History of Cognitive Neuroscience

History of Cognitive Neuroscience

Neolithic Neurology

(i.e. trephination)Estimated 65% survival rate from Stanley Finger, neurologist

One archeological site in France with 120 skulls had 40 with holes

Fundamental Circularity of Being

“The world is inseparable from the subject, but from a subject which is nothing but a projection of the world,and the subject is inseparable from the world, but froma world which the subject itself projects.”

Merleau-Ponty (1906-1961)

Goal of Cognitive Neuroscience is to provide andexplain the correspondence between

brain and mind

structure and function

Does brain=mind or some other relationship?

Ancient views of the mind

Cerebrocentric Cardiocentric Plato, Hippocrates Aristotle

Andreas Vesalius(1514-1564)

De Humani CorporisFabrica (The Fabric ofThe Human Body) – 1543

Studied anatomy solelyfor structure

Some error in brain convolutions

Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

De Homine – 1662

Mechanistic view of brain

Pineal gland – gateway to soul

Luigi Galvani

(1737-1798)

Professor of Obstetrics

Moves frog leg with static electricity

Detects electricity in the nerves offrogs

Phrenology

Cerebral Localization: GallFranz Gall (1781) pioneer• noted aphasia-frontal lesion link

• Phrenology: Analysis of the shapes and lumps of the skull would reveal a person’s personality and intellect.

• Identified 27 basic faculties like imitation, spirituality

Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828)

Cerebral Holism (Diffuse representation)

• Pierre Flourens (1824) set up lab to attack

Gall’s mind-brain equivalence.

• He demonstrated that main divisions of brain were responsible for largely different functions.

• By removing cerebrum, all perceptions, motor function, and judgment were abolished.

• Removal of cerebellum affected equilibrium and motor coordination.

• Destruction of brain stem caused death.

• Extensive cortical lesions in birds and rabbits showed little behavioral change, which led him to believe that these functions are represented diffusely around the brain.

Swing back to Localization

• Bouillaud (1825): large series of speech loss with frontal lesions

• Marc Dax (1836): LH damage, right hemiplegia, & aphasia linked

• Paul Broca (1861) convincing evidence of speech laterality; Tan

Paul Broca(1824-1880)

Anthropologist and anatomist

Paris educated MD pathologist

“Tan” aphasic patient died inApril 1861

“Nous parlons avez l’hemispheregauche”

Swing back to Localization

Carl Wernicke (1874): temporal lesion disturbs comprehension. Developed connectionism model of language and predicated conduction aphasia

Back to Holism

John Hughlings Jackson

CNS ~hierarchies,

highly interactive

Korbinian Brodmann(1868-1918)

Established the basis for comparativecytoarchitectonics of the mammaliancortex.

Back to Localization

Brodmann (1905) 52 cytoarchitectonic brain areas

Experimental Neurology: Patient H.M. and callosotomy

Camillo Golgi(1843-1926)

Golgi’s silver chromate stain shows dendrites, soma, and axons

Santiago Ramon y Cajal(1852-1934)

Father of Modern Neuroscience

Birth of Cognitive Neuroscience

Cognitive Psychology strengths: cognitive

components (versus abilities like speech)

Neuroimaging strengths: normal brains,

spatial resolution

Neurology strengths:mechanisms,

causation

Modern Phrenology

History of CognitiveNeuroscience