Exam 3 Capstone

Smith papyrus

a physcian’’s manuscript; decided whether to treat wounded soldiers which did not include soldiers with certain head injuries

Galenus

Turkish physcian; became the first to empirically address the issue of what the brain does

What did people of the 5th century believe controlled the body?

The heart

What was the 5th century explaination for nerves/ how they communicated

Nerves communicate through by gas through the body

von Wesel

Belgian anatomist; father of anatomy, noticed the brain has 3 ventricles

What were the three ventricles of the brain used for? (according to von Wesel)

Back- storing memory

Middle- thoughts and judgements

Front- sensory, ‘common sense’

Why do we call it the sympathetic nervous system?

Galenus thought our body could sense distress in other organs therefore making it sympathetic

What are the 5 discoveries of Neurpathology

1.) Confirmation of the cerebrospinal axis

2.)The reflexes

3.) Localization of brain function

4.) The discovery of the neuron

5.) Neurons store and transfer electrochemistry

Prochaska 1784

prosposed the spinal chord and central core control reflexes; the spinal cord first, brain second

1832, Hall

Stimulus → receptor → afferent nerves → CNS → efferent nerves → musculoskeletal system (input- process- output)

1862, Sechenov

everything is a relfex

How was the brain thought of before localization?

there was a general assumption of equipotentiality

Flourens

French physiologist, experimental brain science demonstrated brain structures

Cerebellum

fine motor function

Medulla

heart rate and respiration

1861, Broca

demonstrated part in left lobe that dominates speech production

1874, Wernicke’s

left hemisphere= language comprehension

The discovery of the neuron

the basic unit of the NS → composed of network of neurons and always in use

How can the brain produce electricity?

Neurons store and transfer electrochemistry

du Bois

analogy of electric eel demonstrating human neurons

von Helmholtz

Proposed do nerves act like electrical or chemical batteries? More like a chemical battery

Neurophysiology

branch of physiology that specializes in the NS

Neuropsychology

branch of psych. specializing in how the brain determines beh. ; got fed up with waiting to localization of the brain

Cog. Neuropsychology

sub branch; relies on info processing models instead of brain injuries to demonstrate brain influences beh.

Imaging the Brain

studying cadavers and victims of brain injuries to study the brain

1924, Berger

created the electroencephalogram

What caused Berger to create the EEG?

his sister’s psychic sense for him being injured after being thrown from a horse during a military parade, he wanted to to measure the psychic energy

EEG

not the most successful, but did prove humans emanate various electrowaves; notable in somnology

Somnology

study of sleep

Positron emission tomography (PET)

1.) Injected radioactive glucose to trace in brain

2.) Positrons interact w/ other particles= gamma ray production

3.) More Gamma = More activity

What was the intention of the PET machine?

Intended to help map out localized brain function

Magnetoencephalography (MEG)

created by Cohen; first to measure magnetic field around head using a 300 sensor helmet

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

measures how oxygenated blood flows using radio waves; hemodynamic (like PET)

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)

device that creates virtual lesions that’ll temporarily disrupt functioning of a precise brain area by inducing a weak electric current in the local neurons

What are the pros of the TMS?

1.) pinpoint control un creating these ‘virtual lesions’ and its temporary

2.) TEMPORARY (the effects)

Recommended procedure for localization:

1.) fMRI first, to narrow down the area

2.) Go get loads of money then use TMS

What was the impact of brain imaging?

1.) Replication and reconsideration of past beliefs

2.) Memory, emotion, stress response, appear diff. in M and F

Female differences in the brain:

1.) Area associated w higher cog. functioning are bulkier

2.) limbic system

3.) Distinguish shades of color better

4.) Generally better facial recognition

Male differences in the brain:

1.) Larger parietal lobe in spatial perception

2.) Larger amygdala

3.) Differences found on the cellular level

4.) Different in encoding emotional memories

ECREE

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence

SEX MATTERS

campaign on sex differences in medication and we’ve known about some racial differences

What is the different effect of Ambien on male and female bodies?

Ambien takes twice as long as for to absorb into a woman’s body

What is the different effect of Children’s aspirin on male and female bodies?

Male: reduces heart attack, increases internal bleeding

Female: Reduces blood clot related strokes

Cognitive neuropsychology

mental disorders in terms of break down in normal cognitive functioning

Capgras delusion

belief that loved one was replaced by an imposter; identified by Capgras during the time of Freud

What causes Capgras delusions?

