Midterm 1 Study Guide: Chapters 1-10

Chapter One: Origins

* Shamans- people who cultivate connection with inner recesses to facilitate healing and divination * Hallucination- comes from “hallucinare”; to wander in the mind; a perceptual experience in the absence of an external stimulus * Hallucinogen- something that induces hallucinations * A Space Odyssey- by Stanley Kubrick; movie about the first animals and hominids about 5 million years back * Hominids- group of primates that include modern humans and its ancestors; social creatures that live together in small groups * Hominid evolution- comes from the study of fossils ranging from 4-5 million years ago; classified into 3 primary genera- Australopithecus, homo, ardipithecus * Substantial increase in brain and body size * Genus Australopithecus- 4 to 1 million years ago with skull size of about 500cc; includes afarensis, africanus, robustus * Genus Homo- started about 2 million years ago until present day; largest of hominids; includes habilis, erectus, neanderthalensis, sapiens * Brain size- discovered through examination of fossil fragments and has increased with evolution and body size; also allows for more complex capabilities * Went from 350 cc to 1400 cc within 4 million years * Mind- the collection of mental experiences such as thoughts, feelings, perceptions, and sense of self * Consciousness- capacity to be aware of mental experiences and what it means “to be” somebody or something * To have the capability to have a mind and be conscious on your own * Link to HAL in movie- it decides on its own to terminate support for the humans in spaceship even though it is just a machine * Mind-body problem- how is our mental experience related to our body and brain physiology?

Chapter Two: Brains and Neurons

* William James- most famous psychologist and 1st psych professor at Harvard; wrote Principles of Psych and said that nervous communication is key for all parts of the body to properly function * Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564)- physician and anatomist in Italy who wrote a book which had beautiful and fairly accurate drawings of human anatomy especially brain * Rene Descartes (1596-1650)- wrote the essays Le Monde et L’Homme and wanted to understand perception; Treatise of Man had drawings of eyes explaining its connections to brain * Luigi Galvani (1737-1798)- Italian physician who studied effects of electrical stimulation on animal muscles; discovered dead frog legs still twitched after electrical stimulation and hypothesized that muscles move because of internal electrical forces * Camillo Golgi (1843-1926)- one of the pioneers of neuroscience; developed method of staining that made neurons eminently visible under microscope * La Reazione Nera- the black reaction * Only 1% of neurons are stained * Could not resolve how nerve cells were interconnected * S. Ramon y Cajal (1852-1934)- one of the pioneers of neuroscience * Neurons- nerve cells; hundred billions can be found in brain; they are the cellular units of signal transmission * Glia- responsible for sending and receiving cells; support structure for CNS; several hundreds of billions in brain * Evolution of nervous system in animals- sponges don’t contain nerve cells/nervous system * Hydra possess simple nervous system * Tiny roundworm have a simple nervous system with 302 neurons * Planarian nervous system has an extended network of interconnected neurons with 2 clusters at the head of the worm (primitive brain) * Insects have complex brains * Structure of Brain: * Vertebrate brain develops in embryo by in-folding of tubular structure that closes off and expands at one end * Interior spaces on left will become ventricles * Forebrain dominated by cerebrum, Midbrain by optic tectum, Hindbrain by medulla and