Lecture notes Neuropsychology
Table of contents
CBWL 1 – Evolution & Function of the nervous system ...................................................................... 2
CBWL 2 – Synaptic Transmission & Memory ..................................................................................... 21
CBWL 3 – Drugs & Hormones ............................................................................................................ 39
CBWL 4 – Research Methods............................................................................................................. 59
CBWL 5 – Development ..................................................................................................................... 77
CBWL 6 – Emotions & motivation ..................................................................................................... 91
CBWL 7 – Visual perception............................................................................................................. 121
CBWL 8 – Sensorimotor Functions .................................................................................................. 152
CBWL 9 – Auditory perception and language.................................................................................. 181
CBWL 10 – Learning and memory ................................................................................................... 214
CBWL 11 – Higher order functions .................................................................................................. 244
,CBWL 1 – Evolution & Function of the nervous system
Evolution & historical perspectives on mind and brain
First we have to ask ourselves why is the brain so important? The primary function of the brain is to
produce behaviour. That’s a quite difficult function. The brain has to receive information about the
world through our senses: touch, smell, sight, hearing. Al those senses send information to the brain.
The brain needs to integrate those information to create a sensory reality, so I see the world like I do
but a dog sees the world differently. Our brain integrates the information that it receives in order to
create a reality that feels real to us, but is different for every species that we have. There is nothing
like the real sensory experience. It is important for the brain to make predictions, what is going to
happen next? Only if you can make predictions you can adept behaviour.
image you’re walking on the street, a car is passing and you know you have to step away when the
car is driving a certain speed.
The brain has to give commands to our muscles. The behaviour that we observe is in the end always a
product of the muscles and the movement that we make. The brain has a central rol in this, so
understanding how this happens will help you understand behaviour. The brain doesn’t work alone, it
works in combination with nervous systems.
There are different types of behaviours. You can see behaviour as a relative fixed behaviour.
Some birds can crack seeds open from the moment that they are born.
That’s innate behaviour and that is totally dependent on the genes.
Some birds need to learn how to crack open seeds.
Then it’s more flexible behaviour and this is dependent on learning.
,So there are different types of behaviour. Some are fixed and are easy to do, others are flexible and
it’s all about learning. We will learn a lit about learning in the brain. It’s one of the amazing things the
brain can do, it’s so flexible and it can adapt so easily to the world and behaviour.
The complexity of our behaviour is very different in our species. How complex the behaviour is that a
certain animal can show depends on the complexity of the nervous system and the brain. The more
complex the nervous system is, the more complex the brain is, the more complex the behaviour that
the animal can display. It also learns a lot about how far the human brain is developed in comparison
to the standard brain some animals still have.
How did people think about the brain in the past and how do we think about it now?
We will discuss a very quick overview of philosophy of brain and behaviour and how it started and
what the main thinking about the brain is at the moment
It started al wilt mentalism. This is an explanation of behaviour as a function of the nonmaterial mind.
This means that there is something that is not in our body, we cannot see or touch that influences our
mind. This is something like our soul. It is proposed to be the source of our behaviour but it is not
observable. It is still supposed to be there when people die. The nonmaterial mind is an idea of
Aristotle.
After that Descartes said that’s quite difficult we cannot measure the nonmaterial mind and how can
our body be influenced by something that’s not there. He solved that problem with dualism. He said
we still have a nonmaterial mind and we have a material body and they both contribute to behaviour.
So he says that this nonmaterial stuff our behaviour influences through our body. That seemed kind
of a solution, but in fact it made it al more complex. Descarted said that the non material mind our
behaviour beinvloedt through the pineal gland in the brain. There is one area in the brain that’s called
paneal gland. He says that that’s the part in the mind where the nonmaterial mind can influence our
behaviour. He also said that some simple behaviourd were controlled by the body, there is no
nonmaterial mind needed for that.
This theory is difficult to prove and see that is was also taken over by another theorie, because of the
mind-body problem. The mind-problem says that it is difficult to explain how these two entities, the
nonmaterial mind and material body, interact. So how can something that is not material command
something that is material.