Some frequency in schizophrenia, or brain injury

Prospagnosia

face blindness

What was the method of Bauer (1984) case study?

Attached EDC test where participant witnessed faces he should know, and don’t know. His skin twitched seeing people he knew

What was the proposed conclusion of Bauer (1984)?

Due face processing; Prosopagnosia patients may have an emotional response

Ellis and Young 1990

the ‘cognitive’ route has been severed but the ‘dermal/emotional’ route is intact (dual face processing)

Blindsight

eyes signals are processed in the limbic partially from occipital lobe proximity/evolution; typically occurs from damaged visual cortex equaling in blindness

Blindsight examples:

People with blindsight can identify emotional expressions, specifcally fear. They can often pick up an object in front of them without their knowledge

Dualism

Oldest explanation of the mind-body problem; most intuitively satisfying, mind independent of body

Materialism

Mind is a by product of the physical brain; an epiphenomenon, ‘mind is the brain in operation

Philosophical Functionalism

mind is separate, but it is the information within the brain; any/everything considered software (memory, facts, emotion), brain is hardware

the mind

1.) a person’s collective experience to reason, fell, plan, etc.

2.) What makes one unique

soul

spiritual part of one’s being, is it different from thinking?

Consciousness

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

The Neurophilosophy of Freewill

by Walter, three conditions that constitute free will

What are the 3 conditions of freewill?

1.) Agent could’ve chosen otherwise (no choice, no freewill)

2.) No external force compelling the choice

3.) Act must result from rational deliberation

Issues with dualism

1.) Mind body problem (if separate, how connect?)

2.) Existence of unconscious phenomena (Reflexes, dreams, memories)

3.) Mysterious forces

Phlogiston

Proposed by Becher in 17th century; A substance that supposedly exists in some materials; why smthn burns

Vital force

similar to phlogiston, why things are alive or not

AEther

Proposed material that never panned out- what space is filled with

Issues with Materialism

1.) How can materialism be correct? the mind feels richer than that

2.) Personal ID- the molecules that makeup a particular organism change overtime completely, how do we keep track of ourselves?

3.) Too simplistic- there has to be more than that!

The Selfish Gene

by Dawkins; we aren’t thinking about natural selection right; its not about species, but DNA molecules

DNA composes every single living things on Earth, all made up by 4 nucleotides

What nucleotides make up DNA?

Adenine, Cytosine, Guanine, Thymine

Cybernetics

Interfacing of tech; Study of control and communication in electronic devices so that they can reproduce liner functions; information transcending the medium

The Mary Problem (1982)

Proposed by Jackson, as a thought experiment:
Mary is a scientist who was raised in a B&W room, experiencing the world through a B&W monitor. She knows everyhting there is to know about sight, down to the frequency of colored light like the sky. If she went outside and looked outside, would she be surprised by the sky or not?

Zombie Problem (1996)

Chaleuers; Imagine an ID twin of yourself without conscious experience, if you can then consciousness cannot be reduce to materialism/functionalism

Method of Libet’s study?

Participants were asked to move their finger and note the exact moment they moved their finger, this is backed by an electromylogram attached to an EEG

Predictions from Libet’s study (1985)?

1.) Participant decides, slight delay

2.) EEG spikes, slight delay

3.) finger moves

Results from Libet’s study?

Step 2 happens before step 1, brain is initiating movement before the decision is made

Reverse causality

brain is informing conscious mind after it had already ‘decided’ to initiate movement

Global Workspace Model (GWM)

Something needs to coordinate the vast array of mental activities taking place at anytime like a stage manager; consciousness evolved for effective synchronization

What is the method of Dehaene’s experiment? (2001)

Participants would look at a screen as images flashed for various amounts of time while brain currents are measured

What is the result from Dehaene’s study? (2001)

The displayed images causes a flicker of recognition, then dissipates

Longer display, a network of neuronal reactions took place in numerous areas of the brain (IDN)

Information Distribution Network

a network of neuronal reactions took place in numerous areas of the brain; consciousness at work

Dehaene and Lamme model of GWM

1.) Most info processing is unconscious

2.) A continuous exchange of info among multi-brain areas; activating IDN

3.) Consciousness is necessary; we couldn’t plan/evaluate etc. w/o it

Kick, Pick, Lick method (2005)

Particpant reading one of three action verbs

Kick Pick Lick results?

Wernicke and Broca lights up and so does the motor cortex that instructs each body part; automatically activates whenever we see, hear, say ovement related words, our past experience triggers it

Embodied Cognition

broad, automatic cerebral activation