Basic Neuroanatomy and Neurophysiology

Elaine M. Hull, PhD, Florida State University

What is the soul?

I grew up in a very conservative

Christian family and believed in the soul,
which would outlive our earthly body
and go to Heaven. I prayed many times
each day and had profound religious
experiences. I saw Jesus in the forest
at my religious summer camp.
I went to a Christian college and was
part of an experimental program that
studied all aspects of every civilization,
beginning before written history and
continuing to the present.

What is the soul?

We learned that even primitive people

were religious and believed that gods
were in charge of fertility, war, crops,
and every aspect of life.
We also learned that many of the
stories in the Bible, including the Flood,
the Virgin Birth, and resurrection from
the dead were found in religions
hundreds of years before the Bible.
They were part of the general culture.

What is the soul?

Different groups believed in different

gods, and their own gods were
supposed to be the only true gods.
I also took biology and psychology
courses, which provided explanations
for how the brain works and for the
physiological problems that give rise
to specific psychological disorders.

What is the soul?

I discovered that consciousness

depends on a neural system in the
brain stem that projects throughout the
brain to wake it up.
Other systems promote sleep, and still
others allow us to learn, speak, and
feel empathy for others.
Damage to those areas can abolish
speech, or the ability to sleep, to form
memories, or to feel emotionally close
to other people.

What is the soul?

One topic of our weekly essays was,

What is the soul.
In that essay, I said that I believed that the
soul IS our conscious awareness, our
memories of what we have done and what
we hope to do, and our relationships with
others.
I would like to share with you a basic
understanding of how the brain works. At
the end, I will ask YOU, What is the soul?

Functional Neuroanatomy: The Nervous System and Behavior

Our brains contain 100 to 150 BILLION

neurons that make 1015 connections!
Unlike cells of other structures, neurons
are extremely varied in shape.

Nineteenth-Century Drawings of Neurons

The Major Parts of the Neuron

The cell body contains

the nucleus with our
genetic material. It is
also where proteins
are made and
electrical potentials
are integrated.
The axon conducts
action potentials to
terminals
Terminals release
transmitter to other
neurons, muscles, or
organs

Dendrites receive
incoming messages.
The axon hillock
generates action
potentials that can
travel long
distances

Synapses

Synapses
Neurons communicate with one another by
sending an electrical potential down their
long axon, which releases a chemical
transmitter to activate or inhibit the next
neuron.
There is a tiny gap between the neurons,
called a synapse.

Synapses

Synapses

Small packets of transmitter are released when an

electrical potential reaches the axon terminal.

 How do neurons produce electrical signals?

The inside is negatively charged.
This is due in part to negatively charged
proteins.
There are small channels in the cell
membrane that allow one kind of ion,
potassium (K+), to pass through. However,
channels for another ion, sodium (Na+), are
normally closed.

The inside of neurons is negatively charged, relative to the outside.

K+ can enter through K+ channels, K+ is pumped in and Na + is

but Na+ channels are closed.
pumped out by an ion pump.

K+ is attracted in by the
negative proteins. But not
enough can stay in to cancel
the negative charge, because
the concentration gradient
results in some K+ leaving.

Action potential

Because Na+ is mostly outside the cell, and

because the inside is negative, positivelycharged Na+ is attracted to the inside.
If a neurotransmitter opens Na+ channels, Na+
will rush in, carrying a positive charge.
If there is enough positive charge, an action
potential will be produced, which spreads down
the axon by opening adjacent voltagedependent Na+ channels.

Some axons are covered with many fatty

sheaths, with uncovered areas between
the sheaths. These sheaths force the
action potential to jump from one node
to the next, resulting in much faster
conduction.

 At the end of the axon are many vesicles

(packets) that contain neurotransmitter
molecules. The action potential opens
calcium (Ca++) channels, and Ca++
causes the vesicles to merge with the cell
membrane, releasing the transmitter
molecules into the synapse (space)
between the two neurons.

