Neuropsychology in Education A Modern Trend

Dr. Samirranjan Adhikari

M.Sc., Ph.D. (Applied Psychology), M.Ed.

Assistant Professor in Psychology, Shimurali Sachinandan College of Education

Shimurali, Nadia, West Bengal E-mail- samirranjanadhikari@gmail.com Mobil-9231612366

If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldnt
-Emerson Pugh, The Biological Origin of Human Values (1977)

Human Brain
A fascinating and mysterious machine Weighing only about 3 pounds (1.36 kilograms) and with a volume of about 1,250 cubic centimetres.

Human Brain
Has the ability to
monitor and control basic life support systems, maintain posture and direct our movements, receive and interpret information about the world around us, and store information in a readily accessible form throughout our lives

Human Brain
Allows us to solve problems - strictly practical to highly abstract, communicate fellow human beings through language,

Human Brain
Also allows us to
create new ideas and imagine things never existed, feel love and happiness and disappointment, and experience an awareness of ourselves as individuals.

Human Brain
Not only can undertake such a variety of different functions, but can do more or less all of them

simultaneously.

Neuropsychology
one of the neurosciences grown to be a separate field of specialization within psychology over about the last 45 years

Neuropsychology
Seeks to know
relationship: brain behaviour

Attempts to understand activity :

brain observable behaviour

Neuropsychology
Attempts to explain mechanisms responsible: Thinking (Cognitive), Feeling (Affective) & Willing (Conative)

Neuropsychology
Attempts to explore effects of changes:

Brain states Behaviour

Neuropsychology

Understanding behaviour needs to understand brain

Neuropsychology
A psychology without any reference to physiology can hardly be complete

Neuropsychology

Brain Behaviour:
make a significant contribution to understanding other more purely psychological factors operate in directing behaviour

The Nervous System An Exquisite and Complex Information Processing System

Phineas Gage

Phineas Gage
A construction worker American railroads In 1848 suffered an accident an iron bar, over 3 feet long and 1 inches thick entered at the lower cheek and exited from the upper forehead

Phineas Gage
Survived but underwent a marked change in personality A capable foreman and an efficient worker impulsive, wilful, inconsiderate, and obstinate Continually changed his mind

Gage was no longer the Gage

Central Nervous System (CNS) A Hierarchy of Domains

Brainstem Parts of Brain Cerebellum Diencephalon Cerebrum

Functions of the Brain Parts

Brain stem

responsible for automatic survival functions

receives the input from special senses & deals with vital processes and other visceral and somatic functions

Medulla controls heartbeat and breathing

Functions of the Brain Parts

Cerebellum
coordinates voluntary movement, muscle activity and balance

Diencephalon or subcortical forebrain

central control of sensation and movement as well as of appetitive behaviour Motivation, emotion, and the ANS are also served by this region and states of awareness

Functions of the Brain Parts

The Cerebral Cortex

Telencephalon or cerebral cortex bodys ultimate control and information processing center

Functions of the Brain Parts

Telencephalon or cerebral cortex high-level intelligent behaviour and conscious experience Composed of three zones
Primary cortex: sensation and the initiation of voluntary motor activity Secondary cortex: perception and the integration of sensory and motor behaviour Tertiary or association cortex: high level thinking, planning, and problem solving.

In addition, specialized regions of the cortex deal with language.

Lobes of the cerebral hemispheres

Planning, decision making speech

Sensory

Auditory

Vision

The Cerebral Cortex

Frontal Lobes

involve in speaking and muscle movements and in making plans and judgments the executive
Parietal Lobes include the sensory cortex

Frontal Lobe

Frontal Lobe
Motor and pre-motor cortex: (a) Primary and secondary levels of motor control (b) Verbal fluency and design fluency (c) Spelling

Frontal Lobe
Prefrontal: (a) Tertiary level of motor control (b) Adaptability of response pattern (c) Programming and planning of sequences of behaviour (d) Level of response emission (e) Verbal regulation (f) Problem solving (g) Voluntary eye movements (h) Perceptual judgment (i) Memory and attention

