Capstone Psychology -- Exam 3

included information on how an ancient physician decided whether to treat wounded soldiers

The Smith papyrus

became the first to empirically address the issue of the soul having three parts, with the part responsible for reasoning being located in the brain. He noted that a pig would continue breathing after severing its throat nerves, but it would stop squealing. This demonstrated that the throat nerves are connected to the brain and not the heart, so the voice must come from the brain rather than the heart.

Aelius Galenus (also known as Galen of Pergamon)

“the father of human anatomy.” He noticed that the sub-cerebral brain has three ventricles. The back ventricle was the repository of memory. The middle ventricle was the source of thoughts and judgements. The front ventricle was proposed to be where all sensory information was processed, referred to as “common sense.” He ignored the cerebrum.

Andreas van Wesel

Galenus had noted that both humans and other animals sometimes engage in involuntary actions, like reflexes. He suggested that body parts could somehow sense another body. Hence why we call this part of the autonomic nervous system the…

Sympathetic system

Confirmation of the cerebrospinal axis

The reflex arc

The localization of brain function

The discovery of the neuron

Neurons store and transfer information electrochemically

What are the five discoveries in the 19th century that laid the foundation for neurophysiology?

In 1784, Jiri Prochaska proposed that the spinal cord and central core control reflexes. After several decades, researchers recognized that a body could remain in a vegetative state when the cerebrum was dysfunctional or even disconnected. These two ideas revolutionized the model of message transmission from top-down to bottom-up. The brain was finally viewed as the more advanced culmination of the spinal cord, not its progenitor. The spinal cord doesn’t come from the brain; the brain evolved from the spinal cord.

Confirmation of the cerebrospinal axis

In 1832, Marshall Hall proposed the concept of the reflex arc: Stimulus —> somatosensory receptor —> afferent nerves —> interneurons of the spinal cord —> efferent nerves —> musculoskeletal system. In 1863, Invan Sechenov proposed that all functions of the brain are reflexive. Pavlov interpreted his lab dogs’ drooling behavior (classical conditioning) as a psychological reflex.

The reflex arc

In the 1820s, Jean Flourens, who was considered the father of experimental brain science, demonstrated that different brain structures serve different functions. For example, the cerebrellum = fine motor movement; the medulla = heart rate and respiration. In 1861, Paul Broca demonstrated that the left frontal lobe dominates speech production. In 1874, Karl Wenicke discovered that a separate part of the left hemisphere specializes in language comprehension.

The localization of brain function

Brain researchers used to operate under this assumption until the 19th century

equipotentiality

Several (“sub-”) discoveries led to a different view of the brain

localization

The brain and nervous system consist of a network of individual nerve cells that are in near constant communication.

The discovery of the neuron

Emil duBois used the analogy of the electric eel to demonstrate how human nerve signals could also be electric. Hermann vonHelmholtz questioned if nerves act like electrical wires or more like chemical batteries. He measured the nerve speed in frog legs at about 108 kmph. This slow speed meant the process must be electro chemical versus just electrical.

Neurons store and transfer information electrochemically

branch of physiology specializing in the study of the nervous system

Neurophysiology

branch of psychology specializing in the relationship between the brain and behavior

Neuropsychology

sub-branch of neuropsychology that relies on information processing medels (instead of brain injuries) to demonstrate how the brain influences behavior

Cognitive neuropsychology

In 1924, he became the first person to create a print-out of the electrical activity emanating from a brain. He called his printout an electroencephalogram.

Hans Berger

Has been quite successful in determining that the brain emanates numerous types of electrical waves. These discoveries have helped in several areas of research, most notably in the field of somnology.

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

Beginning in the late 1950s, several researchers contributed to the development of the PET-scan, which was intended from the beginning to be used in part as a device for localizing brain functioning.

Positron emission tomography

In 1968, David Cohen became the first to measure MEG signals. Instead of measuring electrical activity through the scalp like the EEG did, MEG measures the magnetic field surrounding one’s head using this 300-sensor helmet.

Magnetoencephalography (MEG)

Another magnetic imaging technique that measures the blood flow rather than the brain waves or magnetic fields around the head. This works by determining how oxygenated the blood is in different areas of the brain.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

the study of blood movement

Hemodynamism

Device that creates “virtual lesions,” which temporarilty disrupts the functioning of a precise brain area by inducing a weak electric current in the local neurons. TMS has pinpoint control in creating these “virtual lesions,” so the disruption to localized brain functioning is very limited, and the disruptive effects are temporary.

Transcranial magnetic stimulation

conducted PET-scans on participants while they watched graphically violent films. A few weeks later, the participants were quizzed on the films’ content. As predicted, recall was directly related to amygdala activity in both men and women.

Cahill et al.

When applying the principles of cognitive neuropsychology to studying mental disorders in terms of breakdowns in normal cognitive functioning.

Cognitive neuropsychiatry

The false belief that a family member or close friend has been replaced by an imposter who looks exactly like that person. Although it occurs with some frequency in schizophrenia, it can also manifest suddenly following a brain injury.

What is a Capgras delusion?

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

What is prosopagnosia?

In 1984, he reported the case of a man who was unable to recognize anyone’s face, including his own, following a motorcycle accident. He conducted an electrodermal conductance (EDC) test on the man while showing him photos of a number of faces.

