Week 1 - Intro to Neuroscience Flashcards
What was the Cardio-centralist model? What evidence supported it?
The heart was the centre of THOUGHT and CONTROL of the body.
Evidence: Blood vessels were known to emanate from heart to all parts of the body. Sensation and motion were believed to travel with the blood.
What was “pneuma” thought to be?
Penuma (breath of life) conveyed SENSATION from the body to the heart, and MOTION from the heart to the body.
What evidence established the brain as the controller of the body?
Galen and Pergamon (170AD) noted NERVES connecting to sensory organs to the brain and other nerves connecting the brain to muscles and internal orgrans.
Once nerves were found, was the brain thought to be the seat of thought, control and emotion?
Not initially. The cardio-centralist model persisted until Galen of Pergamon noted passage of nerve connections.
Where was the pneuma thought to be housed?
The ventricles. They were then considered the most important part of the brain. Galen suggested pneuma also penetrated into the rest of the brain.
What did Thomas Willis do?
Moved away from focus on ventricles, focused more on GREY MATTER.
What did Thomas Willis rename “pneuma”?
He renamed this substance to “animal spirits”. “spirit” ie. liquid. A liquid that allows us to move.
Who introduced the idea of “functional localisation”?
Thomas Willis did, and it’s the idea that different parts of the brain do different things.
Which three parts did Willis consider the brain to be made up of?
Cerebral cortex (rational soul - controls animal spirits), Cerebellum (controls automatic movements), Corpus Striatum (receives sensory information from animal spirits).
How did the Animal Spirits work?
They were a fluid derived from blood and produced in the brain. They moved through nerves and when they arrived as muscles, they flowed into the muscle causing it to “inflate”.
Who challenged the Animal Spirits?
Fancis Glisson.
What did Francis Glisson find?
The gallbladder works without any nervous input. also showed that muscles contract and not “inflate”.
What did Francis Glisson find?
The gallbladder works without any nervous input. also showed that muscles contract and not “inflate”.
Who found that there was electricity in animals? (think nintendo consoles - they need electricity).
Luigi Galvani (1737 - 1798). He found that electrical stimulation of a nerve caused muscle contraction.
Who discovered the nerve impulse?
Emil Du Bois-Reymond (1818-1896). Found that a wave of electrical potential passes along the nerve.
What did Bois-Reymond name the electrical potential passing along the nerve?
the “action current” (now called “action potential”).
How did Paul Broca establish localisation of function as a principle of neural organisation?
Paul Broca - Mr “Tan” with striking speech disorder, had a large lesion in his left frontal lobe. Over time, more cases with similar language problems were found to have similar lesions. This was the FIRST ESTABLISHED localisation of function in the cortex.
How did Carl Wernicke establish localisation?
Found a second region where damage results in a different language disorder (left temporal lobe). This inferred that different parts of language were localised to different parts of the brain.
What is meant by “plasticity”?
The idea that the brain is able to change, even in adulthood. Up to the 80’s, it was believed the brain was formed and fixed and that things just deteriorate.
