Cognitive

Neuropsychology
 Course objectives
• To familiarize students with the fundamental anatomy and
mechanisms of brain.
• To facilitate comprehension of how the brain is related to mental
states and cognitive processes.
• To understand cognitive process in context of traditional and
current theories and models.
• To enable comprehension of the implications of cognition in
human existence.
• To provide exposure to neuroscience research with the goal of
facilitating a deep- rooted and genuine interest in the area of
cognition.
 Module I: History, Anatomy and
Research Methods
A. History of Cognitive Psychology
B. Understanding the Mind
C. Anatomy and Mechanisms of the Brain
D. Research Methods
E. Ethics in Cognitive Neuropsychology Research
Module I A: History of
Cognitive Psychology
The origins of cognitive psychology
 Wilhelm Wundt
•Leipzig, Germany, 1832-1920

•Wundt proposed that psychology should study mental

processes.

•Introspection: carefully trained observers would

systematically analyse their own sensations and report
them as objectively as possible
 Early memory researchers
Hermann Ebbinghaus Mary Whiton Calkins:
(1850–1909): • The first woman to be
• Focused on factors that president of the American
influence human Psychological Association.
memory.
• Recency effect: recall is
especially accurate for the
• Nonsense syllables.
final items in a series of
stimuli.
 William James

•Theorized about our everyday psychological

experiences.

•Principles of psychology: emphasizes that the human

mind is active and inquiring.
 Behaviorism
•Emphasized observable behavior.

•Proposes that psychology must focus on objective,

observable reactions to stimuli in the environment.

•Operational definition: precise definition that specifies

exactly how a concept is to be measured.
 Gestalt
•Emphasizes that we humans have basic tendencies to
actively organize what we see.

•The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

•Emphasized the importance of insight in problem

solving.
 Frederic C. Bartlett

•Used meaningful materials, such as lengthy stories to

discover that people made systematic errors when
trying to recall these stories.

•Proposed that human memory is an active, constructive

process, in which we interpret and transform the
information we encounter.
The Emergence of Modern Cognitive
Psychology
 Factors Contributing to the Rise of
Cognitive Psychology

• Dissatisfaction with behaviorism

• Developments in the field of linguistics

• Research on memory

• Jean Piaget
 Information Processing Approach

•A mental process can be compared with the operations

of a computer

•A mental process can be interpreted as information

progressing through the system in a series of stages,
one step at a time.
 Information Processing Approach
• Atkinson and Shiffrin model:
• Sensory memory: a storage system that records information
from each of the senses with reasonable accuracy.

• Short term memory: contains only the small amount of

information that we are actively using.

• Long term memory: it contains memories that are decades

old, in addition to memories that arrived several minutes ago.
Module 1B: Understanding the
Mind
 What is mind?

• Something that creates and controls mental functions such as

perception, attention, memory, emotions, language, deciding,
thinking, and reasoning.

• A system that creates representations of the world so that we

can act within it to achieve our goals.
Studying mind
 Donders’ experiment
• Franciscus Donders studied how long it takes to make a
decision by studying reaction time.

• Simple reaction time and choice reaction time. Concluded that it

takes one tenth of a second to make a decision.

• Importance of Donders’ experiment:

• First cognitive psychology experiment
• Mental processes can’t be measured directly but can be inferred from
behavior.
 Structuralism and analytic introspection

• Structuralism: suggests that our overall experience is

determined by combining basic elements of experience the
structuralists called sensations.

• Analytic introspection: a technique in which trained participants

described their experiences and thought processes in response
to stimuli.
Hermann Ebbinghaus James’ Principles of
(1850–1909): Psychology:
• Ebbinghaus was interested in • James made observations
determining the nature of about the operation of his own
memory and mind.
forgetting—specifically, how
rapidly information that is
learned is lost over time. • Suggested that paying
attention to one thing involves
with drawing from other things
• Nonsense syllables, delay,
savings curve.
1C: Anatomy and Mechanisms
of Brain
 Gross anatomy of brain
Three major regions: forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain.
•Forebrain: the farthest forward, toward what becomes
the face.

•Midbrain: next to forebrain.

•Hindbrain: farthest from the forebrain, near the back of

the neck
Forebrain
 Forebrain

•Located toward the top and front of the brain.

•Comprises the cerebral cortex, the basal ganglia, the

limbic system, the thalamus, and the hypothalamus
 Cerebral cortex

•Outer layer of the cerebral hemispheres.

•Vital role in our thinking and other mental pro cesses.

 Basal ganglia
•Collections of neurons crucial to motor function.

•Dysfunction: motor deficits such as tremors, involuntary

movements, changes in posture and muscle tone, and
slowness of movement.

•Parkinson’s and Huntington’s

Limbic system
•Emotions, motivation, memory, and learning.
•Limbic system allows us to suppress instinctive
responses.
•Adapt our behaviours flexibly in response to our
changing environment.
•Comprises three central interconnected structures: the
septum, the amygdala, and the hippocampus.
•Septum: involved in anger and fear.
 Amygdala
• Emotions, especially in anger and aggression.

• Stimulation leads to fear response.

• Dysfunction/removal:
• Maladaptive lack of fear.
• Autism
• Visual agnosia (inability to recognize objects)
• Hypersexuality
 Hippocampus

•Memory function. Essential for flexible learning and for

seeing the relations among items.

•Helps keep track of where things are and how these

things are spatially related to each other.
 Hippocampus
•Damage/removal:

• Inability to form new memories

• Korsakoff’s syndrome:
• Loss of memory, apathy, paralysis of muscles controlling
the eye, and tremor.
• Caused by hippocampus dysfunction and lack of thiamine.
 Thalamus
• Relays incoming sensory information through groups of neurons
that project to the appropriate region in the cortex.

• Approximately in the center of the brain, at about eye level.

Regulates sleep and waking.

• Malfunction:
• Pain, tremor, amnesia, impairment of language, and disruptions in
waking and sleeping.
• Hippocampus and schizophrenia
Sense Nuclei in Cerebral
organs thalamus cortex
 Hypothalamus
• Regulates behaviour related to species survival: fighting,
feeding, fleeing, and mating.

• Active in regulating emotions and reactions to stress.

• Important for the functioning of the endocrine system. It is

involved in the stimulation of the pituitary glands.

• Dysfunction and neural loss leads to narcolepsy.

Mid brain
 Reticular Activating System (RAS)

• A network of neurons essential for regulation of consciousness.

• Also extends into hindbrain.

• RAS and the thalamus are essential to our having any

conscious awareness of or control over our existence.
 Brain stem

• Connects the forebrain to the spinal cord.

• Periaqueductal gray: essential for certain kinds of adaptive

behaviours.

• Determination of brain death based on the function of the

brainstem.
Superior colliculi Vision (especially visual
reflexes)
Inferior colliculi Hearing
Reticular activating system (also Important in controlling
extends into the hindbrain) consciousness (sleep arousal),
attention, cardiorespiratory
function, and movement

Gray matter, red nucleus, Controlling movement

substantia nigra, ventral region
Hind brain
Cerebellum Essential to balance,
coordination, and muscle tone
Pons Involved in consciousness
(sleep and arousal); bridges
neural transmissions from one
part of the brain to another;
involved with facial nerves
Medula oblongata Serves as juncture at which
nerves cross from one side of
the body to opposite side of the
brain; involved in
cardiorespiratory function,
digestion, and swallowing