Neuroscience Chapter 1

Introduction
Animism is the philosophy that the physic and chemistry of the world were
governed by spirits.
The Mind-Body question is the debate of the mind; does it control the nervous
system, part of the nervous system, physical or tangible?

Not an easy debate to deliberate on since non-physical phenomena cannot

be detected in the laboratory.
Dualism is the belief in dual nature of reality.
o The concrete separation of the body and the mind, where the first is
made of ordinary matter and the second is not.
Monism is the belief that everything in the universe consists of matter and
energy.
o Mind is a phenomenon produced by the workings of the nervous
system.

Consciousness is the ability for humans to be aware of our thoughts, perceptions,

memories and feelings.

This can be considered and attributed to our elaborate evolution, our

invention of language and our establishment of our behaviours.
Hypothesized that consciousness is a physiological function like behaviour.

Blindsight is the phenomena where the brain may intercept and interpret our
perceptions without the perceptions entering consciousness.

Two main brain divisions can be made based on evolution.

o The primitive visual systems evolved in fish and frogs is devoted to
controlling eye movements and bringing our attention to fast moving
objects.
This system is not directly connected to consciousness but
rather to brain regions in control of hand movements.
o The mammalian system developed afterwards is responsible for our
consciousness and our ability to perceive things around us.
Directly connected to consciousness.
Therefore, blindsight suggests that consciousness is not a property for all
parts of the brain.

Split Brains are obtained when cerebral hemispheres are no longer able to
communicate with each other.

This is done by cutting the corpus callosum, a large bundle of nerves that
connect corresponding parts of one side of the brain to the other.

Neuroscience Chapter 1
Cutting the corpus callosum in a split-brain operation is done for
severe epilepsy when only one side of the brain will stimulate the
other side to become overactive.
o Cutting it will greatly reduce the frequency of epileptic seizures.
Sensory perception and movement control are connected contralaterally.
o The opposing cerebral hemispheres become independent in perceiving
the information.
o Patients find that their left hand will have a mind of its own.
o Olfactory sensory, however, is connected ipsilaterally. Therefore, if
an odour enters the left nostril, the patient will be able to describe it.
However, language is lateralized mostly to the left hemisphere.
o When you speak with a split brain patient, you are only talking to the
left hemisphere.
o Since sensory information are only noted when they reach the left
hemispheres verbal and language region, we can say that
consciousness is situated there.
o

Unilateral Neglect is the phenomenon where the patient ignores objects and
movements specifically on the left side.

Caused by damage to the parietal cortex, which receives somatosensory

information as well as auditory and the analyses of movement and
location of visual information.
o Neglect of the left halves of things in the environment and
neglect of the left half of ones own body.
o Note that permanent neglect only occurs to the left side, caused by
right parietal cortex damage.
Patients with unilateral neglect are neither dumb or numb on one side.
They can see things located on their left and feel when one touches them on
their left, but normally they ignore such stimuli and are not conscious to
them.
Note that it is not simply the left perception field that is inactive as certain
patients only neglect the left side of an object. To be able to leave out the left
side of an object, one must first perceive the full object.
The neglect to the left side of objects and vision even extends to visual
imagery and recollections.
The rubber hand illusion concluded that the parietal cortex analyses the
sight and feeling of brush strokes, interrelates them, and then sends it to
the premotor cortex if they are congruent.

Physiological psychology stems from the foundation that the ultimate function of
the nervous system is behaviour.

The primary function of the brain is to control movement through the

perception of what is happening around us.

Neuroscience Chapter 1
Goals of research is to explain scientific phenomena. A scientific explanation can
take two forms

Generalization is the general conclusion of a scientific event based on many

observations of the similar phenomena
Reduction is the underlying descriptions of a scientific event.
o The explanation of a complicated phenomena with easier and basic
events.
We must first understand why a particular behaviour occurs psychologically
before we can understand it physiologically.

Ancestral roots for physiological psychology:

The Egyptians, Indians and Chinese cultures believed that the heart was
the seat of thought and emotions
However, Hippocrates challenged this in 460-370 BC and gave the role to the
brain.
French philosopher Decartes denoted reflexes as actions that did not
require the participation of the mind, an automatic action.
o Although a dualist, Decartes suggested a link between the ordinary
human body and the extraordinary human mind: the brain.
o He suggested that the body supplied the information to the mind
through its sensory organs, the mind would communicate to the body
through the pineal gland.
o Inspired by the Royal Gardens west of Paris, he thought that the
nervous system functioned on hydraulics from the ventricle
system in the brain.
o He established the first mechanical model for the explanation of the
nervous system
o He was quickly proven wrong by Galvani, who was able to stimulate
muscles that were detached from the CNS.
A scientific model is a simple, physical analogy for a complicated
physiological process.
German physiologist Muller pushed experimental physiology from
observations and classifications to experimental testing of animal organs.
o He established the doctrine of specific nerve energies: in which he
concluded that all nerves carry electrical impulses as messages.
French physiologist Flourens introduced experimental ablation, which is
the research method in which brain function in a specific region is inferred by
observing the behaviours of an animal that is missing the specific region of
the brain.
Fritsch and Hitzig used electrical stimulations on the primary motor
cortex and found stimulations in the muscles on the contralateral side of the
dog.

Neuroscience Chapter 1

Broca, through indirect experimental ablation observations in humans,

determined that language and speech was focused to the cerebral
cortex on the left side, now named Brocas area.
Helmholtz was the first scientist to attempt to measure the speed of
conduction of a neuron.

Darwins theory of evolution and a species inherent survival behaviours gave rise to
functionalism, which is a belief that characteristics of living organisms
perform useful functions.

This principle aims to bets understand a biological phenomenon by

understanding its useful function for the organism.
Functional analysis experiment was done by Blest.
o Butterflys and moths had eye spots on the back of their wings to defer
birds from eating them.
Several evolutionary traits had benefited the homo sapiens and allows them
to house a bigger brain:
o To harbour a larger brain requires a larger skull.
o The more intellectual brain also has less percentage of its neurons
dedicated to analysing and sending motor and sensory
information, but more for learning, remembering, reasoning and
making plans.
o Our brains are able to develop larger because of the phenomenon
called neoteny, which is a prolonged period of neural maturation,
allowing more time for brain growth.

Ethical Issues in Research with Animals

Physiological psychologists study all behavioural phenomena that can be
observed in nonhuman animals.