Lecture 6 - History of psychology and neuroscience

Question 1

What does the Edwin Smith Papyrus show? What is it evidence for?

Answer 1

It’s a papyrus from Ancient Egypt that contains short descriptions of the symptoms and treatment of different forms of the brain injury (person ‘shuffled’ while walking which was suprising to the doctor since ‘the wound was in the skull’)

• It illustrates how physicians treating wounded soldiers quite early became convinced of the importance of the head (brain) in controlling behaviour

Question 2

Which organ did Ancient Greek philosophers identify as the thinking organ?

Answer 2

• Hippocrates: placed the soul in the brain
• Plato: brain (important for reasoning), but recognised the heart to have a function (sensations), brain came directly from the divine and immortal soul of the universe but the soul in the heart was mortal so a neck separated the two to avoid pollution of divine soul from the moral one
• Aristotle: heart

Question 3

What were Aristotle’s reasons for assuming that the heart is the thinking organ?

Answer 3

• The heart is perceptibly affected by emotion - you can feel your heart pounding when you’re emtional but not your brain
• It is located at a central point, according to the role of thinking
• All living creatures with blood have a heart, but not all have an observable brain (invertebrates)

Question 4

What was, according to Aristotle, the function of the brain and what did he base this on?

Answer 4

The brain seems unaffected by emotion (bloodless) so it functions to cool down the heart

• He thoughts that brain wasn’t connected with the sense organs since there were no vessels whereas heart was connected with all sense organs and muscles, via blood vessels
• He compared humans’ behaviour to other organisms (animals) but it wasn’t empirical research since he didn’t conduct any experiments; therefore physicians didn’t follow him on this topic

Question 5

Who was responsible for the decisive moment that the brain is important for sensation and movement control and why?

Answer 5

Galen

• He was a medic so he saw what happened to people after head injuries from a fight in a Roman arena
• He also experimented with animals and discovered the nerve pathways (white, hollow tubes going from the brain)
• Cutting the nerves in a pig’s throat prevents the pig from making any noise
• So the ‘voice’ comes from the brain, not the heart

Question 6

How did Galen think the soul and the brain interact with the body?

Answer 6

• The animal spirit floated from the ventricles through nerves (hollow tubes) to the body
• (ventricles: apertures in the middle of the brain, thought to contain perceptions, memories and thoughts - seat of the animal spirits)
• The brain was a hub, heart is dissmised as a thinking organ
• He remained influential until the 16th century since there was almost no further experimentation on the brain

Question 7

In the 16th century, cities were becoming richer and universities were taking ground, hence more time and effort for experimentation. Who took advantage of this and what did he establish?

Answer 7

Vesalius who dissected humans and drew maps of the parts of the body, including the brain

• Established that there are 3 ventricles in the brain (picture 1) with each having its own function:
  ↪ 1st: common sense (connected to all the sense, shows in the picture by the lines going from the nose, eyes, mouth), fantasy
  ↪ 2nd ventricle: thoughts
  ↪ 3rd ventricle: memory

Question 8

What did Decartes propose about the body and behaviour?

Answer 8

• Descartes introduced mechanical ideas about body and behavior - use mathematical language to predict behaviour
• Clock as metaphor - bird migration patterns as an example of clock driven mechanical behavior
• In humans, he showcast it by proposing the mechanical theory of reflex

Question 9

What was the mechanical theory of reflex proposed by Decartes?

Answer 9

• a sensory sensation travels through the nerves
• it’s ‘bounced back’ through the same nerves as a mirror in the brain
• That leads to (involuntary) behavior
• e.g. withdrawing your foot when it’s too close to the fire (picture 2)
• In 1784, CZECH physiologist Jiří Procháska argued that reflexes included the spinal cord rather than the brain in itself (what a smart dude)

Question 10

What did Decartes say about the body and the soul?

