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3300 BCE
Brain Versus Heart Debate
The ancient Egyptians believed that the brain had no role at all, so all the organs were preserved in a jar with pharaoh Tutankhamen was mummified but his heart remained in his body. everything was removed carefully out of the body besides the brain which was pulled out through the nose with a iron hook. Galen thought that it was the brain that was the important role of the body and but his findings weren't accurate, now there's evidence that the brain controls mental processes. -
1900 BCE
The First Brain Experiments
The experiments were dominated by two main approaches which are ablation and electrical stimulation, these techniques have enabled researchers to assign functions to large areas of the brain. -
1800 BCE
Phrenology
Franz Gall proposed that the different parts of the brain had different functions, he thought that the brain was composed of seperate parts and that each part had a different function. -
1700 BCE
The Mind-Body Problem
The Greek philosophers believed that the mind and body were separate and that the mind could control the body but the body didn't influence the mind, until rené Descartes challenged this theory after 2000 years in the 17th century. however he agreed that the mind and body are two separate things he also believed that the mind was non-physical and the body was, he also argued that the mind could effect the body and the body could effect the mind. -
Pierre Flourens Pioneers Experimental Ablation
Pierre was a french psychologist who was often credited as introducing brain ablation, he did controlled lab experiments with animals, he would remover brain tissue from different parts of the brain, this made him assume that the brain stem was responsible for respiration. the cerebrum he assumes was for movement. -
Gustav Fritsch And Eduard Hitzig Discover The Motor Cortex
Gustav Fritsch and Eduard Hitzig used recent improvements in the control of electricity to stimulate what is now called the motor cortex of a dog. they found five spots that when stimulated it triggered distinctive movements of the opposite side if the body. -
Karl Lashley Search For The Location Of Learning And Memory
Karl an american psychologist used ablation throughout the next 30 years in experiments to find the location in learning and memory in the brain. tasks were taught to rats,monkeys and chimpanzees while bits of cortical tissue was removed with the goal of producing amnesia for memory. -
Wilder Penfield Maps The Cerebral Cortex
Wilder used ESB to map the cerebral cortex, he invented a treatment for severe epilepsy. the patients had to be conscious for this surgery so they could talk to him later about how it felt, during the surgery he used tiny numbers to identify the brain. he used an electrode across their brain to see what functioned what in our bodies for instance he moved it over the top of the cortex and body parts moved or in the back of the brain and they saw flashing lights for the visual part of the brain. -
Functional Neuroimaging
Positron emission tomography(PET) makes coloured images showing the brains structure,activity and function. The PET is used to record the level of activity in different brain areas while the patient does a mental or low physical task. Each PET scan uses a colour code to show areas with high or low activity. Functional magnetic resonance imaging records brain activity by measuring oxygen consumption across the brain, its more likely to get used in psychological research cause it takes pictures. -
Structural Neuroimaging
Structural neuroimaging is also know as computerised tomography (CT) or computerised axial tomography (CAT) this uses x-ray equipment to can the brain at different angles. A computer shows the image showing a horizontal cross-section of the brain. for a CT scan the patient must be given a substance called contrast. this was a new way to look at someones brain without dangerous procedures. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) uses harmless magnetic fields to vibrate atoms in the brain neurons. -
Split Brain Surgery
The split brain surgery involves cutting the band of nerve tissue connecting to two hemispheres, this procedure only happens for very serious cases of epilepsy where nothing else worked. medical reports showed that they suffered no loss of impairment to the brain functions but Sperry found other results saying that it did, he tested the abilities of 11 split-brain patients, they could name the objects on the left of the dot but if the pictures were on the right they couldn't see them at all.
