Sept. 13th lecture, Mind, Brain and Cognitive Neuroscience Cognitive neuroscience New tools to study the human brain support this field of research that examines the brain mechanisms that give rise to mental functions. Interactionism Follows dualism (the idea that the mind and brain are separate entities), the mind is immaterial, and the brain is physical and these two interact. Descartes (early 1600s) suggested that the pineal gland was the "seat of the soul" where this interaction occurred. Epiphenomenalism The mind (mental thought) is the result of physical events (brain), in other words, the mind is a by-product of brain activity. Mental events are like steam coming off a train, that steam has nothing to do with how the train works. Huxley (1874) said "All states of consciousness in us ... are immediately caused by molecular changes of the brain- substance ... " -> modern neuroscience? Anything that contributes to a physical event must be a physical event, however this view can't explain the evolutionary purpose of the mind. I feel pain! I need to get my hand off this pot! Grab a hot pot handle Physical response (brain response) Pull hand away
Parallelism The mind and brain are two aspects of the same thing: every event in the mind has a corresponding event in the brain, another form of dualism, the problem is that there's no explanation for this parallel structure. I feel pain! I need to get my hand off this pot! Grab a hot pot handle Pull hand away Isomorphism There is no point-for-point link between the brain and mental experiences but they're related in structure. A thought (the mind) is linked to the brain though a pattern related to the associated physical experience (thinking about vs eating ice cream). This is a model- building theory; the mind is an internal model of the external world, the brain is support for physical and mental events following similar laws. The brain Functional specialization Fodor's modularity of the mind hypothesis states that the brain is composed of modules: each module performs a single computation that contributes to a task, these modules are inborn compartments. This is a rationalist view. Modules Dedicated systems that work on very simple information, our thinking abilities are built from these modules. There is brain specialization of modules. Characteristics of modules: · Domain specific (only work on certain input) · Work automatically and quickly · Share the results to other modules but not the process (a criticism of this theory) Phrenology Gall and Spurzheim (late 1700s), parts of the brain correspond to mental functions and personality characteristics, well-used mental functions cause their associated brain area to grow and protrude, under-used functions cause the associated brain area to shrink. The
locations of bumps and dents on the skull are used to measure mental strengths and weaknesses. Some see it as the precursor to neuroscience without the proper tools. It's a way too simplistic view of things and is a problematic method for localizing brain functions. General view