Answer 10

He humans differ from animals in that humans have a soul which is spiritual in nature

• Neoplatonian substance dualism:

1. Res extensa - divisible substance (body)
2. Res cogitans - indivisible substance (thinking substance - soul)

• He did his own neuroanatomical research (in Amsterdam!) in a slaughter house
• He identified the pineal gland in humans which is the place where the body and soul meet
  ↪ in the middle of the brain so it’s connected with every part of the body

Question 11

In the 17th/18th century, increasing focus on the brain itself. How did Thomas Willis contributed to that?

Answer 11

He moved from ventricles to gray matter of the brain
Willis developed neural functional organization, but not just the pineal gland:

• Higher brain structures for more advanced organisms, more complex functions (memory, volition)
• Lower structures for more elementary functions (heartbeat, respiration)

Related this to clinical descriptions of neurological & psychiatric disorders (examined his patients symptoms and linked them to their disorder)

Question 12

At the end of 18th century, what happened to the idea of the soul now that the brain is identified as the thinking organ?

Answer 12

The unconscious mind/soul remained an unconquerable idea - the soul was to holy for the scientists to say anything about it

Question 13

What were the 5 breakthroughs in the 19th century that altered the model of brain functioning?

Answer 13

1. The discovery of the cerebrospinal axis
2. The growing impact of the reflex
3. The localisation of brain functions
4. The discovery of the nerve cell
5. The disentangling of the communication between neurons.

Question 14

1.The discovery of the cerebrospinal axis

What did scientists observe when they cut at the top of the spinal cord? What did this discovery confirm from an evolutionary perspective?

Answer 14

The body remains functioning in a vegetative state when the cerebral hemispheres are disconnected - some bodily functions don’t require the brain

• supported by the discovery that some animals had a spinal cord but no brain but never the reverse → spinal cord takes evolutionary precedence over the brain

Question 15

2.The growing impact of the reflex

What was the reflex arc and who proposed it?

Answer 15

Marshall Hall proposed the reflex arc which is a mechanism involved in involuntary movements elicited by sensory stimuli

• A signal is picked up by sensory receptors, transmitted to the spinal cord through an afferent nerve, transferred to interneurons, which activate motor neurons that send a motor command over an efferent nerve to initiate the withdrawal movement (picture 3)
• Extended to a biological principles - all muscular function other than respiration, cardiac activity and irritability depends on reflexes controlled by the spinal cord

Question 16

2.The growing impact of the reflex

How was the reflex arc considered the basis of mental functioning?

Answer 16

Physiologist, Sechenov, claimed in his book Reflexes of the brain that all higher functions of the brain were of a reflex nature
↪ Inhibition was considered a God-given ability (from sex, adultery…) but Sechenov in his book explained it as a neuronal reflex

Question 17

2.The growing impact of reflexes

How did Sechenov influence Pavlov?

Answer 17

Pavlov (Sechenov’s student) was studying reflex mechanisms in the digestive system - the dog salivated and Pavlov described it as a psychic reflex = the reflex arc as a basis of psychological functioning
↪ influence on the behaviourist motion which focused fully on S-R relationship (later Skinner)

• But some scientists (James, Dawey) rather suggested that not all thoughts consisted of reflexesn - incompatible with the existence of human consciousness and free will

Question 18

3.The localisation of brain functions

What was the localisation theory and where did it start?

Answer 18

Brain processes are localised, meaning that only part of the brain underlies a particular mental function
Started with Franz Jospeh Gall (organology and granioscopy) and his student Johann Spurzheim (prenology)

Question 19

3.The localisation of brain functions

Describe organology, craniology and phrenology

Answer 19

Organology: differences in predisposition can be seen in cortical development: welldeveloped function, larger cortical area

Cranioscopy: differences in cortical development can be seen in modules of the skull (e.g. language module)

Phrenology: conceptualised the two concepts and suggested that mental function were localised in the brain and that the capacity of a function corresponded to the size of the brain part devoted to it

Question 20

3.The localisation of brain functions

Who was Flourens and what did he argue?

