REFLEXES

SPINAL CORD - reflexes,

BRAIN STEM - breathing

blood pressure)

very quick stereotypic reactions

“brain of the snake”

EMOTIONS

PALEOCORTEX

SUBCORTICAL NUCLEI - life and

species preservation, survival

“brain of the horse”

COGNITIVE

Neocortex – the highest level of

brain functions – learning and

memory

cognition – homo sapiens

“brain of a man”

ASSOCIATION AREAS OF THE BRAIN CORTEX

Association motor

cortex

Primary motor

cortex

Primary sensory cortex

Association sensory

cortex

Polymodal association

cortex

Primary auditory cortex

Association auditory cortex

Association visual cortexLimbic cortex

Prefrontal cortex

SENSORY DIVISION OF THE CNS

PRIMARY SENSORY CORTEX

(gyrus postcentralis

In parietal lobe)

MOTOR DIVISION OF THE CNS

PRIMARY MOTOR CORTEX

(gyrus praecentralis

In frontal lobe)

Cognition

• Mental activity or acquisition, storage, transformation, and use of knowledge

• Levels of cognition

Perception

Attention

Pattern Recognition

Memory

Organization of Knowledge

Language

Reasoning

Problem Solving

Decision Making

Learning

Learning

• Hebb rule

– repeated neural activity will produce physical changes in the nervous system

– neurons that fire together, wire together

• Long term potentiation

– LTP

– gradual increase in postsynpatic potential

– function and structure

Memory

• Encoding

– Semnatical

– Visual

– Acoustic

LEARNING

– the aquisition of new information

or knowledge

MEMORY– the retention

of learned information

IMPRINTING

PROCEDURAL LEARNING – „HOW“ (cerebellum, hippocampus, neocortex)

-FOR SKILLS OR BEHAVIOUR

-MORE LIKE A HABBIT

-REQUIRE REPETITION AND PRACTICE OVER A LONG TIME

-LESS LIKELY TO BE FORGOTTEN

DECLARATIVE LEARNING – „WHAT“ (association areas, temporal lobes,

hippocampus, diencephalon)

FOR FACTS AND EVENTS (SEMANTIC, EPISODIC)

CAN BE ACCESSED FOR CONSCIOUS RECOLLECTION

EASY TO FORM MEMORY TRACES

EASY TO BE FORGOTTEN

Emotions

• Consciously experienced subjective feelings and resulting actions

• William James & Carl Lange (1887)

– experiencing emotion by interpreting body response

– „We feel sorry because we cry“

James-Lange theory of emotions

Physiological responses

(cry, aroused, smile)

Stimuli

(pain, win, lose)

Emotions

(sad, happy)

Cannon-Bard theory of emotions

Emotions

(sad, happy)

Stimuli

(pain, win, lose)

Physiological responses

(cry, aroused, smile)

JAMES – LANGE (1884)

“...I am sad, because I cry...“

Emotions are percieved as a consequence of emotional expressions

CANNON – BARD (1927)

„...I need not to cry, to be sad...“

Emotions are experienced undependently of emotional expressions

THEORIES OF EMOTION

6 basic universal emotions

• Anger

• Fear

• Disgust

• Happiness

• Sadness

• Surprise

Emotions

• Functions of emotions

– Motivation

– Communication

– Information

• How to measure emotions?

• Emotional intelligence...

Intelligence

• The ability to profit from experience, acquire knowledge, think abstractly, act purposefully, or adapt to changes in the environment

• Universal, Context-dependent

• 3A

– Ability, Achievement, Aptitude

• Multiple intelligences

• „Life is a series of poorly defined intelligence tests“

Intelligence

• Francis Galton

– Inheritance of eminence

• Not the analyzed parameter

• Bias from SES

• Anthropometry – physical traits?

