Aantekeningen Neuropsychologie
College 1 – evolution & function of the nervous system
Evolution & historical perspectives on mind and brain
• Why is the brain important?
o The brain produces behavior by
▪ Receiving information about the world
▪ Integrating information to create a sensory reality
▪ Making a constant stream of predictions about what to expect
• Only when you make predictions you can adept behavior
▪ Producing commands to control the movement of muscles
o The brain can only do this because of the whole nervous system
• What is behavior?
o Different types of behavior
▪ Relatively fixed behavior based on heredity
▪ Relatively flexible behavior based on learning
o The more complex the nervous system is the more complex the behavior can be
• Philosophy of brain and behavior
o Aristotle and mentalism
▪ Behavior is caused by a nonmaterial mind/psyche
▪ It will still be there when we die → soul
o Descartes and dualism
▪ A mind is too difficult we can’t measure it → mind
▪ Both a nonmaterial mind and the material body causes behavior
▪ The mind is connected to the body by the pineal gland in the brain
▪ Mind-body Problem → difficult/impossible to explain a nonmaterial mind
and material body that connect
o Darwin and materialism
▪ The current theory
▪ Behavior can be explained as a function of the nervous system without
considering the mind as a separate substance
▪ Because it’s related to the evolutionary theory it states that we can study
animal brains and relate this to human brains
• Because of differential success in the reproduction, every species
developed
o Certain behavior that has advantages will be given to the
offspring
• Evolution of animals having nervous systems
, o
▪ Nerve net →
• Segmented nerve trunk → some parts can move independently from
other parts (e.g., arms)
o Ganglia →
▪ Brain and spinal cord →
▪ As human it is likely that we began with a very simple nervous system
• The brain could develop because it was an advantage that was given
to the offspring
• A human brain has the largest size relative to the body weight
o
o The larger the relative brain weight the more complex
behavior an animal can show
• The brain can change because of neuroplasticity → the brain is plastic
o Neural tissue has the capacity to adapt to the world by changing how its functions
are organized
o Because the brain can adapt to the world, different species could develop
o Neuroplasticity is seen both in the developing brain and in adaptions of brain
structure following injury
▪ Children who are raised in rich stimulating environments have different
brains than children who are raised in poor environments
o This occurs because of epigenetics → epigenetic factors do not change genes but
influence how your genes operate
▪ The cumulative effects can make dramatic differences in how your genes
work and how likely a species is to pass on its genes → evolution
▪ It can happen during the whole lifetime
o Takeaway → when we study the brain, we have to keep in mind that the brain is
highly flexible and can be different between different humans
,Anatomical & functional divisions of the nervous system
• Central nervous system
o Brain structure →
▪ Forebrain (cerebrum) →
• Has two hemispheres that are almost identical
• Makes human behavior complex
• Responsible for most higher order conscious
behaviors
• Structure →
o Cerebral/neo cortex → thin sheet
with 6 layers of nerve cells that are folded many times to fit
inside the skull
▪ Responsible for regulating various mental activities
• High-order functions
▪ Because it is folded, we have gyri (bumps) and sulci
(grooves)
▪ Different lobes in cerebral cortex (large part of the
brain that has the same function)→
• Frontal → speech,
initiates muscle
movement, planning,
decision making and
executive functioning)
• Parietal → cognitive
and sensory integration
for touch and body
position, attention
• Temporal → auditory,
taste, memory, sensory
integration
• Occipital → visual
o Allocortex cortex → older part of the
cortex with 3 or 4 layers of nerve cells
▪ Found in structures of limbic system → cingulate
cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala
, ▪
▪ Controlling motivational states, attention, and self-
monitoring
o Important cell structures →
▪ White matter → axons of the neuron
• White because of the fat around it
▪ Gray matter → cell bodies (soma) of the neuron and
dendrites
•
o Corpus Callosum → fiber system (fiber → several neurons
together) of white matter that connects the two
hemispheres
▪ Largest white matter structure
o Basal ganglia →
▪ Developed bit earlier in evolution, it can be found in
simpler animals
▪ Function → controls voluntary movement,
• Not deciding to move, but coordinating and
activating patterns of movement
• Works together with thalamus, substantia
nigra and subthalamic nucleus for more
complex movement
▪ Parts →
• Caudate nucleus
• Putamen
• Globus pallidus
▪ Related disorders → Parkinson’s disease and
Tourette’s syndrome
o Limbic system → group of structures between the cortex
and brainstem, regulates emotions and memory,
▪ Amygdala → emotional memories/associations
• Color all perceptual information with
emotional significance
• Interacts with hippocampus, easy because
they are close to each other
▪ Hippocampus → memory
• Representation episodic memory
College 1 – evolution & function of the nervous system
Evolution & historical perspectives on mind and brain
• Why is the brain important?
