Mind Machine Theme 1 Lecture 1

7/28/2019 Mind Machine Theme 1 Lecture 1

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100% continuous assessment means noexam in January!

BUT it also means that you have to behere EVERY Wednesday

20% of your grade will be awarded forparticipation in Workshops!

There are 5 assessments. You have to be

here to do them.If you miss an assessment through healthor good cause reason, there will beopportunities for resits during the course.


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We would like to thank the inspiration from

Professor Colin Blakemore, who presentedthe series The Mind Machine and

Professor Susan Greenfield, who presented

the series Brain Story.

Both produced by the BBC.

The videos that we have used in the lectures

are reproduced in this Web format as

italicised commentaries on the video content.


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1. Turn ON your handset - slide the Power Switch up (I = ON)

2. Enter the number9and press to join the class

3. The ANS: field will appear you are ready to respond to questions.

4. To send a response, select your answer and press

WARNING: Your handset will go to SLEEP when not in use.

Press ANY KEY to WAKE UP your handset.


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What happens if you do NOT attend ALL theWednesday sessions?

1) You spontaneously combust.

2) The chip in the back of your neck is activated.

3) You get a rude e-mail from us.

4) Your class certificate is withdrawn.


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What happens if you do NOT attend ALL the

Wednesday sessions?

1) You spontaneously combust.

2) The chip in the back of your neck is activated.

3) You get a rude e-mail from us.

4) Your class certificate is withdrawn.


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Who we are:Professor Mary Cotter [email protected]

Professor Peter [email protected]

Dr Steven [email protected]
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Which of the following statements do you most agree with?

1.The mind is separate from the brain.

2.The mind is entirely due to the activity of brain cells.

3.We do not know what the mind is.

4.It is not possible to understand the mind.

5.The mind is spiritual, the brain is physical.


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Historical and Philosophical views of the Mind

Plato established his academy in Athens in 385 BC.

At that time there were two diametrically opposed views of

the human mind:

that it was part of the physical world and that it was not.

Plato believed that the human mind/soul was immortal and

only temporarily related to the body.


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In contrast, Democritus considered that everything

in the universe was made of atoms and thus the

mind was material.


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The 17th century French philosopher Ren Descartes had

huge influence.

He considered that most functions of the brain, detecting

events in the world and reacting to them, were a function ofthe nervous machinery of the brain. But some special

aspects of human behaviour such as moral judgement

came from the mind/soul, which he thought exerted its

influence through the pineal gland (the third eye).


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Dawkins; the mind is the actions of the brain, which

evolved because it made humans more efficient at

propagating their genes.

To understand the brain is to understand the organ that

allows us to understand!!


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What is the point of brains?

Interestingly only animals have brains.

What could be the interpretation of that?1. Plants are stupid.

2. Animals need brains because they move around.

3. Plants have a completely different brain system, which we have not yet

discovered.


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Sea squirts have different life cycle stages:

As larva they are free swimming and have a brain, the cerebral

ganglion. They disperse by swimming and then settle down as adults,

attached to apermanent substrate.

Once they do that, then the cerebral ganglion is digested, they literally

eat their brains. Good Biology!


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What does that suggest might be a major function of the

brain?

Movement:

increases risks,

increases need for rapid

information from the

environment about whatis happening,

find food and mate,

avoid predators.

Need to process lots of

information very quickly.


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So need for a cohesive, complex, innovative andcommunicating society may have been an important drive

in the evolution of the human brain.

Humans need a very long time in order for their

brains to mature and yet their lifespan at the time of

the Stone Age would only have been about 20 years.


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Your brain weighs about 1.5kg andcontains roughly 100 BILLION neurons..

A neuron (nerve cell) isspecialized to be very good at

transmitting information...


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Its s all about information.

Neurons communicate by sending electrochemical signals along

their axons down to a specialised junction called a synapse.

At the synapse, chemicals called

neurotransmitters are released,

which affect the

electrochemical activity of

another neuron.

(There are lots of different

neurotransmitters).


