Intro to and History of Brain and Behaviour Flashcards
What is the definition of behavioural neuroscience?
Field which relates behaviour to bodily processes.
Synonyms for behavioural neuroscience?
- Biological psychology
- Brain and Behaviour
- Physiological psychology
Main goal of behavioural neuroscience?
Understand the brain structures and functions that respond to experiences and generate behaviour.
Ebbinghaus (1909) said in an introductory psychology textbook: “Psychology has a long past but only a short history.” What did he mean?
The modern era of behavioural neuroscience has a formal history of ~100 years. “Formal,” meaning objectively tested experimentation using the scientific method to test hypotheses. Psychology’s ‘long past’ refers to the ancient interested in human behaviour and its many sources, as explored by philosophers for thousands of years BCE.
Name a few of the professions associated with behavioural neuroscience.
Psychologists and Psychiatrists
Biologists (Developmental, Evolutionary)
Physiologists
Engineers
Immunologists, Endocrinologists
Define: The Scientific Method
Scientists use a formal system of hypothesis testing and refinement to gradually develop understanding of neural processes.
List Steps of The Scientific Method
Observation
Hypothesis
Experiment
Data Collection/Analyses
Communication
Between 1508-1512 Michelangelo painted God on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. God is depicted as reaching out to give life to humanity via Adam. Some neuroscientists have noticed the uncanny resemblance of ________________________________.
The drapery behind God looks like the midsagittal view of the Brain.
Ancient Egyptians are thought to have felt what about the brain? As suggested by the embalming processes observed in mummification.
No ways! (At least in the afterlife) It is theorized that the ancient Egyptians did not think the brain was important as it was extracted through the nose by a thin hook. It is possible they extracted it and studied it.
Historically, how have religions discussed the Brain?
The Brain is almost never mentioned in the Quran, nor in the Bible.
Religious texts mention which organs frequently?
Heart, liver, stomach and bowels.
Mental capacities have historically been attributed to _________________. Hint: not the brain.
The Heart has long been thought to be responsible for emotions and behaviours and has been integrated into/reflected in the language still used today.
Examples: kindhearted, fainthearted, heartless, etc.
Aristotle (circa 350 BCE) thought this was the Brain’s main function:
To cool down the hot blood from the heart.
How did Greek physician Hippocrates (~400 BCE) contradict Aristotle’s view of the Brain?
Hippocrates believed emotions, thought, and perception were all functions of the brain.
Which Greco-Roman physician is considered the “Father of Medicine”?
Galen (129 AD - 216 AD)
How did Galen think the process of mental processes affected behaviour?
He proposed that behaviours arise from the movement of “animal spirits” from the brain, through the nerves and into the body.
Approximately when did it become more accepted that the brain was responsible for mental functioning? What obstacle impeded further understanding?
By the second century AD/CE. There was limited understanding of the anatomy due to the dissection of humans being outlawed in Rome at the time.
True or False: It is thought that Michelangelo was conducting dissections of cadavers at the same time he was creating the paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
True
This Renaissance painter and scientist (1452-1519) drew highly detailed anatomical compositions of _______ and brain structures.
Leonardo da Vinci, nerves
What was the result of Religious dogma in relation to science during the Renaissance (14th - 17th centuries)? Hint: how did they specifically view the brain in public vs. private?
Scientific writing from this era often depicted the brain as a mysterious and intricate gift from God. It is believed that many scientists held a more mechanistic view of the brain, but secularism was in its early days so many did not disagree openly.
He proposed that the control of behaviour was similar to that of a machine.
Rene Descartes (1596 - 1650).
How did Descartes compare the process of human behaviour to a machine?
Descartes proposed the concepts of spinal reflexes and neural pathways. He also stated that free will and moral choice could not arise from a mere machine, so he asserted the idea of a non-material soul as well as a material body.
What is Dualism?
Descartes’ idea that the mind has an immaterial aspect that is distinct from the body and brain.
He also thought that the soul governed behaviour through a point of contact in the brain.
In Dualism, which area of the brain was theorized to be the connection between the soul and nervous system? (Immaterial and material aspects of the body).
The pineal gland.