Russ Bauer

In 1990, they suggested that in such cases the “cognitive” route has somehow been severed while the “dermal” or “emotional” one has not.

Ellis & Young

the ability to visually detect things without being consciously aware of them

Blindsight

Processes visual signals and also assesses emotion in others

Amygdala

The most fundamental issue in all of psychology. Are we “a pack of neurons?” (Crick). How is our mind separate from our brain or is it?

The mind-brain problem

Dualism

Materialism

Philosophical Functionalism

What are the three main schools of thought?

Oldest viewpoint. Most intuitively satisfying. Mind is somehow independent of the body.

Dualism

Mind is just a by-product of the physical brain

Materialism

Mind is information in the brain, which could theoretically be copied onto another template with a similar structure. Thinking back on the computer metaphor, the brain acts as a hardware as the mind acts as the software.

Philosophical functionalism

A person’s collective abilities to reason, feel, plan, remember, etc. What makes you “you.”

What do we mean when we say “the mind”?

Spiritual part of one’s being. Plato said that the soul is different from the “thinking” part.

Mind vs. soul

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

consciousness

It provides for the possibility of it. According to Henrik Walter in his book “The Neurophilosophy of Free Will,” certain conditions are necessary for free will.

Does a dualist perspective provide for the existence of free will or exclude it?

The agent could’ve chosen otherwise. No p(choice) —> no free will in that instance.

No external force can be compelling the agent to act.

The act must result from rational deliberation.

What are the three conditions Walter proposed that must be met in order for a particular act to be because of free will?

How can an independent mind or soul influence the brain? If they’re independent, how do they interact? What’s the mechanism?

The mind-brain interaction problem

Reflexes, dreams, hypnotic experiences, distant memories you hadn’t thought of for a long time but which can be readily triggered. The more mental processes there are beyond conscious control, the less essential consciousness seems to be.

The existence of unconscious phenomena

Phlogiston

Vital force

Æther

The eventual disappearance of “mystery forces”

Originally proposed by Becher. A substance that supposedly exists in some materials but not others, to explain why some substances burn and others do not.

Phlogiston

Similar to phlogiston in that this was another substance that exists in some objects but not others to explain why some things are alive and others are not.

The vital force

Is yet another proposed material that never panned out: the stuff that the atmosphere and all of space are supposedly filled with.

Æther

epiphenomenon

“The mind is nothing other than the brain in operation.” Mind as an ___.

In 1981, he proposed that the conscious mind is little more than a delusion, the belief in which can have very damaging consequences.

Paul Churchland

In 1976, he published a book entitled “The Selfiish Gene,” in which he proposed that we’re not even thinking about these issues on the right level. Dawkins proposed that natural selection is not about the survival of organisms or offspring or even species, but the survival of DNA molecules.

Richard Dawkins

Just as with dualism, no one’s yet to propose a fully satisfying explanation for how the human mind can be just a by-product of biology when it feels so much richer than that.

How can Materialism possibly be correct?

If a mind is just the collection of a particular set of experiences in a particular physical brain, reconcile that with the fact that the 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

The problem of Personal Identity

Researchers believe that there has to be more than that, so they transition to the third option: cybernetics. This research demonstrates that information transcends the medium in which it resides.

Materialism is very simplistic

Study of control and communication in electronic devices so that they can be designed to replace human functions.

What is cybernetics?

In 1982, he proposed a thought experiment that makes buying into materialism or even philosophical functionalism problematic. This created the Mary Problem.

Frank Jackson

Proposed another thought experiment known as the Zombie Problem. This was about identical twins that was also identical in molecules.

David Chalmers

An experience of richness and vividness

Qualia

In 1985, he suggested that even our decisions to act take place before we’re aware that we’ve decided to act. He asked participants to use the clock light to note exactly when they decided to initiate finger movement.

Ben Libet

Step 1: The participant would decide to move the finger versus a brief time delay while the mind activated the brain to carry out the mission. Step 2: An EEG spike, signifying activation of the motor cortex, beginning the physiological process of movement to a second brief time delay. Step 3: Their finger moves. However, step 2 occurred before step 1.

What was Ben Libet’s working hypothesis?

After years of pressure from people who did not like this finding, Libet said in 1999 that free will may still be possible because we can stop a movement once it’s underway.

Does Libet’s hypothesis obviate the possibility of free will?

A theatre metaphor used by cognitive psychologists

Global workspace model

In 2001, this neuroscientist and his associates presented a visual stimulus on a computer monitor to participants either long enough to be clearly noticed or too briefly to be perceived.

Stan Dehaene

When the visual sensation system provides enough time to detect and process the stimulus, a network of neuronal reactions take place in numerous areas of the brain. This is a consciousness at work throughout the brain.

Information distribution network

Their research has led to the following understanding of the GWM:

1. Most information processing takes place unconsciously

2. A continuous exchange of information among various brain areas activates the IDN

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

Dehaene et al. & Vic Lamme

In 2005, he showed participants one of three words: “kick,” “pick,” or “lick.” While his participants read one of those three action verbs, he monitored activity throughout their brains. The Wenicke & Broca areas automatically lit up, as did their motor cortex because the words are action verbs.

Fruedemann Pulvermuller

An immediate activation of so many brain areas may be responsible for creating the rich and vivid impressions we have in our experience — our qualia — as well as the fact we each have a different set of impressions. This kind of broad and automatic cerebral activation is referred to as…

embodied cognition