Neuropsychology: A summary of Kolb, B., Whishaw, I. and Teskey G.C., An Introduction to Brain
and Behavior, 6th International Edition, ISBN 978 -1319243562 (Hardcover)
Discussed chapters: 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16
Topic 1 (Chapter 1 & 2) – Evolution and function of the nervous system
Evolution and historical perspectives on mind and brain
Primary functions brain:
- Receive information about the world
- Integrate information to create a sensory reality
- Make a constant stream of predictions about what to expect
- Produce commands to control the movement of muscles
All the nervous systems together allows the brain to do this.
Behaviour (gedrag):
Relatively fixed behaviours dependent on heredity
Relatively flexible behaviours dependent on learning
Philosophy of brain and behaviour:
Mentalism an explanation of behaviour as a function of the nonmaterial mind (bv soul, something
we can’t touch)
Aristotle Ancient Greece
Dualism both a nonmaterial mind and the material body contribute to behaviour (bv sensation,
movement, digestion), mind directs rational behaviour Descartes
Materialism (what we believe in now) Darwin behaviour can be explained fully as a function of
the nervous system without considering the mind as a separate substance (ze kunnen niet los van
elkaar gezien worden)
Competition is a key concept
Neuroplasticity
The brain is plastic:
- Neural tissue has the capacity to adapt tot the world by changing how its functions are
organized
- Because the brain can adapt to the world, different species could develop
- Neuroplasticity is seen both in the developing brain and in adaptations of brain structure
following injury
Epigenetics (je kunt bv gene hebben voor de kleur van je ogen, is al bepaald)
- Study of differences in gene expression related to environment and experience
- Epigenetic factors do not change your genes, but they do influence how your genes operate
- Epigenetics changes can persist throughout a lifetime, and the cumulative effects van make
dramatic differences in how your genes work and how likely a species is to pass on its genes -
evolution
Individual differences in brain organization are huge the average brain does not exist
,Structure of the brain:
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 behaviours
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 behaviour in simples animals, responsible for most of our unconscious
behaviours
Spinal cord: consists of nerves that carry incoming and outgoing messages between the brain and the
rest of the body including reflexes
,IMPORTANT:
Forebrain: Cerebral / Neo cortex a thin sheet composed of 6 layers of nerve cells folded many
times to fit inside the skull responsible for regulating various mental activities
Allocortex evolutionary older part of cortex consisting of 3 or 4 layers of nerve cells present in
structures of the limbic system (zorgt voor de oeps response als je bv een bijlage vergeet in een mail)
,Anatomical orientation illustrates the direction of a cut, or section, through the brain (part A) from
the perspective of a viewer (part B).
Cell structure of neurons: important structural categories
- Gray matter the actual bodies (about 80 billion neurons) and their dendrites
- White matter fat-sheathed neuronal axons, plus glial cells (about 100 billions) for
structural support
- Corpus callosum fibre system consisting of white matter tracts connecting the two
cerebral hemispheres largest white matter structure in the brain
Several axon fibres running together form a nerve when outside the CNS or a tract within the CNS
Lobes of the cerebral Cortex (Forebrain)
Each hemisphere is divided into four lobes:
- Frontal speech, initiates, muscle movement, planning, decision making
- Parietal cognitive and sensory integration for touch and body position, attention
- Temporal auditory, taste, memory, sensory integration
- Occipital visual
Basal ganglia:
- Controls voluntary movement: control and coordination of movement patterns rather than
deciding to move or activating the muscles to move. Works together with thalamus,
substantia nigra and subthalamic nucleus
- Related disorders Parkinson, ze kon haar bewegingen niet onder controle houden
Limbic system:
- Group of structures between the cortex and brain stem
- Principal structures: amygdala, hippocampus and cingulate cortex
- Regulates emotions and memory
- Hippocampus representation episodic memories & some of these become semantic
memories, not associated with any particular event
- Amygdala emotional associations are formed here & they colour or stamp all perceptual
information with emotional significance
, - Cingulate cortex controlling motivational states, attention and self-monitoring
Ventricles & CSF:
- Ventricles: Four Ventricles cavities in the brain that contain cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), two
lateral ventricles (left and right), third ventricle, fourth ventricle
- Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) Sodium chloride and other salts, fills the ventricles and circulates
around the brain and spinal cord, cushions the brain
Brainstem overview:
- Developed as simple animals evolved a brain
- Begins where spinal cord enters the skull
- Receives incoming information from senses and sends information out to control muscles
- Three regions: diencephalon, midbrain, hindbrain
Diencephalon anatomy:
- The hypothalamus hormone function, sexual, aggression, sleep, emotional
- The thalamus information from all sensory systems is organized, integrated and projected
into the appropriate region of the neocortex relay station
Midbrain function:
- Tectum sensory component of the midbrain, receives massive amount of sensory
information from the eyes and ears through nerves bundles called superior and inferior
colliculus respectively.
- Tegmentum red nucleus: limb movements. Substantia nigra: initiate movement together
with basal ganglia and forebrain. Periaqueductal gray: cell bodies surrounding ventricles
control species-typical behaviour.
Hidbrain Function:
- Reticular formation stimulates the forebrain: regulation of sleep-wake behaviour and
behavioural arousal including freezing or attacking
- Pons (bridge) connects cerebellum to the rest of the brain & controls important
movements of the body
- Cerebellum function controls complex movements and cognitive functions. More neurons
than the rest of the brain. Size increases with the physical speed and dexterity of a species.
