Lecture notes Introductory Psychology and Brain &
Cognition: Part B - INTERIM I
Lecture 1: CH1 and CH2 - History & Brain structure and function 28/10/2024
CH 1: History of cognition
Why were the ancient Greeks important to science?
The ancient Greeks made the theoretical leap to the view that we are separate from the
world we inhabit. They held that the universe is an intelligible whole. In other words, they
presumed that a single order underlies the chaos of our perceptions and that we can
comprehend that order. “The early Greeks were limited in what they could say: They did not
have the methodology to systematically explore the brain and the thoughts it produces (the
mind) through experimentation.
Important historical debates:
Monism: The brain produces behavior and thoughts, in the mind → Neuroscience follows
this view.
Dualism: The mind appears from elsewhere, it is something immaterial.
Descartes believed this and also thought that the mind works like a machine that does not
follow the rules of nature (as determined by Newton’s law of physics)
A computer is similar to brains, but it does not have consciousness. Therefore, people have
begun to doubt human consciousness. If the mind is only material, can we build a conscious
machine?
Rationalism: held that all knowledge could be gained through the use of reason alone: truth
was intellectual, not sensory. Through thinking, rationalists can determine true beliefs and
false beliefs. Reason is knowledge, and the truth is factual not sensory
Empiricism: All knowledge comes from sensory experience, and the brain begins life as a
blank slate
Behaviorism: Behavior manifests as a reaction to our environment. Learning (conditioning)
was the key, and everybody had the same neural equipment to build learning.
Associationism: Knowledge is linked to experiences → it dictates mental growth
Hebbian learning: neurons that fire together, wire together.
What historical evidence suggested that the brain’s activities produce the mind?
Thomas Willis foreshadowed cognitive neuroscience with the notion that isolated brain
damage (biology) could affect behavior (psychology), but his insights slipped from view.
Gall became convinced that the brain was the organ of the mind and that innate faculties
were localized in specific regions of the cerebral cortex. He thought that the brain was
organized around some 35 or more specific functions, ranging from cognitive basics
(language, color perception) to more ephemeral capacities (affection, moral sense), and that
each was supported by specific brain regions.
Gall and his disciple, Johann Spurzheim, hypothesized that if a person used one of the
faculties with greater frequency than the others, the part of the brain representing that
1
,function would grow. This increase in local brain size would cause a bump in the overlying
skull. Gall and his colleagues believed that an analysis of the skull could go a long way in
describing the personality of the person inside the skull → anatomical personology.
Phrenology: The idea that character could be divined through palpating the skull
(Spurzheim)
Flourens destroyed parts of the brains of pigeons and rabbits and observed what happened.
He was the first to show that certain parts of the brain were responsible for certain functions.
E.g when he removed the cerebral hemispheres, the animal no longer had perception, motor
ability, and judgment.
Aggregate field theory: all sensations, perceptions and volitations are one
Jackson published observations of persons with brain damage. He concluded that many
regions of the brain contribute to a given behavior.
Does the brain work as one big organ or is it made up of different functions?
- Functional specialization (localization) → different areas have different functions
- Aggregate Field Theory (Flourens): The brain participates in behavior.
Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas
Broca’s area:
a) Characterized by telegraphic speech in which the meaning (semantics) is usually
clear but grammatical structure is incorrect therefore formulating sentences is hard
(syntax); also called nonfluent aphasia.
b) They become confused by grammatically complex sentences: they easily
understand The boy pushed the girl (a simple, active sentence), but The girl was
pushed by the boy leaving them unsure.
Wernicke’s area:
a) Mainly active when you listen or read. Speech typically retains its grammatical structure
(syntax) but loses its meaning (semantics) due to the speaker’s failure to provide meaningful
content words (syntax: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs); also called fluent aphasia.
b) difficulty understanding the meanings of words they heard
Cytoarchitectonics /cellular architecture: How cells differ between brain regions →
Brodmann
Visualization of individual neurons by Golgi and Ramon y Cajal
- Golgi: cells in the brain form a continuous mass of tissue that share common
cytoplasm (syncytium)
- Ramon y Cajal: the neural doctrine; neurons are discrete entities and the nervous
system is made up of individual cells.