Answer 20

Flourens conducted very good experiments with animals (kept them alive for hours/days) enabling him to see what the behavioural effects of his interventions on the brain

• Based on his experiments he argued against the localization theory by saying that there is localization of function in brainstem but not in cortex
• Cortex was still a functional whole
• Equipotentiality theory: psychological functions are indivisible properties of the cortex as a whole
• If a small part of the cortex was removed, there was no isolated function lost (as long as the lesion was not too large, so that the remaining tissue could take over)

Question 21

3.The localisation of brain functions

What disocovery of which people provided lot of evidence for the localization theory?

Answer 21

1. Broca examined a brain of a patient who died but had problems with speech production (was only able to say ‘tan’) and found widespread damage to his left frontal lobe
2. Wernicke provided evidence that problems with understanding language occur after damage to the rear part of the left hemisphere

Question 22

3.The localisations of brain areas

What further evidence for the localisation theory did Fritz and Hitzing provide?

Answer 22

Conducted experiments on dogs where they stimulated their cortex and observed differing physical responses in different parts of the body depending on which part of the cortex was stimulated

• evidence for the fact that cortex can be stimulated and that there are several (motor) areas
• experimental evidence against Flourens

Question 23

3.The localisation of brain functions

Who was Robert Bartholow and what did he do?

Answer 23

He was the first one to conduct electrical stimulation(on brain and other parts of the body) on humans in his electrical rooms

• 30-year-old Mary Rafferty first human who was electrically stimulated in the brain (part of her skull was missing because of a brain tumor)
• She died during the experiments due to an epileptic seizure → for 15 years no one wanted to do electrical stimulation on humans again
• But later surgeons started using electrical stimulation to treat brain injuries

Question 24

Disenchantment of the brain

What does Max mean by the disenchantment of the brain? What fueled it

Answer 24

Second half of 19th century, with the localisation theory gaining ground, the idea of the soul being the divine entity looses its credibility (= disenchantment of the brain)

• Darwin with his book on natural selection and the idea of the neuronal reflex fueled this movement

Question 25

Disenchantment of the brain

How did Herbert Spencer contribute to this idea?

Answer 25

He coined ‘Survival of the fittest’
- All structures - from societies to brain structures - evolve from undifferentiated and homogeneous to differentiated and heterogeneous (more complexity) = development
- This idea was applied by John Hughlings Jackson

Question 26

Disenchantment of the brain

How did John Hughlings Jackson contribute to the idea?

Answer 26

• Establised that central nervous system has different levels of sensori-motor units
• The evolutionary oldest are at the bottom of the brain
• The evolutionary newest (more complex, more differentiated and more flexible) areas are at the top
• Higher areas integrate input from lower areas
• Higher mental processes (‘will, memory, reason, and emotion’) found their origin in sensori-motor nervous arrangements (we can explain the simple things by the smallest, basic units but when we combine those, we get the complex processes)

Question 27

Disenchantment of the brain

How did Jackson apply his ideas of sensori-motor nervous arrangements to clinical practice?

Answer 27

• Higher areas control the lower areas
• Clinical basic assumption: if area fails due to damage, the function also fails
• But: sometimes damage resulted in new behavior and he called that release from control → Cortical areas could no longer control, lower areas were given free play
  ↪ dissolution: opposite of evolution (went from complexity to more basic, simpler behaviour)
  ↪ E.g. observed in neurological & psychiatric disorders but also in drunkenness

Question 28

4.The discovery of the nerve cell

It was still unknown what the brain consisted of (complex network or simple, seperate building blocks?). What two innovations led to breakthrough into understanding this concept?

Answer 28

Innovations: Microscope and techniques to stain the brain tissue

• The quality of microscopes increased rapidly in the 19th century and it was seen that the brain consists of small parts (‘globules’ - cell bodies)
• Neuroanatomist Camilo Golgi discovered that you could make these globules visible with silver nitrate and he saw that the globules comprised a highly interconnected network of branches
• Uncertain whether the network was a continuous strcture or it consists of individual cells
• Golgi was a supporter of reticularism: the brain is a continuous network

Question 29

4.The discovery of the nerve cell

Who drew light into the type of network it was?

