Neuroscience- the New Philosophy (Week 2)

The matter of neurology and psychiatry is coming more to light, all these different approaches show a different perspectiv such as the evolutionary theory, which has always been there, but only recent scientists approached this matter from the darwinian standpoint. Especially called as evolutionary neuro-psychiatry. I was wondering why this hasn't been approached before, MRI ad PET scan were found a long time ago and  scientists already knew than that the different scans can show the inactive/ active parts of the brain. A classic example used is that people with a classic psychological disturbance,such as Hysteria are seen with a mental illness, that illness is seen strictly medical, as the person developed a paralysis of his arm or leg, when you then test the patient in neurological terms, such as MRI or PET scans there are no deficits, nothing seems to be wrong, however where does these symptoms the patient claims to have, come from? Things like hysteria have been examined many many times, and mainly it is assumed that it comes from previous experienced emotional traumas that are impede him from moving arm or leg. So is that how we are going to explain mental illness these days? One particular word was stuck in my head for the last week, epiphenomenalism, which i didn't understand at first but than, it means that the individuals willingness in the brain is like a shadow that always accompanies you, but is never the cause. 

History of Neuropsychology (Week 1)

While reading the given article I was surprised how early past scientist were trying to understand the human skull with different procedures, such as Trephanation also seen as one of the first surgical procedures, to release evil spirits while cutting and chiselling the skull. The scraping method seems, even though healing and possible living longer for the patient quit serious. A few years back I took part as a visitor in one of my dad’s surgeries, how he was cracking the skull with professional instruments of one of his patients was impressive and so I cant imagine the pain and effort for everyone during such procedure and to the patients without any anaesthetic plus the healing process must be quit harming.  Another theory by the ancient Greeks suggested that the human heart was the main function of the body whereas every other organ was there to “cool” the heart. Pythagoras was one of the first to encounter that soul and major functions come from the brain. I do believe that ancient Greeks did a lot of research on behalf of previous found theories, as Hippocrates who was influenced by Socrates, he made up his mind of the imbalance of the body when the four humours (blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm) where not in balance. That is one of the first theories I had learned in high school about psychology and the influence of the brain. I learned and also experienced that humans like to identify themselves with one of the four humours and belief that the individual has more strength in one than another. We all know that neuropsychology bases on the relationship between brain function and the human behaviour, it is really interesting to read more about its history and how scientists managed to gain so much knowledge with such limited material. I have attached a table for those who like to have a look of the four humours, i think it is quit unbelievable that someone could come up with such theory. 

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humorism

Humour	Season	Element	Organ	Qualities	Ancient name	Modern	MBTI	Ancient characteristics
Blood	spring	air	liver	warm & moist	sanguine	artisan	SP	courageous, hopeful, amorous
Yellow bile	summer	fire	gall bladder	warm & dry	choleric	idealist	NF	easily angered, bad tempered
Black bile	autumn	earth	spleen	cold & dry	melancholic	guardian	SJ	despondent, sleepless, irritable
Phlegm	winter	water	brain/lungs	cold & moist	phlegmatic	rational	NT	calm, unemotional