Cognitive Neuroscience

• Nervous system


  Ability to perceive, adapt, interact
• Process to receive and respond

  Process to receive and respond
• Neurons


  Individual neural cells
• Neocortex


  Complex cognition-concentration of neurons
• Soma/Cell body


  Responsible for metabolic and reproductive functions
• Nucleus of the cell

  Center of the cell
• Dendrites


  Branch like, receive information
• Soma integration


  Learning formation of new neuronal connection, conjunction
• Axon


  Long thin tube (extend/split), transmit electrochemical signal
• Myelin


  White fatty substance surrounds axon
• Nodes of Ranvier


  Small gaps in myelin coating, increase conduction speed
• Terminal buttons


  Small knobs, small gap, juncture between terminal buttons and dendrites, important in cognition
• Synapse


  Small gap, juncture between terminal buttons and dendrites, important in cognition
• Rats synapse increase learning
• Alzheimer's reduced capacity of synaptic transmission of nerve impulse
• Neurotransmitters


  Chemical messengers across synaptic gap and receiving dendrites, intercellular communication
• Neurotransmitters


  • Monoamine
  • Acetylcholine
  • Dopamine
  • Amino acid
  • Peptide chains
  • Epinephrine/Norepinephrine
  • Serotonin
  • Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)
  • Glutamate
  • Neuropeptides
  • Endorphins
• Acetylcholine


  Excite at skeletal muscles, inhibit at heart muscles, high concentration in hippocampus
• Dopamine


  Involved in movement, attention, learning, pleasure-seeking behaviors, Parkinson's (too little DA), Schizophrenia (too much DA)
• Epinephrine/Norepinephrine


  Regulation of alertness, fight or flight, anger, fear
• Serotonin


  Involved in mood, behavior, thought, arousal, sleep, dreaming, defects can cause severe depression
• GABA


  Inhibits neural activity, involved in learning and memory
• Glutamate


  Turns on different neurons
• Neuropeptides


  Endorphins released to enhance effects of acetylcholine
• Viewing the structures and functions of the brain

  • Postmortem after death
  • In vivo living
• Neuronal structure and function

  Patients' brains examined after death for lesions, infers that lesioned locations may be related to the affected behavior
• Major structures and functions of the brain

  • Forebrain (cerebral cortex, basal ganglia, limbic system)
  • Thalamus
  • Cerebellum
  • Midbrain
  • Hindbrain (cerebellum, pons, medulla oblongata)
• Cerebral cortex


  Outer layer, receives and processes sensory input, involved in thinking, sensing, voluntary movement, suppression
• Basal ganglia


  Nuclei and neural fibers, involved in motor system, instinct
• Limbic system


  Includes hippocampus, amygdala, septum, involved in emotion, motivation, memory, learning, adapting behavior
• Thalamus


  Relay station, 4 key nuclei for sensory input (visual, auditory, somatosensory, motor)
• Cerebellum


  Involved in motor coordination, balance, eye movement, non-conscious recall of existing memories
• Midbrain


  Involved in consciousness (emotion, pleasure, pain), sleep, stress, endocrine and autonomic functions
• Prenatal development enables us to think, 50% of human brain is gray matter, left and right cerebral hemispheres
• Contralateral (opposite side) and ipsilateral (same side) communication in the brain
• Forebrain is the newest part of the brain, hindbrain is the oldest and most primitive
• Marc Dax found loss of speech correlated with damage to left hemisphere, Paul Broca found lesions in left hemisphere caused aphasia, Carl Wernicke found language ability in left hemisphere and language comprehension in Wernicke's area
• Karl Spencer Lashley found specific brain locations do not correlate with specific motor responses
• Split brain patients have language functions in left hemisphere, spatial visualization in right hemisphere, and self-recognition deficit
• Apraxia is a disorder caused by damage to left hemisphere, resulting in loss of ability to carry out familiar purposeful movements