Answer 29

Ramon y Cajal used Golgi’s staining technique and saw that the globues are separate cells (Waldeyer later named it neurons)

• Both Cajal and Golgi were awarded the Nobel Prize
• the question still remained, if they are separate, how do they communicate?

Question 30

5.The disentangling of the communication between neurons

What were the two ideas about how communication between neurons happens?

Answer 30

Electrical or chemical transmission
- The war of the soups (chemical) and the sparks (electrical) = huge disagreement in the scientific community

Question 31

5.The disentangling of the communication between neurons

What led to the speculation that neural communication is electrical? Who was involved?

Answer 31

Early developments in electricity included the first electricity generator and the Leyden jar for storing electricity

• Scientists speculated that nerve signals might resemble electrical transmission
• Luigi Galvani observed that a frog’s leg contracted when touched with a scalpel near an electricity generator → body movement generated ny electrical currents in nerves?
• Alessandro Volta criticised Galvani that he didn’t prove that brain signals were electrical signals since it might have been that the leg contracted when electricity was sent through it
• Emil du Bois-Raymond studied electric fish and established that nerve signals indeed involved electricity

Question 32

5.The disentangling of the communication between neurons

Who and how did they established the origin of the electrical signals?

Answer 32

• Von Helmholtz investigated whether nerves were passive electrical wires or involved slower, chemical processes
  ↪ nerve signals in a frog’s leg traveled at 30ms/sec, much slower than speed of light, supporting the idea of chemical processes
• However, in the 20th centrury, the exact mechanisms of nerve signal transmission were clarified when looked at neurons of the giant squid, which were so big they were visible to the naked eye

Question 33

5.The disentangling of the communication between neurons

The electrical signal within neuron is established but how do neurons communicate between each other?

Answer 33

20th century: communication became understood

• chemical process due to neurotransmitters (chemicals released from the synapse when a signal arrives through the axon)
• neurotransmitters can be influenced by other chemical substances - paved the way for creation of medicines

Question 34

5.The disentangling of the communication between neurons

So in summary how do neurons function and communicate?

We all know this, just a refresher and ‘cause it’s so freaking fascinating<3

Answer 34

1. Receive chemical signals from other cells via their dendrites
2. These signals grouped at axon hill from which an electrical signal starts when a threshold is exceeded
3. Travels thorugh axon, on the basis of chemical changes in the axon and cause neurotransmitters to be released in the terminals
4. Neurotransmitters = signals for the next cell

• Most axons have myelin sheath which speeds up the transmission of the signal (white = colour of neurons and white matter in the brain)

Question 35

Emergence of neuropsychology in the 20th century

What happened in the 20th century which allowed for further localisation studies but now on humans?

Answer 35

World wars - head wounds after bullets - very localised so allowed to observe function loss after damage to small parts of the brain

• WWI: Gordon Holmes described the first case study with injury to the occipital lobe - patient suffered from loss of colour vision in the left visual field
• WWII: Joachim Bodamer described a case of a soldier who suffered a bullet injury to the back of his head and couldn’t recognise faces (prosopagnosia)

Question 36

How did neuropsychology emerge?

Answer 36

• Mid 20th century: psychologists started to study behavioural consequences of brain injury (before focus of physicians)
• First journal Neuropsychologia in 1963
• Research focused on localising brain functions and understamding impact of brain injuries on higher mental functions
• Neuropsychology: bridge between psychology and medicine, with professionals from both fields collaborating on assessing and treating brain damage

Question 37

Why did neuropsychologists become dissatisfied in 1970s and 1980s?

Answer 37

1. Difficulty in correlating symptoms with specific brain areas due to the complexity and widespread nature of brain injuries
2. A lack of theoretical framework, with findings largely limited to case studies rather than contributing to broader psychological theories

• Dissenters argued that neuropsychologists should focus on understanding the cognitive processes affected by brain damage - use brain injury data to test and refine cognitive psychology’s information-processing models

Question 38

What new name was given to this new approach to understanding of brain injuries? What was its aim?

