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Hoorcolleges Neuropsychologie
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- Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen (RU)
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Lecture 1 Evolution & Function of the nervous systemEvolution & historical perspectives on mind and brain
Why is the brain so important?
The brain’s primary function is to produce behavior. To do so, it must:
• Receive information about the world through our senses (smell, hearing etc.);
• Integrate information to create a sensory reality (a dog sees a world different than people);
• Make a constant stream of predictions about what to expect (what is going to happen next;
when you know, you can adept behavior);
• Produces commands to control the movements of muscles.
The makeup of the nervous system altogether allows the brain to do so. The brain works in
combination with other nervous systems.
What is behavior?
• Relatively Fixed Behaviors (dependent on heredity and genes)
• Relatively Flexible Behaviors (dependent on learning)
• Complexity of behavior varies considerably in different species depending on complexity of
nervous system and the brain. Human brain is developed from the very basic brain that some
animals still have.
Example: A crossbill’s beak is specifically designed to open pine cones. This behavior is innate. A
baby roof rat must learn from its mother how to eat pine cones. This behavior is learned. Most human
behaviors retain some mixture of inheritance and learning. Like other animals, we retain many
inherited ways of responding. The sucking response of a newborn human infant is an inherited eating
pattern. Later in life, eating is strongly influenced by learning and by culture.
Philosophy of brain and behavior: Aristotle and Mentalism
Mentalism: An explanation of behavior as a function of the nonmaterial mind (there is something that is
not in our body, it influences our mind (like our soul). It would still be there if people die).
Ancient Greece: Aristotle: Psycho or soul: Synonym for mind; and entity once proposed to be the
source of human behavior, that lives after death.
If we talk about brain and behavior we have to take into consideration the current philosophical view
on the mind and the body, we have to realize ourselves that the way we talk about brain and behavior
at the moment is depending on the large general framework of how people think about the brain and
its association with behavior. In order to be aware of the current ideas about brain functioning it is
always good to know something about history and the way people previously thought about the brain
and behavior. The first philosopher with influential ideas about the human mind is Aristotle
The psyche was held responsible for human consciousness, perceptions, and emotions, as well as
processes such as imagination, opinion, desire, pleasure, pain, memory, and reason.
The nonmaterial psyche was thought to be an entity independent of the body. A nonmaterial entity
governs our behavior, and our essential consciousness survives our death.
Philosophy of brain and behavior: Descartes and Dualism
Dualism:
• Both a nonmaterial mind and the material body contribute to behavior
• Mind directs rational behavior
• Body and brain direct all other behavior via mechanical and physical principles (example:
sensation, movement, and digestion)
• Mind is connected to the body through the pineal gland of the brain.
Mind-Body Problem: Difficult/impossible to explain a nonmaterial mind in command of a material body.
Descartes proposed tests for the presence of mind: the ability to use language and memory to reason.
He proposed that nonhuman animals and machines would be unable to pass the tests because they
lacked a mind.
1
,Problems with Descartes
Pineal gland is involved in biological rhythms but not in intelligence or behavioral control.
Fluid is not pumped from the ventricles to control movement.
Nonmaterial influences on the body would violate the law of conservation of matter and energy.
Philosophy of brain and behavior: Darwin and Materialism
Materialism:
• Behavior can be explained as a function of the nervous system without considering the mind
as a separate substance
• Related to evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin
Darwin’s Concept of Natural Selection: Differential success in the reproduction (i.e., passing on your
genes) of different characteristics / behavior (phenotypes) results from the interaction of organisms
with their environment!! Traits / behavior that increase reproductive success and chances of survival
will be passed on to offspring. If you’re better able to cope with the environment, the chances that you
pass on your genes are higher. Competition is a key concept.
Materialism is strongly related to the evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin. Darwin studied the
ancestors of humans and how the evolution developed and resulted in human beings.
Central to Darwin’s theory is the concept of natural selection which explains how certain specifies can
survive while other spices extinct. Darwin’s evolutional approach is very important as we talk about the
brain because looking at the different types of brains in older and more developed animals up till the
level of humans learned us a lot about how the brain function.