A few neurotransmitters and their major effects:

Glutamate: major excitatory transmitter
GABA (Gamma-amino-butyric acid): major inhibitory
transmitter
Acetylcholine: activates muscles; arousal, dreaming
Dopamine: several tracts promote motor activity
(degeneration Parkinsons disease); motivated behaviors
(including drug addiction); endocrine control; sexual
behavior
Norepinephrine: several tracts arousal
Serotonin: several tracts antidepressant, energy

The Agonistic and Antagonistic Actions of Drugs

Neuroanatomy
The brain is somewhat like a mushroom:
The brain stem and spinal cord are the most
primitive, responsible for life-preserving
reflexes, basic movements and sensations,
arousal & sleep.
On top of that are the thalamus (switchboard)
and hypothalamus (eating, drinking, reproductive
& aggressive behaviors, temperature regulation).

Neuroanatomy

Surrounding that are the limbic system,

(emotions, learning), and basal ganglia
(motor ability, motivation).

The outer covering is the cortex

(planning, motor coordination, sensations,
language).

Beneath the cerebral hemispheres is

the cerebellum (little brain). It
coordinates rapid skilled movements and
contributes to conscious perception.

Lobes of the cortex

Body sensations
Planning,
motor
control
Vision
Complex vision
Hearing

Somatosensory and motor areas

Postcentral gyrus:
Somatosensory

Precentral gyrus:
Motor

HOW DO WE MEASURE BRAIN ACTIVITY?

Electroencephalograph (EEG)

Computerized axial tomography (CAT)

CAT (or CT) scans use an X-ray source

that is moved around the head by steps.
Detectors on the opposite side detect the
amount of radiation that is absorbed.
This measures the density of brain
tissue.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

More detailed than CAT scans.
The head is placed into a powerful magnetic field
(strong enough to lift a car!).
This aligns all the brains protons in one
direction.
The protons are then knocked over by a powerful
pulse of radio waves (loud!).
The pulse is turned off and protons relax back to
their original position, giving off radio waves.
Detectors around the head detect those waves.

Positron Emission Tomography (PET)

Measures activity, not structure.

A radioactive form of glucose is injected
into the bloodstream.
A ring of detectors maps the location of
the radioactivity, as the glucose is taken
up for energy.
Subject may perform a task.
Color is used to distinguish different
levels of radioactive emissions.

Functional MRI (fMRI)

Similar to regular MRI, except that highpowered, rapidly alternating magnetic fields
are used to detect small changes in oxygen
use.
Good spatial and temporal resolution

Activity changes while viewing images of romantic partner

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Brain regions implicated in emotion:

Yellow: orbitofrontal prefrontal cortex; Blue: Anterior
cingulate cortex
Green: Posterior cingulate cortex; Purple: Insula; Red:
amygdala

Summary
Neurons have specialized areas for receiving
(dendrites), integrating (cell body), and
transmitting (axon) information.
Neurons are negatively charged at rest. When
a dendrite or cell body receives a transmitter
that opens Na+ channels, the neuron
becomes depolarized. If the depolarization is
great enough, an action potential is generated
and travels down the axon to the terminal,
where it releases transmitters stored in
vesicles.

Summary
Receptors on the recipient neuron may either
open ion channels or activate enzymes for longerlasting changes.
The brain stem and spinal cord organize lifepreserving reflexes, promote arousal or sleep, and
process sensory input and motor output.
The thalamus is the switchboard for the cortex.
The hypothalamus (below the thalamus) regulates
eating, drinking, sexual behavior, aggression,
temperature, and the endocrine system.

Summary
The limbic system, including the amygdala,
septal area, hippocampus, cingulate gyrus
(above the corpus callosum), and several other
structures control emotions.
The basal ganglia contribute to movements
and to motivation.

