Cognitive Psychology COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE

• Is the field of study linking the brain and other aspects of the nervous system to cognitive processing and, ultimately, to behavior. Brain

• Directly controls our thoughts, emotions, and motivations. Localization of function

• Refers to the specific areas of the brain that control specific skills or behaviors.

THE ANATOMY AND MECHANISMS OF THE BRAIN Nervous system

• Responsible for receiving, processing, and then responding to information from the environment.

• Brain is the president of all

DIVISIONS OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM Central Nervous System (CNS) (1) Spinal Cord (2) Brain

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) (1) Somatic Nervous System

• Consists of the nerves that convey messages from the sense organs to the CNS and from the CNS to the muscles and glands

(2) Autonomic Nervous System

• Set of neurons that receives information from and sends commands to the heart, intestines and other organs.

TWO PARTS OD AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM (1) Sympathetic Nervous System

• A network if nerves that prepare the body’s organs for vigorous activity

• It will prepare your body to response if your brain sense danger

• EX: you heart rate increases

(2) Parasympathetic Nervous System

• Facilitates vegetative, nonemergency responses by the body’s organs

• In-charge of body’s resting state.

• Sudden feeling of relieve

• Promotes general energy conserving

• EX: your heart rate decreases

THREE MAJOR REGINONS OF THE BRAIN Forebrain Midbrain Hindbrain

ANATOMY OF THE BRAIN Anatomy

• Field in the biological sciences concerned with the identification and description of the body structures of living things.

• The study of human structures.

FOREBRAIN

• Is the region of the brain located toward the top and front of the brain

• Responsible of how you think

• Cerebrum

PARTS OF FOREBRAIN (1) Cerebral Cortex

• Outer layer of the cerebral hemisphere; plays vital role in our thinking and other metal processes.

• Critical thinking skills

(2) Basal Ganglia (singular: ganglion)

• Collections of neurons crucial to motor function.

• For your posture and balance

• Involves voluntary and involuntary movements.

(3) Limbic System

• Involved in learning, emotions and motivation, memory and learning. It allows us to suppress instinctive responses; helps us to adopt our behaviors flexibility in response to our changing environment

• Involves:

• Hippocampus

• Plays an important role in memory formation

• The reason why you know where places are

• Spatial awareness

TYPES OF AMNESIA (1) Retrograde

• Affects the past

• Common to people with dementia

(2) Anterograde

• New information can’t be stored

(3) Transient Global Amnesia

• Through physical trauma

• Only temporary

• Can be experience by anyone

(4) Infantile or Childhood Amnesia

• They can’t remember at least 3-5 yrs of their life

(5) Dissociative Amnesia

• Memory is repressed

• Can’t remember traumatic experiences

(6) Post-traumatic Amnesia

• Caused by injury

• Could last up to 24 hr.

(4) Drug-induced Amnesia

• EX: Rape pill Korsakoff’s Syndrome

• Caused by deteriorated hippocampus (caused by lack of Vitiamin B-1 in the brain), excessive alcohol use, dietary deficiencies or eating disorders

• Balance and Movement

• Your walk might become slow and unsteady, with a wide stance and short steps.

• You might need help standing and getting around, and your arms and legs might feel weak.

• Confusion

• You might feel out of it and lose interest in what’s happening around you.

• Eye Problems

• You may have double vision, or your eyes may move around quickly.

Amygdala

• Plays an important role in emotion as well, especially in anger and aggression.

• It is able to identify libido or hunger.

• Shown to play a key role in the processing of emotions.

• If your Amygdala is damaged you can no longer identify between libido and hunger.

Septum

• Involved in anger and fear.

• To control moods especially anger

• If damaged, our emotion will be uncontrolled

• Can be rooted to trauma.

• Thalamus

• Relays incoming sensory information through groups of neurons that project to the appropriate region in the cortex

• Thalamus is divided into a number of nuclei (groups of neurons of similar function) which receives information from specific senses.

• Also helps in the control of sleep and waking.

• When damaged, may result to pain, tremor, amnesia, impairment of language, and disruptions in walking and sleeping.

• Hypothalamus

• Regulates behavior related to species survival (fighting, feeding, fleeing, mating, emotions, reactions to stress and sleep as well) Similar to thalamus.

• Aids with sleep, helps with stress, coping mechanism, sex desires

• If damaged, would possibly lead to NARCOLEPSY

• It can affect our growth.

• It is involved in the stimulation of the pituitary glands, through which a range of hormones are produced and released.

MIDBRAIN

• Helps to control eye movement and coordination.

PARTS OF MIDBRAIN (1) Reticular Activating System (RAS or Reticular formation

• A network of neurons essential to the regulation of consciousness

• Sleep; wakefulness; arousal; attention to some extent; and vital functions such as heartbeat and breathing

• Extends to the hindbrain

(2) Brainstem

• Connects the forebrain to the spinal cord

• It comprises the hypothalamus, the thalamus, the midbrain, and the hindbrain.

• PERIAQUEDUCTAL GRAY (PAG)- found in the brainstem; essential for certain kinds of adaptive behaviors.

HINDBRAIN

• The oldest part of the brain

PARTS OF THE HINDBRAIN (1) Medulla Oblongata

• Controls heart activity and largely controls breathing, swallowing, and digestion.

• Also the place at which nerves from the right side of the body cross over to the left side of the brain and nerves from the left side of the body cross over to the right side of the brain.

(2) Pons

• Serves as a kind of relay station because it contains neural fibers that pass signals from one part of the brain to another.

• Its name derives from the Latin for “bridge,” as it serves s bridging function.

