Interdisciplinary field, that studies the biological foundations of behaviour, emotions and mental processes
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What is the brain hypothesis?
Ancient view of the nervous system.
Plato - Head was closes to heavens so is important
Aristotle - brain cooled the blood, heart was the organ of thinking and feeling.
Hippocrates - believed in the brain hypothesis
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Who was Galen (129-199BC)?
Doctor who treated gladiators injuries. Believed ventricles of the brain carried out thinking as he observed gladiators behavioural changes following injury to head.
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What it the Mind-Body Problem?
A philosophical argument - can the mind (spiritual only not physical) be explained by the body (physical)?
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2 Views on how the mind and body are related
Monism - Only one is real either the physical or spiritual
Dualism - both exist (descartes) famously stated there is brain and mind, and they interact with pineal gland.
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What is did phrenologists do?
They tried to localise the functions of the brain to structure based on bumps and shape of the skull.
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What is a positive to phrenology?
Its popularity lead to empirical researchers trying to understand the brain with proper study and experiments
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What is neuropsychology?
Branch of psychology concerned with how the brain and nervous system influence a persons cognition and behaviour. Focus on neutrons and micro/macroanatomy of nervous system.
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Who was Paul Broca? (1824-1880)
Suggested specific areas of the brain might control language.
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What was the name of Broca's Patient?
Leborgne
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What was wrong with Broca's patient?
He was unable to speak any more than simple words.
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What could Broca's patient do?
He understood the language and could answer non-verbally, and could produce speech sounds.
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What did post mortem of Leborgne reveal?
He had a lesion in the left hemisphere.
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What did this discovery lead Broca to find?
Several other patients who experienced language problems also had a lesion In similar areas of the brain.
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What is Leborgnes language disorder now called?
Aphasia.
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What was this the first evidence of?
Specialisation of function within one hemisphere
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What is Aphasia?
When a person has difficulty with their language or speech. Usually caused by the left side of the brain.
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What are the two types of aphasia?
Broca, Wernicke
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What is Wernickes aphasia?
The patients couldn't comprehend language at all, but could speak and articulate properly.
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What is neural plasticity?
Changes in the brain during development and adulthood caused by experience.
e.g. a child bought up to speak Spanish will have a qualitatively different brain structure to one bought up to speak English.
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What was Rainvilles (1997) social experiment on the brain?
Hand in hot water experiment. participants were asked to put their hands in hot water. 1/2 told it was very hot, 1/2 were told it wasn't very hot, and ratings of unpleasantness of water differed between the two groups.
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What did the brain scan of participants show?
Group who were told it would be very hot showed more pain related brain activity than the others, even though the water was identical for both groups.
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Reading for this lecture?
Kolb chapter 1
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Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
What is the brain hypothesis?
Back
Ancient view of the nervous system.
Plato - Head was closes to heavens so is important
Aristotle - brain cooled the blood, heart was the organ of thinking and feeling.
Hippocrates - believed in the brain hypothesis
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