, So then we came to the materialism, and that’s what we still believe in now. At the moment we have
Darwin and Materialism that’s the main philosophy about how we think about the brain. This theory
says that behaviour can be explained fully as a function of the nervous system. This is without
considering the mind as a separate substance, so actually materialism doesn’t say that there is
northin like thoughts in our head, it doesn’t say that we don’t have emotions. It just says that it can in
the end, if we have learned a lot about the brain, we can explain that by studying the brain.
It is very much related to the evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin. We can understand the human
brain by studying the brain of animals that are further in evolution or more simple than the human
brain. Thereby the Materialism and the evolutionary theory are very much related. Darwin and the
idea of natural selections says that the changes that someone can pass on your genes, a human
getting babies (So the differential success of reproduction), depends on interaction of the organism
with their environment. If you’re better able to cope with the environment you increase the changes
of reproduction. That happens over a long time species developed. So those species who could better
adapt certain characteristics or behaviours and are better to handle the environment at that moment,
they could reproduce more often. So that’s how species develop. If you can adapt to the environment
and that turns out to be an advantage, you have much higher changes that your children will survive.
Certain traids and behaviour depend on the changed of survival and how likely it is that the
nakomeling will also be able to adapt to the environment. So there is a lot of competition within and
between species. If you have a certain behaviour that is advantage for you and it increases changes of
reproduction, it is likely that that specific characterism will continue in the nakomeling.
All these animals have nervous systems in a way. They start from very simple to complex. The frog is
the most complex. The sea anemone is quite basic, there are nervous cells but there is no brain yet.
Segmentation: some parts of the body (ruggenwervel) can give commands to specific body parts
(armen).
Also with humans it is likely that we started as very basic nervous system. But every specie adapted
to the environment in a different way that made that the brain could develop. Some features in a
specie were advantages, so the nakomeling/offspring had the feature more often. So that’s how the
Table of contents
CBWL 1 – Evolution & Function of the nervous system ...................................................................... 2
CBWL 2 – Synaptic Transmission & Memory ..................................................................................... 21
CBWL 3 – Drugs & Hormones ............................................................................................................ 39
CBWL 4 – Research Methods............................................................................................................. 59
CBWL 5 – Development ..................................................................................................................... 77
CBWL 6 – Emotions & motivation ..................................................................................................... 91
CBWL 7 – Visual perception............................................................................................................. 121
CBWL 8 – Sensorimotor Functions .................................................................................................. 152
CBWL 9 – Auditory perception and language.................................................................................. 181
CBWL 10 – Learning and memory ................................................................................................... 214
CBWL 11 – Higher order functions .................................................................................................. 244
,CBWL 1 – Evolution & Function of the nervous system
Evolution & historical perspectives on mind and brain
First we have to ask ourselves why is the brain so important? The primary function of the brain is to
produce behaviour. That’s a quite difficult function. The brain has to receive information about the
world through our senses: touch, smell, sight, hearing. Al those senses send information to the brain.
The brain needs to integrate those information to create a sensory reality, so I see the world like I do
but a dog sees the world differently. Our brain integrates the information that it receives in order to
create a reality that feels real to us, but is different for every species that we have. There is nothing
like the real sensory experience. It is important for the brain to make predictions, what is going to
happen next? Only if you can make predictions you can adept behaviour.
image you’re walking on the street, a car is passing and you know you have to step away when the
car is driving a certain speed.
The brain has to give commands to our muscles. The behaviour that we observe is in the end always a
product of the muscles and the movement that we make. The brain has a central rol in this, so
understanding how this happens will help you understand behaviour. The brain doesn’t work alone, it
works in combination with nervous systems.
There are different types of behaviours. You can see behaviour as a relative fixed behaviour.
Some birds can crack seeds open from the moment that they are born.
That’s innate behaviour and that is totally dependent on the genes.
