Summary: Neuropsychology

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• The History of Neuropsychology

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• What was Trepanation? (around 5000BC)

  Drilling a hole into the skull 
  It was thought that this would:
  - cure headaches
  - cure mental disorders (by allowing evil spirits to escape)
  = indicates importance of the brain 

• What did Edwin Smith Papyrus do in around 3000BC in Ancient Egypt? What is the contradictory evidence for his findings?

  He recorded effects of head injury and references to hemiplegia (muscle weakness) - shows that brain & body linked 
  
  Contradictory evidence:
  Mummification in Ancient Egypt - the heart was preserved but the brain was thrown away. Suggests they thought the heart was sacred, not the brain.

• What did Pythagorus propose in 582-507 BC?

  The brain hypothesis = the brain was the most important 

• What did the Hippocrates propose in 460-370BC? What were they the first to find?

  That the brain controls everything e.g. feeling, emotion etc
  
  They found that paralysis occurred on the side opposite to the side of the brain lesion 

• What did Plato propose (420-347)?

  - The mind and body are separate but connected - dualism 
  - The soul controls both mind and body
  
  He proposed that the soul is split into 3 elements:
  1. Appetite
  2. Reason (overrides the other 2 elements)
  3. Spirit 
  - these elements reside in the brain 

• Who was Aristotle and what did he propose about the world? What hypothesis did he propose?

  Student of Plato
  
  He proposed that the world was split into 2 parts:
  1. Mind (psyche)
  2. Matter
  
  Psyche: 
  - non physical 
  - responsible for thought, perception, emotion, memory, imagination, pain, desire etc
  - Independent of body but works via heart to produce action
  
  Cardiac Hypothesis
  Heart = warm & active - it is the main organ of rational thought and the centre of the soul
  Brain = without blood - function is to cool the hot blood from the heart 

• Why were the Greeks restricted in their investigation of the central nervous system?

  Dissection was sacrilegious - they couldn't prove/disprove their theories 

• What did Galen (129-199/217) study?

  - The human body via gladiator wounds 
  - Dissected animals (e.g. sheep, pigs, monkeys) when they were alive = studied the living body 
  
  = detailed understanding of nervous and circulatory systems 

• What did Galen find regarding the circulatory system? 

  - arteries contain blood
  - two systems of distribution: 
           1. Venous blood: created and pumped by the liver
           2. Arterial blood: created and pumped by the heart 
  - blood distributed to all organs 

• What did Galen find in terms of the cerebellum and cerebrum?

  Cerebrum: controls sensation 
  Cerebellum: command muscles