PSYC 221 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Edgar Adrian, Parahippocampal Gyrus
13 May 2017
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Document Summary
Cognitive neuroscience is the study of the physiological basis of cognition. Neurons: the building blocks of the nervous system. Nature of electrical signals in the brain and pathways that they travel began to be discovered in 19th century. By adding special stains to brain tissue, this increases the contrast between different types of tissue: saw a network called nerve tract that was believed to be continuous which would provide a complex pathway for conducting signals. At the time, microscopes could not show details and without this, the nerve net appeared to be continuous. In 1870s, camillo golgi developed a stain completed by immersing slide of brain tissue in silver nitrate, colouring less than 1% of cells completely: allowed to see structure of a single neuron. Cell body: contains mechanisms to keep the cell alive. Dendrites: branch out from the cell body to receive signals from other neurons. Axon/nerve fiber: transmit signals to other neurons.
