Themes In The History Of Human Neuroscience

Front 1

Neuroscience

Back 1

the activity of acquiring knowledge about the nervous system by the application of the scientific method.

Front 2

human neuroscience

Back 2

acquiring knowledge about how the human nervous system - how it might help us understand questions in psychology and vice versa: two-way interaciton

Front 3

Philosophical materialism/Monism

Back 3

- psychological processes are mediated by brain processes

- there is reasonable mapping between brain and psychological processes: not always easy to see

Front 4

Psychology

Back 4

- perception

- attention

- memory

- motor control

- emotion

- personality

etc.

Front 5

Neurobiology

Back 5

- anatomy (structure)

- physiology (function)

Front 6

Reverse engineering the brain

Back 6

- to figure out how it enables psychology to happen, by:

- looking at how behaviour changes as a function of damage to the brain

Front 7

one-to-one

Back 7

one physiological/pathological event causing one psychological consequence or vice versa

Front 8

one-to-many

Back 8

- one physiological/pathological event causing many psychological responses

- one psychological response causing many physiological responses

Front 9

many-to-one

Back 9

many physiological event causing many psychological consequences and vice versa

Front 10

null

Back 10

psychology has no physiological basis - almost never

Front 11

major themes in human (cognitive) neuroscience

Back 11

- the "mind-body" problem

- organization of the nervous system

Front 12

relationship between mind and body? Plato

Back 12

- distributed around different parts of the body

Front 13

relationship between mind and body? Aristotle

Back 13

- when the mind started to race (psychologically aroused) the heart started to race therefore the purpose of the brain was to cool the blood

Front 14

relationship between mind and body? Hippocrates

Back 14

- brain is the seat of (most of) the mind

Front 15

relationship between mind and body? Galen of Pergamon

Back 15

- Brain was important - the ventricles the most important

- the brain animated the cerebro-spinal fluid - this is what gives them life

Front 16

three-cell model

Back 16

- Ventricles as three cells through where "psychic pneuma" flow

1. imagination

2. thinking

3. memory

Front 17

Psychic pneuma

Back 17

- the material/fluid of psychology that pumped throughout the body and gave the body animation

Front 18

Reflex theory

Back 18

- notion that the body can be thought as a complicated machine

Front 19

Philosophical Dualism

Back 19

the mind and body are not identical

Front 20

Cortical doctrine

Back 20

- psychological attributes of humans are functionally dependent on the cortex and not the ventricles

Front 21

Phrenology

Back 21

- psychological functions can be thought as psychological organs - each subscribed to a different region of the brain

- if a function was utilized a lot it would be bigger and push against the skull

- theorized you could tell a persons strengths/weaknesses by reading the grooves and lines on the skull

Front 22

Endocasts

Back 22

- plaster cast of the inside of the skull

- try and map the evolution of areas involved in different functions

- notion that the shape of the brain influences the shape of the skull

Front 23

Cortical remapping

Back 23

- popular historical movement

- learning a specific skill leads to a bigger representation in the brain

Front 24

"Scientific phrenology" --> Aggregate Field Theory

Back 24

- expeimental ablation: create lesions and observe changes in behaviour

- 3 functionally separate regions: Brainstem, Cerebellum, Cerebrum

Front 25

Brainstem

Back 25

- responsible for keeping animal alive

Front 26

Cerebellum

Back 26

- produced uncoordinated movement if lesioned

- the bigger the lesion the worse the movement

- localisation didn't seem important

Front 27

cerebrum

Back 27

- responsible for more complex behaviours

Front 28

visual neglect

Back 28

- neglect all stimulus in one side of space

- not blind but do not pay attention

Front 29

How did WWI help further neuroscience?

Back 29

- war wounds: map of the trajectory of bullet wounds onto disturbances in cortical field

- able to map where the patient was able to respond to a visual stimulus and where they were not able to respond

- gold standard atlas of mapping function to structure up untill 1991

Front 30

cell theory

Back 30

- idea that the cell is the fundamental organisational unit of biology

Front 31

Histology

Back 31

- using dyes, microscopes and slices of tissue to look at the micro structure of biological tissue in terms of their cellular structure

Front 32

Golgi

Back 32

- developed a stain that revealed the micro structure of the central nervous system to allow it to be studied

- believed the cells were all interconnected nodules (network of reticulum)

Front 33

Cajal

Back 33

discovered

- synapses, dendritic spin, neuron doctrine - argued that cells in the brain are physically coherent and not necessarily part of a big continuous network

- axons as output

- synaptic modification as basis for memory

Front 34

Neuron Doctrine

Back 34

articulated by Waldeyer as a synthesis of Cajal's discoveries

- neuron is structural and functional unit of nervous system

- neurons are individual cells, not anatomically continuous

- all brain processes must ultimately be understood in terms of neurons and their interactions

Front 35

cytoarchitectonics

Back 35

- cellular architecture of the cortex

- using the golgi stain - identify places where brain tissue are stained similarly

- Brodmann identified 47-47 cytoarchitectonically different cortical regions

Front 36

the 6 layers of the cortex

Back 36

1. molecular layer

2. external granular later

3. external pyramidal layer

4. internal granular layer

5. internal pyramidal layer

6. multiform layer

Front 37

Brodmann's Areas

Back 37

- used to navigate around the brain

Front 38

audio radiographic technique

Back 38

- inject radioactively labelled glucose (glucose) into blood stream which will accumulate in cells that are active

Front 39

Retinotopic mapping

Back 39

topography of the retina which reflects the topography of the visual field and is projected in a systematic way on he visual field

Front 40

cortical magnification

Back 40

- closer to the centre - more tightly connectd to one another

Front 41

single-cell electrophysiology

Back 41

- another way of interrogating function

- systematic attempt to record the respond properties, what particular cells in particular areas in doing

- stick an electrode in close proximity to a cell - start to get action potentials and record what is occuring - systematically move through the Brodmann's areas

Front 42

Associationism

Back 42

idea that the environment and learning are the most important factors in mental development

- closely tied with behaviourism

Front 43

empiricism

Back 43

idea that all knowledge comes from sensory experience

- that sensory experience produces simple ideas and concepts and when these interact and become associated with one another, complex ideas and concepts are created in an individuals knowledge system

Front 44

Rationalism

Back 44

- would reject beliefs that, although comforting, were unstoppable and even superstitious.

- takes into account the meaning of life - this differs from logic