ch1: Physiology and Medicine: Material Explanations of Human nature

Question 1

David Hartley

Answer 1

physiology of nervous system based on association of ideas that explain thre relations between mind and body

• Medicine and naturalistic explanation
• Mind is becoming brain

Question 2

Physical Stimuli and the Brain

Answer 2

• When there’s a physical stimuli, it starts vibrations in the brain and sometimes those vibrations can last even when the stimuli is no longer there
• when we receive sensations, they are vibrations in the nerves & sometimes they last even after the sensation has been removed
• we can apply the laws of that physical stimulus to the mind now

Question 3

Robert Whytt: principle of sentinent

Answer 3

-Soul like power “sentient principle”: present in brain and spinal cord account for reflex action

Question 4

Sentient action in the body

Answer 4

purposeful, in response to a stimuli but not conscious

• sentient soul of the body is focused on preserving the physical organism (self-preservation)
• our actions are voluntary & purposeful and thought out but it’s beyond conscious awareness

Question 5

William Cullen: sentient principle replaced with energy

Answer 5

-quantifiable, excitation could be measured

Question 6

Whytt& Cullen’s Contributions

Answer 6

provided language and principles that emphasized nervous system in understanding mind and body interaction (Descartes said the in pineal gland but now it’s been seen as happening in the nervous system and described in physiological terms)
-mind & brain slowly becoming one

Question 7

Franz Joseph: Phrenology

Answer 7

• related the bumps and protrusions of the skull to underlying mental abilities
• localization of brain functions
• cerebral cortex has specific structures and each structure responds to a specific purpose
• understanding relationship between human abilities & human body

Question 8

Jean Pierre-Marie Flourens:

Answer 8

believed in the unity of soul, wanted to keep the divine influence alive

• human soul is a divine entity
• experimented with birds, cut off some layers of the brain and showed that there were a generalized defict across the front areas
• when you cut different parts of the brain, theres a general loss of function

Question 9

Paul Broca

Answer 9

firmly established localization of articulate language

Question 10

Jean Baptiste Bouillaud

Answer 10

Localization of functions: specific mental functions are located in specific places in the brain.

Question 11

David Ferrier:

Answer 11

electrically experimentally demonstrated the wide extent of cerebral localization

Question 12

Charles Bell

Answer 12

• distinction between sensory and motor nerves
• experimented with spinal cords in diff animals
• accurate in description of spinal nerves

Question 13

Francois Magendie

Answer 13

-distinction between sensory and motor nerves
correctly labeled them
-sensory nerves carry stimulation to the brain
-motor nerves carry stimulation from the brain to other parts of the body
**nerves are now known for causing behaviour and can be studied

Question 14

Georg Prochaska

Answer 14

• concept of reflexive action without consciousness
• the spinal cord as important organs in the reflexive action process
• sensory motor nerves & spinal cord which is causing the behavior (a physical mechanism)

Question 15

Marshall Hall:

Answer 15

• challenged the mentalistic conceptions of human behaviour
• behaviour is the result of nerve action & consciousness is not needed

-The soul is now being taking away from human behaviour and mind.
Its matter that is the reason behind behaviour

Question 16

Muller: 5 sensory modalities

Answer 16

• each sensory modality specialized, responds in unique ways
• 5 types of nerves which are specific to each modality
• suggested that we can have visions without physical stimuli because of the nervous system
• strongly saying its the nervous system which controls our experiences and not the outside world

Question 17

Hermann von Helmholtz

Answer 17

• law of conversation of energy- any closed physical system, sum total of all the energies remains constant
• energy can be transformed into various forms & fuel the body
  ex: breathing requires us to transform energy from the respiratory system and using it to fuel our body
• human body is a machine which can transform different types of energy (ex food)

Question 18

3 important contributions of Hermann von Helmholtz

Answer 18

1. reaction time: pinched a frogs leg (stimulus) and timed the amount of time it took for the frog to retract the leg (response)
2. made a distinction between sensation and perception: perception requires learning, experiences, sensation as raw data.
3. study of color vision: trichromatic colors
   3 different receptors in the retina which respond to the frequency of the light (blue, violet, red & green)

Question 19

How does this help psychology?

Answer 19

linking structure to function, it’s the brain which matters, emphasizing nervous system (mental life is a product of our nervous system)

Question 20

Physiognomy

Answer 20

• an ancient system of knowledge about human nature that claimed a direct link b/w the physical appearance of a person & one’s inward nature or character
• based on careful observations that made it possible to offer laws of behaviour & relationships (empirical)

Question 21

Phrenology & Workplace

Answer 21

• this offered insight into how to use the competition in the workplace to advantage
• offered an understanding of one’s own abilities & tendencies which could help one advance at work
• helps workers asses their competitors & potentially gain an advantage over them

Question 22

Phrenology & Self improvement

Answer 22

• how to use phrenological readings to provide advice and guidance for self-improvement
• this “division of mentality” also helped in education of children

Question 23

Organology

Answer 23

• the brain was composed of many parts & each of these parts had a distinctive function
• strength of these abilities/functions were reflected in the size of the part of the brain where they were located
• the shape of the skull reflected the underlying organization of mental abilities, their strength & weaknesses
• based on empirical exams
• proposed 27 brain areas/organs covering a range of abilities