PS267 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Behaviorism, Partial Seizure, Wilder Penfield
History of Cognitive Neuroscience
Galen of Permagon (130-200AD)
● Roman gladiators
● Physician to the Roman Emperors
● Speech loss (?? look in text)
Thomas Willis (1621-1675)
● A founder of clinical neuroscience - coined the word Neurology
● First anatomist to link abnormal behaviour to changes in brain structure
● Would take notes of patients behaviour and conduct brain autopsy after death to look for
possible damage
● Coined names for many brain regions
● Image was published in Willis’s The Anatomy of the Brain and Nerves in 1664
● These pictures of the brain were the most accurate for almost 200 years
● Great fire of 1666 in London, most of the noteworthy buildings in the 1600s (St. Paul’s
cathedral)
Franz Joseph Gall
● One of the founders of phrenology
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
● Contours of the skull provided information about the cognitive capabilities and
personalities of individuals
● His method involved correlating variations in character with variations in skull shape
● According to phrenology, moral and intellectual faculties depend on the physical
structure of an individual brain
● Differential development (usage) results in differential growth
The Demise of Phrenology
● False assumption that surface of the skull provided information about the structure of the
underlying brain
● Only looked for confirming evidence and ignored disconfirming evidence
● = bad science
● But did promote the idea of localization of function which has had a profound influence
on cognitive neuroscience
Marie-Jean-Pierre Flourens (1794-1867)
● The central figure in the demise of phrenology was Flourens
● Napoleon had his skull examined by Gall and received a less than favourable reading
● So Napoleon encouraged Flourens to discredit Phrenology - that set him on his
experiments
● Flourens developed aggregate field theory and experimental ablation
● Ablation: a research method whereby the function of a particular region of an animal’s
brain is inferred by removing it and then observing the animal’s behaviours (dogs and
pigeons)
● Aggregate field theory: the whole brain participates in behaviour, it is impossible to
localize things such as memory or language because multiple brain areas are required,
couldn’t remove any one part of the cerebral hemispheres to disrupt memory
Localization Laid to Rest?
● Flourens’ work puts localizationist assumption out of favour
● Aggregate field theory triumphs for about 20 years…
● Broca and Hughlings-Jackson rally back and Localization reigns supreme to this day
Localization
● John Hughlings-Jackson (1835-1911)
○ First scientist to realize that cognitive functions can be localized to a certain part
of the brain and that different functional regions take part in any given behaviour
○ Proposed a topographic organization to the cerebral cortex based on his work
with epilepsy patients (Jacksonian march… hand - arm - trunk - legs ???)
● Paul Broca (1824-1880)
○ Paul Broca extended the concept of experimental ablation to humans by
examining patients who had suffered brain damage such as a stroke or tumour
○ Broca advocated functional localization by cerebral convolution
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
A founder of clinical neuroscience - coined the word neurology. First anatomist to link abnormal behaviour to changes in brain structure. Would take notes of patients behaviour and conduct brain autopsy after death to look for possible damage. Image was published in willis"s the anatomy of the brain and nerves in 1664. These pictures of the brain were the most accurate for almost 200 years. Great fire of 1666 in london, most of the noteworthy buildings in the 1600s (st. paul"s cathedral) Contours of the skull provided information about the cognitive capabilities and personalities of individuals. His method involved correlating variations in character with variations in skull shape. According to phrenology, moral and intellectual faculties depend on the physical structure of an individual brain. Differential development (usage) results in differential growth. False assumption that surface of the skull provided information about the structure of the underlying brain. Only looked for confirming evidence and ignored disconfirming evidence.