(3) Cerebellum

• From Latin, “little brain”)

• Controls bodily coordination, balance, and muscle tone, as well as some aspects of memory involving procedure-related movements.

THE CEREBRAL CORTEX AND LOCALIZATION OF FUNCTIONS The Cerebral Cortex

• Plays an important role in human cognition.

• Comprises 3 elements:

Sulci (sulcus) Are small groves Fissures Large groves Gyri (gyrus) Are bulges between adjacent sulci or fissures

• The surface of the cerebral cortex is grayish, because it primarily comprises the graying neural-cell bodies that process the information that the brain receives and sends.

• The underlying white matter of the brain’s interior comprises mostly white, myelinated axons.

THE CEREBRAL HEMISPHERE Contralateral

• Information transmission is from one side to another (contra: Opposite,) (lateral: Side)

Ipsilateral

• Transmission on the same side

Corpus Callosum

• Is a dense aggregate of neural fibers connecting the two cerebral hemispheres

• It allows transmission of information back and forth.

HEMISPHERIC SPECIALIZATION Left Hemisphere

• Responsible for language, movement

• Tends to process information analytically

Right Hemisphere

• Responsible for spatial visualization & orientation, dominant in our comprehension

• Little phonetic or grammatical understanding.

• Responsible for the identification of one’s own face.

• Tends to process information holistically. The two hemispheres function completely independently but rather that they serve complementary roles.

BROCA’S AREA Paul Broca, claimed that an autopsy revealed that an aphasic stroke patient had a lesion in the left cerebral hemisphere of the brain Broca was convinced that the left hemisphere of the brain is critical in speech, a view that has held up over time.

WERNICKE’S AREA

• Another important early researcher, German neurologist CARL WERNICKE, studied language efficient patients who could speak but whose speech made no sense.

• He studied a different precise location, now known as Wernicke’s area, which contributed to language comprehension.

LOBES OF THE CEREBRAL HEMISPHERE (1) Frontal Lobe

• Associated with motor processing and higher though process, such as abstract reasoning, problem solving, planning and judgement.

• Involved when sequences of thoughts or action are called for, production of speech.

• The PREFONTAL CORTEX is involved in COPLEX MOTOR CONTROL and tasks that require integration of information over time.

(2) Parietal Lobe

• Associated with somatosensory processing

• Receives inputs from the neurons regarding touch, pain, temperature sense, and limb position when you are perceiving space and your relationship to it.

• Involved in consciousness and saying attention.

• Everything you feel

• Motor cortex

(3) Temporal Lobe

• Directly under your temples, is associated with auditory processing and comprehending language.

• Also involved in retention of visual memories.

• Auditory processing

• Understanding and comprehending language.

• EX: BROCA, WERNICKE

(4) Occipital Lobe

• Is associated with visual processing

(5) Primary Motor Cortex

• Specializes in the planning, control, and execution of movement, particularly of movement involving any kind of delayed response.

(6) Primary Somatosensory Cortex

• Receives information from the sense about pressure, texture, temperature, and pain.

(7) Visual Cortex

• Primarily in the occipital lobe.

NEURONAL STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION

Neurons

• Transmit electrical signals from one location to another in the nervous system. FOUR BASIC PARTS OF NEURONS (1) Soma

• Contains the nucleus of the cell

• Responsible for the life of the neuron and connects the dendrites to the axon

(2) Dendrites

• Are the branchlike structures that receive information from other neurons, and the soma integrated the information.

(3) Axon

• Is a long, thin tube that extends (and sometimes splits) from the soma and responds to the information through transmission of an electrochemical signal, which travels to the terminus, where the signal can be transmitted to other neurons

• KINDS OF AXONS: Myelinated Axons Surrounded by myelin sheath (fatty white substance) This sheath speeds up conduction of information Unmyelinated Axons Without myelin sheath- shorted, smaller and slower

(4) Terminal Buttons

• Are small knobs found at the ends of the branches of an axon that do not directly touch the dendrites of the next neuron, rather, there is a very small gap, the synapse (a juncture between the terminal buttons of one or more neurons and the dendrites)

• Signal transmission between neurons occurs when the terminal buttons release one or more neurotransmitters at the synapse.

• These neurotransmitters are chemical messengers from transmission of information across the synaptic gap to the receiving dendrites of the next neuron.

BRAIN IMAGING TECHNIQUES Electroencephalograms (EEGS)

• Are recording of the electrical frequencies and intensities of the living brain.

• Through EEGs, it is possible to study brainwave activity indicative of changing mental states such as deep sleep or dreaming.

Computed tomography (CT)

• Consists of several X-ray images of the brain taken from different vantage points that, when combined, result in a 3-dimensional image.

Angiography

• Is not to look at the structures in the brain, but rather to examine the blood flow.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

• Reveals high-resolution images of the structure of the living brain by computing and analyzing magnetic changes in the energy of the orbits of nuclear particles in the molecules of the body

• TWO KINDS OF MRI: Structural MRI Provide images of the brain’s size and shape whereas Functional MRIs or fMRIs Visualize the parts of the brain that are activated when a person is engaged in a particular task

Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

• Scans measure increases in oxygen consumption in active brain areas during particular kinds of information processing.

BRAIN DISORDERS Vascular Disorder

• Caused by a stroke

• Strokes occur when the flow of the blood to the brain undergoes a sudden disruption.

Brain Tumors

• Also called neoplasm, can affect cognitive functioning in very serious ways.

• TWO TYPES:

Benign Not harmful Malignant Deadly, depends on stage.

Head Injuries

• Result from many causes, such as a car accident, contact with a hard object, or a bullet wound.