ch 4

• Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is also considered as area of contemporary research into progressive and fatal brain disease
• Brain versus heart debate

  Historical debate as to whether the heart or the brain is responsible for mental processes, such as thought, emotion, and behaviour
• Mind-body problem


  Complex philosophical question as to whether our mind is separate and distinguishable from our body or whether they are one integrated entity
• Phrenology


  Study of the shape and size of the human skull to determine personality and mental functioning

  
• Ablation


  Surgical removal, destruction, or cutting of a region of brain tissue
• Brain lesioning


  Practice of inducing and/or studying the effects of damage to an area of the brain

  
• Split-brain research


  Research on the effects of severing the corpus callosum, the band of neural fibres connecting the two hemispheres of the brain
• Structural neuroimaging


  Techniques that provide information about the structure of the brain

  
• Functional neuroimaging


  Techniques that provide information about the function of the brain

  
• Ablation


  The surgical removal, destruction, or cutting of a region of brain tissue
• Brain lesioning


  The practice of inducing and/or studying the effects of damage to an area of the brain

  
• Ablation and brain lesioning can be hard to differentiate. It is important to remember that ablation refers to the removal of parts of the brain, whereas lesions are damages to the brain.
• Gall touched on the idea that the disuse of certain faculties may lead to their deterioration in the brain. While the way Gall described this was largely inaccurate, modern psychology and neuroscience recognise that the frequency of activation of neural pathways influences their growth (long-term potentiation) or deterioration (long-term depression).
• Cerebral hemispheres


  The symmetrical halves of the cerebrum in the brain
• Hemispheric specialisation


  The difference in functioning between the left and right hemispheres of the brain when performing a specific behaviour or task
• Neuroimaging


  A range of techniques used to capture images of the brain's structure, function, and activities

  
• Computerised tomography (CT)


  A neuroimaging technique that involves taking continuous two-dimensional x-ray images of the brain which are then stacked to create a comprehensive three-dimensional image of the brain

  
• Computerised tomography (CT)


  • Enables the detection of haemorrhages, blood clots, cancer, and the loss of brain mass that can reflect disorders
  • Do not need to be used as frequently as other kinds of neuroimaging techniques, given how comprehensive CT scans are as they develop multiple images of the entire body or brain
  • Are less harmful to patients than CT scans because MRI devices use a magnetic field rather than X-rays
• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)


  • Produce more detailed, coloured images of the brain than the images produced by CT scans
  • Due to relying on magnetic fields, an MRI cannot be used on a person with internal screws, pacemakers, or other similar devices

  
• Positron emission tomography (PET)


  A neuroimaging technique that uses a scanning device to take coloured images of the brain, showing its functional activity by tracing the levels of a radioactive substance in the brain

  
• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)


  A neuroimaging technique that uses magnetic and radio fields to take two and three-dimensional images of the brain and record its activity levels

  
• fMRI is now the preferred functional neuroimaging method, as it produces higher quality images of the brain's activity than PET scans and does not require the injection of a radioactive substance to trace brain activity.
• Neuroimaging techniques


  Different ways to capture images of the brain
• Structural neuroimaging techniques


  • Computerised tomography (CT)
  • Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
• Functional neuroimaging techniques


  • Positron emission tomography (PET)
  • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)


  A neuroimaging technique that uses magnetic and radio fields to take detailed two-dimensional and three-dimensional images of the brain

  
• Hindbrain


  Brain region that coordinates basic survival functions including movement, breathing rate, heart rate, and digestion
• Cerebellum


  • Calculates and coordinates skeletal muscle movement
  • Involved in maintaining balance and posture
  • Consolidates procedural memories about how to perform sequential movements
• Medulla


  • Regulates autonomic processes like respiration, heart rate, blood pressure, and digestion
  • Initiates reflexive actions like coughing, sneezing, and vomiting
  • Connects the brain to the spinal cord
• Pons


  • Relays information between different brain areas
  • Regulates the respiratory system and controls sleeping, dreaming, and waking
  • Involved in various involuntary behaviours like blinking
• Midbrain


  • Relays neural information between the hindbrain and forebrain, and between higher brain areas and the spinal cord
• Reticular formation


  • Filters neural information travelling to the brain and directs it to various brain regions
  • Integrates and relays neural information relating to survival and reflexive functions
  • Regulates sleep, wakefulness, and consciousness
  • Regulates physiological arousal and alertness
• Forebrain


  • Coordinates sophisticated mental processes and complex functions including cognition, perception, learning, language, memory, receiving and processing sensory information, and initiating voluntary motor movement
• Cerebrum


  • Coordinates sophisticated mental processes including cognition, perception, judgement, language, and problem-solving
  • Receives and processes sensory information and initiates voluntary motor movement
• Hypothalamus


  • Maintains optimal biological functioning by regulating internal processes like hormone levels, hunger, thirst, body temperature, and blood pressure
  • Involved in emotional and motivated behaviours related to fulfilling needs like sex and feeding
• Thalamus


  • Filters and relays sensory information (excluding olfactory) to higher brain areas
  • Relays motor signals between higher and lower brain areas involved in motor control
  • Involved in regulating arousal, activity, and alertness
• Forebrain


  Contains the cerebrum, thalamus, and hypothalamus
• Cerebellum


  • Involved in sequential motion that has been completed time and time again
• Medulla


  • Involved in feeling heart beating and breathing rate increasing
• The forebrain does not have a role in language