Occipital Lobe

Front 10

What are 3 general divisions of the CNS/brain?

Back 10

Forebrain: Includes cerebral cortex which performs higher functions (e.g., language, thinking, perception & planning).

Brainstem: Underlying structures involved in regulatory functions and movement control.

Spinal Cord: Connected to the brainstem and descends down the back and involved in regulatory functions and movement control.

Front 11

What are the two primary divisions of the nervous system?

Back 11

Central Nervous System (CNS): Includes the brain and spinal cord

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS): Fibers that carry information too (sensory/afferent) and from (motor/efferent) the CNS.

Front 12

What are the 2 major divisions of the PNS?

Back 12

1) Somatic NS: Includes sensory and motor pathways (i.e., afferent and efferent nerves)

Sensory Pathways: Collects information from the senses and send it to the cortex via the Somatic Nervous System (SNS)

Motor Pathways: Nerve fibers that connect the brain and spinal cord to the body’s muscles

2) Autonomic Nervous System (ANS): Pathways that control the internal organs such as the heart, lungs, and stomach

Front 13

What is Descartes Mind-Body Problem?

Back 13

Mind-Body Problem: The problem of explaining how a nonmaterial mind can command a material body.

Body: Material and performs like a machine, responds mechanically and reflexively to events

Mind: Nonmaterial and located in the Pineal Body of the Epithalamus. Mind decides what movements the body (machine) should make.

Front 14

Define Dualism

Back 14

Dualism: Descartes’s position that the mind and body are separate but can interact

Front 15

What is Materialism?

Back 15

Materialism: A philosophical position that holds that behaviour can be explained as a function of the nervous system and without explanatory recourse of the mind.

** Alfred Wallace & Charles Darwin

Front 16

What is Localization of Function? (LoF)?

Back 16

Localization of Function: The idea that the control of each kind of behaviour is associated with different, specific, brain areas.

*Phrenology/Gall & Spurzheim; Broca; Wernicke.

Front 17

What is Phrenology?

Back 17

Phrenology: A long-discredited study of the relationship between mental faculties ad the skull's surface features.

Front 18

What is Cranioscopy?

Back 18

Cranioscopy: The techniques used by Phrenologists to measure the skull in order to determine the location of bumps and depressions.

Front 19

What did Gall correlate with bumps in the region of the cerebellum?

Back 19

Amativeness!

Gall He used anecdotal evidence to support his claims.

Front 20

What were the problems with Phrenology?

Back 20

Problems: Impossible to define and quantify objectively & the features of the skull reveal little about the brain.

Front 21

What was the historical importance of Phrenologists?

Back 21

Historical Importance: Laid foundation for modern localization of function

Phrenological map was the precursor for many maps of the brain

Front 22

Who is Paul Broca?

Back 22

Paul Broca: Had patient who was only able to say “tan” with paralysis on the right side of the body

At autopsy a lesion in the third convolution of the left frontal lobe was found

Front 23

What is Broca's Area? Broca's Aphasia?

Back 23

Broca’s Area: Anterior speech region of the brain

Broca’s Aphasia: Syndrome that results from damage to Broca’s Area

Front 24

What is Lateralization?

Back 24

Lateralization: Functions can become localized to one side of the brain

Front 25

Where is Broca's area located?

Back 25

In the third (inferior) convolution of the left frontal lobe.

Front 26

How were Carl Wernicke's patients different from Broca's?

Back 26

Aphasic patients different from Broca’s in the following ways:

Damage in the 1st temporal gyrus

No contralateral paralysis

Patients could speak, but speech was nonsensical

Could hear, but not understand or repeat what was said

Front 27

What is Wernicke's Area? Wernicke's Aphasia?

Back 27

Wernicke's Area: Posterior speech region, located in the temporal lobe.

Wernicke’s (Fluent) Aphasia: Syndrome that results from damage to Wernicke’s Area

Front 28

What does the relationship between Wernicke's and Broca's area show?

Back 28

The different areas have their own function but must work together in order to work correctly (i.e., to produce proper speech).

Front 29

What did Pierre Flourens investigate?

Back 29

Pierre Flourens: Removed areas of the cortex of animal brains and studied resulting changes in behavior

Front 30

What did Pierre Flourens find from his investigations?

Back 30

Findings:

No specialization for areas of the cortex

Specialization for the brainstem

Confirmed by Friedreich Goltz in 1892

Findings refuted localization of function

Front 31

Define Hierarchical Organization. What proposed this model?

Back 31

Hierarchical Organization: The principle of cerebral organization in which information is processed serially, with each level of processing assumed to present the elaboration of some hypothetical processes.

**Each successively higher level of the nervous system controls more complex aspects of behavior

Proposed by: John Hughlings-Jackson

Front 32

Define Dissolution

Back 32

Dissolution: A conceptual notion in which disease or damage in the highest levels of the brain would produce a repertory of simpler behaviours seen in animals that have not evolved that particular brain structure.

** Considered the opposite of evolution

Front 33

What is the Binding Problem

Back 33

Binding Problem: The theoretical problem with the integration of sensory information. Because a single sensory event is analyzed by multiple parallel channels that do not converge on a single region, there is said to be a problem in binding together the segregated analyses into a single sensory experience.

Front 34

What did the case of H.M illustrate?

Back 34

The case of H.M.:

Removal of medial parts of the temporal lobes to treat epilepsy

Resulted in lack of epilepsy AND the inability to form new factual memories

Case illustrates that there are SEPARATE areas in the brain for different aspects of memory