PSYC 2240 Lecture Notes - Gustav Fritsch, Luigi Galvani, Electric Charge
Document Summary
Chapter 4-how do neurons use electrical signals to transmit information. Gustav theodor fritsch and eduard hitzig: demonstrated that electrical stimulation of the neocortex causes movement, observed arm and leg movements in response to the stimulation of specific parts of the studied rabbits and dogs neocortex. Hermann von helmholtz stimulated a nerve leading to a muscle and measured the time the muscle took to contract. The nerve conducted information at only 30 to 40 meters per second, whereas electricity flows along a wire about a million times faster. Information flow in the nervous system, then, is much too slow to be a flow of electricity (based on electrons) Tools for measuring a neuron"s electrical activity: produce these waves using electrical stimulation and measure them using electrical recording techniques to determine how they are produced, when a single axon is stimulated, it produces a wave of excitation.
