PSYB55H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Lentiform Nucleus, Basal Ganglia, Basal Forebrain
PSYB55 - Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience
Lecture 1 - Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience
Readings: Chapter 1
Chapter 1 - A Brief History of Cognitive Neuroscience
A Historical Perspective
●Cognitive Neuroscience
○Cognition - the process of knowing (i.e., what arises from awareness, perception, and
reasoning
○Neuroscience - the study of how the nervous system is organized and functions
○Understanding how the functions of the physical brain can yield the thoughts and ideas of
an intangible mind
●Scientific Method - to understand how biological systems work, a laboratory is needed and
experiments have to be performed to answer the questions under study and to support or refute
the hypotheses and conclusions that have been made
A Selection of Terms Coined by Thomas Willis (founder of clinical neuroscience)
●Anterior Commissure - axonal fibres connecting the middle and inferior temporal gyri of the left
and right hemispheres
●Cerebellar Peduncles - axonal fibres connecting the cerebellum and brainstem
●Claustrum - a thin sheath of gray matter located between two brain areas: the external capsule and
the putamen
●Corpus Striatum - a part of the basal ganglia consisting of the caudate nucleus and the lenticular
nucleus
●Inferior Olives - the part of the brainstem that modulates cerebellar processing
●Internal Capsule - white matter pathways conveying information from the thalamus to the cortex
●Medullary Pyramids - a part of the medulla that consists of corticospinal fibres
●Neurology - the study of the nervous system and its disorders
●Optic Thalamus - the portion of the thalamus relating to visual processing
●Spinal Accessory Nerve - the 11th cranial nerve, which innervates the head and the shoulders
●Stria Terminalis - the white matter pathway that sends information from the amygdala to the basal
forebrain
●Striatum - gray matter structure of the basal ganglia
●Vagus Nerve - the 10th cranial nerve, which, among other functions, has visceral motor control of
the heart
The Brain Story
●Central Issue: whether the mind is enabled by the whole brain working in concert or by
specialized parts of the brain working at least partly independently
●Thomas Willis
○Notion that isolated brain damage (biology) could affect behaviour (psychology)
●Gall’s Ideas
○Brain was the organ of the mind and that innate faculties were localized in specific
regions of the cerebral cortex
○Brain was organized around some 35 or more specific functions, ranging from cognitive
basics (language and color perception) to more ephemeral capacities (affection and moral
sense)
●Gall & Spurzheim
○Hypothesis: if a person used one of the faculties with greater frequency than the others,
the part of the brain presenting that function will grow
○Anatomical Personology - careful analysis of the skull could describe the personality of
the person inside the skull
○Phrenology - idea that character could be divined through palpating the skull
●Flourens
○First to show that certain parts of the brain were responsible for certain functions
○Removal of the cerebral hemispheres resulted in loss of perception, motor ability, and
judgement
■Uncoordinated and lost their equilibrium
○Concluded that advanced abilities such as memory or cognition were more diffusely
scattered throughout the brain
○Aggregate Field Theory - notion that the whole brain participated in behaviour
●Dax
○Patients with left-hemisphere lesions had speech disturbances
■Speech could be disrupted by a lesion to one hemisphere only
●Jackson
○During the start of seizures, some epileptic patients moved in such characteristic ways
that the seizure appeared to be stimulated a set map of the body in the brain
■Clonic and tonic jerks in muscles, produced by the abnormal epileptic firings of
neurons in the brain, progressed in the same orderly pattern from one body part to
another
○Topographic organization in the cerebral cortex: a map of the body represented across a
particular cortical area, where one part would represent the foot, lower leg, and so on
○Lesions on the right side (did not maintain specific parts) of the brain affect visuospatial
processes more than lesions on the left side
○Many regions of the brain contributed to a given behaviour
●Broca
○Tan
■Developed aphasia: he could understand knowledge language, but “tan” was the
only word he could utter
■He had a syphilitic lesion in his left hemisphere in the inferior frontal lobe
(Broca’s area)
●Wernicke
○Studied patient that could talk freely but made little sense when he spoke and could not
understand spoken or written language
Document Summary
Chapter 1 - a brief history of cognitive neuroscience. Cognition - the process of knowing (i. e. , what arises from awareness, perception, and reasoning. Neuroscience - the study of how the nervous system is organized and functions. Understanding how the functions of the physical brain can yield the thoughts and ideas of an intangible mind. Scientific method - to understand how biological systems work, a laboratory is needed and experiments have to be performed to answer the questions under study and to support or refute the hypotheses and conclusions that have been made. A selection of terms coined by thomas willis (founder of clinical neuroscience) Anterior commissure - axonal fibres connecting the middle and inferior temporal gyri of the left and right hemispheres. Cerebellar peduncles - axonal fibres connecting the cerebellum and brainstem. Claustrum - a thin sheath of gray matter located between two brain areas: the external capsule and the putamen.