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So at synapses, nerves talk to each other by releasing

neurotransmitters.

Neurotransmitters attach to receptor

sites on the next nerve and trigger animpulse/activity which sends the

information on.


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Chemical Messengers (Neurotransmitters) carry the

message from one nerve to another.How long do you think the Neurotransmitter stays attached

to the second nerve?

1. Hours2. Minutes

3. Seconds

4. Milliseconds S-3

5. Microseconds S-6


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In fact very, very short time, so that the second nerve is ready

to respond to new information.

Action of the neurotransmitter is rapidly terminated either by its

destruction or its reuptake into the nerve that released it.

Important to appreciate that virtually all of the Pharmacopoeia ,

(available medicine cabinet for treatments), is made up of drugs

that manipulate an aspect of synapses.


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The Brain: the ultimate pr ima donna!!The rest of the body slaves all the time to maintain the brain

in a happy state.

Brain demands constant supply, via blood supply, of oxygen

and glucose (sugar).

Failure to provide either results in severe interference with

function.


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The Brain: the ultimate pr ima donna!!

When neurons are active they increase their demand for

blood supply which increases delivery of O2 and glucose.

These changes can be monitored and give us lots of

information about which areas of the brain are involved in

what activity.

Interference with the supply of oxygen as occurs in Stroke

demonstrates the absolute need of the brain for O2 .

Just 4 minutes interruption of brain blood flow leads toirreparable damage.


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Stroke victims give us lots of information because the

changes in their behaviour/perception of the world inform

us about what the areas they have lost might have beendoing.


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Divisions of the cortex


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In Human beings (like many other primates, including chimpanzees, New and old

world monkeys, etc.) the most powerful sense is vision.

We have a phenomenal visual system which dominates all our other senses. Quite abit of cortex is devoted to it too:

From Dougherty (2003) Journal of Vision.


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whereas a dog for example would have a smell map of this room, in one glance

He looks so

cute!

He needs a

bit of a

wash


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Which of the following most closely defines Perception?

1. ability to hear, see or become aware of something through

the senses

2. a way of regarding, understanding or interpreting something

3. intuitive understanding and insight4. neurophysiological proceses, including memory, by which an

organism becomes aware of and interprets external stimuli

5. All of the above.

6. None of the above.


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If you look really hard at this chocolate bar, can you see anything?

1. Yes

2. No


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The human brain craves information about faces and many of us see faces in

any vague combination of shapes, even in the most unlikely places.

One of the most important things we need to make sense of is faces. Is

this person friend or foe?


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But what if you could not recognise faces, even your own?


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Lincoln 1

Lincoln Holmes had a car accident 30 years ago and is

completely face-blind.

He suffers fear and panic because he has no ability torecognize faces.

But, he is NOT blind.


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Lincoln 2

In tests of his visual perception, Lincoln has no

problem recognizing objects, but is totally flummoxedby faces, sadly, including his own.


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So Lincoln cannot recognise faces (Prosopagnosia).

what about Kevin?


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Kevin

Kevin Chappell also had an accident which damaged

his brain.

He has NO problem with recognition of faces, but is

unable to recognise objects.

(More than 30 brain areas have now been shown to

be involved in visual processing)!


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So one patient can recognize objects but not faces and

another faces but not objects.

These patients with very specific brain damage provide

insights into how we actually make sense of our world.


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Another important source of information is by stimulating

different areas of the brain and observing what

behaviours/sensations occur in conscious humans.

Sounds really bizarre BUT there is no pain in the brain

and so once the skull has been removed under local

anaesthetic, can puddle around and stimulate differentparts of the brain.


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Brain Surgery

Sarah Kitchen is undergoing brain surgery to remove a

tumour. In order to avoid any damage to the areas of the

brain that are involved in key functions such as speech,the surgeon has to have the patient awake.

So she is asked to speak by counting numbers and when

the surgeon stimulates certain areas , he can jam the

function of that area and then knows to avoid it because of

its involvement in speech.(One key fact to appreciate is that many pathways in the

brain are inhibitory and so when they are stimulated they

damp down activity).