- Transportation in cells is one-way traffic: from dendrites to the axonal tips
Thorndike’s law of effect:
- Responses that lead to a pleasant effect will be displayed more often in that situation
- Responses that lead to an unpleasant effect, will be displayed less often in that
situation
2
, Montreal procedure: Surgically destroying the neurons in the brain that produce seizures.
To determine which cells to destroy, Penfield stimulated various parts of the brain with
electrical probes and observed the results in the patients. From these observations, he was
able to create maps of the sensory and motor cortices in the brain, confirming Jackson's
topographic predictions from over half a century earlier.
Study of behavior/cognition
- Empiricism and associationism to behaviorism (nature vs nurture discussion)
- Cognitive revolution: not all behavior is learned.
e.g. Chomsky; generative grammar. Associationism cannot explain how children
learn language.
Insights from neurophysiology and -anatomy
- Electrical stimulation of brain areas produces characteristic movements in dogs
- Brodmann: identifications of 52 distinct brain areas with different cellular
architectures.
What can we learn about the mind and brain from modern research methods?
Instruments of neuroscience
Angelo Mosso (1981): Pulsation of the blood in the brain is directly related to mental activity
He found that blood flow increased when patients did something cognitive effortful.
Precursor: fMRI, PET
EEG: Electroencephalography. Measure continuous spontaneous electrical activity from the
cerebral cortex (ERPs)
CT/ CAT: a combination of X-rays and computer technology to produce images of the inside
of the body.
PET: Assesses the metabolic activity of glucose or oxygen in the brain by
following the path of a radioactive tracer injected intravenously. Active areas
will use more glucose, therefore there will be more tracers in that area.
Because the tracer is radioactive, a series of events will cause it to emit
radioactive beams that can be detected by specialized detectors.
Hemodynamic response: When a brain area is active, the blood flow to that
region increases to supply that area with more energy (i.e., oxygen, glucose, ...)
MRI: High-resolution image of brain anatomy measuring energy changes of brain tissue after
exposure to a strong magnetic field.
fMRI: Assesses indirectly the metabolic activity of the brain through measuring the changes
in the blood flow (BOLD)
BOLD: Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent
Active neurons require more oxygen than inactive ones.
→ The more hemoglobin transported, the more oxygen is required.
Introspection: Asking participants how they did a certain task
3
Cognition: Part B - INTERIM I
Lecture 1: CH1 and CH2 - History & Brain structure and function 28/10/2024
CH 1: History of cognition
Why were the ancient Greeks important to science?
The ancient Greeks made the theoretical leap to the view that we are separate from the
world we inhabit. They held that the universe is an intelligible whole. In other words, they
presumed that a single order underlies the chaos of our perceptions and that we can
comprehend that order. “The early Greeks were limited in what they could say: They did not
have the methodology to systematically explore the brain and the thoughts it produces (the
mind) through experimentation.
Important historical debates:
Monism: The brain produces behavior and thoughts, in the mind → Neuroscience follows
this view.
Dualism: The mind appears from elsewhere, it is something immaterial.
Descartes believed this and also thought that the mind works like a machine that does not
follow the rules of nature (as determined by Newton’s law of physics)
A computer is similar to brains, but it does not have consciousness. Therefore, people have
begun to doubt human consciousness. If the mind is only material, can we build a conscious
machine?
Rationalism: held that all knowledge could be gained through the use of reason alone: truth
was intellectual, not sensory. Through thinking, rationalists can determine true beliefs and
false beliefs. Reason is knowledge, and the truth is factual not sensory
Empiricism: All knowledge comes from sensory experience, and the brain begins life as a
blank slate
Behaviorism: Behavior manifests as a reaction to our environment. Learning (conditioning)
was the key, and everybody had the same neural equipment to build learning.
Associationism: Knowledge is linked to experiences → it dictates mental growth
Hebbian learning: neurons that fire together, wire together.
What historical evidence suggested that the brain’s activities produce the mind?
Thomas Willis foreshadowed cognitive neuroscience with the notion that isolated brain
damage (biology) could affect behavior (psychology), but his insights slipped from view.
Gall became convinced that the brain was the organ of the mind and that innate faculties
were localized in specific regions of the cerebral cortex. He thought that the brain was
organized around some 35 or more specific functions, ranging from cognitive basics
(language, color perception) to more ephemeral capacities (affection, moral sense), and that
each was supported by specific brain regions.
