Lecture 1: Introductions and the Origins of Neuroscience Study Notes

Course Information and Administration

Course Details: * Course Title: Introduction to Neuroscience. * Catalog Number: $NSC3361.003$ and $NSC3361.004$ . * Instructor: Dr. Namrata Das. * Class Schedule: Monday and Wednesday. * Class Times: $8:30\,am$ – $9:45\,am$ . * Class Location: $GR\,2.530$ , University of Texas at Dallas. * Teaching Assistants (TAs): Osman Muhammad Khan and Meerab Faisal. * Textbook: The Mind’s Machine (4th edition) by Watson and Breedlove.
Teaching Philosophy: * Dr. Das emphasizes that knowledge of facts alone does not make a good scientist or doctor. * Technical and analytical skills must be paired with a solid knowledge base. * Metaphor: "A bird can’t fly with only one wing!"
Instructor Communication and Success Strategies: * Office Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays, $10:00\,am$ - $11:00\,am$ (others by appointment). * Email Correspondence: Must include "Intro to Neuroscience NSC3361.006" in the subject line. * Readiness Quizzes: Questions are drawn directly from the textbook; students should complete readings before class. * Exams: Nearly all test questions are derived from the lectures rather than the book. * Planning: The day before a test is too late to seek help for that exam; the week before the final is too late for the course.

Scope of Neuroscience Study

Structural and Developmental Anatomy: * Study of brain structures and embryonic development. * Stages of Embryonic Development: * $3$ -week embryo. * $4$ -week embryo. * $7$ -week embryo. * Birth.
Brain Representation and Cortical Mapping: * Somatosensory Cortex: Located adjacent to the somatomotor cortex, separated by the central sulcus. * Homunculus: A representation of a "little man" overlaid on the somatosensory cortex showing how different body parts (e.g., thumb, lips, torso, ankle) are mapped to specific cortical areas. * Body Part Mapping Sequence: Includes toes, ankle, knee, hip, trunk, shoulder, elbow, wrist, hand, little finger, ring finger, middle finger, index finger, thumb, brow, eyelid/eyeball, face, lips, jaw, tongue, and throat.
Sensory Perception (Auditory System): * Ear Anatomy: Outer ear, middle ear (eardrum, hammer, anvil, stirrup), and inner ear (cochlea, auditory nerve, semicircular canals). * Process: Sound waves enter through the auditory canal, vibrate the eardrum, and are transmitted via bones to the oval window. Motion of fluid in the cochlea stimulates hair cells on the basilar membrane, sending signals to the auditory cortex in the temporal lobe. * Language Processing: Functional imaging shows different brain areas active for hearing words, seeing words, reading words, and generating words.
Neurobiology of Behavior and Addiction: * Addiction Study: Research indicates Oreos may be more addictive than cocaine. * The Addicted Brain: Features changes in rewards pathways involving the Prefrontal Cortex (PFC), Cingulate Gyrus (CG), Striatum, Nucleus Accumbens (NAC), Orbitofrontal Cortex (OFC), Amygdala (Am), and Hippocampus (Hip). * Addiction Mechanisms: * Non-addicted brain: Balanced interaction between Salience (NAC), Control (PFC, CG), Drive (OFC), and Memory (Am, Hip). * Addicted brain: Enhanced Salience and Drive signals ("Go") with decreased Control/Self-regulation ("Not Go"). * Dopamine Pathways: Originate in the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) and Substantia Nigra.
Additional Areas of Study: * Sleep: Investigations into the brain during sleep states. * Emotional Connection: Studied through media representations (e.g., Inside Out) and biological research. * Neuropsychology: Examples include Louis Wain’s artwork documenting the mind of a person with Schizophrenia. * Stress: Impact of stress on brain function. * Brain Networks: Interdisciplinary links between neural circuits and behavior.

Resilience and Growth Mindset

Famous Failures: * Albert Einstein: Did not speak until nearly $4$ years old; teachers said he would never amount to much. * Michael Jordan: Cut from his high school basketball team. * Walt Disney: Fired for lacking imagination. * Steve Jobs: Removed from the company he started at age $30$ . * Oprah Winfrey: Demoted from news anchor position as she was deemed "not fit for television." * The Beatles: Rejected by Decca Recording Studios because "they have no future in show business." * Mantra: "If you've never failed, you've never tried anything new."

Defining Neuroscience and Behavior

Neuroscience: The study of the nervous system.
Behavioral Neuroscience (Biological Psychology): The study of the biological bases of psychological processes and behavior.
Dimensions of Behavior: * Overt Motor Functions: Externally observable actions such as walking, drinking, and eating. * Internal Cognitive Functions: Higher-level mental processes such as emotion, learning, and thinking. * Systems Approach: All behaviors involve activity from the cellular level to the systems level and have a physiological basis.
Cross-Disciplinary Nature: Neuroscience relates to Anthropology, Cognitive Psychology, Evolutionary Biology, Computer Science (AI), Psychiatry, Pharmacology, Genetics, and Immunology.

The Mind-Brain Problem

Dualism: The belief (supported by Plato and Ren Descartes) that the mind and body are separate entities. Typically, the mind is viewed as non-material while the brain/body is material.
Monism: The belief (supported by Aristotle) that the mind and body consist of the same substance. Modern neuroscience leans toward Monism, viewing the mind as a product of the physical brain.

Historical Foundations of Neuroscience

Classical Interpretations: * Aristotle: Believed the heart was the seat of mental capacities and the brain acted only to cool the blood. * Hippocrates: Identified the brain as the seat of thoughts and emotions. * Galen: Proposed behavior results from brain-body connections based on treating brain-injured gladiators.
Renaissance and Early Modern Period: * Leonardo da Vinci: Pioneered anatomical drawings through direct observation, moving from inaccurate early sketches to detailed representations. * Ren Descartes: A dualist who proposed the "hydraulic model." He believed "animal spirits" were pumped through hollow nerves to move muscles and that the pineal gland was the "seat of the soul."
The Rise of Physiological Neuroscience: * Luigi Galvani, Gustav Fritsch, and Edward Hitzig: Demonstrated that nerves are controlled by electrical stimulation, a measurable physiological process. * Hermann Von Helmholtz: Measured the speed of conduction in nerves.

Phrenology: Old and New

Old Phrenology: * Developed by Franz Joseph Gall. * A pseudoscience claiming that bumps on the skull overlie enlarged brain regions responsible for specific behaviors, skills, or personality traits.
Localization of Function: * Paul Broca: Showed that damage to specific brain regions (e.g., Broca’s area) caused predictable impairments in speech production.
New Phrenology: * Modern mapping identifies specific regions for: voluntary eye movements, motor execution, visual spatial attention, analytic and figural reasoning, anticipatory pain, mathematical approximations (analytic), exact mathematical calculations (parietal), object working memory, facial recognition, and language comprehension (Wernicke’s area).

Modern Neuroscience Questions

Modern research focuses on: * How the nervous system captures and processes information. * The brain sites underlying emotion. * Brain activity during language tasks. * The pathology of fearlessness or inability to discern emotions. * Mechanisms of learning and memory retrieval. * The biological development of sexual orientation.

Case Study: Mike the Headless Chicken

Duration: $1945$ - $1947$ .
Significance: Demonstrates that basic biological functions can be sustained by brainstem structures even when the majority of the brain is absent, emphasizing that all behaviors are controlled by the nervous system.