Midterm Flashcards
why might we want to study the brain
- most complex organ
- how the brain produces both behaviour and consciousness is still not understood
- understanding the brain helps us to explain and possibly cure behavioural disorders
cardiocentric hypothesis
past belief that the heart was responsible for our thinking. purposed by aristotle, believed the brain was used as a cooling unit for the blood and to regulate the temperature of the heart
phrenology
the bumps on the skull are correlated to what parts of your brain you used the most
what did the original cephalocentric hypothesis entail
believed the pineal gland was responsible for behaviour, and that the mind regulates behaviour by directing the flow of ventricle fluid to the appropriate muscles
problems with descartes cephalocentric theory
the pineal gland is involved in biological rhythms, not intelligence or behaviour control - and it is not essential (people can have it removed and live normally)
fluid is not pumped from the ventricles to control movement
monism/materialism
behaviour can be explained as a function of the nervous system without trying to think about the mind. the brain simply produces the mind. without brain function, there is no soul/mind
this theory was supported by the phineas gage incident - which suggested a link between brain trauma and personality change
shortcomings of the phrenology theory of psychology
- cranioscopies where invalid reflections of cortical surface area
- it wasnt falsifiable
- it would seek confirmation for behaviours, not empirically test
- localized the wrong faculties
the theory of equipotentiality was overturned by this new neurological study method
electrical stimulation - showed that stimulations in certain regions caused reactions in certain parts of the body - especially the bilateral nature of the brain
cytoarchitectonics
neurons of similar shape and size tend to group together
Who came up with the very famous map using cytoarchitectonics
broadmen - broadmens map organized the brain into 52 distinct areas based on neuron shape
What was Moniz’s leucotomy
an early type of lobotomy involving severing the connections between the frontal cortex and thalamus to alleviate symptoms of psychosis and depression
what were the stats for the outcomes of Walter Freeman’s lobotomized patients
33% improved, 33% remain unchanged, and 33% worsened
why can the brain be described as inconsistent
variability between brains of one person to the other
inconsistencies in how it is described (naming structures based on what it looks like, where they are, who discovered them)
structures referred to as more than one name
three types of glial cells
astrocytes - regulate how far NT spreads
oligodendrocytes - produce myelin
microglia - remove debris
an electrical signal from an action potential gets converted to a ____ signal when Nt are released
chemical signal
ipsilateral
same side
afferent neurons
move towards the CNS (A=Approach)
a tract refers to a large collection of
axons
a fissure in the brain refers to
a very deep cleft in the cortex that reaches all the way down to the ventricles
a sulcus in the brain refers to
a more shallow cleft
a gyrus in the brain refers to
a ridge in the cortex
the precentral gyrus is the
motor cortex
the precentral gyrus lays right in front of (anterior to) the
central fissure
grey matter is the innermost or outermost layer
outermost