Answer 38

Cognitive neuropsychology - linked observations from brain-injured patients to theories of normal cognitive functioning

• Aimed to produce more precise descriptions of psychological impairments and integrate clinical findings into mainstream psychological research
• Significantly influenced psychological research and education

Question 39

What was the first topic addressed by cognitive neuropsychology?

Answer 39

Deep dyslexia - condition where brain-injured patients make semantically related reading errors (e.g., reading “storm” as “thunder”)

Question 40

What did the model by Morton and Patterson propose as an explanation of deep dyslexia?

Answer 40

Disinction between two systems: logogen system (mental lexicon; visual, auditory, output component) and cognitive system (contained meaning of the words) which interacted together
3 routes for a normal reader to read aloud a written word:

1. Grapheme-Phoneme Conversion Route: Converts letters into sounds, enabling the reading of non-words
2. Direct Logogen Route: Connects the visual logogen system to the output system, allowing word pronunciation without understanding the meaning
3. Cognitive-Mediated Route: Activates word meaning in the cognitive system before producing speech

In deep dyslexia, damage to the first two routes forces reliance on the less accurate cognitive-mediated route, leading to semantically related errors

Question 41

Emotions in the brain

How do emotions come about?

This is Max’s field of study

Answer 41

Two interpretations of how emotions come about:

1. Seeing a threatening stimuli (e.g. bear) elicits emotion of fear and that produces a physical reaction of running away
2. According to William James, the physical reaction comes first which changes lot of things in our body and that is picked up by the cortex leading to an emotion (physical experience → emotion)

Question 42

What part of the brain did Waler Cannon identify as the emotion area?

Answer 42

He worked off James’ idea of how emotions are experienced
The body signals activate a part of the brain called thalamus which then send signals to the cortex to have an conscious experience of emotion

Question 43

What part of the brain did Philip Bard identify as the emotion area?

Answer 43

He specified Cannon’s idea of the location of emotional experience - hypothalamus (bridge between the body and the brain that leads to the conscious experience of emotion)

Question 44

So to what assumptions did these discoveries of the emotion area lead to?

Answer 44

Hypothalamus: subcortical structure responsible for emotions, drives, irrationality, unconsciousness
Cortex: responsible for ratio, control, consciousness

Question 45

What did the hypothalamus-cortex theory inspired Paul McLean to?

Answer 45

This was the basis for the emotion-brain theory by Paul McLean → the visceral brain (the organs are very important in informing us about what is going on emotionally)

• Worked off the idea of psychosomatic disease (physical symptoms due to psychological issues) and the psychoanalysis

Question 46

In what way did the psychoanalysis theory shape the theory of the visceral brain?

Answer 46

The visceral brain is primal (evolutionarily older than cortex), non-liguistic, it’s about oral and sexual behaviour, aggression - like the Freud’s id
Cortex: ‘word brain’ (where we put our experiences into words)

• Used it to explain the difference between neurotic and psychosomatic people

Question 47

What was McLean’s explanation of neurotic vs psychosomatic people based on psychoanalysis and the visceral brain?

Answer 47

• Neurotics: were stuck in the genital phase, but were still able to express their problems in words (brain evolved) → ‘reduction of traffic of the autonomic circuits’ (things we don’t control)
  ↪ able to verbalise it so less emotional issues
• Psychosomatics: couldn’t put it into words properly, so they only expressed themselves with organ language (somatic symptoms): e.g. ‘chronic unexpressed rage’ then led to hypertension

Question 48

What did McLean rename the visceral brain to?

Answer 48

The limbic system (picture 4)
Extended his ideas to the triune brain later in life:

1. the brainstem: reptilian brain responsible for basic survival skills: heartbeat, thermal regulation
2. limbic system: paleomammalian brain - responsible for emotions
3. cortex: neomammalian brain - cognition, thought, reason

• Applied evolutionary explanation - humans have the biggest cortex (most reason), then other mammals extensive limbic system, insects only have the brainstem

Question 49

What was the criticism of the triune brain?