Frontal Lobe
Brocas area: Expressive speech Orbital cortex: (a) Personality (b) Social behaviour

Parietal Lobes

Parietal Lobes
Anterior Somatosensory perceptions Tactile perception Body sense Visual object recognition

Parietal Lobes
Posterior Language Reception of spoken language Reading

Parietal Lobes
Posterior Spatial orientation and attention Route following Leftright discrimination Symbolic syntheses

Parietal Lobes
Posterior Calculation Intentional movement Constructional ability Drawing Cross-modal tactilevisual matching Short-term auditory memory

The Cerebral Cortex

Occipital Lobes
include the visual areas, which receive visual information from the opposite visual field

Temporal Lobes
include the auditory areas, each of which receives auditory information primarily from the opposite ear

Occipital Lobes

Occipital Lobes
Primary visual sensation (points of light, simple forms) Completion

Occipital Lobes
Visual perception Contours Magnitude Orientation Depth Stereopsis Brightness Colour Movement

Occipital Lobes
Semantic connotation of visual objects Reading

Temporal Lobes

Temporal Lobes
Audition Reception of auditory stimulation (Heschls gyrus) Perception of auditory stimuli (superior temporal gyrus) Cognitions relating to auditory events (anterior, superior, and middle temporal gyrus) Musical abilities (right temporal lobe)

Temporal Lobes
Vision Tertiary visual function (middle inferior temporal gyrus) Perception of faces (right inferior temporal gyrus)

Temporal Lobes
Language Reception and comprehension of speech and writing (left superior temporal gyrus and temporalparietaloccipital junction)

Temporal Lobes

Attention Cross-modal integration

Temporal Lobes

Memory
Amnesic syndrome (bilateral mesial temporal lobe) Verbal long-term memory (left temporal lobe) Spatial long-term memory (right temporal lobe) Paired associate learning (anterior temporal lobe)

Temporal Lobes
Personality Experiential perception (anterior temporal lobe) Sexual behavior (anterior, especially bilateral)

Hemispheric Specialization LEFT

Symbolic thinking (Language) Detail Literal meaning

RIGHT
Spatial perception Overall picture Context, metaphor

Sensation and Perception

Bottom-up and Top-down Processes

Bottom-up processing Starts with unprocessed sensory information builds more conceptual representation Top-down processing Conceptual knowledge influences processing or interpretation of lower level perceptual processing

Sensation
The process by which the central nervous system receives input from the environment via sensory neurons Bottom up processing

The five major senses

Vision electromagnetic
Occipital lobe

Hearing mechanical
Temporal lobe

Touch mechanical
Sensory cortex

Taste chemical
Gustatory insular cortex

Smell chemical
Olfactory bulb Orbitofrontal cortex Vomeronasal organ?

Sensory Areas Sensory Homunculus

Perception
The process by which the brain interprets and organizes sensory information Top-down processing

Functional Brain System

Networks of neurons working together and spanning wide areas of the brain The two systems are Limbic system & Reticular formation

Limbic System Located on the medial aspects of cerebral

hemispheres and diencephalon

Rhinencephalon,

hypothalamus, amygdala, and anterior nucleus of the thalamus

Limbic System

The Limbic System

Deal with basic drives, emotions, and memory Hypothalamus Hunger, thirst, body temperature, pleasure; regulates pituitary gland (hormones)

Amygdala Aggression (fight) and fear (flight) Hippocampus Memory processing

Limbic System: Emotion and Cognition

The limbic system interacts with the prefrontal lobes
can react emotionally to conscious understandings consciously aware of emotion in life

Hippocampal structures convert new information into long-term memories

Limbic System
Parts especially important in emotions: Amygdala deals with anger, danger, and fear responses Cingulate gyrus plays a role in expressing emotions via gestures, and resolves mental conflict

Puts emotional responses to odors e.g., skunks smell bad

Reticular Formation
Widespread connections Arousal of the brain as a whole Reticular activating system (RAS) Maintains consciousness and alertness Functions in sleep and arousal from sleep

Reticular Formation

Reticular Formation
Composed of three broad columns along the length of the brain stem
Raphe nuclei Medial (large cell) group Lateral (small cell) group

