PSYC 271 Lecture Notes - Neuropsychology, Neuroendocrinology, Neuroimmunology

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 271
• Professor: Monica Valsangkar- Smyth

Document Summary

Testing of how body & brain worked together. Doctrine of specific nerve energies/ localization of fn. Suggested that a link exists between the human mind and its physical housing, the brain. The mind controlled body movements while the body supplied the mind with information about what was happening in the environment. Experimentation began on how brain, nerves and muscles might work together. All the nerves carry the same basic message (electrical impulse), we perceive the messages of different nerves in different ways. A message carried by the optic nerve and auditory nerve produce different effects because the brain is functionally divided, so different parts receive different messages from different nerves. Used phrenology or measurements of the skull size whereby depressions and bumps on the skull indicated the size of the underlying area of the brain. Size was correlated with personality traits and was used to study murderers, but was very subjective.