Answer 49

It is too simple (e.g. in the paleomammalian brain there are also lot of cognitions going on, cortex important for emotion)

Question 50

What discussion about the cortex is still going in neuroscience?

Answer 50

Is it functionally divided or does it work as a whole?

• There has always been a drive for reductionism (trying to explain things by the smallest area possible)
• E.g. the amygdala is now considered the emotion area (the new hypothalamus)

Question 51

The brain as a dynamic network

What was the first theory proposing the brain as a dynamic network?

Answer 51

Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts related cybernetics (computers and logic) to how the brain functions which lead to the first neural network theory

• the idea was that neurons and their action potentials can be on/off, just like 1s and 0s in computer and true or false statements in logic
• They used mathematical and logical ways to describe networks and demonstrate that a network is a logical network through which information flows and its interconnected

I don’t think we need to know the names, rather the concepts

Question 52

What did Donald Hebb say about how dynamic networks are?

Answer 52

‘Cells that fire together, wire together’

• as the connection between neuron A and neuron B is used more often, it becomes stronger
• The network is not static, but evolves as a function of input from other parts of the brain and the environment

Question 53

Hebb’s postulate has been purely theoretical for 20 years. What was discovered that confirmed it on a biological level as well?

Answer 53

In the 1960s, long term potentiation was empirically confirmed
Long term potentiation - persistent increase in synaptic strength following high-frequency stimulation of a chemical synapse

Question 54

What did Alexandr Luria do and establish?

Answer 54

• Helped establish neuropsychology
• Did neuropsychological examination in soldiers during and after WWII
• Started writing romantic science: comprehensive case studies (wrote about the person with symptoms but the main focus was on the person: their development, experience…)
• Established laws of how the brain works

Question 55

What were Alexandr Luria’s 3 laws?

Answer 55

1. Law of hierarchical structure: Cortical areas have a dominant role in relation to secondary, lower-lying areas
2. Law of diminishing specificity: The further information is processed in the brain, the less specific, global and abstract it will be
3. Law of progressive lateralization: in the (cortical) hemispheres more functional lateralization can be found than in lower lying areas

Question 56

How were the neural networks developed?

Answer 56

Neural network - computer models of neurons

• The combination of insights from Hebb, McCulloch and Pitts led to ‘neural networks’
• This was done by ‘rewarding’ good responses by strengthening the connections used
• With fairly simple principles, neural networks appeared to be able to learn elementary tasks well

Question 57

What was the problem with neural networks and how was it solved?

Answer 57

• Each additional layer quickly made model much more complicated - the computers were not able to work with this and solve it
• So the technology was limiting advacemenet
• However, with today’s super powerful computers, more and more layers can be added
• Simulations are becoming more realistic & performance better

Question 58

Summary of the journey to understanding brain as dynamic and hierarchical network in the 20th century

Answer 58

• To a certain extent functional specialization
  ↪ Most mental processes depend on multiple functional areas
  ↪ Most areas contribute to different functions
• Hierarchy in terms of integration and abstraction, not in terms of importance
• Dynamic (both at neuronal and functional level)
• With the world becoming digital: Some neural networks outperform human beings on specific tasks

Question 59

Brain imaging and the turn to neuroscience

What was the start of extracting information from a working brain?

Answer 59

Before only based on post-mortem analysis

• First technique on a living, working brain: single-cell recording - electrodes planted in individual brain cells and its firing was recorded showing in which processes each cell took part
  ↪ Required surgary so very limited
• Development of non-invasive techniques allowed to look at the brain without actually touching it

Question 60

What was the first non-invasive technique?

Answer 60

EEG developed by Hans Berger in 1929

• Registration of neural activity by attaching electrodes on the scalp
• Two types of waves: alpha (slow, regular waves depicted by large waves - at rest) and beta (fast, irregular waves depicted by small and fast waves - active state)
• Thanks to EEG, it was discovered that epilepsy involves uncontrollable electrical discharges

Question 61

As the accuracy of EEG recordings grew, what two application became available?

