Home / Summaries / Electrical Engineering: Concepts and Applications / brain-areas-neuroscience

The rise of neuroscience

31 important questions on The rise of neuroscience

Why did aristotle think that the mind was the heart?

The heart is perceptibly affected by emotion

It is located at a central point, according to the role of thinking

All living creatures with blood have a heart, but not all have an observable brain (invertebrates)
he thought the brain was cooling the heart

What did galen do for neuroscience?

He discovered a a function of the nerve pathways
Cutting the nerves in a pig's throat prevents the pig from making any noise

So the 'voice' comes from the brain, not the heart
The role of the brain as a hub was established

What were vesalius' ideas about the brain?

Beforehand it was thought that the ventricles hold the mind.
vesalius confirmed three ventricles and made a functional distinction; from front to back;

1st ventricle: common sense, fantasy

2nd ventricle: thoughts
3rd ventricle: memory

What did descartes do for neuroscience?

introduced mechanical ideas about body and behavior
he introduced the reflex;

a sensory sensation travels through the nerves

it's 'bounced back' through the same nerves as a mirror in the brain
That leads to (involuntary) behavior

How did descartes solve the mind-body problem?

Descartes said there were two substances; the material and the immaterial.
the soul was the immaterial substance.
the reason that the soul as immaterial substance could move the material body is because Body and soul meet in pineal gland

What did willis do for neuroscience?

He moved the focus on the brain from the ventricles and the pineal gland to the rest of the matter
he thought Higher brain structures were for more advanced organisms, more complex functions
Lower structures were for more elementary functions

What did gall do for neuroscience?

He was the founding father of;

organology;

Differences in predisposition can be seen in cortical development: well- developed function, larger cortical area

cranioscopy;

Differences in cortical development can be seen in nodules of the skull (e.g. language module)

What did flourens do for neuroscience?

He was the first to be able to cut in animals' brains and keep them alive for a day or more.
while doing this he discovered;
the localization of function of the brainstem, but not of the cortex.
after cutting it the cortex was still functional
he proposed the equipotentiality theory; psychological functions are indivisible properties of the cortex as a whole
also; if you take away a piece of the cortex, it is still functional as a whole

What did sechenov do for neuroscience?

He was the founder of inhibition
he wrote about how inhibition is not only seen in experimental animal settings but also in sociaty, in the form of moral behavior

How did broca and wernicke contribute to the progressing of cortical localization?

They discovered broca and wernickes area;

People with damage to Broca's area say sensible things in bad sentences

People with damage to Wernicke's area say nonsensical things in good sentences

How did jackson contribute to neuroscience?

He studied epilepsy
found the jacksonian march; the order in which they twitched when having an attack was set.
based on this he hypothized that the order was caused by a corresponding order of brain activation
therefor he suspected around 1860 a specific relationship between certain brain areas and muscles in specific parts of the body

How did fritz and hitzig contribute to neuroscience?

They challenged flourens; they said the cortex was functioning as a whole
Cortex can be stimulated and there are several (motor) areas!
they found this by stimulating dog brains
confirmed Hughlings Jackson experimentally

How did bartholow contribute to neuroscience

He was the first to repeat fritz and hitzigs findings on humans
the woman died during experiments

After darwin proposed the evolution theory, how did spencer project this on the brain?

All structures, from brain structures to society structures, evolve from undifferentiated and homogeneous to differentiated and heterogeneous (increased complexity)

How did jackson combined the ideas of willis and fritz and hitzig?

Central nervous system has different levels of sensori-motor units (f and h)

The evolutionary oldest are at the bottom of the brain (willis)

The evolutionary newest (more complex, more differentiated and more flexible) areas are at the top of the brain
Higher areas integrate input from lower areas

How did jackson refute the idea of a soul?

Higher mental processes ('Will, Memory, Reason, and Emotion') found their origin in 'sensori-motor nervous arrangements'.
there is no soul, everything consists of sensori-motor arangements

Jackson thought that the higher brain areas not only integrate input from lower areas, but do something more. What was it and what was his reasoning?