Gall and his disciple, Johann Spurzheim, hypothesized that if a person used one of the
faculties with greater frequency than the others, the part of the brain representing that
1
,function would grow. This increase in local brain size would cause a bump in the overlying
skull. Gall and his colleagues believed that an analysis of the skull could go a long way in
describing the personality of the person inside the skull → anatomical personology.
Phrenology: The idea that character could be divined through palpating the skull
(Spurzheim)
Flourens destroyed parts of the brains of pigeons and rabbits and observed what happened.
He was the first to show that certain parts of the brain were responsible for certain functions.
E.g when he removed the cerebral hemispheres, the animal no longer had perception, motor
ability, and judgment.
Aggregate field theory: all sensations, perceptions and volitations are one
Jackson published observations of persons with brain damage. He concluded that many
regions of the brain contribute to a given behavior.
Does the brain work as one big organ or is it made up of different functions?
- Functional specialization (localization) → different areas have different functions
- Aggregate Field Theory (Flourens): The brain participates in behavior.
Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas
Broca’s area:
a) Characterized by telegraphic speech in which the meaning (semantics) is usually
clear but grammatical structure is incorrect therefore formulating sentences is hard
(syntax); also called nonfluent aphasia.
b) They become confused by grammatically complex sentences: they easily
understand The boy pushed the girl (a simple, active sentence), but The girl was
pushed by the boy leaving them unsure.
Wernicke’s area:
a) Mainly active when you listen or read. Speech typically retains its grammatical structure
(syntax) but loses its meaning (semantics) due to the speaker’s failure to provide meaningful
content words (syntax: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs); also called fluent aphasia.
b) difficulty understanding the meanings of words they heard
Cytoarchitectonics /cellular architecture: How cells differ between brain regions →
Brodmann
Visualization of individual neurons by Golgi and Ramon y Cajal
- Golgi: cells in the brain form a continuous mass of tissue that share common
cytoplasm (syncytium)
- Ramon y Cajal: the neural doctrine; neurons are discrete entities and the nervous
system is made up of individual cells.
- Transportation in cells is one-way traffic: from dendrites to the axonal tips
Thorndike’s law of effect:
- Responses that lead to a pleasant effect will be displayed more often in that situation
- Responses that lead to an unpleasant effect, will be displayed less often in that
situation
2
, Montreal procedure: Surgically destroying the neurons in the brain that produce seizures.
To determine which cells to destroy, Penfield stimulated various parts of the brain with
electrical probes and observed the results in the patients. From these observations, he was
able to create maps of the sensory and motor cortices in the brain, confirming Jackson's
topographic predictions from over half a century earlier.
Study of behavior/cognition
- Empiricism and associationism to behaviorism (nature vs nurture discussion)
- Cognitive revolution: not all behavior is learned.
e.g. Chomsky; generative grammar. Associationism cannot explain how children
learn language.
Insights from neurophysiology and -anatomy
- Electrical stimulation of brain areas produces characteristic movements in dogs
- Brodmann: identifications of 52 distinct brain areas with different cellular
architectures.
What can we learn about the mind and brain from modern research methods?
Instruments of neuroscience
Angelo Mosso (1981): Pulsation of the blood in the brain is directly related to mental activity
He found that blood flow increased when patients did something cognitive effortful.
Precursor: fMRI, PET
EEG: Electroencephalography. Measure continuous spontaneous electrical activity from the
cerebral cortex (ERPs)
CT/ CAT: a combination of X-rays and computer technology to produce images of the inside
of the body.
PET: Assesses the metabolic activity of glucose or oxygen in the brain by
following the path of a radioactive tracer injected intravenously. Active areas
will use more glucose, therefore there will be more tracers in that area.
Because the tracer is radioactive, a series of events will cause it to emit
radioactive beams that can be detected by specialized detectors.
Hemodynamic response: When a brain area is active, the blood flow to that
region increases to supply that area with more energy (i.e., oxygen, glucose, ...)
MRI: High-resolution image of brain anatomy measuring energy changes of brain tissue after
exposure to a strong magnetic field.
fMRI: Assesses indirectly the metabolic activity of the brain through measuring the changes
in the blood flow (BOLD)
BOLD: Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent
Active neurons require more oxygen than inactive ones.
→ The more hemoglobin transported, the more oxygen is required.
Introspection: Asking participants how they did a certain task
3
