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Physiology and Psychology

Physiology and Psychology. Today's questions. Do we perceive things directly as they are? Is there a "life energy" that guides the functioning of our body and our ability to perceive? Does our nervous system (brain included) do all of our thinking?Is mind=brain? Is mind=soul?.

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Physiology and Psychology

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  1. Physiology and Psychology

  2. Today's questions • Do we perceive things directly as they are? • Is there a "life energy" that guides the functioning of our body and our ability to perceive? • Does our nervous system (brain included) do all of our thinking?Is mind=brain? • Is mind=soul?

  3. Discovering Reaction Times • Where? Astronomy lab (Maskelyne and Killebrook) • It was called at first: "personal equation" • Why is it an important discovery?

  4. The Nervous System as an Intermediary • Between your consciousness and the world • Johannes Müller (1801-1858) • Specific nerve energies according to the different senses. What would happen if we connected your ears to the optic nerve, and your eyes to the acoustic nerve? • The nervous system as a grid for your perception.

  5. A grid for perception • We always perceive things through a grid. We can never perceive things as the totality of what they are. • Examples of visual grid, auditory grid? • Examples of psychological grid? • The full reality of ANYTHING is always a mystery

  6. Vitalism • Johannes Müller was also a vitalist. • He thought there was a "vital energy" that somehow was then distributed in specific ways by the nervous system • He thought that the nervous system transmission was instantaneous.

  7. Vitalism today • Does vitalism exist today? In what forms? Examples?

  8. Helmholtz (1821-1894) • Antivitalist • What does it take to work in Helmhotz's lab?

  9. Helmholtz's Oath No other forces than the common physical-chemical ones are active within the organism. In those cases which cannot at the time be explained by these forces, one has either to find the specific way or form of their action by means of the physical-mathematical method, or to assume new forces equal in dignity to the physical-chemical forces inherent in matter, reducible to the force of attraction and repulsion.

  10. Helmholtz contributions • Measure of the speed of the nervous impulse • Tri-chromatic theory of vision (with Young) • Research on audition: resonance. harmony, discord

  11. Of special interest to psychology Helmholtz's • Distinction between sensation and perception • Notion of unconscious inference (ex in depth perception)

  12. Unconscious inference • Inference: a reasoning that goes beyond the data, that interprets what is there. • Inferences can be conscious, but often they are unconscious • Our nervous system seems to make some inferences that are biologically built in.

  13. Sensation and perception • Sensation: has to do with what the stimulus is like, how it impacts the sensory organs • Perception: has to do w/ how a stimulus is perceived, interpreted, after the mechanism of "unconscious inference" has taken place.

  14. Body and mind • Sensation has to do with the body • Perception may involve the mind • Is our thinking more than our brain? • What does the mind have to do with the soul? Are they the same or different? • How about your emotions? Where are they? In the body, mind, soul? • What is the relation between body and mind?

  15. Body and Mind Relationship • Monism (one principle is basic, the other is a derivative) • Materialistic monism • Spiritualistic or mentalistic monism • Dualism • Parallelism • Interactionism • Double aspectism • Where are you?

  16. Body and mind • Johannes Müller: dualist: body and mind both exist. The "vital energy" is seen as non material, independent from the material. • Helmholtz: materialistic monist. • What do you think? Is our consciousness, thinking, spirituality more than our nervous system?

  17. The notion of brain localization • Franz Gall (phrenology) • Pierre Flourens (function of cerebellum, semi-circular canals). Unitary function of the cortex • Paul Broca (Broca's area) • Sir David Ferrier (motor areas) • Ramon Y Cajal (neuron as a unit)

  18. THE END

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