Chapter 1: History of Neuroscience

Question 1

Thomas Willis

Answer 1

He was the first to use the term neurology in writing about disorders of the nervous system

Question 2

Purkinje (1787-1869)

Answer 2

The first person to describe a nerve cell in the nervous system

Question 3

Gall (1758-1828)

Answer 3

Co- founder of phrenology, which stated that contours of the skull provided information about the cognitive capacities and personalities of individuals.
Its method involved correlating variations in character with variations in craniological signs.

Question 4

Jackson (1835-1911)

Answer 4

Proposed a topographic organization to the cerebral cortex based on his work with epilepsy patients–Also realize that cognitive functions can be localized to a certain part of the brain

Question 5

Localizationist view

Answer 5

Its idea that the mind is in the brain and that speciic functions of the mind are localized to speciic parts of the brain.

Question 6

Flourens (1794-1867)

Answer 6

Aggregate field theory

The whole brain participates in behavior.

Question 7

Paul Broca (1824-1880)

Answer 7

Wrote in (1861)“Loss of Speech, Chronic Softening and Partial Destruction of the Anterior Left Lobe of the Brain
Broca and Wernicke speech centers in the left hemisphere

Question 8

Golgi (1843–1926)

Answer 8

He believed in a syncytium: that the cells in the brain form a network, or a continuous mass of tissue.
He developed the irst staining technique that allowed visualization of the individual neurons.
Golgi’s silver chromate stain (also known as La reazione nera, or the “black reaction”) shows dendrites, soma, and axons.

Question 9

Cajal (1852–1934)

Answer 9

Discovered the direction of travel of nerve impulses in the brain and spinal cord.
Postulated that neurons are discrete entities and the functional unit of the CNS

Question 10

Helmholtz (1821–1894)

Answer 10

Helmholtz was responsible for developing the law of conservation of energy
The ophthalmoscope
A theory of color vision and blindness
And the first measurements of the speed of nerve conduction.

Question 11

Behaviorism (Pavlov, Watson, and Skinner)

Answer 11

Psychology is the science of behavior… not the science of mind – as something other or different from behavior
Behavior can objectively be described and scientifically explained without making ultimate reference to mental events or internal psychological processes

Question 12

Cognitive Psychology (Miller, Bruner, and Chomsky)

Answer 12

Psychology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of mind and its processes
Replaced behaviorism
Focuses on mental processes like attention, memory, problem solving…

Question 13

Cognitive Neuroscience (Milner, Goldman-Rakic, Gazzaniga)

Answer 13

Cognitive neuroscience is the interdisciplinary scientific study of how the brain enables the mind and its core processess

Question 14

Electroencephalograph (EEG recording)

Answer 14

A technique to measure the electrical activity of the brain by surface recording with electrodes placed on the scalp

Question 15

Computer Tomography (CT or CAT scan)

Answer 15

A noninvasive neuroimaging method that provides images of internal structures such as the brain

Question 16

Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

Answer 16

A neuroimaging method that measures changes or variations in metabolic activity and blood low in the brain by monitoring the distribution of a radio active tracer.

Question 17

Positron imaging beta-amyloid (PiB)

Answer 17

PiB is a PET neuroimaging method that measures changes or variations in in the distribution of dye marker

Question 18

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

Answer 18

A neuroimaging technique that explores the magnetic properties of organic tissue.
sMRI usually measures variations in the density of hydrogen atoms in the organic tissue being scanned

Question 19

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

Answer 19

Measures changes over time in the signal intensity of targeted atoms.