Intro to Neuroscience Post-Midterm
Cortical abnormalities
Accelerated loss of gray matter at adolescent; accelerated cortical thinning - brain changes central; impaired on neuropsychological tests that are sensitive to frontal cortical lesions - frontal cortex activity abnormal; reduced metabolic activity in frontal lobes
Amygdala
Aggression and fear
Intermale aggression
Aggression between males of the same species; males 5x more likely arrested for murder; many species aggressive behavior in males adaptive for food and mates; aggressive behavior between boys evident early
Maternal aggression
Aggression of a mother defending her nest or offspring
Dyslexia
Aka alexia; a reading disorder attributed to brain impairment
One of the genes identified
DISC1 - associated with one large Scottish family; normally regulates trafficking of molecules within neurons; inserted it in mice, developed enlarged lateral ventricles
Neurofibrillary tangles
An abnormal whorl of neurofilaments within nerve cells that is seen in Alzheimer's disease; number of the directly related to magnitude of cognitive impairment; secondary response to amyloid plaques
Forebrain system
Basal forebrain promotes SWS by releasing GABA into tuberomammilary nucleus in hypothalamus
Procedural memory where
Basal ganglia, cerebellum
Sleep enuresis
Bed-wetting; some proscribe nasal spray of vasopressin before bed which decreases urine production
Cocaine
Blocks monoamine transporters thus slowing reuptake of monoamine neurotransmitters so they accumulate in synapses throughout brain - especially dopamine; generates strong increase in dopamine transmission to mesolimbocortical reward circuit, especially nucleus accumbens; cocaine milder effect than crack because snort v inhalation; crack is smokable form of cocaine - enters bloodstream more rapidly and thus is more addictive; speedball combines heroin and crack
Williams syndrome
Disorder characterized by impairments of spatial cognition and iQ but superior linguistic abilities; deletion of 28 genes from chromosome 7
PTSD
Disorder in which memories of unpleasant episode repeatedly plague the victim; reactivate memories that when reconsolidated increase of stress signals like epinephrine, become even stronger; could block effects of epinephrine to treat it; treat them with antiadrenergic drugs shortly before experience or ASAP after
Abnormalities in these neuropeptides increases risk of
Disorders of impaired sociality; autism spectrum disorder
Phasic receptors
Display adaptation and decrease frequency of action potentials to a maintained stimulus; olfactory receptors, tactile receptors
Endogenous opioids
Endorphins; brain generates own morphine-like compounds
Adrenal medulla
Inner core of the adrenal gland
Intromissions
Insertion of penis into vagina during copulation
Do hormones cause behaviors?
No but make us more sensitive to social triggers of emotionally laden behaviors and exaggerate our preexisting tendencies in those domains
Stage 2 of stress biology
Subsequent stress response is hormonal involving secretion of cortisol via the Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal (HPA) axis; takes 15-20 minutes to see increase of cortisol after stressful response; hypothalamus CRH -> pituitary gland -> ACTH -> adrenal glands -> cortisol
Anxiolytics
Substance that is used to reduce anxiety; alcohol, opiates, barbiturates, benzos
Forebrain
Thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus, most of brain areas
3 pillars of emotional brain
Threat-circuitry (freezing behavior); reward/pleasure emotion circuitry (motor movement/acceleration/going towards particular goal); executive/cognitive control circuitry (conscious representation of motivational states into conscious experience of emotion; regulation of emotion - executive control; creating conscious experience of emotion); also hypothalamus, brainstem, ANS
Family studies on schizophrenia
Relatives of people with it should show higher incidence than is found in general population; risk among relatives should increase with closeness of relatives because share greater number of genes; parents and siblings should have higher risk; but does not involve single gene - multiple genes
Variable effects of cannabis use
Relaxation, mood alteration and stimulation; hallucination, paranoia in some cases
Loss of function in one part of system compensated for by
Remaining parts
Typical night of adult human sleep
Repeating cycles 90-110 minutes long, recurring 4-5 times per night; ultradian rest-activity cycle; stage 3 more prominent early in nigh and then tapers off; REM more prominent later - first REM period short, brief arousals (shift posture) immediately after REM period
Damage to supramarginal gyrus interferes with
Repetition of heard speech
Pineal gland
Reproductive maturation, body rhythms
LSD
Resembles serotonin (pure does of serotonin) and evokes visual hallucinations by activating serotonin (5-HT2A) receptors in the visual cortex; fMRI study - elevated serotonergic activity in visual cortex related to hallucinations, recent interest in studying psychedelics - understanding consciousness but also treating depression, alterations resting state functional connectivity associated with ego dissolution (sense that no longer intact state of consciousness, have experiences of oneness); LSD increases connections between brain regions that are close to each other, but weakness connections between brain regions that are further apart - brain in dissociative state and looks like you're dreaming, similar to what is seen during sleep - consciousness is successful integration of neuronal activity across the whole brain
