Psychology Capstone Exam 3

Galenus

first to study brain empirically through observations and state brain controls behavior not the heart; nerves connect brain to body and thought nerves carried spirits through hollow tubes

Van Wesel

father of human anatomy that noticed brain has 3 ventricles; ignored cerebrum

Van Wesel’s Back ventricle

repository of memory

Van Wesel’s Middle Ventricle

source of thoughts and judgement

Van Wesel’s front ventricle

where all sensory information was processed; “common sense”

Sympathetic nervous system

Body parts could sense and sympathsize with another body parts distress resulting in involuntary actions (reflexes)

Prochaska

proposed spinal cord and central core control reflexes; revolutioned idea model of message transmission to bottom-up

Hall

proposed concept of reflex arc

Reflex arc

stimulus → somatosensory receptor → afferent nerves → interneurons of the spinal cord → efferent nerves → musculoskeletal system; quick, automatic pathway nerve impulse follows during a reflex, bypassing brain for speed

Sechenov

proposed all functions of the brain are reflexive

Equipotentionality

different parts of the brain can take over functions if one part is damaged

Localization

different brain structures serve different functions; neuropsychologists relied brain injuries to map this out

Flourens

considered father of experimental brain science, demonstrated localization

Broca

demonstrated left frontal lobe dominates speed production

Wernicke

nearby but separate part of the left hemisphere that specializes in language comprehension

DuBois

Used electric eel to demostrate how human nerve signals could be electric

vonHelmoltz

measured nerve speed using frog legs and determined process is electrochemical like chemical batteries

Neurophysiology

branch of physiology specializing in study of the nervous system

Neuropsychology

branch of psychology specializing in relationship between brain and behavior

Cognitive neuropsychology

sbu-branch of psychology that relies on information processing models (not brain injuries) to deomonstrate how brain influences behavior

Berger

became first person to create print-out of electrical activity emanating from brain; created electroencephalogram

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

Print-out of brain’s electrical activity; successful in determining that brain emanates numerous types of electrical waves; resurfaced as diagnostic tool in psychopathology

Somnology

Scientific study sleep

Positron emission tomopgraphy (PET-scan)

intended to be used as device for localizing brain functioning; inject radioactive glucose-substance into blood stream to serve as tracer, as isotrope travels along toward brain it emits positrons, which interact with other particles and turn into gamma rays; active brain parts emitted more gamma rays

Magnetoencephalography (MEG)

Measures magnetic field surrounding one’s head using 300-sensor helmet; not accurate/sensitive technique, more accurate than EEG and less invasive than PET

Cohen

first to measure MEG signals

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

Technique measures blood flow and determines how oxygenated the blood is in different areas of the brain; more oxygen used, more active the brain area; capable of measurement at the atomic level through radio waves

Hemodynamism

study of blood movement

Transcranial magnetic stimulation

Devices creates virtual lesions that temporarily disrupt functioning of a precise brain area by inducing weak electrical current in local neurons; experimental instead of correlational with temporary effects to confirm specific area’s involvement in target behavior being studied

Cahill

Conducted PET scans on participants who watched violent films and found that men had right amygdala activity that predicted gist memory while women has left amygdala activity that predicted more detailed memory; confirmed by replication

Cognitive neuropsychiatry

study of mental disorders by using cognitive psychology to understand how normal thinking processes breakdown

Capgras delusion

false belief that a family member/close friend has been replaced by imposter who looks exactly like that person

Prosopagnosia

condition where someone is unable to recognize familiar faces, usually following brain injury, often involving right fusiform gyrus

Bauer

Conducted electrodermal conductance (CDC) test on man who was unable to recognize anyone’s face after accident and found that individuals may not be able to recognize faces but exihibit reflexive, physical, or emotional responses; evidence of dual-processing routes

Ellis and Young

Suggested in cases of prosopagnosia that the cognitive route has somehow been severed while dermal or emotional one has not

Blindsight

ability to visually detect things without being consciously aware of them; location of an object or persons’ facial expression

Amygdala

processes visual signals and emotions in others

Smith Papyrus

Included info on how an ancient physician decided whether or not to treat wounded soldiers/ earliest known texts that connects the brain to behavior dating 1700 BCE. 

