1.

Mind Body Problem

a. How does something physical interact with something non physical
b. Neurons & Mind: trying to connect theories
c. Medieval thoughts
i. Rational soul: our body
ii. Mind: held together by tiny nails
d. 17th Century: Descartes
i. Mechanical universe: physical body matter (occupies space)
ii. Something must be pushing these
iii. Common Sense, people liked him
iv. Mind body problem doesnt exist
e. 17th Century: Newton
i. Proposes action at a distance (gravitational force)
ii. All is explained by mathematical equations: no common sense
or mechanism
iii. Best understanding humans can have is through theory
iv. Concept of abstraction: key to science
1. Mind-body problem doesnt exist: just need to connect
theories now
2. Theory unification problem
2. Brain Anatomy
a. Four Lobes
i. Occipital
ii. Temporal
iii. Parietal
iv. Frontal
b. Three ways of navigating a brain
i. Landmarks (see notes)
1. Gyri (hills)
2. Sulci (valley)
ii. Function
1. Broca (Left inferior frontal cortex)
a. Aphasia: Speech production
2. Wernicke (Posterior of superior frontal gyrus)
a. Aphasia: Speech interpretation
iii. Cytoarchitecture
1. Broadmann
a. First to distinguish segments of the brain
consistent in all humans
c. Ramon y Cajal
i. Golgi stain on newborn animal brains
1. Discovered how neurons send information and glial cells
are nutrition and structure (not cytoarchitecture )

3. Ions And Potential

a. Na+ = +60 mV
b. K+ = -90 mV
c. Cl- = -70 mV
d. Resting potential of cell: -70 mV
e. Three Passive Forces
i. Concentration Gradient
1. Like food coloring disperses all over the place,
concentration must spread out
ii. Electrical gradient
1. Naturally things will spread out in gradient, same thing
as concentration but electrical
iii. Membrane potential
1. Permeable and allows ions in or not
f. Two Big Players in the cell
i. K+ and Na+
ii. Na+
1. Higher action potential
a. Sends a message
2. More concentrated outside of the cell
iii. K+:
1. More concentrated inside the cell
iv. These ions have channels that are voltage gated: need energy
to open
1. Leaky channels occur because of natural passive forces
v. Refractory period: when nothing is happening in the cell
(lower action potential than resting state)
1. Allows cells to rest between action potentials, prevents
signals
2. Refractory stars from the neuron to the dendrites
4. Aphasia and Linguistics
a. Aphasia: Brain damage relating to language
i. Broca: Production severely damaged, comprehension fine
1. Previously brain thought to be interconnected, but
injuries to different parts of the brain only affects that
specific part
b. Relative Clauses
i. Subject
1. Distance from subject trace is closer
2. Acquired before Object relative
ii. Object
1. Longer linear distance to trace
2. Makes it more difficult to English speakers
iii. Japanese contradiction
1. Relativity is opposite

2. The fact that theyre faster at subject relativity shows

that structure is important
3. Were bad test subjects in language
5. Electroencephalogram
a. Uses electrodes to read and record electricity in our brain
b. Good at Temporal resolution: when something happens
c. Terrible Spatial resolution: where something happens
d. HOWEVER:
IF YOU WANT GOOD TEMPORAL RESOLUTION: EEG
IF YOU WANT GOOD SPATIAL RESOLUTION: MRI
e. Certain times in processing related to language, Extreme changes in
electrical activity (positive or negative)
f. Types of responses: Garden Paths
i. P600: Syntactic errors
1. Large Positive electric spike
2. Usually really bad problems, dont make sense
ii. N400: Semantics error
1. Brain has to put effort forth to coerce that verb to
comprehend
2. Good sentences, mean nothing

STILL DONT REALLY KNOW WHAT INITIATES LANGUAGE