Disorders of initiating and maintaining sleep (insomnia)
Ordinary insomnia; drug-related insomnia caused by (use of stimulants; withdrawal of depressants; chronic alcoholism); insomnia associated with psychiatric disorder; insomnia associated with sleep-induced respiratory impairment (sleep apnea)
Withdrawal and negative affect
Ordinary rewards lose former motivational power - reoriented through conditioning to focus on more potent release of dopamine produced by drug and its cues; brain's reward system much less sensitive to stimulation by both drug-related and non-drug related rewards; no longer experience same degree of euphoria from a drug as did when first started using it; dysphoric phase - withdrawal
Pathway for PTSD
Original trauma activates two systems; brainstem system sensitizes the person to related stimuli in the future; the amygdala system conditions a long-lasting fearful reaction
Critics of the connectionist model
Oversimplifies neural mechanisms of language; modern fMRI confirms that left hemisphere language zones not as rigidly modular as this says; conduction aphasia actually results from specific type of lesion of superior temporal cortex rather than disruption of white matter pathways as proposed under connectionist model
Neurosteroid allopregnanolone
Own anxiety-relieving substance; drugs developed to act at this site in effective anxiolytics
Posterior pituitary gland
Oxytocin and vasopressin; direct; axons from neuroendocrine neurons in hypothalamus pass through the pituitary stalk and terminate on the capillaries of the posterior periphery; when action potential arrives at a terminal, oxytocin or vasopressin is released from the terminal directly into the bloodstream; bloodstream vessels then exit pituitary glands and go out into general circulation
People with depression show deficits in
PFC
Restricted range of responsiveness
Restriction with which brain is responsive to - frequency range for hearing, which varies with species
Cell differentiation
The developmental stage in which cells acquire distinctive characteristics such as those of neurons, as a result of expressing particular genes
Cerebral lateralization
The division of labor between the two cerebral hemispheres such that each hemisphere is specialized for particular types of processing
What predicts who will develop addiction?
Two pathways; reward-hyposensitivity model of addiction (people pursue exogenous substances to compensate for low levels of positive emotion and blunted reward signaling, decreased reward-relation brain function at baseline prospectively predicts substance use and the likelihood of engaging in problematic substance use); also those who have super high reward activity - impulsivity, risk taking, sensation seeking
Each ovary or testis composed of
Two subcompartments - one that produces sex hormones, other produces gametes
Short-term memory (STM)
A form of memory that usually lasts only seconds or as long as rehearsal continues; working memory can be considered portion of STM where information can be manipulated; someone tells your website name and you type it in; when STM gone, gone for good
Habituation
A form of nonassociative learning in which an organism becomes less responsive following repeated presentations of a stimulus; decreased response not due to failure of sensory systems to detect it or inability of motor systems to respond; hearing door chime in cafe, get used to it so stop hearing it
REM behavior disorder (RBD)
A sleep disorder in which a person physically acts out a dream; sometimes remember; usually after age 50 and more common in men than women; onset of this often followed by symptoms of Parkinson's and dementia - beginning of widespread neurodegeneration; begins in brainstem region that imposes atonia; may be controlled by anti anxiety drugs at bedtime
Schizophrenia
A severe psychopathological disorder characterized by negative symptoms such as emotional withdrawal and flat affect, by positive symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions, and by cognitive symptoms such as poor attention span
K complexes
A sharp, negative EEG potential that is seen in stage 2 sleep
Vertex spikes
A sharp-wave Egg pattern that is seen during stage 1 sleep
Phase shift
A shift in the activity of a biological rhythm, typically provided by a synchronizing environment stimulus such as light
Locus coeruleus
A small nucleus in the brainstem whose neurons produce NE and modulate large areas of the forebrain; region of pons; stimulation of this region with cholinergic agonists can induce or prolong REM; some neurons in this region only active during REM
Suprachiasmic nucleus (SCN)
A small region of the hypothalamus above the optic chasm that is the location of a circadian clock; contains endogenous clock
Pituitary gland
A small, complex endocrine gland located in a socket at the base of the skull; hypothalamus above it and connected to it by pituitary stalk; regulates most other glands - referred to as master gland
Phenome
A sound that is produced for language
Long-term potentiation (LTP)
A stable and enduring increase in the effectiveness of synapses following repeated strong stimulation ; can be generated in conscious and freely behaving animals; can last for weeks or more; hallmarks of cellular mechanism of money - long-lasting change in synaptic strength
