History of the brain

Question 1

The Ancient Egyptians + The Brain

Answer 1

First reference to the brain was recorded
Papyrus documented cases of brain injury influencing beh
when mummifying the dead they removed threw away the brain

Question 2

Ancient Greeks - Plato + The soul

Answer 2

First account of mind/soul
- Believe it had 3 parts: Logos (reason) , Thymos (emotion), Eros (desire)

Question 3

Ancient Greeks -Aristotle + The soul

Answer 3

Believed 3 main divisions of the mind
- imagination
-Reasoning-
-Memory
Believed brain was only to cool blood
Believed mind + soul is separate to the body

Question 4

Hippocrates Materialism

Answer 4

• Brain alone underlies beh (brain does everything = materialism)
• Injuries in one side of head lead to convulsions in the opposite side of the body

Question 5

Gallen+Materialism

Answer 5

• Believed water filled ventricles in the brain sent fluids/ humours along nerves
  Black Bile = Wisdom
  Yellow= anger
  Blood= optimism
  Phlegm = relaxation
  difference in balance of humours explains disturbances in mood
  trepidation changes humours

Question 6

Leonardo da Vinci + Renaissance

Answer 6

foundations of anatomical drawing
-lateral ventricle = common sense
-3rd = cognition
4th= memory

Question 7

Descartes + Dualism

Answer 7

• Belief that there is a mind and a brain
  -Brain controlled the body like a machine
  -simple beh controlled by nerves carrying info to + from ventricles
  -Higher mental facullies require a mind
• Pineal gland controls flow of info to body/ mind
• mental illness is a lost connection connection between mind + brain

Question 8

Charcot+ Dualism

Answer 8

discovered that it was damage to the brain ( rather than disconnection from mind ) that explained neurological conditions

Question 9

Thomas Willis - Father of Neuroscience

Answer 9

• came up with the terms : cerebral cortex, corpus callosum
  -located specific mental functions (he was wrong but was the first attempt to give function to the brain rather than ventricles)

Question 10

Gall + phrenology - localisation of function

Answer 10

-Differences in beh would be reflected by growth of parts of the brain ( measure bumps on the skull)
- Believed could tell someone personality by feeling their scull
-flawed: brain too soft to influence bone

Question 11

fluorenes - Equipotentiality

Answer 11

• Direct challenge to phrenology
• Believe the brain functions as a whole

Question 12

Broca - Brain lesions support localisation

Answer 12

-patient with damage in left frontal region could only say the word Tan
- The lesion affected his ability to speak but could understand language

Question 13

cajal +neuron discovery

Answer 13

• Noticed bumps at end of axons suggesting that the neuron were distinct entities ( neuron doctrine)
  suggested axons send info + dendrites receive info

Question 14

Techniques in cognitive neuroscience _ face Recognition

Answer 14

• Damage to regions in temporal lobe can lead to prosopagnosia (face blindness)

Question 15

Single Neuron Recordings

Answer 15

-Record electrical activity of brain cells (action potential)
-Number of AP is averaged over many trials, giving indication of response to one Stimulus
-Invasive:used on animals

Question 16

Electroencephalography (EEG) + Magnetoencephalography (MEG)

Answer 16

-Non-invasive to record electrical activity from the brain
- Electrodes placed on scalp
-Response to task is measured, generates peaks + troughs which relate to cog functions
-contour maps infer which regions of the brain are active at What time
-MEG measures magnetic signals which aren’t affected by the skull/ scalp

Question 17

functional Magnetic Resonance imaging (f MRI)

Answer 17

-Measures changes in blood flow that accompany changes in neural activity
-Detect changesin magnetic signal occurring due to increase in blood flow
- Magnetic signal change is caused by ratio of oxy/deoxy Hb

Question 18

Transcranial Magnetic stimulation TMs

Answer 18

• Strong magnetic pulse electrical activity in a specific region disturbs neural signalling
• can probe the role of particular brain regions to get a person to engage in a particular beh

Question 19

spatial + Temporal resolution of tech in cog neuroscience

Answer 19

f MRl has better spatial resolution accuracy so you can measure where an event occurred
EEG + MEG have better temporal resolution so you can measure when an event occurred