Evolution of Animals having Nervous systems
The human brain has the largest size
relative to our body weight. The
higher the rate show about your body
weight and brain weight, the more
complex behavior you can show.
Neuroplasticity
The brain is plastic:
• Neural tissue has the capacity
to adapt to the world by changing how
its functions are organized.
• Because the brain can adapt
to the world, different species could develop. Your brain causes behavior and your behavior
changes the brain.
• Neuroplasticity is seen both in the developing brain and in adaptations of brain structure
following injury.
Epigenetics
Study of differences in gene expression related to environment and experience. Not everything in your
DNA comes to expression in your life, that depends on your environment. Epigenetic factors do not
change your genes, but they do influence how your genes operate. Epigenetic changes can persist
throughout a lifetime, and the cumulative effects can make dramatic differences in how your genes
work and how likely a species is to pass on its genes → evolution.
Plastic Patterns of Neural Organization: Phenotypic Plasticity
An individual’s genotype (genetic makeup) interacts with the environment to elicit a specific phenotype
from a large repertoire of possibilities.
2
,Studying Brain and Behavior in Modern Humans
The brain – and especially the cortex – is highly flexible. That means that humans can live VERY
different lifestyles in VERY different environments, with equal skill and success. That also means that
individual differences in brain organization are huge! The average brain does not exist!
Anatomical & functional divisions of the nervous system
Anatomical & Functional Divisions of the Nervous system
Overview of the structure of the brain
Forebrain
Forebrain: Major structure of the brain, consisting of two
almost identical hemispheres (left and right). Prominent in
mammals and birds, responsible for most higher order
conscious behaviors. How larger the forebrain, how larger the
complex behavior.
Cerebellum: ‘Little brain’. Involved in the coordination of motor
and cognitive processes.
Brainstem: Central structures of the brain, including the
hindbrain, midbrain, thalamus & hypothalamus. Source of
Spinal cord behavior in simpler animals, responsible for most of our
unconscious behaviors.
Spinal cord: Consists of nerves that carry incoming and outgoing messages between the brain and the
rest of the body including reflexes.
Forebrain: Cerebral/Neo Cortex
The cerebral cortex is a thin sheet composed of 6 layers of nerve cells folded many times to fit inside
the skull responsible for regulating various mental activities (higher order functions).
Gyri: Bumps
Sulci: Grooves
Forebrain: Allocortex Cortex
Evolutionary older part of cortex consisting of 3 or 4 layers of nerve cells present in structures of the
limbic system (cingulate cortex, hippocampus, amygdala), as well as structures related to the olfactory
system.
Cingulate cortex: Controlling motivational states, attention, and self-monitoring.
Orientation
‘Brain-Body Orientation’ illustrates
brain-structure location form the
frame of reference of the face.
‘Anatomical Orientation’ illustrates
the direction of a cut, or section,
through the brain from the
perspective of a viewer.
3
, Check your terms
Anterior - Caudal – Coronal – Dorsal – Frontal – Horizontal –
Interior – Lateral – Medial – Posterior – Rostral – Sagittal –
Superior - Ventral
Cell structure: Important structural categories
Cell structure of neurons: Important structural categories
Gray matter: The actual cell bodies (about 80 billion neurons)
and their dendrites.
White matter: Fat-sheathed neuronal axons, plus glial cells
(about 100 billion) for structural support.
Corpus Callosum: Fiber system consisting of white matter tracts
connecting the two cerebral hemispheres.
The corpus callosum is the largest white matter structure in the
brain, consisting of 200-250 million contralateral axonal
projections.
Cell structure of neurons: Important Structural categories
Forebrain: Lobes of the
cerebral Cortex
Each hemisphere is divided into
four lobes:
1. Frontal (speech, initiates,
muscle movement, planning,
decision making and executive
functions)
2. Parietal (cognitive and
sensory integration for touch
and body position, attention)
3. Temporal (auditory, taste, memory, sensory integration)
4. Occipital (visual)
4
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