Early history of neuroscience

1700 B.C. : Egyptian hieroglyph writing for "brain."

Hippocrate
s
460-370
B.C.
Aristotle
384-322
B.C.

Galen
130-200
A.D.

Believed the brain was the seat of

thought and emotion.

Believed the mind was located in the

heart, which contained all emotions
and thinking. The brain was like a
radiator used to cool the blood. (We
are smarter than other animals
because we cool our blood better with
a bigger brain.)
Believed the brain receives sensory
information and is responsible for
motor control, using the mechanism
of fluid energies.

Leonardo da
Vinci
1452-1519

Michelangelo
1475-1564

Is this a drawing of the brain on the Sistine

Chapel ceiling?

Rene Descartes
1596-1650

An Early Account of Reflexes

Descartes thought that the carrier

of information was the cerebral spinal fluid
(CSF) flowing through nerve tubes.
Descartes reasoned that, when the fire
burns the man's toe, it stretches the skin,
which tugs on a nerve tube leading to the
brain.
In response to the tug, a valve in a
ventricle of the brain opens and CSF flows
down the tube, filling the leg muscles and
causing them to contract. and pull the toe
back from the fire.

Descartes's theory was inaccurate, but he isolated the three basic questions that
underlie a behavioral response to stimulation:
1. How do our nerves detect a sensory stimulus and inform the brain about it?
2. How does the brain decide what response should be made?
3. How does the brain command muscles to move to produce a behavioral

Phrenology: old and new

Franz Joseph Gall

1758-1828

Functional localization
In 1862, he showed that a patient
with a stroke in his left frontal lobe
could understand language but could
not speak.
This area is now called Brocas area.
Like Broca, Wernicke had a
similar stroke victim. But this
time the patient could speak
but made no sense. The
damaged area was around
where the temporal and
parietal lobes meet in the
posterior part of the left
hemisphere.
Pierre Paul
Broca
1824-1880

Carl
Wernicke
1848-1904

he human cerebral cortex has four major lobe

1. Frontal
Executive functions, decision making,
planning

2. Parietal
Integrates sensations
into body coordinates

3. Temporal
Hearing, language,
memory, smell, taste

4. Occipital
Visual processing

Levels of organization

Gross Anatomy of the Nervous System

(CNS) The brain and
the spinal cord
together make up the
central nervous
system
(PNS) All nerve
processes and neurons
outside the CNS.
Sensory receptors
Muscles
Internal organs

Gross Anatomy of the Nervous System

Central Nervous System (CNS)
The brain and spinal cord
Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)
Somatic division: conveys
sensory information to the CNS
and motor information
from the CNS
to the muscles.
Autonomic division: enables
the CNS to govern
the workings of the
internal organs
(e.g., heartbeat, respiration).

Evolution of Brains and of Behavior

Origin of Brain Cells and Brains

Despite the age of the Earth (4.5 billion years),

brain cells and brains are quite recent
adaptations.
First forms of life: 3.5 billion years ago (LA to NY)
First brain cells: 700 million years ago (LA to Utah)
First brain: 250 million years ago (LA to Las Vegas)
First human-like brain: 6 million years ago (5 miles)
Modern human brain: 200,000 years ago (1/4 mile)
Your lifespan: 100 years (maybe) (about 4 inches)

We Are All Alike, and We Are All Different

Taxonomy of Modern Humans

Only Animalia
(Kingdom) contains
species with muscles
and nervous
systems.
Muscles and nervous
systems evolved
together to underlie
the forms of
movement
(behavior) that
distinguish members
of the animal
kingdom.

Evolution of Brains and of Behavior

Evolution of Animals Having Nervous Systems
Five different kingdoms

Evolution of Brains and of Behavior

Evolution of Nervous Systems
Nerve net:
Simplest of
all nervous
systems
with
sensory
and motor
neurons.

Segmented nerve trunk: Ganglia: Structures that

Bilaterally symmetrical resemble and function
(the same on both sides somewhat like a brain.
Often linked in a chain.
of the body).
Brain: The
chordate phylum
displays the
greatest degree of
encephalization:
they have a true
brain.