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The surgeon emphasises that there is nothing

wrong with Sarahs vocal cords, it is her mental

processes of speech that are being blocked.The surgeon is then able to remove the tumour

without damaging speech areas. Bizarrely patient

talks about puddings while her brain is being

manipulated by the surgeon.

She was asked if she wanted to watch the operationon her brain, but declined!!


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As a result of this kind of technique, it was possible to

map out areas of the brain which control the muscles of

the body, motor homunculus.

Penfield in Montreal stimulated small areas of the motor

cortex and carefully recorded the effects on the bodys

muscles


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For example if he stimulated here in the right motor

cortex, he observed co-ordinated contraction of the

thumb muscles on the contralateral side, ie left.

(One of the things about the motor system is that oneside of the brain controls the other side of the body!)


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In a similar way to the motor homunculus, discrete electrical

stimulation of the adjacent area of the cortex , produced

sensations eg touch or pin prick in specific parts of the

body= Somatosensory homunculus.

Thus the body carries a map of the body in terms of both

its muscles and also its sensations.


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Which of the following statements do you think is most

correct?

1. Thanks to the brain, we have an absolutely accurate

picture of the world.

2. The brain constantly lies to us about the world in which we

live.

3. Sometimes the brain makes it up.

4. We are all in a constant state of delusion and hallucination.


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Phantom

Angela Button has had her right arm amputated but still

feels as though she retains her lost hand. This is a

clinical condition, known as Phantom Limb.

Sometimes patients with this condition eg with their leg

removed try and stand up, but fall over or with their arms

removed try and scratch their nose with their lost hand.

They also get radiation , ie the parts of the body that

are lost are taken over on the somatosensory cortex byadjacent areas. So touching her face elicits sensation of

her lost hand.


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Is she hallucinating?

Perceiving a limb that is not there?

How can that be?

Her brain is projecting back out to the area of the

somatosensory cortex that represents her missing hand, to

give her a perception of that hand.


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So is the brain messing with our heads?

Can we trust what we see and feel??

Is seeing really believing?

It is important to realize that you dont have to havebrain damage to be deluded by the brain, all of us

suffer constant delusions and hallucinations.

Lets look at a picture?


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Can you see anything moving?

1. Yes

2. No


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Nothing is actually moving in this image..Stare at any of the red arrows

for a second and that part of the figure stops moving..

(rotating snake illusion)


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Attention!

Although we know that the brain craves

information, a lot of the time there is simply

too much information for the brain to deal

with, so it filters out the unimportant stuff.

In order for us to take any notice of it, we

have to ignore a great deal of incoming

information.


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This has all sorts of implications for accuracy of

witness statements for example.

Very important processing for attention goes on inthe parietal cortex, damage in some parts leads

to one of the most bizarre neurological

syndromes.


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Neglect

Damage to the right hand side (parietal cortex) leads to

neglect.

Patients ignore half of their world.Mainly due to strokes affecting the right side of the brain.

They may only dress one side of the body.

Peggy Palmer ignores the left hand side of the world and

can only draw the right hand side of a picture that she isasked to copy,

Remember one side of brain controls other side of the body.

It is not blindness, but damage to the attention system.

When pointed out that they have ignored things then they

acknowledge that.Brain fills in the gaps due to imagination.


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So weve seen that fascinating deficits can be observedand studied in patients with very specific brain damage.

But maybe broken brains dont work quite like normal

onesare there other ways we can learn about the brain

and its relationship to different qualities of mind?


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Are there ways we can learn about the way the brain/mindworks in people without brain injury?

Are there ways we can demonstrate how the brain uses

information to perceive the world?


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Ames room

Dont have to have brain damage to be messed about by our

brains?

Weird perceptual illusion designed to fool the brain.


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Ames room

The Ames Room

It isnt really a nice rectangular roomit is very distorted but

perspective says it isnt---so if those distances are what theyappear to be, that lady on the right must be a giant!

Your experience determines what you perceive

And you cant ignore it even if you know it is an illusion!


