Ch 1 additional study guide questions Flashcards
Who is Rene Descartes?
(1596-1650) French anatomist and philosopher, he wrote what could be considered the first neuropsychology text in 1684 (after death?). Body is like machines seen during his lifetime. Body is material, has spatial extent, and responds mechanically and reflexively to events that impinge on it. Conversely, the mind was nonmaterial and without spatial extent.
What is the mind body problem?
how the mind (immaterial) can exist inside of and control over the material body.
What is dualism?
the idea that the mind and body are separate but can interact.
what is materialism (reductionism)?
Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) and Charles Darwin (1809-1892)
Rational behavior can be fully explained by the workings of the nervous system. No need to refer to a nonmaterial mind.
Who is Franz Josef Gall?
(1758-1828)
- proposed that the brain was a functional unit beyond the “covering of the pineal gland” as thought by Descartes.
- through dissection, they showed that the brain’s major motor pathway (the corticospinal tract) leads from the cortex of each hemisphere to the spinal cord on the opposite side of the body.
- Suggested that the cortex sends signals to the body to make muscles move.
- Also recognized that the two hemispheres were linked by the corpus callosum and are therefore, capable of interacting.
- gave the first account of a case in which frontal-lobe damage was followed by loss of the ability to speak. the case because a factor in discoveries concerning the brain’s role in language.
Who is Johann Casper Spurzheim?
(1776-1832) partner and colleague of Franz Josef Gall.
Define phrenology. Describe it and provide criticisms.
Study of the relation between the skull’s surface features and a person’s mental faculties.
They measured bumps and depressions of the skull and suggested that these correlate with the size of the brain beneath. These bumps, along with the localization of function hypothesis, created phrenology.
Some traits that were used (faith, self-love, veneration) are impossible to define or to quantify objectively.
revealed that superficial features of the skull reveal very little about the underlying brain.
What is a cranioscopy?
a procedure in which a device was placed around the skull to measure its bumps and depressions. They correlated the bumps to the phrenological map to determine the person’s likely behavioral traits.
Describe the localization of function hypothesis.
By Franz Josef Gall, assertion that different and specific brain areas control each kind of behavior. Though inaccurate, it laid the foundation for modern views of functional localization, beginning with localization of language.
What is aphasia?
a disorder in which the patient is not able to speak or comprehend language despite the presence of normal comprehension and intact vocal mechanisms.
What is apraxia?
inability to make sequences of movements. Wernicke’s student Hugo Liepmann (1863-1925) show that this can result from the disconnection of motor areas from sensory areas.
What is alexia?
loss of the ability to read. Joseph Dejerine (1849-1917) discovered this could result from disconnection between the brain’s visual area and Wernicke’s area.
Who is Paul Broca?
Founder of the Anthropological Society of Paris.
known for locating speech in the third convolution (gyrus) of the frontal lobe on the left side of the brain. Discovered the brain property of functional lateralization.
What is Broca’s area?
anterior speech region of the brain, named after Paul Broca. Located in the posterior third of the inferior gyrus of the frontal lobe in the left hemisphere.
What is Broca’s aphasia?
name of disorder resulting from damage to Broca’s area. Associated with paralysis of the right arm and leg (as evident in Tan’s case.)
Who is Tan?
Monsieur Leborgne. He was a patient of Paul Broca, who could only say the word, “Tan” in spite of being capable of other cognitive function. This earned him the nickname “Tan.” Upon his death, this allowed confirmation of Bouillard’s theory that damage to the left frontal lobe could cause language deficits. (supports lateralization)
What is lateralization?
the idea that one side of the brain can perform a function not shared by the other. (Benton, 1974.) located on one side of the brain.
Who was Carl Wernicke?
(1848-1904) German anatomist who created the first model of how the brain produces language in 1874.
was aware that part of the cortex into which the sensory pathway rom the ear projects, is located in the temporal lobe behind Broca’s area.
Suspected a relation between hearing and speech functioning
What is Wernicke’s aphasia?
disorder in which the patient can speak, but their speech is confused and doesn’t make sense. (In Broca’s, they couldn’t speak but could comprehend) No paralysis of right and left arm. results from damage to Wernicke’s area, part of the auditory cortex located in the temporal lobe behind Broca’s Area.
What is arcuate fasciculus?
pathway through which Wernicke believed sound traveled from the auditory cortex in the temporal lobe to Broca’s area.