Problem 8

Question 1

What was Platos view on where the soul is located ?

Answer 1

Thought the soul was divided into 3 parts, situated in the

1. Brain
   - -> for reasoning, immortal
2. Heart
   - -> for sensations, mortal
3. Liver
   - -> for appetite

Question 2

Galen

Answer 2

Was a greek physician that performed various operations on humans + animals to study the functions of various body parts

Question 3

What was Galens view on where the soul is located ?

17th/18th century

Answer 3

Thought the soul

1. resides in solid parts in the brain
2. produces + stores animal spirits in the ventricles

Question 4

Animal spirits

Answer 4

Refer to spirits that travel over the nerves between the ventricles in the brain + body

–> soul communicates by means of these spirits

Question 5

Ventricles

Answer 5

Refer to apertures (Öffnung) in the middle of the brain which were thought to contain perceptions + thoughts

—> contains animals spirits

Question 6

Differentiation of the vesicles

Renaissance

Answer 6

1. Front vesicle receives info from senses
   - -> “common sense”/Perception
2. Middle vesicle comprises thought + judgment
   - -> reasoning
3. Back vesicle contains memory

Question 7

What lead to an increased doubt in the existence of spirits in the nerves ?

Answer 7

Focus was turned to the solid parts of the brain, rather than the ventricles

–> led to the discovery of Grey + white matter, with grey matter involved in memory ( Thomas Willis)

Question 8

Galens definition of “Reflex” , respectively explanation

Answer 8

He referred to the observed phenomenon as “sympathy” between the various body parts

–> one body part responds sympathetically to another distress

Question 9

Descartes definition of “Reflex”, respectively explanation?

Answer 9

Said it consisted of a sensory impression which was rushed to the brain + subsequently reflected back into a motor command (like a mirror)

–> happens unconsciously

Question 10

A series of breakthrough altered the model of brain functioning + made modern neurophysiology possible.

Which were the 5 big breakthroughs in the 19th century ?

Answer 10

1. Discovery of the CEREBROSPINAL AXIS
2. Growing impact of REFLEX
   - -> Reflex arc
3. LOCALIZATION of brain functions
4. Discovery of the NEURON
5. Disentangling of COMMUNICATION between neurons

Question 11

What did physicians find out abut the role of the cerebrospinal axis in the regulation of physical functions in the 19th century ?

Answer 11

Many bodily functions didn’t require the cerebral hemispheres

–> reflexes were mediated by the spinal cord, not hemisphere

Question 12

Reflex arc

Hall

Answer 12

Refers to the mechanisms involved in involuntary movements elicited by sensory stimuli

• -> Describes the processes underlying a reflex
• -> made use of recent discovery of afferent+ efferent nerves

Question 13

How did the “Reflex arc” impact further research + discoveries ?

Answer 13

Reflex arc was extended from the spinal cord to the complete brain

–> saying it is the basis of mental functioning (Sechenov, teacher of Pavlov)

Question 14

Brain equipotentiality theory

Marie Jean Flourens + Müller

Answer 14

View that the brain functions as a whole with all parts having an equal significance

• -> later proved wrong + replaced by localization theory
• -> Holism

Question 15

Localization theory

Gall + Spurzheim

Answer 15

States that mental functions are localized in specific parts of the brain

• -> replaced the brain equipotentiality theory
• -> Phrenology

Question 16

Jean Baptiste Bouillard provided evidence for the fact that … ?

Answer 16

Language production is controlled by the front parts of the brain

–> first empirical evidence

Question 17

What did Paul Broca + Wernicke discover ?

Answer 17

That language production + comprehension is specifically controlled by the left frontal lobe

• -> Brocas area
• -> Wernickes area

Question 18

The availability of better microscopes + new techniques to stain brain tissues due to technical innovations in the 19th century lead to the discovery .. ?

Answer 18

… that the brain consists of a network of individual neurons that communicate with each other (Neuron Doctrine)

–> Golgi + Cajal

Question 19

How did Galvani find out that communication in the NS resembles the transmission of electrical signals ?

Answer 19

Noticed that a dissected leg of a frog contracted each time the assistant touched a bare nerve with his scalpel

Question 20

How did Reymond find out that nerve signals indeed involve electricity ?