He thought the higher brain areas also control the lower brain areas
so he thought behavior would go away if the brain area would be removed, but this didn't happen, new behavior started showing
so; he discovered ‘Release from control’: Cortical areas could no longer control, lower areas were given free play
he called this phenomenon Dissolution
dissolution is the opposite of evolution, instead of evolving to more complex behavior a step back is taken into more primitive behavior
also seen in drunkenness and Neurological & psychiatric disorders

What did golgi do for neuroscience?

The quality of microscopes increased in the 19th century
it was discovered that the brain consists of small parts ('globules')

Golgi discovered that you can make these globules visible with silver nitrate
he then became a Supporter of reticularism: the brain is a continuous network

How did y cajal built upon golgi's work?

He discovered with golgi's staining techique that the globules are actually separate cells instead of one continuous network

What was james' idea about emotion?

An emotion is a reaction in the cortex on the body's reaction on external stimuli.

What was cannon's view on emotion?

He created the thalamic theory
the thalamus is seen as the emotion area
here information comes together and then gives a signal to the cortex
a student of him, bard, changed it to the hypothalamus

What was the view on the hypothalamus and the cortex from 1930-1950?

Hypothalamus:

Emotions, drives, irrationality, unconsciousness

Cortex:

Ratio, control, consciousness

What did maclean do for neuroscience?

He created the visceral brain, later changed to limbic system
the idea is that the subcortical areas have a lot of connections with eachother and cortical areas
he combined this idea with psychotherapy
he stated that the visceral brain caused the id and that the cortical areas were the 'word brain' (so ego?)

How did maclean use his theory to describe certain disorders?

Neurotics: were stuck in the genital phase, but were still able to express their problems in words -> 'reduction of traffic of the autonomic circuits'

Psychosomatics: couldn't put it into words properly, so they only expressed themselves with organ language: 'chronic unexpressed rage' then led to hypertension

How did hebb contribute to neuroscience

He invented what fires together wires together
as the connection between neuron A and neuron B is used more often, it becomes stronger
So the network is not static, but evolves as a function of input from other parts of the brain and the environment
this idea of long term potentiation was biologically confirmed later on

How are the ideas on neurons combined in computer networks?

The combination of insights from Hebb, McCulloch and Pitts led to neural networks
With fairly simple principles, neural networks appear to be able to learn elementary tasks well

This is done by 'rewarding' good responses by strengthening the connections used

What was a problem with computer simulations of neural networks and how was this solved?

Each additional layer made the model more complicated
but with today's super powerful computers, more and more layers can be added

Simulations are becoming more realistic & performance better

What are the laws of alexander luria?

Law of hierarchical structure: Cortical areas have a dominant role in relation to secondary, lower-lying areas
Law of diminishing specificity: The further information is processed in the brain, the less specific, global and abstract it will be
Law of progressive lateralization: in the (cortical) hemispheres more functional lateralization can be found than in lower lying areas

What are the current views on how the brain works?

To a certain extent functional specialization

Most mental processes depend on multiple functional areas
Most areas contribute to different functions

Hierarchy in terms of integration and abstraction, not in terms of importance
Dynamic (both at neuronal and functional level)

How did berger contribute to neuroscience?

He made the first registration of neural electrical activity, through eeg

What was valenstein's critique on the way people looked at the relation of serotonin and dopamine in mental disorders?

He didn't like the fact that a causal relation was implemented;
Serotonin deficiency theory of depression: too little serotonin causes depression

Dopamine theory of schizophrenia: too much dopamine causes schizophrenia

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

Electrical Engineering: Concepts and Applications | 9780273743682 | Marc Brysbaert, et al

View summary

A unique study and practice tool
Never study anything twice again
Get the grades you hope for
100% sure, 100% understanding

Remember faster, study better. Scientifically proven.