Exam I Flashcards
Early goal of neuroscience
map the brain by characterizing the effects of damage and disease
Task-based analysis
Can characterize the precise nature of deficits
Limitation: not useful for normal mental activity
Gold standard for understanding critical structures for brain function
Lesioning; causation not correlational
Baddeley & Hitch Model
Phrenology
Gall
by touching skull, you can make assessments on personality
PRESUMPTION –> brain would be bigger/smaller ; (convexities/concavities) depending on the functions you possess
Localization
localization: different aspects of brain function are governed by, and therefore localizable to different centers of the brain
Mass Action
brain function distributed throughout the cortex
Pierre Flourens
critic of phrenology (Gall’s localization)
would lesion animals in localized spots; failed to find evidence of localization (cerebral cortex)
EQUIPOTENTIALITY:
Equipotentiality
Pierre Flourens
any given piece of cortical tissue had potential to support any brain function
overtime, animals with experimental damage recovered without repair to damaged tissue itself, assumed other parts could take over
Evidence for localization
Gall “phrenology”
Paul Broca “tan”
John Hughlings Jackson “jacksonian march”
Evidence for mass action
Pierre Flourens “equipotentiality” animal lesions
Jacksonian March
John Hughlings Jackson
noticed there was a specific sequence of body parts that correlate with seizure activity traveling along motor cortex
Paul Broca
tan
language production
left frontal cortex
Factor that advanced brain studies
aseptic surgery
Method of learning a great deal about neural function
studying morphology from brain tissue under microscope
Camilo Golgi
developed a silver stain that allowed for visualization of individual neurons
BELIEVED brain was a continuous mass of tissue with a common cytoplasm
Synctyium
Santiago Ramon y Cajal
Neural Doctrine: nervous system made up of individual neurons
Neuron Doctrine
Ramon y Cajal
nervous system made up of individual neurons
Fritzch and Hitzig
reported that electrical stimulation in anterior part of dog’s frontal lobe produced movement in opposite side of body
part of body affected varied systematically with positioning of electrode
supported Jackson’s somotropic organization
Describe the process of neuronal communication
electrical-chemical transmission
(1) electrical impulses carry signals along axon
(2) chemical transmitters carry signals between neurons across synapse
Describe neuronal communication
Describe
PSP Summation
postsynaptic potential summation – EPSPs and IPSPs integrate spatially and temporally at the axon hillock
their summation determines signal
IPSP: hyperpolarization, cell further away from threshold, less likely to fire
EPSP: depolarization, generates action potential
Glutamate
EPSP
excitatory neurotransmitter
opening of Na+
GABA
IPSP
inhibitory neurotransmitter
influx of Cl- ions, hyperpolarizing cell /orK+