The quicker the animal, the larger the cerebellum
Spinal cord (ruggenmerg)
- Controls most body movements usually following instructions of the brain
, - Can act independently of the brain
- Segmented
- Spinal reflex: automatic movement, hard to prevent, example: knee-jerk reflex
Two directions of neural information flow:
- Afferent information sensory information coming from the body into the CNS (incoming
information)
- Efferent information information leaving the CNS going to the muscles (outgoing
information)
Somatic Nervous System (SNS):
- Monitored and controlled by the CNS. Conveys sensory information to the CNS and motor
information from the CNS to the muscles
- Nerves are bundles of axons outside the brain that transfer information
- The cranial nerves are controlled by the brain, the spinal nerves by the spinal cord segments
Cranial Nerves:
- Afferent functions, such as sensory inputs to the brain from the eyes, ears, mouth and nose
- Efferent functions: such as motor control of the facial muscles, tongue and eyes
- Both functions must work together, such as the modulation of both sensation and movement
in the face
Spinal nerves:
- Controlling the rest of the body (not the face)
- Afferent and efferent functions
- Spinal-cord segments are interconnected so adjacent segments can operate together to
direct complex coordinated movements
- Dermatome area of the body supplied with afferent nerve fibers by a single spinal-cord
dorsal root
Autonomic Nervous System
- Hidden partner of the CNS within our body, enables the CNS to govern the workings of the
internal organs (heartbeat), prepares rest
- Sympathetic system arouses the body for action, mediates the fight or flight response
- Parasympathetic system opposite of sympathetic: prepares the body to rest and digest &
reverses the fight or flight response
Enteric Nervous System:
- The ENS is often considered past of the ANS, but it functions largely independently
- Contains a wide range of neuron types and glial cells
- Ganglia’s within the ENS send projections to the ANS and CNS, in part though the vagus
nerve, to control gut function
- As a consequence the gut reacts to a range of hormones and other chemicals with exquisite
neural responses
Topic 2 (Chapter 5) – Synaptic Transmission & Memory
Ten Brain Principles
Principle 1: Nervous system produces movement within a perceptual world that the world creates
the brain produces a reality that is adaptive for that species to survive. The behaviour that the brain
produces is directly related to the world that the brain has created.
,Principle 2: Everything in the brain is constantly changing. The changes of the brain are the bases of
our memory and learning information is stored in the nervous system only if synaptic connections
change
Principle 3: Many of the brains circuits are crossed every hemisphere receives sensory stimulation
from the opposite side of the body
Principle 4: The central nervous system functions on multiple levels hierarchical system of levels.
Most behaviours are the product of many brain levels acting together. Vertical integration
Principle 5: The brain is both symmetrical and asymmetrical left and right hemispheres look
almost like mirror images but they have some dissimilar features. Language on the left side, spatial
functions on the right.
Principle 6: Brain systems are organized both hierarchically and in parallel CNS compromises
multiple levels of function, these levels bust be extensively interconnected to integrate their
processing and create unified perceptions and movements
Principle 7: Sensory and motor divisions exist throughout the nervous system at all kind of different
levels Sensory and motor divisions in the Somatic Nervous System and in Central Nervous System
Principle 8: Sensory input to the brain is divided for object recognition and motor control dorsal
and ventral processing streams in the visual system
Principle 9: Functions in the brain are both localized and distributed damage to small brain region
produces only focal symptoms. Massive brain damage is required to completely remove some
functions.
Principle 10: The nervous system works both by excitation (stimulation) and inhibition (opposite of
stimulation) all neurons have a spontaneous rate of activity that can be either increased
(excitation) or decreased (inhibition). some can excite others (more communication) whereas
some can inhibits each other
Electrical signals between neurons
Trough dendrites neurons receive small electrical signals from other neurons, can be excitatory
(EPSP) and make the potential less negative, or inhibitory (IPSP) and make the potential more
negative
Dendrites can receive signals from neurons
Dendrites at the end of the neurons can send signals to other neurons
Each neuron receives thousands of excitatory and inhibitory signals every second from more than
50000 connections through dendritic spines
In the axon hillock in the cell body these signals are summed
Neurons communicate through yes/no principles there is an action or not
Temporal summation pulses that occur at approximately the same time on a membrane are
summed
Spatial summation pulses that occur at approximately the same location on a membrane are
summed
Sensory input we receive information about the world through:
- Bodily sensations (touch and balance)
- Auditory sensations (hearing)
- Visual sensations (sight)
- Chemical sensations (taste and olfaction)
Neurotransmitter chemical released by a neuron onto a target with an electrical excitatory or
inhibitory effect
Hormones hormones have distant targets and their action is much slower than neurotransmitters
Chemical synapse junction where messenger molecules (neurotransmitters) are released from
one neuron to excite or inhibit the next neuron
, Neurotransmission in four steps:
1. Synthesized and stored in the axon terminal
2. Transported to the presynaptic membrane and released in response to an action potential
3. Able to activate receptors on the target-cell located on the postsynaptic membrane
4. Inactivated, or it will continue to work indefinitely
Neurotransmitters systems and behaviour
- A single neuron may use one neurochemical at one synapse and a different one at another
synapse
- More than one neurotransmitter may be active at a single synapse
- No simple one-to-one relationship between a single neurotransmitter and a single brain
region or behaviour
Amino Acid transmitters (neurotransmitters)
- They are quick, working horses of the brain. Only active in the brain. Interact with each other
to obtain optimal balance
- Glutamate main excitatory transmitter, involved in many processes including learning
Amine neurotransmitters
- Four main neurotransmitter systems dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin, acetylcholine
- They all have a common function, such as changing the activation or even the structure of a
class of synapses
- Are produced by brainstem nuclei that send axons all over the CNS
- They can be influenced by your diet
Acetylcholine (cholinergic) system:
- Normal waking behaviour
- Attention and memory
- Loss of cholinergic neurons associated with Alzheimer
Dopaminergic system:
