Brain Structure And Functions
Brain Structure And Function: Cognitive neuroscience is defined as the field of study associating the brain and other aspects of the nervous system to cognitive processing and, eventually, to behavior. The brain is the organ in human bodies that most directly controls human’s thoughts, motivations, and emotions.
Neural Structure And Function
An individual neural cell is called as neuron which convey electrical signals from one location to another in the nervous system. All neurons consist of four elementary parts, as soma dendrites, an axon, and terminal buttons.
- Soma: it contains the nucleus of the cell and it is also accountable for the life of the neuron and connects the dendrites to the axon.
- Dendrites: these are usually branch like structures that is used to receive information from other neurons.
- Axon: it is a long and thin tube that spread out from the soma and responds to the information.
- Terminal buttons: this are basically small knobs that found at the ends of the branches of an axon which do not directly touch the dendrites of the next neuron.
Structures and Functions of the Brain
Several methods were used for studying the human brain. These methods embrace both postmortem which means, “after death” studies and in vivo means, “living” techniques on both humans and animals. Each technique makes available important information about the structure and function of the human brain.
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Postmortem Studies
Researchers sometimes use dissection to study the relationship between the brain and
behavior. In the best case, studies start during the lifetime of a person. They observe and document the behavior of people who show signs of brain damage while they are alive Far ahead, after the patients die, the researchers observe the patients’ brains for lesions areas where body tissue has been damaged, such as from disease or injury Then the researchers infer that the lesioned locations might be related to the behavior that was affected. Through such investigations, researchers might be able to trace a link between an observed type of behavior and variances in a particular location in the brain.
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Studying Live Humans
Several of the procedures used to study live animals cannot be used on human participants. Simplifications to humans based on these studies are consequently somewhat restricted. But, an array of less invasive imaging techniques for use with humans begins has been developed. These techniques are:
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Electrical Recordings
The transmission of signals in the brain happens whit help of electrical potentials. When recorded, this activity seems as waves of various frequencies and intensities. Electroencephalograms (EEGs) are recordings of the electrical frequencies and intensities of the living with EEGs, it is possible to study brain-wave activity revealing of changing mental states such as deep sleep or dreaming.
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Static Imaging Techniques
Psychologists use still images to expose the structures of the brain. The techniques contain angiograms, computed tomography (CT) scans, and magnetic resonance imaging scans (MRI). The X-ray–based techniques which is angiogram and CT scan allow for the observation of large impairments or abnormalities of the brain, such as damage resulting from tumors or strokes.
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Metabolic Imaging
These techniques trust on variations that take place within the brain as a result of increased intake of glucose and oxygen in active areas of the brain. The simple idea is that active areas in the brain ingest more glucose and oxygen than do inactive areas during some tasks. An area explicitly required by one task ought to be more active during that task than during more comprehensive processing and hence should require more glucose and oxygen.
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Positron Emission Tomography (PET)
PET scans measure increases in oxygen ingestion in active brain areas during particular kinds of information processing. The brain is scanned to identify and detect positrons. A computer analyzes the data to produce images of the physiological functioning of the brain in action. It scans can support in the diagnosis of disorders of cognitive failure like Alzheimer’s by searching for abnormalities in the brain.