Summary
The cortex surrounds the rest of the brain and
is divided into 4 major lobes:
Frontal lobes
Prefrontal cortex: planning or inhibiting
actions, considering consequences,
perceiving others emotions, humor.
Frontal cortex: primary motor cortex
Parietal lobes: primary somatosensory cortex,
sense of ones place in the environment.

Summary
Temporal lobes: primary auditory cortex;
complex visual integration, speech perception
Occipital lobes: primary visual cortex
Several ways to measure brain activity or
structure:
Electroencephalogram (EEG)
Computerized tomography (CT)
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
Positron emission tomography (PET)

Practical applications
Oliver Sachs reports on numerous
patients with localized brain damage.
One was a musician who had damage in
the lower part of both temporal lobes,
which integrate complex visual images.
He can see and describe things, but
does not know what they are.

Lobes of the cortex

Body sensations
Planning,
motor
control
Vision
Complex vision
Hearing

Practical applications
For example, Oliver Sachs asked him to
describe a glove. He reported that it
was a continuous surface with five outpouchings. Sachs asked what it could
be used for. The man said it could be a
container for coins of five different sizes!
When he and his wife left Sachs office,
he tried to lift his wifes head, because
he thought it was his hat!

Practical applications
Another patient was an artist who had a
stroke in the visual cortex that took away
his color vision. Everything appeared
black, white, or gray. He forgot what
color even was.
Another patient lost the ability to perceive
motion. She saw the world as a series of
still pictures. She had trouble crossing a
street, because she would first see a car
some distance away, but then it would be
very close.

Lobes of the cortex

Body sensations
Planning,
motor
control
Vision
Complex vision
Hearing

Practical applications
Another patient had damage to a
posterior part of her parietal lobe, which
integrates our sense of our body in the
rest of the world. She would put make-up
on only the right side of her face,
because she did not perceive that her left
side existed. She was in a wheel chair,
and when she ate a meal, she would eat
food only on the right side of the plate.

Lobes of the cortex

Body sensations
Planning,
motor
control
Vision
Complex vision
Hearing

Practical applications
If she was still hungry, she would spin the
wheelchair around so that the remaining half
of the plate came into view. She would again
eat half of what remained. This would
continue until she had enough food. It seemed
easier to her to spin the wheelchair than to
look into a world that seemed to her not to
exist. She was not blind in her left visual field,
and could report correctly when Oliver Sachs
would shine a light there. She simply did not
integrate sensory input from the left half of the
world into her perceived world.

Practical applications
We now know that there are neurons in
the prefrontal cortex that produce action
potentials both when we move our own
body parts and when someone else
makes the same movement. They are
called mirror neurons. They may help
us to feel empathy with others. In a
nearby area a peptide transmitter
(oxytocin) is released that promotes
feelings of trust and affection for others.

Lobes of the cortex

Body sensations
Planning,
motor
control
Vision
Complex vision
Hearing

Practical applications
There was a report last year that brain
damage to the insula, especially on the
left side, completely erased several
peoples addiction to smoking. One
person said that his body simply forgot
the addiction. (There will be more about
this in a later lecture.)

Brain regions implicated in emotion:

Yellow: orbitofrontal prefrontal cortex; Blue: Anterior
cingulate cortex
Green: Posterior cingulate cortex; Purple: Insula; Red:
amygdala

 A final patient had his hippocampus

(in the inner part of the temporal lobe)
destroyed in an attempt to cure his
severe epilepsy. It did cure the
epilepsy, but it left him unable to
store new factual memories. (More
about him in a later lecture.)

Brain regions implicated in emotion:

Yellow: orbitofrontal prefrontal cortex; Blue: Anterior
cingulate cortex
Green: Posterior cingulate cortex; Purple: Insula; Red:
amygdala

 So, activity in specific parts of the brain

produce color and motion vision,
addiction, affection and trust in others,
and our sense of ourselves in the
world. Other parts wake us up and put
us to sleep. What else, besides these,
constitutes the soul?