Stage 2 sleep
A stage of sleep that is defined by bursts of EEG waves called sleep spindles; also K complexes
Sleep paralysis
A state, during the transition to or from sleep, in which the ability to move or talk is temporarily lost; either just before dropping off to sleep or just after waking; can experience hallucinations; no more than a few minutes; hypothesis that this results when pontine center continues to impose paralysis for a short while after a person awakes from a REM episode
Sensory buffers
A very brief type of memory that stores the sensory impression of a scene; in vision, sometimes called iconic memory; fleeting impression of glimpsed scene that vanishes from memory seconds later; residual activity in sensory neurons
Genetic defect usually results from
Absence of particular enzyme that controls a critical biochemical step in the synthesis or breakdown of a vital body product
Neural responses, including altered cognition and sensory thresholds - common pathological consequence of prolonged stress
Accelerated neural degeneration during aging
Deep dyslexia
Acquired dyslexia in which the person reads a word as another word that tis semantically related; can't read aloud words that are abstract or opposed to concrete; frequent errors in which fail to see small differences in words
Surface dyslexia
Acquired dyslexia n which the person seems to attend only to the finer details of reading; can read nonsense words without problems indicating understand which letters make which sounds; difficulty recognizing words in which letter to sound rules irregular
Speaking to dog
Activates left hemispheric mechanism that processes meaning as well as right hemispheric mechanisms that assigns value and reward to those words; each new combination of words that you use with your dog will have to be learned from scratch
Diurnal
Active during the day
Theory behind neural activity that determines which synapses kept and which lost
Active synapses take up some trophic factor the maintains the synapse, while inactive synapses get too little trophic factor to remain stable
Aggressive behavior modulated by what
Activity associated with several neural systems including D2, 5-HT especially; most aggressive monkeys lowest levels of serotonin
Caffeine blocks which kind of autoreceptor
Adenosine
Caffeine
Adenosine is typically co-released with certain neurotransmitters (catecholamines - NE, dopamine, epinephrine) as a negative feedback mechanism; targeting NT modulators to NT; when activated, presynaptic adenosine auto receptors reduce subsequent neurotransmitter release; caffeine blocks adenosine auto receptors for catecholamines, resulting in elevated and sustained release of catecholamines (dopamine, NE, epinephrine); caffeine and meth targeting same neurotransmitters - but different ways of targeting them different psychological effects
Sum up Sapolsky 154-181
Adolescence and child development
ACTH
Adrenocorticotropic hormone; from anterior pituitary gland to adrenal glands (2 of them) located above (on top of) kidneys
Non-declarative memory
Aka procedural memory; a memory that is shown by performance rather than by conscious recollection; mirror-tracing tasks which he could do; skill of riding bike; 'how' problems and often nonverbal; can be tested in animals
Pontine REM sleep center
Prevents motor neurons from firing; GABA and glycine produce IPSPs in spinal motor neurons preventing them from reaching threshold and producing action potentials - dreamer's muscles placid; cats with lesions on this area seem to act out dreams - animals dream too
Treatment with drugs that block NMDA receptors
Prevents new LTP but does not affect synaptic changes that have already been established; does not change recall of old memories but critical for formation of new memories
Two main divisions of reward/pleasure emotion circuitry
Wanting (dopamine); liking/pleasure (opioids and endocannabinoids); dopamine mediated wanting drives much of the behavior; hedonic treadmill - lusting while loathing
While humans rely on light stimulation to entrain light, brains retained enough sensitivity to melatonin so that
We can use that cue in absence of information about light
Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)
Within hypothalamus; serves as the biological clock - lesions to SCN portion of hypothalamus eliminate circadian rhythms; these cells critical to maintaining rhythms; example of localization of function; phase delay with circadian rhythms in psychiatric disorders and ADHD
Implicit emotion regulation
Without conscious awareness, brain finding emotional homeostasis; evoked automatically, runs to completion without conscious monitoring, can happen without insight or awareness; involves ventromedial PFC (vmPFC); fear inhibition, regulation of emotional conflict, moment to moment homeostasis; fear-extinction in classical conditioning - learning no longer associated with shock, can't unlearn anxiety consciously
Instrumental conditioning
Aka operant conditioning; a form of associative learning in which the likelihood that an act (instrumental response) will be performed depends on the consequences (reinforcing stimuli) that follow it; skinner box - animal performs action like pressing bar following by reward like food
Rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep
Aka paradoxical sleep; a stage of sleep characterized by small-amplitude, fast EEG waves, no postural tension, and rapid eye movements
