Lecture 1: History And Organization Of The Nervous System Flashcards
What does the nervous system do?
- Senses/detects incoming information
- Integrates, organizes, and stores that information
- Generates appropriate responses and behavior
What is neuroscience?
The study of molecular, cellular, genetic, functional, developmental, evolutionary, systems, computational, and medical functions of the nervous system
Who is considered by historians as the “father of Chinese medicine”?
Shen Nung- originated acupuncture
Who is considered by historians as the “father of western medicine”?
Hippocrates
What is philosophy of mind and what main problems does it address?
PoM is a branch of philosophy that studies the nature of the mind; mental events, functions, and properties; and consciousness and their relationship to the physical body, particularly the brain.
The central issue of PoM is the mind-body problem.
The mind
Human consciousness that is manifested especially in thought, perception, emotion, will, memory, and imagination.
Consciousness
An aspect of the mind generally thought to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, sentience, salience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and one’s environment
Sentience
The ability to sense
Salience
The ability to establish relative importances
What main area of neuroscience studies the mind?
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Cognitive neuroscience
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Camillo Golgi
Italian physician and scientist
- silver nitrate/silver chromate method for staining tissue (Golgi stain)
- described the Golgi complex involved with protein synthesis
- proponent of reticular theory
Santiago Ramon y Cajal
Spanish pathologist, scientist, and artist
- uses Golgi stain to visualize cells in the nervous system
- observed and documented the different types of cells that compose the nervous system
- proponent of the neuron doctrine
The reticular theory of the nervous system
The disproven theory that cells in the brain are physically connected to each other forming a continuous network
Neuron Doctorine
The theory that brains are composed of single cells that are separate but contiguous and that communicate at specialized areas called synapses
Each neuron is a cell- an individual entity anatomically, embryologically, and functionally
What are the 4 main ways that neuroscientists study the brain today?
- study postmortem human tissue, cells, proteins, and genes
- study behavioral of normal individuals and those with brain injuries and neurological disorders/diseases, use of trans cranial magnetic stimulation or drugs
- use EEG and brain imaging techniques
- study animals and animal models of disease/disorders
