Week 1: Definitions, history Flashcards
What is neuropsychology
The study of how the brain operates to produce behaviours and thought processes
- how the brain produces the higher mental functions (cognition), emotion and movement
What is clinical neuroscience?
Scientific study of mechanisms underlying disorders and disease of the brain and CNS
Identifying underlying molecular and neural substrates of psychopathology and neurological disease
What is the role of clinical neuroscientists?
- Assess through clinical testing to describe the impairments associated with brain damage
- help other clinicians with diagnosis
- describe patients strengths and weaknesses
- to report patients ability through assessment
Still need to understand brain areas and networks and how they underpin behaviour, cognition and emotional functioning
What is the role of experimental neuropsychologists?
Assess brain impaired patients and also persons without brain impairment in order to model and further understand the brain functions
Neuropsychological treatment is tailored to
The individuals specific circumstances and unique physiological needs
How long are neuropsychological treatments?
Can range from a few short sessions to multiple extended sessions
What are the 2 early views on brain processing?
Holistic and localisationist
What is the localisationist view of brain processing (Gall)?
Proposes that each part of the brain performs a different and seperate function
- believed that the specific development of a particular centre would push out the cranium to the extent that it would cause a bump that could be observed and felt externally. Thought that you could assess personality and cognition by the size of individual brain areas
(Size=skill)
What is the holistic view of brain processing?
Sees the whole brain as being involved in all mental functions
What did the localisationalist view lead to?
The theory of phrenology
What is phrenology?
If a given brain area is enlarged, then the corresponding area of the skull will also be enlarged
Very inaccurate
Why did the work of Gall positively influence theoretical thinking?
He drew attention to the possibility that localisation could exist and he described cases of injury with specific behavioural/cognitive effects
Phrenology was used as a means of diagnosis and a guide to better treatment of mental illness when insanity was seen as possession by the devil - leading to people being cruelly treated in asylums
What did Paul broca suggest?
That motor speech was specifically located in the posterior, inferior region of the left temporal lobe
What evidence did Paul broca have?
Individuals with injuries and corresponding deficits but were otherwise normal
What did broca successfully describe?
Aphasia
(Brocas aphasia or non-fluent aphasia)
Inability to talk because the musculature of speech organs do not receive appropriate brain signals
What did Carl wernicke do?
Said that speech comprehension was in the superior posterior aspects of the temporal lobe
The patient can still talk but made no sense and sounded like a foreigner (fluent aphasia)
What was Pierre flourens statement against localisationist view?
Reached the conclusion that a loss of function depends on the extent of damage not on the location
Suggested that if sufficient cortical matter was intact the remaining material will take over the functions of any missing brain tissue
Suggested that the brain operated in an integrated fashion functioning as a whole so the size of injury determines the effects on the brain
Critics to Flourens?
Critiqued for using small animals in his experiments and only focusing on motor functions
Brocas work and other localisation theorist were still predominant in brain behaviour relationships and excepted largely by the scientific community at the time
What is the equipotentiality position?
Although basic sensorimotor functions maybe localised in the brain higher cortical processes were too complex to confined to any one area
What did Karl Lashley propose?
He accepted the localisation of basic sensory and motor skills but supported equipotential views finding that impairment in maze running in a rat was directly related to the amount of cortex removed
He stated that the specific area removed made little difference
He formulated principle of mass action he also emphasise the multi potentiality of brain tissue meaning that each part of the brain participates in more than one function
So lashleys principle of mass action is?
Extent of behavioural impairment is directly proportional to the mass of the removed tissue
Alexander Luria?
Developed more functional models of the brain and was responsible for profound changes in our approach to understanding the brain in the mind
Conceived each area of the central nervous system as being involved in one of three basic functions he labelled units
What are the 3 units from Lurias work?
- unit for regulating tone and waking in mental state is roughly defined as the brainstem and associated areas and regulates arousal level of the brain and the maintenance of proper muscle ton
- the unit for receiving analysing and storing information includes posterior areas of the cortex and plays a key role in the reception integration and analysis of sensory information for most internal and external environment
- The unit for programming regulation and verification of activity includes the frontal and parietal lobe and is involved in planning and executing and verifying behaviour
All behaviour requires interaction of these three basic functions so consequently or behaviour reflects the brain operating as a whole but at the same time each area has a specific role in forming behaviour
Understanding localisation in the map of the brain is essential for what
Safe surgery
Explain TMS
Using an electrode to map the brain these interfere with the motor cortex interrupting the signals to the body
It only works if applied precisely to the area of the motor cortex that controls the body part
Swamps neural pathways almost like a stroke
