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Course notes Mind & Brain (840113-B-6)
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Brain partLecture 1
Chapters
4: The brain and behavior
5: sensation and perception
6: consciousness
8: memory
Organization ‘Brain’
- 7 lectures and 3 practicals
Lecture 1: introduction to CNS
Lecture 2: neuroanatomy
- Practical 1: neuroanatomy
Lecture 3: perception
Lecture 4: consciousness
- Practical 2: computer experiments
Lecture 5: memory
Lecture 6: Emotion
- Practical 3: exam questions
Lecture 7: Free will? (together with dr. Dooremalen)
How to pass ‘brain’?
- ‘brain’ difficult? Not necessarily!
- But a lot of new and often detailed information
- Many theories on different subjects
- Many new concepts and facts
- Adequate number of pages in the book (=200)
- Attend lectures/practicals
- Start with reading the book one week before the exam? Fail is guaranteed! Keep up
with reading.
- Just reading the book/slides? Fail is guaranteed! Learn by heart!
Study load ‘Brain’
- Study load 3 ects = 48 hours
- 7 lectures + 3 practicals = 20 hours
- The general standard is five pages per hour = = 40 hours
- Studying the slides = 20 hours
- Total workload for Brain = 80 hours
- Lectures (but not practicals) are recorded: available on BB 2 weeks before exam
Lecture 1: Introduction to Cognitive neuroscience
Cognitive neuroscience:
- Study of mind and behavior
What is behavior? Any form of ACTION in a living organism
- Directly observable actions and responses: including blushing, sweating, etc.
,What is the mind? Internal states and processes that are not directly observable
- Must be inferred from observable, measurable responses
- E.g. Loneliness: we are unable to see feelings of loneliness. Instead we must infer
how others feel from behavior and verbal statements.
we study both, the relation between the to, behavior and mind.
What does a cognitive neuroscientist study?
- How does our brain work?
- We study mental functions that we use everyday such as perception, thinking,
decision making, action, language, attention, emotion, motivation, learning and
memory.
How can we study the brain and its functions?
- Correlation research
- Experimental research most of the times this
- Tools and strategies to measure the brain function and cognition
Correlational research:
- Measures association between two variables
for example: a relation between the variables length and weight of people, or the
number of cigarettes per day and lifespan.
- Scatterplot: a graph that shows the correlation between two variables
direction of relationship: positive or negative
strength of relationship: the closer the correlation coefficient gets to 1 (+ or -), the
stronger the relationship
Correlation does not equal causation problem!
(1) What causes what?
More time spend outside increased feeling of well being
More time spent outside - increased feeling of well being ??
More time spent outside increased feeling of well being ??
What causes what?
(2) The relationship between two variables may be coincidental
(3) The relationship between two variables may be influenced by other variables which
are lurking in the background
correlation between color of the grass and ice-cream sales
the more the yellow the grass gets the more ice cream is sold
sunshine is the cause
Correlation research does not provide information about causality (whether A causes B),
whereas Experimental research does.
Experimental research what we do for 99%
- The researcher manipulates just one aspect of the situation while the rest stays the
same. The effect of this manipulation on behavior is then measured. This approach
does allow inferences about causality
, - The experimenter designs a task for the subject and manipulates one aspect
- The experimenter measures the behavior and/or brain activity of the subject
- The experimenter relates the behavior and brain activity to the experimental
manipulation
Two flavours
1. Between subjects design: each subject participates in only one condition
example: does alcohol increase reaction time?
random assignment of subjects to conditions initial equivalence
group A: 5 glasses of wine and group B: 5 glasses of water independent variable
(experimental manipulation) we measure reaction time in a car (dependent
variable, measurement)
2. Within subject design: each subject receives all conditions
example: is the reaction time different for auditory and visual stimuli?
in one subject condition A: visual stimuli , condition B: auditory stimuli
(independent variable, experimental manipulation) we measure reaction time
(dependent variable, measurement)
We are going to do an experiment now:
Read out the words as fast as possible
Name the color
what we can do now measure the reaction time but it in a diagram reaction time
for the second time was way longer EUREKA!
Stroop effect you cannot help reading there is an inbalance first come up with a
solution that’s why it takes more time
- Questions to you about the design of the stroop experiment:
- Was this a between or within subject design? within
- What was the independent variable (what was varied?) what you have to say out
loud, the tasks was varied
- What was the dependent variable (what was measured?) the reaction time the
total time that you were busy reading out.
Tools to measure brain function and cognition.
Tools to measure the brain and its function
Behavioral level
- Reaction times
- Eye tracking see what are you looking at measure of attention
Tools to measure brain function:
Neuronal level
- fMRI: Functional magnetic resonance imaging brain is scanned in 3D fashion
where your brain is active indirect measure we measure oxygen in your blood
, drawback of this method: it is very expensive to buy and to use + we don’t know
when the activity in the brain is we only know where. This is because the blood flow
is really slow.
high spacial resolution but poor temporal resolution
so, for that we need another method
- EEG: electroencephalography
we know when it is happening, differences between conditions, when the brain is
processing stimuli, but not where.
we measure the electrical activity
great temporal resolution but poor spacial resolution
- ECoG: electrocorticography
using electrotes and putting them directly on the brain
brain has to be cracked open, if someone is in surgery only
place sensors and then have a good spacial and temporal resolution to measure
brain function only seldemly that we can use that
- MEG: Magnetoencephalography
if the brain cells are active they admit electrical activity can measure that with
EEG
but the brain cells also admit magnetic activity They are little batteries and
magnets. you can measure the magnetic outflows
disadvantage: very expensive
positive side: it combines the good stuff of fMRI and EEG so you have a high
spacial resolution and a high temporal resolution we know where and when in the
brain!
Could also do; look at your heart rate
interval between heart rates; heart rate fiability
it is not always the same when you measure the heart rate; it is variable which is good!
- ECG: electrocardiography a task, high work load, mental effort heart variability
is declining can use as a measure
- EMG: electromyography (muscle activity) can measure the emotions directly in
the face
- SCR: Skin conductance response sensors on the fingers, measures sweat response
and arousal is often used in lie detection lying is an internal state we cannot
see that but can try to figure it out with ECG, EMG SCR.
Single cell recording (in animals)
they stick a needle in the brain can measure the activity of one specific cell subject
sees something is the cell responding or not?
Animal lesion studies
Logic of Lesion studies:
- Damaged area plays a role in accomplishing whatever task is deficient after the lesion
so, you teach an animal a certain task than destroy a particular part of the
brain where you think the animal needs in order to do that task and if the animal
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