Answer 20

By means of electric fishes + much improved techniques to measure small signals

–> in 20th century it was discovered that communication between nerve cells is achieved through neurotransmitters

Question 21

What did the examination of the bullet wounds in the WWs lead to ?

Answer 21

Provided physicians with better/ more detailed knowledge about the BEHAVIORAL consequences of brain injuries

ex.: Prosopagnosia, partial loss of vision after gun shot to neck

Question 22

Neuropsychology

Answer 22

Branch of psychological research, looking at the relationship between brain + behavior/mental state

• -> understanding consequences of brain damage
• -> increasingly took over the treatment of brain damaged patients

Question 23

What caused dissent among neuropsychologists ?

Answer 23

1. Damage caused by brain injuries + strikes are usually widespread and not limited to one specific brain structure
2. Results of the examinations really went beyond a list of symptoms displayed by various patients

Question 24

Cognitive Neuropsychology

1970s/80s

Answer 24

Research dealing with the consequences of brain injury for the information processing models proposed by the cognitive psychologists

–> aimed to find correlations between symptoms + dysfunctions in the brain

Question 25

Deep Dyslexia

Answer 25

Condition of strongly impaired reading after brain injury --> not reading the word itself but a semantically related word ex.: saying storm instead of thunder => one of the first topics to be addressed by cognitive neuropsychology

Question 26

One of the first techniques used to extract info from a working brain was "single-cell recording" which was invasive. Which non invasive + more advanced techniques were proposed later on ?

Answer 26

1. EEG - -> discovery of seizures, different sleep stages 2. ERP - -> allows to look for differing signals as a function of characteristics of the stimulus 3. MEG - -> better resolution 4. PET - -> invasive 5. fMRI - -> based on measurement of blood with + without oxygen - -> most popular => techniques show a correlation between brain activity + performance on a task NOT: whether brain activity is necessary

Question 27

Cognitive Neuroscience

Answer 27

Refers to the scientific study of the biological mechanisms underlying cognition, by using theories of CNP and try to find evidence for them by using brain imaging techniques - -> largely based on brain imaging techniques, TMS - -> created this new research field

Question 28

TMS

Answer 28

Refers to a stimulation if the brain to interfere briefly with the activity of a small region go the grey matter --> to ascertain that the brain region is crucial for performance

Question 29

Cognitive neuropsychiatry

Answer 29

Subfield that tries to understand consequences of mental disorder in terms of breakdown within the cognitive models of normal psychological functioning ex.: Delusions

Question 30

Delusions

Answer 30

Is a condition where one has strong beliefs that are not supported by empirical evidence

Question 31

Capgras delusion

Answer 31

Refers to a situation in which a person still recognizes close relatives but is convinced that they have been replaced by look alikes

Question 32

Freudian interpretation of delusion

Answer 32

States that delusional people adopt conflicting feelings towards relatives - -> these result in a dissociation between the absent loved persons + present hated look alikes - -> Ödipus complex

Question 33

Marie Jean Pierre Flourens

Answer 33

Best known critic of Gall --> was opposed to localization theory because this divided the mind + brain into functionally distinct parts => thought soul was unitary (religious)

Question 34

Associationism/ Connectionism (Wernicke)

Answer 34

Refers to a type of theorizing where language use was viewed in terms of associating representations in different brain centers --> emphasis was put on the connections between the centers BUT: The brain is also asymmetrical, Wernickes area only on left

Question 35

John Hughlings Jackson

Answer 35

Opposer of Connectionism --> thought that the NS is hierarchal organized + is highly interactive as a whole

Question 36

Identifiability Problem | Anderson

Answer 36

Inferences of the Neuropsychologists are only indirect, making it impossible to identify unique cognitive processes --> was solved by cognitive psychologists

Question 37

Arthur Wigan

Answer 37

Was a traveling doctor in the 19th century, who wrote the book "Duality of the mind" in his 60s - -> Thought that the brain consists of two separate halves, with own feelings + thoughts - -> corpus collosum being a division --> each brain lives an independent life, which explains multitasking

Question 38

How did Wigan explain insanity ?

Answer 38

There is always one dominant half, which determines how mentally healthy we are --> one hemisphere helps the other

Question 39

Sperry

Answer 39

Rediscovered Wigan 100 years later --> discovered the distinct functions of each hemisphere