Crick

proposed most fundamental issues in all of psych; brain-mind problem, if mind is separate from the brain

Dualism

Oldest viewpoint, most intuitively satisfying, mind is somehow dependent of body

Materialism

Mind is just by-product of physical brain; posits that conscious mind, if it exists, does not control behavior

Philosophical functionalism

Mind is important which could theoretically be copied onto another template with similar structure; brain as hardware, mind as software; posits that mind is separate from brain but does not exist in aethereal realm

Mind

person’s collective abilities to reason, feel, plan, remember; what makes you “you”

Soul

Spiritual part of one’s being; Plato claims it differs from the thinking part

Consciousness

collection of thoughts, associations, feelings, memories, and experiences that we are aware of

Dualist persepctive

the mind (or the soul) is comprised of a non-physical substance, while the body is constituted of the physical substance known as matter; provides for possibility of the existence of free will

Walter

Proposed certain conditions need to be met for free will; the agent could’ve chosen otherwise, no external force compelling agent to act, act must result from rational deliberation (controversial)

Why is Walters 3rd condition controversial?

actions in the heat of the moment; who meant it, homonculus?; could free will exist on continuum

Mind-brain interaction problem

1st issue with dualism explores the relationship between the mind and brain and the nature of consciousness; how can independent mind or soul influence the brain or interact

Existence of unconscious phenomena

2nd issues with dualism more mental porcesses there are beyond conscious control, less essential consciousness (and mind) seems to be; reflexes dreams, hypnotic experiences, distant memories

Eventual disappearence of “mystery forces”

third issue with dualism

Phlogiston

Substance that supposedly exists in some materials but not others and explains why some substances burn and others don’t; proposed by German alchemist Becher

Vital force

Substance that supposedly exists in some objects but not others to explain why some things are alive and others aren’t

Aether

another proposed material that never panned out; the stuff that the atmosphere and all of space are supposedly filled with 

Epiphenomenon

Idea that mind is just a byproduct of brain activity and does not actually control behavior; mind is nothing other than the brain in operation

Churchland

Cal-San-Diego neurophilosopher that declared that the notion of a conscious mind is more than delusion, belief in which can have very damaging consequences 

Dawkins

Oxford biologist that publish book The Selfish Gene proposing that natural selection is not about survival or organisms/offspring or species but survival of DNA molecules; humans are merely vessels that DNA has diversely developed to perpetuate itself

Issue #1 with materialism

No one is yet to propose satisfying explanation for how human mind can just be by-product of biology when it feels much richer than that

Issue #2 with materialism

Problem of personal identity; if mind is collection of particular set of experiences in particular part of brain, reconcile that with molecules that make up a particular organism change out almost completely over one’s lifespan and yet we retain a continuous sense of who we are as individuals; DNA replicate sense of self?

Issue #3 with materialism

it is too simplistic; has to be more to it than that

Cybernetics

study of control and communication in electronic devices so that they can be designed to replace human functions; explains mind as flashdrive and computer as brain

Jackson

Australian philosopher proposed a thought experiment (mary experiment) that would question materialism and/or philosophical functionalism; our mind must be more than just knowledge in our brain

Mary experiment

Scientist is rasied in only black and white room but learns all physical info there is to obtain abt what goes on when we see colors; what wavelengths combinations stimulate retina when looking at sky, if she learns something when released form room her knowledge was incomplete

Thought experiment

use of imagination/ “suspend your disbelief” for purpose of the exercise when questioning ideas/ theories 

Chalmers

Australian philosopher, designed thought experiment called “Zombie Problem”; decided if you can imagine the experiment, it implies we cannot reduce consciousness to materialism or philosophical functionalism; consciousness must be more than sum total of info

Zombie experiment

imagine twin that identical of you molecule for molecule, but lacks conscious experience that responds to any stimulus/situation exactly as you would but won’t experience the qualia of it that you would

Qualia

experience of vividness and richness with a given experience, memory, movement, phrase, etc. 

Libet

California physiologist, suggested that our decision to act take place BEFORE we’re aware that we’ve decided to act and that free will can still be possible bc we can stop a movement halfway

Global workspace model (GWM)

States that consciousness evolved to disperse info across the “mental” workspace, allowing for effective synchronization; may be purpose of consciousness to make info widely available across global workspace

GWM first understanding

most info takes place unconsciously

GWM second understanding

continuous exchange of info among various brain areas activates IDN; consciousness senses whats going on in your internal world; triggers person to become conscious of environmental stimuli responsible for all neuronal activity taking place

GWN third understanding

Conscious awareness is necessary in order to coordinate the processing required to assess elements of situation, evaluate possible options, and plan course of action

Information Distribution Network

Patients who saw visual stimulus and brain showed activity in areas of object and word recognition, showed consciousness at work which served as the information distribution network throughout the brain 

Dehaene and Lemmee

French neuroscientist that documented networks of neuronal reactions that took place in numerous areas of the brain when patients were presented visual stimulus/showed consciousness at work which served as the information distribution network throughout the brain; contributed to 3 understandings of GWM

Pulvermuller

Cambridge biolinguistics professor, showed patients action words and noted when their Wernicke and Broca and Motor Cortex areas lit up/ noted that the perceptual, memory and motor areas of the brain automatically activate when we see, hear, or say movement-related words 

Embodied cognition

broad and automatic cerebral activation