the brain through the ages

Question 1

the nervous system

Answer 1

central nervous system: brain and spinal cord
peripheral nervous system: nerves and ganglia

Question 2

neuroscience and mdoern psychlogy

Answer 2

• helps us to udnerstand behaviour as ns initates behaviour

Question 3

neolothic period

Answer 3

• blunt force cranial trauma
• cranial trepanation

Question 4

ancient egypt

Answer 4

• body and most organs were mummified but not brain
• the Ewdin Smith Surgical Papryus (first reference to brain)

Question 5

ancient Greece

Answer 5

• hippocrates
• the theory of the four humours

Question 6

Roman Empire -Galen

Answer 6

• saw brain as ruling organ of body
• common sense, cognition and memory (functions of brain)
• discovery of ventricles fitted with hippocrates theory of humourism

Question 7

key figures during the Renaissance

Answer 7

• Leonardo da Vinci
• Andreas Vesalius
• Rene Descartes

Question 8

Leonardo da Vinci’s theory

Answer 8

sensation, cognition and memory attributed to the “3” ventricles

Question 9

Andreas Vesalius’ theory

Answer 9

• developed understanding of brain strucutre
• identified errors in Galen’s anatomy

Question 10

Rene Descartes’ theory

Answer 10

• fluid - mechanical theory of brain function
• reflecive theory
  dualism

Question 11

the 18th and 19th century key insights

Answer 11

1. nerves are wires
2. localisation of specific brain functions
3. the neuron
4. evolution of brain

Question 12

nerves are wires

Answer 12

Hermann von Heimholtz measures speed of nerve conduction:
- 90 ft/sec (slow)
- not just eelctrical but phsyiological

Question 13

figures that made discoveries about localisation of specific brain functions

Answer 13

Johannes Muller
Marie Jean Pierre Fluorens
Paul Broca
Gustav Fritsch and Eduard Hitzig

Question 14

Johannes Muller

Answer 14

proposed the “law” of specific nerve energies

Question 15

Marie Jean Pierre Flourens

Answer 15

experimental ablations:
- intellected = cerebral cortex
- lower brain = vital bodily functions
- cerebellum = coordinationand motor control

Question 16

Gustav Fritsch and Eduard Hitzig

Answer 16

muscle contractions contralaterial to brain hemisphere

lateralisation

Question 16

Paul Broca

Answer 16

damage to left frontal cortex = difficulties in language production

Question 17

the neuron

Answer 17

Camillo Golgi proposed reticular theory
Santiago Ramon Cajal proposed the neuron dcctrine and worked out neural circuitry of brain regions

Question 18

evolution of brain

Charles Dawrin and Alfred Russel

Answer 18

• “on the origin of species”
• natural selection theory
• evolution: gradual change in strucutre of pyshiology of a species - producing more complex organisms

Question 19

vertebrate brains

Answer 19

• similar in organisation
• all have forebrain, midbrain and hinbrain

Question 20

brain evolution

Answer 20

• brain size increased
• proportion of diff areas changed
• folding of cerebral cortex increased

Question 21

evolution in hominids

Answer 21

1. australopithecus robustus
2. homo habilis
3. homo erectus
4. homo sapiens neanderthalensis
5. homo sapiens sapiens

Question 22

the neocortex

Answer 22

• reflects growing complexity of social lives
• flexible and almost infinite learning abilities

Question 23

the prefrontal cortex

Answer 23

• responsible for unparalelleled planning and abstract reasoning abilities

Question 24

why are human brains big

Answer 24

- larger volume of white matter in PFC - so greater connectivity between PFC and rest of brain