Answer 61

1. Event Related Potential - signal obtained by averaging the EEG signals to stimuli that are repeated a number of times
   ↪ The signal can be used to determine how fast the brain responds to various types of signals and how the response differs as a function of the stimulus
2. Localisation of the source of the electrical signal - however, as only limited number of electrodes can be placed on the head, it’s not an accurate method → lead to development of MEG

Question 62

What is magnetoencephalography (MEG)?

Answer 62

It measures the magnetic fields around the head that are produced by the electrical signals in the brain - picked up by sensitive sensors
↪ one of the most promising brain imaging techniques, because it has the potential of both a high temporal and spatial resolution

Question 63

Which two techniques use blood flow of the brain?

Answer 63

• Brain requires blood and oxygen to function properly so looking at blood flow allows to know which brain regions are particularly active during a task
  1. PET - injecting a radioactive tracer into the bloodstream and detects the radioactive signal; the more active a region is, the more blood it requires so the tracer in the blood lights up
  2. fMRI - uses magnatic resonance of the blood (oxygenated vs unoxygenated blood - more oxygen, more active)
  ↪ the images can be taken only few times per second (ERP - 1000 measurements per second) so low temporal resolution

Question 64

What is transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)?

Answer 64

• Stimulation of a brain region by means of a coil placed on the head
• Allows temporary interference with the processing of a small part of the brain
• Kind of like virtual lesions but since the effects can be restricted to a specific area it allows cognitive neuropsychologists to study specific brain areas that are needed for the completion of particular cognitive processes
• TMS is complementary to fMRI since fMRI gives correlation between brain region and activity but TMS can confirm it by ‘‘turning off’’ this area and testing whether the person is still able to perform the activity or not

Question 65

What is cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 65

The scientific study of the biological mechanisms underlying cognition

• Largely based on brain imaging techniques, TMS and the measurement of electrical activity

Question 66

What is the criticism of cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 66

That neuroimaging doesn’t really provide more information about psychological processes than phrenology did
↪ E.g. the areas identified as important for social cognition overlap in the images made by phrenologists and neuroimaging

Question 67

What are 4 arguments in defence of cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 67

1. Neuroimaging (NI) provides empirical, reliable information whereas phrenology was based on speculation and scattered brain injury findings
2. Localisation of brain activity while a person is performing a task provides info about the process involved - not possible withou NI
3. Although the brain is compartmentalised into regions with specialised functions, all tasks (even the simplest) require the interaction of several areas distributed over distant parts of the brain + extent of a brain region is not fixed but depends on practice (musicians) - not realised before cog.neuroscience
4. By uncovering detailed patterns of brain activity (through multi-voxel pattern analysis) cog.neuroscience links brain with mind (activity patterns are not just correlates but play crucial role in shaping cognitive processes)
   ↪ in contrast to traditional cognitive theories stating the mind functions in terms of information processing, independently of the physical brain (like software running on any hardware) so no need to study the physical brain

Question 68

What is cognitive neuropsychiatry?

Answer 68

Cognitive neuropsychiatry states that symptoms of mental disorders (such as delusions) can be understood as the result of errors in the cognitive information-processing model that accounts for normal psychological functioning

Question 69

How do Capgras delusions and Freudian interpretation of delusions illustrate errors in the cogntivie information-processing model?

Answer 69

• The Capgras delusion - a situation in which a person still recognises close relatives, but is convinced that they have been replaced by look-alikes
• The Freudian interpretation of the delusion - conflicting feelings towards the relatives, which result in a dissociation between the absent loved persons and the present hated look-alikes
• Cognitive neuropsychiatry argues that the condition results from blocked information transfer in an unconscious, emotion-related processing route that under normal circumstances elicits an emotional response each time we encounter a familiar person
  ↪ As a result, the relatives feel strange, even though we recognise them