Essay on Discuss the Interaction Between Cognition and Physiology in Terms of Behavior

Words: 949
Pages: 4

Discuss the interaction between cognition and physiology in terms of behavior

• Introduction: cognition, physiology, relation • Amnesia: retrograde, anterograde • Memory: multi-store, division, *amnesic patients, ways of distinguishing types of memory (KC, spiers maguire and burgess, vargha and khadem) • HM • Clive Wearing • Conclusion: cognition, physiology

Cognition, as defined by Neisser, is all the processes by which the brain transforms, reduces, elaborates, stores, retrieves, and uses information. Physiology refers to the structures of the human body and brain. The relationship between cognition and physiology is bi-directional, meaning that cognition can effect physiology and vice versa. Every cognitive aspect
…show more content…
Studies using neuro-imaging have concluded that emotional memory relates to the amygdala in the brain, and procedural locates at the striatum and cerebellum.

Moving on to a specific study, one was done on a man known as HM. At the age of 9, HM started having uncontrollable epileptic seizures that couldn't be controlled by medication at the time. At the age of 27, the doctors removed his medial temporal lobe, to control his seizures. The surgery was successful, but after the surgery, HM suffered anterograde and partial retrograde amnesia. He had a loss of episodic memory, and a limited impairment with semantic and emotional. The medial temporal lobe contained the hippocampus, and some of the cortices underlying it, as well as part of the amygdala. The doctor, John Harlow concluded that the specific types of memory located to the specific structures in the brain that were removed. This method of research, the case study, was ethical because they kept his identity from the media and referred to him as HM.

One of the worst recorded cases of amnesia was that of Clive Wearing. He was a pianist and a conductor, and he developed 'herpes encephalitis', a brain infection that affected his temporal lobe. He was left with both retrograde and anterograde amnesia. His episodic memory was impaired as well as part of him emotional memory. His procedural memory stayed intact, he could still remember how to play the piano. His name was released into the media only because his