Psy 110: Neuroscience

Guest Lecture: Sept 30, 2011

Julie NeiworthProfessor of Psychology

How are mind processes accomplished in the brain?

Step 1: hands clasped: finger pointing problem.

Step 2: twisted hands clasped: same problem.

What does this tell you about brain processing of visual information and about directing movement?

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Levels of Analysis

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receive

Send out….

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receive

Axons send out…

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neurotransmitter

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How is information transmitted?

• Myelinated axons help to transmit further (keep signal stronger)

• Rate of firing can enhance chemical changes to get to threshold: temporal summation

• Number of cells firing on to postsynaptic cell can influence amount of change chemically/electrically: spatial summation.

How we use neuron changes to track brain states

• PET scans – radioactive glucose at areas of excitation

• fMRI – deoxygenated blood at areas of excitation• EEG – track neuronal firing at the surface,

extrapolate about groups of neurons

OTHERWISE:– CAT scans – find lesions, permanent

– MRI scans – find tissue weaknesses, permanent

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Not enough dopamine:Parkinson’s disease, originating from substantia nigra and basal ganglia

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Too much dopamine in motor areas: Tourette’s syndrome.

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Too much dopamine:

Schizophrenia

Paranoid delusions.

Mild hallucinations.

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John: Damage between occipital and parietal

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Clive: movie

David: cap gras, John: temporal epilepsy

Summary:

Neuronal changes help to determine how the brain processes information as you are thinking, seeing, doing.

Brain structures and functions are used to understand deficits caused in particular patients.

From both we build a model of how the brain supports the mind.