Has far-flung axonal connections with hypothalamus, thalamus, cerebellum, and spinal cord

Reticular Formation: RAS and Motor Function

RAS Reticular Activating System
Sends impulses to the cerebral cortex to keep it conscious and alert Filters out repetitive and weak stimuli

Motor function
Helps control coarse motor movements Autonomic centers regulate visceral motor functions e.g., vasomotor, cardiac, and respiratory centers

Consciousness
Is holistic and totally interconnected Clinical consciousness: on a continuum that grades levels of behaviour
alertness, drowsiness, stupor, coma

Consciousness
Encompasses perception of sensation, voluntary initiation and control of movement, and capabilities associated with higher mental processing Involves simultaneous activity of large areas of the cerebral cortex

Attention
Attention: Ability to detect and respond to stimuli Psychological level: Implies a preferential allocation of processing resources and response channels to events that have become behaviourally relevant Neural level:
Refers to alternations in the selectivity, intensity and duration of neuronal responses to such events

Types of Attention
a) Alertness and Arousal
The basic aspects: Enable a person to extract information from the environment or to select a particular response coma full alertness

b)
or

Vigilance (sustained attention)

c) Selective attention Ability to scan events/stimuli and pick out the

The ability to sustain alertness: Monitor an event stimulus) continuously

ones that are relevant difficult to monitor two events in the same modality

Neurophysiology of Attentional Matrix

Reticular activating system Superior colliculus Thalamus Parietal lobe Frontal lobe Cingulate cortex

Stages of Memory
The two stages of memory short-term memory and long-term memory Short-term memory (STM, or working memory) Fleeting memory of the events that continually happen STM lasts seconds to hours and is limited to 7 or 8 pieces of information Long-term memory (LTM) has limitless capacity

Transfer from STM to LTM

Factors effect transfer of memory: STM to LTM
Emotional state Alert, motivated, and aroused Rehearsal Enhances memory Association New information with old memories in LTM enhances memory Automatic memory subconscious information stored in LTM

Categories of Memory

Two categories of memory - fact memory and skill memory

Categories of Memory
Fact (declarative) memory:
Entails learning explicit information Is related to our conscious thoughts and our language ability Is stored with the context in which it was learned

Structures Involved in Fact Memory

Fact memory involves the following brain areas:
Hippocampus and the amygdala, both limbic system structures Specific areas of the thalamus and hypothalamus of the diencephalon Ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the basal forebrain

Skill Memory
Skill memory is less conscious than fact memory Involves motor activity Acquired through practice Not retain the context in which they were learned

Structures Involved in Skill Memory

Skill memory involves: Corpus striatum mediates the automatic connections between a stimulus and a motor response Portion of the brain receiving the stimulus Premotor and motor cortex

Learning
...relatively

permanent changes in behavior produced by experience

Changes in the nervous system by experiences Changes are physical Learning allows us to adapt our behaviors to the environment Learning involves interactions among the motor, sensory, and memory systems

Forms of Learning
Perceptual learning functions to identify objects and situations Stimulus-Response learning involves making a response when a particular stimulus is present Classical conditioning Operant Conditioning Motor learning involves forming new circuits in motor system Relational learning involves identifying connections between stimuli

Learning - classical conditioning

Ivan Pavlov researched classical conditioning in which pairing of two stimuli changes the response to one of them. Presentation of a conditioned stimulus (CS) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS). Automatically results in an unconditioned response (UCR). After several pairings, response can be elicited by the CS without the UCS, which is known as a conditioned response (CR).

Pavlovian Conditioning & Brain Function

Conditioning strengthened connections between the CS center and UCS center in the brain.

Pavlovian Conditioning & Brain Function

Instrumental Conditioning
Association between a response and a consequent stimulus
Reinforcement: Responses that are followed by favourable consequences are more likely to occur in the future
Reinforcement occurs in the context of a stimulus That stimulus can elicit the response

Punishment: Responses that are followed by unfavorable consequences are less likely to occur in the future

Thanks
And miles to go .. And miles to go ..