Neuropsychology
- In 1949, D. O. Hebb introduced the field of neuropsychology.
- Hebb proposed a mechanism for psychological phenomena to be
produced by neural phenomena.
- The Cell Assembly was central to this idea.
- Circuits of neurons that had high synaptic connectivity
represent psychological concepts.
- Neurons are fired by, among other mechanisms, sensory
stimulation.
- These neurons cause other neurons to fire, and if enough
neurons in a CA fire, they will cause a cascade of firing.
- This CA ignition categorises the sensory input.
- So if you see something, you might categorise it as a dog
because your dog CA has ignitied.
- This short term memory can persist even after the dog has
left the visual field due to the reverberatory activity of the CA.
- The long term memory is formed by the Hebbian learning
which increases the connectivity of coactive neurons
and leads to CA formation.