Nervous systems vary widely among chordates (animals with a

backbone), but all are/have:
Bilaterally symmetrical and segmented (witness our segmented
vertebrae).
Brain and spinal cord encased in cartilage/bone (e.g. our skull).
Crossed organization: Each hemisphere receives information from

Evolution of the Human Brain and Behavior

Humans: Members of the Primate Order

Features common to primates:

Excellent color vision.
Eyes in front of face: enhances
depth perception.
Usually only one infant per
pregnancy; infants require more
care.
Large brains for skilled
movements and social behavior.

Humans and
chimpanzees
share a common
ancestor 510
million years
ago.
Fun fact: chimps
are more closely
related to
humans than
they are to

Evolution of the Human Brain and Behavior

Early hominids were among
the first primates to show
distinctly human
characteristics, including
walking upright and using
tools.
Their brain was the size of
that of a modern ape, about
one-third the size of the
modern human brain.
Lucy lived 3.3 million
years ago. Her shoulders
pointed up, she walked
upright and had a nonrotated large toe.

Australopithecus afarensis

Evolution of the Human Brain and Behavior

The First Humans

Homo habilis (handy

human)
2 million years ago; in
Africa.
Made simple stone tools.

Homo erectus (upright

human)
1.6 million years ago; in
Europe and Asia.
More sophisticated tools
than H. habilis.

erthals co-existed (and interbred) with H. sapiens (we share 4% of our genes)

Hominid Brain Size

The brain of
Australopithecus
was about the
same size as that
of living
nonhuman apes,
but succeeding
members of the
human lineage
display a steady
increase in brain
brain issize.
actually smaller than the Neanderthal brainso what makes us so specia

More important than absolute brain size is the

Encephalization Quotient (EQ):
Measure of brain size obtained from the ratio of actual brain
size to the expected brain size for an animal of a particular
body size.
For example, an elephant has a larger brain, but not with
respect to its size.
(Does this answer the question of whether cats or dogs are
smarter?)

Encephalization Quotients for a

range of
species shows that smarter
animals
have larger EQs.
Note: crows and bats have similar
EQs to monkeys.
All of the hominids (both living (H.
sapiens) and extinct (H. habilis
and H. erectus) have large EQs.
H. sapiens have the largest EQ
(dolphins come in at a close
second).
Question: how did our brains get
so large (relative to our body
size)?

How the human brain evolved to be so large

--

CLIMATE CHANGE:
About 8 MYA, the Great Rift Valley emerged
creating a dry landscape where our ancestor lived.
This led to fewer trees and more tall grasses.
We were forced from an existence in the trees to one on the ground.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE: Started to stand up to see over the grasses.
Allowed us to see approaching predators (big cats).
Freed our hands to hold and carry stuff, gather food and allowed us to be
more creative and develop tools and weapons. (Why are we (mostly) right handed. Hint:
where is our heart?)

Began to eat fruit instead of grasses.

Fruit-eaters have larger brains than leaf eaters
Finding fruit is harder than finding edible leavesneeds a larger brain.
Good color vision developed to discern ripe from unripe fruit. Good vision
needs a big brain.
Needed larger brain to remember which trees had the best fruit (and which
season is best to find good fruit), which trees had good fruit in the previous
year, and which trees had already been picked. Eye-hand coordination
improved, socialization increased.
Also began to hunt as well as gatherled to better nutrition (more protein).

Apes that lived here never

evolved into humans.

Hominid
ancestors
lived here and
evolved into
present day humans

As brains got larger, large heads couldnt pass through birth canal. Brains
began to develop more out of the womb. Led to need for females to stay
back at camp with the kids while the males hunted. Staying put led to a
greater reliance on tools and less on size and strength.
Socialization also allowed time for parents to teach culture (such as tool
making, hunting and language) to their babies, leading to larger brains..

End result: the brain is highly flexible

We perform many tasks today that our
brains were not originally selected for
during evolution.
Example: reading, driving , you
name it.