The Human Brain - Introduction and Story of Bob

Jul 15, 2024

9.13 The Human Brain - Lecture 1

Introduction

  • Instructor: Nancy Kanwisher
  • Course Title: 9.13 The Human Brain
  • Course Agenda:
    1. Brief Story (10 mins)
    2. Why, How, and What of Studying Human Brain
    3. Mechanics and Details of Course (Grading, etc.)

Story of Bob

Context

  • True story altered slightly to protect identities.
  • About a medical emergency involving a friend (referred to as Bob).

Incident Description

  • Bob was staying at Nancy's house before a conference.
  • Bob fell unconscious early morning; Nancy called 911.
  • Bob showed signs of cognitive issues with navigation over the years.

Medical Journey

  • EMTs couldn’t diagnose on the spot; Nancy drove Bob to the hospital.
  • Suggested a brain check due to Bob's history of navigational issues.
  • A scan revealed a lime-sized tumor in Bob's brain, near the para-hippocampal place area.

Historical and Lab Context

  • Nancy’s lab had discovered the para-hippocampal place area 20 years earlier.
  • Bob's earlier scan showed a smaller tumor indicating slow growth.
  • Tumor identified as a meningioma (not cancer but serious).
  • Successful surgery but Bob did not recover his navigational abilities.
  • Bob relies heavily on GPS for navigation.

Observations Post-Surgery

  • Bob's general spatial abilities intact except for navigation.
  • He can recognize places but struggles with directions.

Examination of Cognitive Function

  • Before surgery: struggled to draw floor plans, could draw complex objects like bicycles and lobsters.
  • Post-surgery: his drawing skills reinforced specific navigational deficit.

Themes from Story

  1. Brain Structure: Different parts perform different functions.
  2. Specificity: Some regions are highly specialized, like the para-hippocampal place area.
  3. Recovery and Plasticity: Children recover better from brain damage than adults.
  4. Methods in Neuroscience: Behavioral observations, anatomical and functional brain images, neuropsychological case studies.

Why Study the Brain

  1. Self-Knowledge: Understand what makes us who we are.
  2. Limits of Human Knowledge: Empirical epistemology, understanding the scope and limits of our cognition.
  3. Advancing AI: Explaining recent developments in deep neural networks.
    • Deep Nets: Example of AlexNet and its capabilities and limitations compared to human recognition.
  4. Intellectual Quest: Greatest intellectual challenge to understand the brain-mind relationship.

How to Study the Brain

  • Multi-Level Approach: Molecules, neurons, circuits, brain regions, networks.
  • Focus on Mind-Brain Relationship: Identify specific mental functions and their brain correlates.
  • Methods: Psychophysics, Illusions, Neuropsychology, fMRI, Neurophysiology, EEG, MEG, Connectivity measures.

What Will Be Covered

  • High Level Vision: Color, shape, motion, faces, places, bodies.
  • Development: Brain wiring, genetics, experience.
  • Perception in Blind People: Brain differences and similarities.
  • Numbers and Navigation: Specialized brain regions.
  • Pleasure and Reward Systems.
  • Language and Thought: Understanding and producing language.
  • Theory of Mind: Social cognition and understanding others.
  • Brain Networks: Regional interactions in cognition.

What Will Not Be Covered

  • Motor Control: Omitted for time.
  • Subcortical Functions: Short shrift; focus on cortex.
  • Circuit Level Mechanisms: Basic circuit level understanding not feasible yet.
  • Other Omissions: Memory, reinforcement learning, decision making.

Course Mechanics

  • Previous Courses: Designed as tier two following Course 9.00 or 9.01.
  • Grading:
    • Midterm: 25%
    • Final: 25%
    • Assignments: Regularly on readings and designs.
    • Quizzes: Brief and frequent using Google forms.
    • Longer Written Assignment: Design an experiment (due near end).

Reading Scientific Papers

  1. Identify the main question.
  2. Determine the findings and their significance.
  3. Understand the design and methods used.
  4. Interpret the analysis and results.
  5. Focus on the practical importance and implications.
  • Navigating Gobbledygook: Skip overly technical parts unless necessary.

Next Steps:

  • First reading response due February 12th at 6 PM.
  • Next lecture: Neuroanatomy session and brain dissection by Ann Graybiel.