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Bhavin R. Sheth Electrical and Computer Engineering Ph.: 713 743-4935 Email: brsheth@uh.

edu

Brain is the basis of all behavior.

How does the brain produce behavior?

The seven main parts of the CNS

R A C P

Sagittal midline view of the brain (major brain structures)

How does the brain produce behavior?

A history of neuroscience
Luigi Galvani
Late 1700s
Living muscle and nerve cells produce electricity. Golgi stainsilver salts that stain entire cell Golgis view: A continuous web of cells Ramon y Cajal: The neuron doctrine:
Individual neurons the elementary signaling elements of nervous system - Growth cone

Golgi and Cajal


Late 1800s

Reymond, Muller, Helmholtz


Late 1800s

Activity of one nerve cell affects adjacent cell in predictable ways.

C. Bernard, Ehrlich, Langley


Late 1800s

Neuropharmacology: Drugs bind to specific receptors on surface of cell membrane. Basis of study of chemical basis of communication between nerve cells.

Nerves are electrical conductors

Mullers principle of specific nerve energies

The kind of sensation following stimulation of a sensory nerve does not depend on the mode of stimulation or the area in the brain but upon the nature of the sense-organ. Thus light, pressure, or mechanical stimulation acting on the retina and optic nerve invariably produces luminous impressions.
Handbuch der Physiologie des Menschen, 1840

Golgi stained pyramidal cell

The observation of preparations impregnated by the Golgi stain was a flash of lightning: "a look was enough" and Cajal was enraptured. Nerve cells appeared "coloured brownish black even to their finest branchlets, standing out with unsurpassable clarity upon a transparent yellow background. All was sharp as a sketch with Chinese ink," Cajal wrote in his autobiography. In a feverish burst of activity ("...as new facts appeared in my preparations, ideas boiled up and jostled each other in my mind. A fever for publication devoured me"), Cajal worked on the retina, the cerebellum and the spinal cord, applying to the tissue the Golgi stain, of which he worked out some modifications.
NobelPrize.org Life and Discoveries of Santiago Ramn y Cajal

Using Golgis method, Ramn y Cajal postulated that the nervous system is made up of billions of separate neurons and that these cells are polarized. Rather than forming a continuous web, Cajal suggested that neurons communicate with each other via specialized junctions called "synapses", a term that was coined by Sherrington in 1897.

This hypothesis became the basis of the neuron doctrine, which states that the individual unit of the nervous system is a single neuron. Electron microscopy later showed that a plasma membrane completely enclosed each neuron, supporting Cajal's theory, and weakening Golgi's reticular theory.

A history of neuroscience-II
Helmholtz, Weber, Fechner
1830s-1900
Experimental psychology: study of human and animal behavior under controlled conditions. 1. All behavior emanated from the brain. 2. Control of specific behaviors localized to specific regions of brain. 3. Phrenology: Mental functions correlated with distribution of bumps on outside of head. Advocates of aggregate field view: any part of the cerebral hemispheres could perform all functions of the hemisphere. Lashleys rat maze learning studies, theory of mass action Studies of epilepsydifferent sensory and motor functions traced to different parts of the cortex.

Franz Gall

Flourens, Lashley

H. Jackson

Brodmanns cytoarchitectonic cortical classification scheme

Functional variations based on variations in local cell structure and on variations in local arrangement of cells into layers

A history of neuroscience-III
Cellular connectionism (Wernicke, Sherrington, Cajal):
Individual neurons are the signaling units of the brain

Neurons are arranged in functional groups.


Neurons connect to one another in precise fashion.
Wernickes work on neural basis of language showed that different behaviors produced by different brain regions interconnected by specific pathways.

A history of neuroscience-IV
Parallel distributed processing (Rumelhart, McClleland):
Many sensory, motor, cognitive functions served by more than one neural pathway. When one pathway is damaged, others may be able to compensate partially for the loss.

Review
1. _____ is the basis of behavior.

2. The seven broad divisions of the CNS.


3. What is the neuron doctrine?

4. Connectionism?
5. PDP?

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