History of Neuroscience Flashcards
What were prehistoric ancestors’ experiences with the brain?
They believed it was vital for life, and there were evidences of cranial surgeries (trepanation)
What did ancient Egyptians believe about the brain?
They believed the brain was not as important as the heart which was responsible for the soul
What did ancient Greeks (Hippocrates) believe about the body?
They saw a correlation between structure of organs and their function. They saw four humors (liquids) where disease was an imbalance of these.
What were the 4 body humors ancient Greeks believed in?
- Blood
- Pituitary (lymph, phlegm)
- Yellow Bile (liver)
- Black Bile (spleen)
What did the roman empire believe in medically? What brain work did they do?
They were unable to dissect cadavers but were allowed to perform animal experimentation and explored the roles of the brain and cerebellum and ventricles
What did the roman empire believe about the brain?
It contains 4 humors and the flow registers sensations and initiates muscle movement
What did the roman empire humors become in modern science?
The ventricles of the brain
What is the fluid mechanical theory of brain function and in what period of time was this discovered? What was the technique described in this time period?
The fluid mechanical theory stated that fluid movement in the ventricles created muscle movement. This was discovered in the Renaissance period where human cadaver dissections were done.
What were the views of the 16th and 17th century in relation to the brain?
They discarded spirit-animal theories, described that nerves were not tubes, and made a distinction between white and grey brain matter. It was also discovered that white matter was continuous with nerves and shuttles information from the grey matter.
What advancements were made in the anatomical description of the brain from the renaissance era to the 19th century?
The description of the gyri, sulci, and fissures, making a 5 part whole picture
What advancements in neural description were made in the 19th century?
It was divided into the CNS (brain, spinal cord) and the PNS
In what century was it discovered that nerves were capable of electric transmission? Who was responsible for these experiments?
The the 19th century work was done by Luigi Galvani and Volta
What did Pierre Flourens do in his experiments? What did he conclude?
He experimented by creating lesions on rabbits and testing behaviour. He found that the cerebellum was involved in motor coordination.
What is the line of work that Francis Gall made popular in the 19th century?
Phrenology, the study of how skull size relates to traits
What area is important for speech and was discovered after a patient was hit in an accident and unable to speak?
Broca’s area
What functions were localized in the 19th century? What kinds of operations were done to determine these?
Electrical stimulation was used to find movement areas in dogs and ablation was used in monkeys that lead to paralysis
Ablations were done on occipital lobes that caused loss of vision in animals to find visual areas
What accident was responsible for the discovery of personality stemming from the brain?
Phineas Gage and his iron rod causing personality changes
How did Darwin contribute to the understanding of the nervous system?
Since his discovery of shared ancestors between humans and animals, there is rationale that animal models may represent common mechanisms in humans of nervous activity
His theory also means that certain regions of the brain would adapt based on the species environment
What is the cellular hypothesis of the nervous system?
It is that the neural network is composed of lots of cells with gaps instead of one continuous network
What did Camillo Golgi pioneer in neural research?
He created a silver nitrate stain for the brain and argued that everything was in complete continuity
Who proposed the cellular hypothesis of the nervous system, and proposed chemical transmission?
Ramon y Cajal
What is the soup vs spark controversy?
It is the debate between synapse transmission being chemical vs electrical
What resolved the soup vs spark controversy?
The discovery of post-synaptic potentials, and synaptic transmission
