Jan 11 Mind & Brain

• The Mind-Body Problem refers to the question of how mental events are related to the body, specifically the brain.
• Dualism is the idea that the mind and brain are separate entities that are equally important.
• Monism is the idea that the mind and brain are the same; only one entity exists.
• Interactionism is the idea that the mind and brain interact to induce events in each other, with the mind affecting the body and the body affecting the mind.
• Subscribes to the idea of a 'soul'.
• Rene Descartes, in the early 1600s, stated that the pineal gland is the principal seat of the soul.
• Epiphenomenalism is the idea that mental thoughts are caused by physical events, but thoughts do not affect physical events.
• Monism is the idea that there is one basic entity that presents as both mental and physical responses.
• Idealism is the idea that all reality is a mental construct, physical and mental.
• Neutral Monism is the idea that the underlying nature is not mental or physical but something else, something neutral.
• Behavioral experiments measure voluntary responses and are demonstrated with early information processing experiments.
• Devices can use electrical conduction as an indirect measure of emotional arousal.
• Skin conductance measures emotion and conducts electricity when it sweats, which happens when we are emotionally aroused.
• Psychophysiological measurements measure involuntary responses and measure activity in the PNS in response to things that humans perceive or imagine (CNS).
• Skin conductance response is altered in anxiety disorders including PTSD.
• Higher skin conductance is found in people with PTSD.
• The PNS influences the CNS via connections such as eye movements, body gestures, and skin conductance.
• Materialism is the idea that all reality is the result of physical processes.
• The brain is the primary organ of interest in cognitive psychology.
• The brain is part of the nervous system.
• Brain stimulation techniques have broad effects on the brain, so it is hard to localize effects.
• Electroencephalography (EEG) and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) are correlational as they associate brain activity to a task.
• Functional (f)MRI provides good spatial resolution, with about a thousand papers per month, but does not provide good temporal resolution.
• Participants in the TMS group had improved scores (up to 25%) on the post-training compared to pre-training memory test.
• The way brain stimulation techniques work is not entirely clear.
• Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive method of changing brain activity that can inhibit or increase activity.
• Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) provides information about activity in the brain, which is an indirect measure as it measures blood flow and not neural activity.
• Neurons are specialized cells that receive and transmit information, such as motor neurons and sensory neurons.
• Cognitive Neuroscience: Neuroimaging techniques examine change in neuronal communication that give rise to mental functions.
• Electroencephalography (EEG) measures electrical activity with good temporal resolution.
• TMS is good to test causality as it can temporarily lesion or stimulate a part of the brain.
• Structural MRI is used to detect structural anomalies such as volume and location of gray matter.
• Nerves are bundle axons that carry information long distances between neurons.
• Glial cells are support cells for neurons, holding neurons in place, protecting and repairing neurons.
• Patient cases in cognitive neuroscience involve studying brain function by comparing the behavior of brain-injured patients to healthy control participants.
• Cognitive neuroscience methods include patient (neuropsychological) cases and neuroimaging tools.
• Without communication, information to the left visual field (right hemisphere) of a split brain patient cannot be described verbally but can be expressed via visuo-spatial processes.
• The brain isn't like a computer – it is a network of interconnected computers.
• The right hemisphere of a split brain patient's brain supports visual-spatial processing.
• In split brain patients, no 'module' is damaged as connections between brain regions are just as important as the operations.