Link between structure and function in the brain

Question 1

Thomas Willis (1621-1675)

Answer 1

• father of neuroscience
  -produced a book of the anatomy of the brain and introduced new key terms such as corpus collosum, corpus staitum, cerebral cortex etc
• believed that the basis of higher thinking is the brain not the ventricles- the ventricles dont do anything
• he located specific mental functions, such as corpus collosum=imagination, corpus straitum=common sense, cerebral cortex=memory. these were wrong however he was the first to attribute functions to the brain rather than the ventricles.

Question 2

Gall (phrenology)

Answer 2

• proposed the idea of localisation of function in the brain= diffferent areas of the brain are resposible for different fucntions and behaviours
• if a part of your brain is more developed it grows which pushing against the skull causing a bump
• use bumps to learn about someones personality and behaviours (phrenology)

Question 3

Pierre Flourens

Answer 3

• rejected Galls concept and believed that the brain works as a whole (equipotentiality)
• Flourens and Lashley conducted expeirments on rats and pigeons and found that its the size of the lesion, not the location of the lesion that effects complex behaviour

Question 4

RTS localisation of function- Brain lesions reveal distinct behaviour changes

Answer 4

• broca- pateint Tan- couldnt produce language other than word tan= found damage to specific area of the brain in the frotal lobe left hemisphere (Broca’s area)
• Wernicke- studied patients who could not understand languge- found damage to specific area in temporal lobe- left hemisphere (wernickes area)
• phineas gage- damage to frontal area of his brain led to complete change in behaviour and personality

Question 5

Golgi, Cajal, Brodmann

Answer 5

Golgi- created a better stain than freud which made 1 in 20 neurons visible, he thought all neurons were connected in a network, menaing the brain works as a whole
Cajal- used Golgi’s stain and identified gaps between the neurons (synapses) and so he suggested that neurons are separate (neuron doctrine), axon send msgs, dendrites recieve the msgs
Brodmmonn- studied structure of brain cells in different areas of the brain and found that these different brain cells had different architecture meaning that different areas of the brain must have different fucntions