Lecture 1 - Structure of the Brain

HOw should we study the brain?

Understand this pathway and look into different components within

What are the 4 approaches to studying the brain?

Approaches:

1. Molecular and cellular neuroscience (proteins, genes, cell

cultures, brain slices)

2. Systems neuroscience (single to populations of neurons in

intact models)

3. Computational neuroscience (theoretical, modeling and

simulation)

4. Cognitive neuroscience (EEG, brain imaging, fMRI, PET, MEG)

What is the typical scale of problems in neuroscience within the scope of this class?

Systems and Computational

What are some experimental methods used to explore the brain?

• The number of genes ____ correlate with organismal complexity

• There is a complex relationship between ____ and ____

• The number of genes does not correlate with organismal complexity

• There is a complex relationship between genetics and behaviors

What are the major components of the nervous system?

Brain, Spinal Cord, and surrounding nerves

What are the 2 divisions of the nervous system?

Peripheral Nervous System;

Central Nervous System

How does Infomation get processed?

Sensation - PNS - CNS → PNS →Reaction

What is special about Einstein’s Brain?

Despite Cortical Differences, we still do not know what specifically makes one person different from another, on an anatomical level

What is the difference in cortical areas among species

Areas associated with sensation take up a lot more space in non-human species

As the brain evolved from one species to another, how did certain brain areas change/stay the same? What is the significance

Certain brain areas grew/shrunk. However, the areas stay conserved (humans inherited brain areas from other animals.

Hence, you can use animals to look into the activity and extrapolate that info for humans

Difference between rats/mice and primates

Rats/Mice have lots of brain area dedicated to somatosensation compared to primates

Compared to small animals, primate brains are more _______.

complicated

As species evolve, the brain gets ____ and the # of neurons gets _____

bigger

denser

What is special about Human/Primate brain weight compared to body weight?

Primates have high brain weight - body weight ratio.

Gray matter - ____

White Matter - _____

Neurons

Fibers/axons connecting gray matter

Larger Brains require ____ fibers to communicate between distant cortical areas.

longer

More neurons in _____ _____ ______.

Primate Cerebral Cortex

Neuronal density decreases uniforml across species as the cerebral corte gains neurons, except in _____.

Primates

More neurons in _____ _____.

primate cerebellum

Comparison between the brains of primate species

Similar regions (sensory cortext highly conserved among primates), but humans have highly developed frontal cortex compared to other primates

Terminologies used in neuroscience for axes

Rostral-Anterior

Caudal-Posterior

What are wrinkles called in the brain

Sulcus

What are the anatomical planes?