12. Evolution & Cognition “Cognition is survival instinct a consequence of carefully crafted modules dedicated to solving specific evolutionary problems” 7/2/2010 7 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction
13. Evolutionary Cognitive Science Conditioned taste aversion Garcia discovered that animals learned to avoid novel food products that made them ill in as little as one learning conditioning trial, something that had not been demonstrated with any other stimulus class previously. Prepared learning Seligman demonstrated a phenomenon in which it is easier to make associations between stimuli that possess a biological predisposition to be conditioned because of a role these stimuli played in an organism’s evolutionary history 7/2/2010 8 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction
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15. To let the bad spirit out that tormented the brains7/2/2010 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 9
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17. Head and spine trauma and their effect7/2/2010 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 10
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19. Optic nerve as hollow carried the information to the brain where sensory modalities had its own localization
20. human soul was immortal and partook of the divine nature, because like the heavenly bodies it contained in itself a principle of motion7/2/2010 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 11
21. Brain vs. Heart Hippocrates 460-377 BC “Men ought to know that from the brain and from the brain only arise our pleasures, joys, laughter and jests, as well as our sorrows, pains, grieves and tears”. Aristotle 384-322 B.C “the heart as the organ of thinking, of perception and feelings,” “brain could cool the passion of heart” 7/2/2010 12 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction
22. Galen 130-200 AD 7/2/2010 13 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction
23. Brain as hollow organ : Nemesius (circa 320) 7/2/2010 14 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction
26. Phrenology : Gall-1806 Complex traits such as combativeness, spirituality, hope, and conscientiousness are controlled by specific areas in the brain, which expand as the traits develop. This enlargement of local areas of the brain was thought to produce characteristic bumps and ridges on the overlying skull, from which an individual's character could be determined. 7/2/2010 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 17
27. Beginning of Modular theory Paul Broca 1868 7/2/2010 18 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction
28. Brodmann’s area In the early part of the twentieth century KorbinianBrodmann divided the human cerebral cortex into 52 discrete areas on the basis of distinctive nerve cell structures and characteristic arrangements of cell layers 7/2/2010 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 19
41. Study of Cognitive Neural Science Single cell recording of behaving animal Cellular study of brain architecture Cognitive genetics Study of behavior of patient with specific lesion the brain Imaging of brain of normal and abnormal Computer modeling 7/2/2010 32 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction
42. Objectives To know Organization of Nervous system Nerve signal processing Sensory processing : Physical, chemical, EM Motor control mechanism voluntary and involuntary Consciousness, sleep, emotion reproduction Cognitive function: Language, Memory… Development of NS and Genetics Cognitive Neurophilosophy Recent development 7/2/2010 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 33
46. 3. Sensory Signal Processing Laws of specific sense energies – Muller 1826 “Each nerve fiber is activated primarily by a certain type of stimulus and each makes specific connections to structures in the central nervous system whose activity gives rise to specific sensations” 7/2/2010 37 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction
47. 4. Motor Control 7/2/2010 Cognitive Neurophysiology Introduction 38 Voluntary Involuntary
Some of the first psychological studies to demonstrate that learning is not mediated by general-purpose learning mechanisms were conducted several decades ago and mark what might be considered the beginning of evolutionary thinking in psychology; they also contributed greately to what has become known as the cognitive revolution.In his landmark study, Garcia discovered that animals learned to avoid novel food products that made them ill in as little as one learning conditioning trial, something that had not been demonstrated with any other stimulus class previously. Labeled conditioned taste aversion, this effect describes an adaptive problem that has since been demonstrated in almost every species tested (the exception to this rule appears to be crocodilians; see Gallup & Suarez, 1988). This adaptation serves an important function: don’t eat food that makes you ill, or you might not survive to reproduce and pass on your genes. In other words, being ill could result in a number of fitness disadvantages such as death, inability to avoid predation, inability to search and secure mates, and loss of mate value.In a similar discovery, Seligman demonstrated what he referred to as prepared learning. Prepared learning is a phenomenon in which it is easier to make associations between stimuli that possess a biological predisposition to be conditioned because of a role these stimuli played in an organism’s evolutionary history. Seligman and his colleagues demonstrated that it was much easier for humans (and animals) to form conditioned emotional responses and associative fear responses to evolutionarily relevant threats such as snakes, insects, and heights than it took to condition fear to present-day threatening stimuli that subjects were much more likely to be have encountered and be harmed by, such as cars, knives, and guns. In other words, it was easier to condition humans to fear snakes, spiders, and heights than it was to condition them to fear guns, cars, and knives.These two series of studies demonstrated that psychological traits, like the design of bodily organs, were crafted by evolutionary forces into adaptations that allowed our ancestors to flourish. That is, the information- processing mechanisms designed to deal with situations such as poisonous food or potential threats to survival evolved as part of our ancestors’ recurrent experience with such situations. These studies refute a key premise of the standard social science model, emphasizing that there is no general-purpose learning mechanism. Rather, all learning is a nsequence of carefully crafted modules dedicated to solving specific evolutionary problems (see Barkow, Cosmides, & Tooby, 1992; Pinker, xiv Preface 2002). Our brains have evolved to be efficient problem solvers, and the problems they are designed to solve are those that our ancestors recurrently faced over human evolutionary history. Hence, those among our ancestors who were psychologically adaptated to solve these problemssurvived and passed the genes for those traits on to offspring.
The best and most important documental proof about this knowledge comes from the famous Surgical Papyrus, discovered by archeologist Edwin Smith [6], and which was written around 1.600 BC in Egypt. It contains the first known descriptions of cranial sutures, the external brain surface, brain liquor (CSF) and intracranial pulsation. Its author describes further 30 clincal cases of head and spine trauma, noting how the several brain injuries were associated to changes in the function of other parts of the body, especially in the lower limbs, such as hemiplegic contractures, paralysis, miction and ejaculation and priapism, due to trauma inflicted to the spinal medulla.
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