lecture 1: intro Flashcards
Neuroscience
the scientific study of the brain and
nervous system
Cognition
mental processes involved in knowing and thinking
Cognitive neuroscience
the scientific study of how the brain
produces thoughts, ideas, and related mental phenomena
ALZHEIMER’S
Form of progressive dementia.
Most common dementia affecting nearly half of
adults over 85.
Increasing age is the biggest risk factor; family history
is second.
Memory is affected early but not exclusively.
Medial temporal lobe is affected early but not
exclusively.
hippocampus
The hippocampus is located deep in the brain, hidden within the medial part of the temporal lobe.
The hippocampus is involved in long-term memory formation and memory retrieval. It also plays a role in spatial memory, allowing individuals to keep track of where objects are and the position of their body relative to the objects around them.
Neuropathology of Alzheimer’s disease:
Neurofibrillary tangles
Amyloid Plaques
Neurofibrillary tangles
Neurofibrillary tangles are twisted fibers produced by abnormal tau proteins that are likely related to cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s disease
Amyloid plaques
Amyloid is a protein that is normally found
throughout the body. For reasons as yet unknown, in
AD, the protein divides improperly, creating a form
called beta amyloid which is toxic to neurons in the
brain
Opioid Crisis
In late 1990’s pharmaceutical companies reassured the
medical community that patients would not become
addicted to prescription opiod pain relievers, and they
were prescribed with increasing frequency
- This resulted in widespread misuse of these medications
that are clearly highly addictive - In 2017, due to a substantial increase rates of addiction
and overdose deaths, the Department of Health and
Human Services declared opioid use a public health
emergency
Medication to Assist Treatment:
Combining psychological and neuorobiological treatments
* Drugs that mimic the action of typical opioids on the brain, without
the ‘high’ (methadone, buprenorphine)
* These drugs reduce withdrawal symptoms and cravings, resulting in
significantly reduced rates of relapse and likelihood of overdose
* Is the “gold standard” of opioid use disorder treatment, but is
underutilized due to stigma
Brain Changes with Addiction
nora volkow advocates for decreased stigma around addiction
wilder penfield
While operating on epileptic patients, Penfield applied electric currents to the surface of patients’ brains in order to find problem areas. Since the patients were awake during the operations, they could tell Penfield what they were experiencing. Probing some areas triggered whole memory sequences.
mapped out m1 and v1 as well as homonculus
phrenology
the detailed study of the shape and size of the cranium as a supposed indication of character and mental abilities.
In the case of slavery, physicians such as Charles Caldwell used phrenology to attempt to prove that African people were in their rightful place as slaves. Caldwell studied the skulls of many different peoples, including Africans, at the Musee de Phrenologie in Paris
mind body problem
the problem of how a physical substance (the brain) can give rise to our sensations, thoughts, and emotions (our mind)
dualism
the belief the mind and brain are made up of different kinds of substance
dual aspect theory
the belief that the mind and brain are two levels of description of the same thing
who was a proponent for dualism
rene descartes, who believed the mind was non physical and immortal whereas the body was physical and mortal and when they interact it creates a non physical sense of awareness
functional specialization
different regions of the brain are specialized for different functions (stemmed from phrenology)
brocas area
a region of the brain concerned with the production of speech, located in the cortex of the dominant frontal lobe. Damage in this area causes Broca’s aphasia, characterized by hesitant and fragmented speech with little grammatical structure.
broca’s area
a region of the brain concerned with the production of speech, located in the cortex of the dominant frontal lobe. Damage in this area causes Broca’s aphasia, characterized by hesitant and fragmented speech with little grammatical structure.
fodor’s theory of modularity
a theory of the human mind in which the various components of cognition are characterized as independent modules, each with its own specific domain and particular properties
bottom up processing
the passage of information from simpler to more complex
parallel processing
different information processed at the same time
Temporal resolution
the time it takes for a satellite to complete an orbit and revisit the same observation area
Hemodynamics
Hemodynamics is how your blood flows through your arteries and veins and the forces that affect your blood flow
spatial resolution
refers to the capacity a technique has to tell you exactly which area of the brain is active
lesion and functional imaging show at the mm level but single cell recordings can take it to the level of a neuron
which methods have great temporal resolution
EEG, MEG, TMS
fMRI has a temporal resolution of several sections that reflects the slower hemodynamic response
methods used in cognitive neuroscience
what does it mean when a method is invasive
whether the equipment is located internally or externally
pet is invasive because it requires an injection of a radio labeled isotope
single cell recordings are performed on the brain itself and are normally only carried out in non human animals
cognitive psych vs cognitive neuro
software vs hardware
psyh is information processing (intangible) and neuro is brain itself (tangible)
when you look inside the brain you say grey and white matter and blood vessels, not memories thoughts and perceptions