• IQ = (mental age / chronological age)*100

• IQ mean = 100, SD = 15

• Mental retardation (IQ<70)

• Intellectual giftedness (IQ>130)

Intelligence

• Charles Edward Spearman

– g – general variance

– s – specific variance

– e – error variance

– “g” is the variance shared by all tests of intelligence

• Binet, Wechsler tests and subtests

– Reliability – reproducible and consistent results

– Validity – Measuring what is intended to be measured.

G-factor

Vocabulary Arithmetic Memory

V specific A specific M specific

.80.70

.60

.60 .70 .80

r voc-arith = .55 r voc-memory = .50 r arith-memory = .39

Intelligence

• Fluid intelligence (gf)

– Abilities to think, reason, and acquire new knowledge

• Crystalized intelligence (gc)

– Knowledge and understanding that a person has acquired

Neuroscience techniques

• Brain Lessions

• Brain Imaging Techniques

– PET

– MRI

– fMRI

• Event-related Potential

• Single-cell Recording Technique

COGNITIVE PERFORMANCE AND GENDER DIFFERENCES

FEMALES MALES

Object

comparison

Object

search

Verbal

fluency

Fine motor

skills

Simple

arithmetics

Mental

rotation

Spatial

visualization

Targeting

Searching

Embeded

figures

Logical

mathematics

Psychopathology

• Autism

• Schizophrenia

• Alzheimer

• Depression

• Bipolar disorder

Autism

• Kanner triad

– Deficits in reciprocal social interaction

– Impairments in verbal and nonverbal communication

– Restricted, repetitive or stereotyped behaviors and interests

• Neurodevelopmental disorder

• Increase in prevalence (1:200)

• Male:female ratio = 4:1

ASD

• Heritability = 0,9 (10% syndrome-related)

• Myths (Nutrition, vaccination)

• Five specific spectrum diagnoses used by DSM-IV:

– Autistic disorder

– Asperger disorder

– Rett disorder

– Childhood disintegrative disorder

– Pervasive developmental disorder-NOS

ASD

• Individual must demonstrate at least 6 of the 12 symptoms

– At least 2 symptoms from the social domain

– At least 1 symptom from communication domain

– At least 1 symptom from the restricted behaviors/interest domain

– At least 1 symptom must have been present before 36 months of age

Coexistence with other neurodevelopmental disorders

AUTISM

epilepsy

in 30%

Rare

disorders

10%

Language

OCD

Social Behavior

“Endophenotypes”

Alzheimer

• Neurodegeneration

– Extracellular senile plaques (beta amyloid)

– Intracellular neurofibrillary tangles (tau proteins)

– Increasing prevalence (1% at 60 years)

Schizophrenia

• Disruption in cognition and emotion

• Positive and negative (anhedonia) symptoms

• Hallucinations

• Delusions

• Decline in social and occupational functioning

• Prevalence 1%

Bipolar disorder

• Manic-depressive illness

• Disruption of neurotransmitter signalling

• Prevalence 1%

• Bipolar I (manic) a II (depressive)

• Suicide risk

Bipolar I Disorder

Major

Depressive

Episode

Manic

or Mixed

Episode

Manic

or Mixed

Episode

One or more

manic episodeOR

Depressed and

manic episodes

OR

Bipolar II Disorder

Major

Depressive

Episode

Hypomanic

EpisodeHypomanic

Episode

One or more

hypomanic episodeOR

Depressed and

hypomanic episodes

OR

Unipolar vs. Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar

Unipolar

Elevated

Mood

Elevated

Mood

Depressed

Mood

Depressed

Mood

Alzheimer – DSM IV

• Development of multiple cognitive deficits manifested by both memory impairment and 1 or more of the following cognitive disturbances: aphasia, apraxia, agnosia, or disturbance in executive functioning

• Cognitive deficits cause significant impairment in social functioning and represent a significant decline from a previous level of functioning

• Course is gradual in onset with continuingcognitive decline

• Deficits are not due to any other CNS disorder, systemic illness, or substance-induced condition