Chapter 4

Brain vs heart debate

asks what is the source of our thoughts, feelings and behaviours, our brain or our heart?

Heart hypothesis

The heart was the source of all thoughts, feelings and behaviours, and the brain had no purpose at all.

Brain hypothesis

The brain was the source of all thoughts, feelings and behaviours.

Mind body problem

Asks is the mind part of the body? and is the mind a separate entity from the brain and the body?

Monism

The belief that the human mind and body are together a singular complete entity.

Dualism

The belief that the human mind and body are separate and distinguishable from one another.

Phrenology

Phrenology involves studying the lumps and bumps on a person’s head allowing them to determine personality and behavioural traits.

Pseudoscience

Consists of practices that claim to be both scientific and factual, but do not follow the scientific method; they are ‘fake’ sciences.

Brain ablation

experiments involved the surgical removal of brain tissue in animals, followed by the observation of changes in the animal’s behaviour.

Brain lesioning

Early brain lesioning studies involved the damage of brain tissue in animals, followed by the observation of changes in the animal’s behaviour.

split-brain research

Split-brain experiments were conducted by Roger Sperry and Michael Gazzaniga on patients who had a severed corpus callosum, and therefore their left and right cerebral hemispheres had been separated.

Neuroimaging technique

procedures and devices that are used to take scans of the brain, providing information about the brain’s structure and function.

Structural technique

provide information on what the brain looks like.

Functional technique

provide information on brain activity.

Computerised tomography (CT)

a non-invasive structural neuroimaging technique, developed in the 1970s, which uses x-rays to take images of the brain. involves a dye or contrast being ingested or injected into the bloodstream of a patient

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

a non-invasive structural neuroimaging technique, developed in the 1970s, which uses magnetic and radio fields to take images of the brain. Atoms (e.g. hydrogen) in the water molecules in a person’s brain are realigned by the magnets, which produce signals that can be turned into images.

Positron emission tomography (PET)

a non-invasive functional neuroimaging technique which uses radioactive glucose and produces coloured images of the brain showing different levels of brain activity. involves injecting a person with a radioactive glucose solution, which enters the brain via the bloodstream.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

a non-invasive functional neuroimaging technique introduced in the 1990s. It traces oxygen levels in the brain and produces high-quality coloured images showing different levels of brain activity. based on the premise that the more active a region it is, the more oxygen it will use thus, it measures blood flow to an area of the brain during a physical or intellectual task.