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Neuroimaging

Imaging techniques have been developed which allow

study of the brain performing different activities.

PET (Positron Emission Tomography)

fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging)

MEG (magnetoencephalography)

They have lead to an explosion in our understanding of

which areas of the brain are normally involved in different

activities and behaviours in healthy undamaged brains.


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PET Scanner

PET scan of normal brain performing complex planning activity that

involves the frontal cortex/lobe.

How do we think things through?

Complex planning needs brain to create solutions to a problem.

Imaging shows frontal lobe lights up with activity.

A second scan, taken when something is not being actively

planned can be used to subtract activity to pinpoint areas involved

in planning.


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We know from neuroimaging and from studies of

patients with brain damage that the frontal lobes play

a role in tasks like planning actions


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Frontal

Michael, a Vietnam veteran who suffered shrapnel

wounds to his frontal lobes has lost the ability to plan.

He has gone from a bright promising, assertive soldierto an unemployable person who makes multiple

mistakes in his behaviour and his social relationships.

He now works as a hospital janitor


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Frontal scan

The damage to Michaels frontal cortex means he is no

longer able to cope unless he is given very structured

step-wise instructions. He is no longer able to rely oninternal thinking to develop and execute plans.

He has also lost reflective ability.

Th 2


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Theme 2

Consciousness and free willWhat do we mean by Consciousness??

Clinically it refers to the state of awareness of selfand the environment.

And a key component of that is conscious memory

If this is impaired it has devastating effects on our

behaviour and being.


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Clive Wearing, a professional musician, suffered

a loss of components of his temporal lobes and

has completely lost the ability to rememberanything since his accident = anterograde

amnesia.

He lives in a moment to moment existence.

Snapshots of time with no connections to eitherthe past or the future.

Endlessly writes the same thing, but cannot

recognise it, because even as he sees it, it is

fading from his memory.

Teaches us that we are our memories.


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Theme 3: Language

The Communicative Imperative:

How do we use language to convey complex

ideas, emotions and abstract concepts?What do we do if we can't 'speak'?

Is our mind affected by the language we speak?

Is our language a product of nature, or nurture?

Can brain damage selectively impair it?


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Theme 4:

CreativityAnother aspect of the human brain/mind is creativity.

Just think about what amazing things people have

done.


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Which of the following do you think is the most amazing

example of human creativity:

1. Art such as the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

2. Music such as the symphonies of Beethoven or the operas of

Mozart.

3. Literature such as the plays of William Shakespeare.

4. The voyage to the moon.

5. The development of anti-cancer drugs.

6. The internet

Is genius the product of a damaged mind where some


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Is genius the product of a damaged mind, where some

functions are lost and brain takes over that cortical space to

enlarge other functions?

Savant

Steven Wiltshire has autism, he is known as the human

Camera. At the age of 11, he was able to draw a

perfect image of London after one helicopter ride. Even

the number of windows in all major buildings was

completely accurate.

Steven is challenged with another helicopter ride over

Rome, the eternal city, which he has never seen

before.

Yet again, he produces a perfect replication.


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Do people

really die of

voodoo curses?


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Why is this notcausing pain?

Or is it?

Is the brainmasking the

pain?

So next week we will explore more about the way


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So next week, we will explore more about the way

in which scientists think that different parts of the

brain might work, looking at more cases.

Also importantly, although we have been looking

at these amazing unique patients, Science

requires not anecdotes and one off unique casesbut the need to adhere to the scientific method.

So we will explore a little bit of how we might we

able to build a case for understanding how the

mind works.

Meantime, here is something to ponder


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Space

The human mind has amazing capacity to innovate, as

evidenced by mans exploration of space.


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Next week: More of the

puzzle:

Lecture 9-9:50 in REGENT

LT (across from playing

fields)

Workshop 10:05-12:00 in

Zoology G9 and 11 (the

PODSup St Machar Drive

to roundabout turn right, orhead across the botanical

gardens to Zoology)

Documents

Mind Machine Theme 1 Lecture 1