o The brain produces behavior by
▪ Receiving information about the world
▪ Integrating information to create a sensory reality
▪ Making a constant stream of predictions about what to expect
• Only when you make predictions you can adept behavior
▪ Producing commands to control the movement of muscles
o The brain can only do this because of the whole nervous system
• What is behavior?
o Different types of behavior
▪ Relatively fixed behavior based on heredity
▪ Relatively flexible behavior based on learning
o The more complex the nervous system is the more complex the behavior can be
• Philosophy of brain and behavior
o Aristotle and mentalism
▪ Behavior is caused by a nonmaterial mind/psyche
▪ It will still be there when we die → soul
o Descartes and dualism
▪ A mind is too difficult we can’t measure it → mind
▪ Both a nonmaterial mind and the material body causes behavior
▪ The mind is connected to the body by the pineal gland in the brain
▪ Mind-body Problem → difficult/impossible to explain a nonmaterial mind
and material body that connect
o Darwin and materialism
▪ The current theory
▪ Behavior can be explained as a function of the nervous system without
considering the mind as a separate substance
▪ Because it’s related to the evolutionary theory it states that we can study
animal brains and relate this to human brains
• Because of differential success in the reproduction, every species
developed
o Certain behavior that has advantages will be given to the
offspring
• Evolution of animals having nervous systems
, o
▪ Nerve net →
• Segmented nerve trunk → some parts can move independently from
other parts (e.g., arms)
o Ganglia →
▪ Brain and spinal cord →
▪ As human it is likely that we began with a very simple nervous system
• The brain could develop because it was an advantage that was given
to the offspring
• A human brain has the largest size relative to the body weight
o
o The larger the relative brain weight the more complex
behavior an animal can show
• The brain can change because of neuroplasticity → the brain is plastic
o Neural tissue has the capacity to adapt to the world by changing how its functions
are organized
o Because the brain can adapt to the world, different species could develop
o Neuroplasticity is seen both in the developing brain and in adaptions of brain
structure following injury
▪ Children who are raised in rich stimulating environments have different
brains than children who are raised in poor environments
o This occurs because of epigenetics → epigenetic factors do not change genes but
influence how your genes operate
▪ The cumulative effects can make dramatic differences in how your genes
work and how likely a species is to pass on its genes → evolution
▪ It can happen during the whole lifetime
o Takeaway → when we study the brain, we have to keep in mind that the brain is
highly flexible and can be different between different humans
,Anatomical & functional divisions of the nervous system
• Central nervous system
o Brain structure →
▪ Forebrain (cerebrum) →
• Has two hemispheres that are almost identical
• Makes human behavior complex
• Responsible for most higher order conscious
behaviors
• Structure →
o Cerebral/neo cortex → thin sheet
with 6 layers of nerve cells that are folded many times to fit
inside the skull
▪ Responsible for regulating various mental activities
• High-order functions
▪ Because it is folded, we have gyri (bumps) and sulci
(grooves)
▪ Different lobes in cerebral cortex (large part of the
brain that has the same function)→
• Frontal → speech,
initiates muscle
movement, planning,
decision making and
executive functioning)
• Parietal → cognitive
and sensory integration
for touch and body
position, attention
• Temporal → auditory,
taste, memory, sensory
integration
• Occipital → visual
o Allocortex cortex → older part of the
cortex with 3 or 4 layers of nerve cells
▪ Found in structures of limbic system → cingulate
cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala
, ▪
▪ Controlling motivational states, attention, and self-
monitoring
o Important cell structures →
▪ White matter → axons of the neuron
• White because of the fat around it
▪ Gray matter → cell bodies (soma) of the neuron and
dendrites
•
o Corpus Callosum → fiber system (fiber → several neurons
together) of white matter that connects the two
hemispheres
▪ Largest white matter structure
o Basal ganglia →
▪ Developed bit earlier in evolution, it can be found in
simpler animals
▪ Function → controls voluntary movement,
• Not deciding to move, but coordinating and
activating patterns of movement
• Works together with thalamus, substantia
nigra and subthalamic nucleus for more
complex movement
▪ Parts →
• Caudate nucleus
• Putamen
• Globus pallidus
▪ Related disorders → Parkinson’s disease and
Tourette’s syndrome
o Limbic system → group of structures between the cortex
and brainstem, regulates emotions and memory,
▪ Amygdala → emotional memories/associations
• Color all perceptual information with
emotional significance
• Interacts with hippocampus, easy because
they are close to each other
▪ Hippocampus → memory
• Representation episodic memory