Some birds need to learn how to crack open seeds.
Then it’s more flexible behaviour and this is dependent on learning.
,So there are different types of behaviour. Some are fixed and are easy to do, others are flexible and
it’s all about learning. We will learn a lit about learning in the brain. It’s one of the amazing things the
brain can do, it’s so flexible and it can adapt so easily to the world and behaviour.
The complexity of our behaviour is very different in our species. How complex the behaviour is that a
certain animal can show depends on the complexity of the nervous system and the brain. The more
complex the nervous system is, the more complex the brain is, the more complex the behaviour that
the animal can display. It also learns a lot about how far the human brain is developed in comparison
to the standard brain some animals still have.
How did people think about the brain in the past and how do we think about it now?
We will discuss a very quick overview of philosophy of brain and behaviour and how it started and
what the main thinking about the brain is at the moment
It started al wilt mentalism. This is an explanation of behaviour as a function of the nonmaterial mind.
This means that there is something that is not in our body, we cannot see or touch that influences our
mind. This is something like our soul. It is proposed to be the source of our behaviour but it is not
observable. It is still supposed to be there when people die. The nonmaterial mind is an idea of
Aristotle.
After that Descartes said that’s quite difficult we cannot measure the nonmaterial mind and how can
our body be influenced by something that’s not there. He solved that problem with dualism. He said
we still have a nonmaterial mind and we have a material body and they both contribute to behaviour.
So he says that this nonmaterial stuff our behaviour influences through our body. That seemed kind
of a solution, but in fact it made it al more complex. Descarted said that the non material mind our
behaviour beinvloedt through the pineal gland in the brain. There is one area in the brain that’s called
paneal gland. He says that that’s the part in the mind where the nonmaterial mind can influence our
behaviour. He also said that some simple behaviourd were controlled by the body, there is no
nonmaterial mind needed for that.
This theory is difficult to prove and see that is was also taken over by another theorie, because of the
mind-body problem. The mind-problem says that it is difficult to explain how these two entities, the
nonmaterial mind and material body, interact. So how can something that is not material command
something that is material.
, So then we came to the materialism, and that’s what we still believe in now. At the moment we have
Darwin and Materialism that’s the main philosophy about how we think about the brain. This theory
says that behaviour can be explained fully as a function of the nervous system. This is without
considering the mind as a separate substance, so actually materialism doesn’t say that there is
northin like thoughts in our head, it doesn’t say that we don’t have emotions. It just says that it can in
the end, if we have learned a lot about the brain, we can explain that by studying the brain.
It is very much related to the evolutionary theory of Charles Darwin. We can understand the human
brain by studying the brain of animals that are further in evolution or more simple than the human
brain. Thereby the Materialism and the evolutionary theory are very much related. Darwin and the
idea of natural selections says that the changes that someone can pass on your genes, a human
getting babies (So the differential success of reproduction), depends on interaction of the organism
with their environment. If you’re better able to cope with the environment you increase the changes
of reproduction. That happens over a long time species developed. So those species who could better
adapt certain characteristics or behaviours and are better to handle the environment at that moment,
they could reproduce more often. So that’s how species develop. If you can adapt to the environment
and that turns out to be an advantage, you have much higher changes that your children will survive.
Certain traids and behaviour depend on the changed of survival and how likely it is that the
nakomeling will also be able to adapt to the environment. So there is a lot of competition within and
between species. If you have a certain behaviour that is advantage for you and it increases changes of
reproduction, it is likely that that specific characterism will continue in the nakomeling.
All these animals have nervous systems in a way. They start from very simple to complex. The frog is
the most complex. The sea anemone is quite basic, there are nervous cells but there is no brain yet.
Segmentation: some parts of the body (ruggenwervel) can give commands to specific body parts
(armen).
Also with humans it is likely that we started as very basic nervous system. But every specie adapted
to the environment in a different way that made that the brain could develop. Some features in a
specie were advantages, so the nakomeling/offspring had the feature more often. So that’s how the
