This is a summary of the course 'Cognitive Neuroscience' in period 1 of year 3. It is a course in the minor “Brain and Mind”. The summary is of all lectures, recorded lectures and the book. All information can be found here! The summary is in a question and answer format so that you are more ac...
Lecture 1
What is the main question from neuroscience?
How does behaviour arises from the brain?
What can you say about brain size and behaviour?
There are animals with a brain much more heavy then humans (e.g., elephant). This means
that volume does not equal the same advanced behaviour.
Our brain is 18% smaller compared to neanderthaler & Cro-Magnon. What does this mean?
Meaning, brain size/mass does not matter.
What does matter for advanced cognition? (3)
- Specialized regions / Dedicated regions (i.e., dedicated regions in the human brain
that allow them to develop specific behaviour)
- Wiring diagram (i.e., how the brain is wired)
- Efficiency of information processing
What is a popular open question about the brain?
What is so special about the human brain
The brain is far from homogeneous. Why is that?
Because it has structural (e.g., 4 lobes) and functional domains.
Lecture 2 - Cross-Scale Analysis of
Human Neocortex
From single cells to synaptic communication to mental ability
From single cells to synaptic communication to mental ability. What is the order from
smallest/simples to more advanced?
- Morphology (structure),
- Function
- Cell-types
- Synapse
- Mental ability.
Cross-scale human neuroscience. What is this?
Focussing on genes, individual dendrites, contactpoints for neurons, single neurons,
network, so on different levels of organization you try to understand the structure. We are
focusing on a detailed level which became more popular the past few years.
Large Scale Neuroscience. What are examples? (2)
- Human Brain Project
- Brain Initiative
,Organization principles at (sub) cellular level. What is the order from big to small?
1 cortical sheet (which is the outer layer) → 1 macrocolumn → 1 minicolumn
What do we see when we look at cortical sheets? What is the consensus? What is also
important to note? What is the building block of the cortical sheet? What forms a
microprosessor together?
- When we look at the cortical sheets, we can see clear boundaries between layers,
horizontal layers.
- The consensus is that there are 6 layers.
- There are different cell types in the layers.
- The building block of the cortical sheet is a column.
- Cells that align in a column form a microprosessor together.
Neuroscience does most research with labaratory animals. How much is this in cellular
neuroscience? What is a limitation with this?
- This is 99% of the time the case.
- Although, the brains are not identical. A rodent brain is a gram and a human brain is
more then a kilo.
Do cellular properties differ across species?
What does also differ?
Yes (size and branching patterns differ)
- Behaviour also differs.
Most neurons don’t look like this picture. What is especially of?
The scale.
,What kind of neurons in what animal are these?
Neurons in a rat (motor cortex, superficial layer 2,3)
What is biocytin used for? What is it?
- To show cells under microscopy.
- It is a sort of dye to stain neurons.
What is apical dendrite? What is a basal dendrite?
Apical dendrite = Dendrite from a pyramidal cell from the apex.
Basal dendrite = Don’t sprout from the apex of the pyramid
What are the most common neurons? Where are they located? (2) What
is a function of multipolar neurons? Which neuron is the most common in
the cerebral cortex?
- Multipolar neurons are the most common type of neuron.
- They are located in the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and in
autonomic ganglia.
- Multipolar neurons have more than two processes emanating from the neuron cell
body.
- Pyramidal cells.
What is the root apical meristem, or root apex?
A small region at the tip of a root in which all cells are capable of repeated division and from
which all primary root tissues are derived.
What is the main learning objective of this lecture?
Cells between species are not on the same scale. On pictures they are often scaled.
Cells have a different morphology based on what?
Their position in the brain (e.g., surface or deeper in the brain)
, What are the long dendrites, meaning the ones that point out or pointing up, are the?
Apical dendrites.
What does every cell has?
One axon (see human picture (sub)cellular level))
Do apical dendrites originate from one point? What also happens?
- Yes.
- It also branches.
Where do oblique dendrites branch of?
The apical dendrites.
What are apical obliques? What are apical tufts?
Apical obliques = They branch off the apical trunk (primary apical dendrite(s)))
Apical tufts = What the apical trunk extends into
Slide 13 (check the picture).
- Make sure you can identify the
structures of this neuron!
What can you see in this picture?
Different neurons with especially a different
morphology. You can also see that they are
located in a different region.
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