PSY270H1 Chapter 2: PSY270 Chapter 2.docx

• School: UTSG
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY270H1
• Professor: Kristie Dukewich

Document Summary

Cognitive neuroscience: the study of the physiological basis of cognition. Neurons: building blocks and transmission lines of the nervous system. Neurons: the building blocks of the nervous system. To understand the relation between the brain and the mind it is necessary to look within the brain and observe the small units that make up its structure and the electrical signals that travel in these units. To observe the structure of the brain, 19th-century anatomists applied special stains to the brain tissue, which increased the contrast between different types of tissue within the brain. Nerve net: network; believed to be continuous; provided a complex pathway for conducting signals uninterrupted through the network (the microscopes of the time could not resolve small details) In the 1870"s, anatomist camillo golgi developed a staining technique that involved immersing a thin slice of brain tissue in a solution of silver nitrate individual cells became stained at random.