Classical conditioning
Aka pavlovian conditioning; a type of associative learning in which an originally neutral stimulus acquires the power to elicit a conditioned response when presented alone
Peptide hormones
Aka protein hormone; a hormone that consists of a string of amino acids; ACTH; follicle-stimulating hormone FSH: leutenzing hormone LH; thryoid-stimulation TSH; growth hormone GH; prolactin, insulin, glucaon, oxytocin, vasopressin, releasing hormones like corticotropin releasing hormone GnRH
Schachter
Proposed cognitive interpretation of stimuli and visceral staes in 1975; emphasized cognitive mechanisms in emotion; emotional labels attributed to nonspecific feelings of physiological arousal; which emotion you experience depends on system that assesses context - current social, psychological, and physiological situation
Reticular formation
An extensive region of the brainstem (extending from the medulla through the thalamus) that is involved in arousal; pushes brain from SWS to wakefulness
Aphasia
An impairment in language understanding and/or production that is caused by brain injury; especially left hemisphere; repair damage to varying degrees depending on location and extent; severe damage may cause lose ability to produce speech altogether
Apraxia
An impairment in the ability to carry out complex sequential movements, even though there is no muscle paralysis; also with aphasia
Conduction aphasia
An impairment in the ability to repeat words and sentences
Knockout organism
An individual in which a particular gene has been disabled by an experimenter
Split-brain individuals
An individual whose corpus callosum has been severed, halting communication between the right and left hemisphere
Fatal familial insomnia
An inherited disease that causes people in middle age to stop sleeping, which after a few months leads to death; defect in gene for prion protein; degeneration in cerebral cortex and thalamus - causes insomnia; no obvious damage to single organ system but suffer from bacterial infections
Growth cones
Attracted toward neurotrophic factors and pull the neurons towards cells; cut off once differentiates then just axon terminal; suck up neurotrophic factors
Layer 1
Automatic, regulatory functions; oldest part of brain
Myelin and adolescence
Axons myelinated throughout adolescence; allows neurons to communicate in more rapid, coordinated manner; shows importance of increased connectivity
Hormones role in human sexual behavior
Boys who fail to produce testosterone at puberty show little interest in dating unless receive androgen treatments; just a little needed restore behavior fully; some women sexual dysfunction after menopause - hormonal changes low doses of estrogen and androgens, slight increase in interest at ovulation but effect is small
Cortical modulation of sensory information
Brain can modulate information it receives - inhibit activity in ascending sensory neurons (like pain); in CNS, cortex can direct thalamus to suppress some and emphasize other information
Hindbrain
Brainstem and cerebellum
2 drives to sleep
Circadian drive and homeostatic drive (how long been awake - some people more sensitive to naps because reduce homeostatic drive)
Retinohypothalamic pathway
Circadian rhythms; retina -> the tiny suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus; nerve pathways not to visual cortex but right to hypothalamus (zeitgeber); certain forms blindness, even though damage to geniculostraite, still have circadian rhythm because this pathway intact
Is there a core set of emotions?
Core set of basic emotions underlying more varied feelings; darwin - certain emotions universal among all people, facial expressions similar; emotions evolved preprogramming that let us deal quickly with situations (disgust - avoid germs, judge people - avoid danger)
Guevedoces
DR; literally eggs at 12; nickname for individuals who are raised as girls but at puberty change appearance and begin behaving as boys
Substance use disorder
DSM-5; recurrent use of alcohol or other drugs that causes clinically and functionally significant impairment such as health problems, disability and failure to meet major responsibilities at work, school, or home
Wernickie's area
Damage here interferes with language comprehension; temporoparietal
Broca's area
Damage here interferes with speech production; left anterior frontal
Psychopaths
Individuals incapable of experiencing remorse; do not react as negatively to words about violence and show blunted responses to aversive cues associated with fear conditioning that typically cause strong reactions in other people; reductions in thickness and activity of cortex in multiple regions of brain including prefrontal cortex - impair ability to control impulsive behavior
Oxytocin enhancing activity in temporo-parietal juncture when people do a social-recognition task
Hormone increases accuracy of assessments of other people's relations while men improve at detecting dominance relations; increases accuracy in remembering faces and their emotional expression and people with the sensitive parenting oxytocin receptor gene variant are particular adept at assessing emotions
Jet lag
Human mismatch of internal and external time when fly from one time zone to another; one day per time zone to entrain after such travel; circadian rhythm lets us anticipate an event like sunrise or sunset and begin physiological and behavioral preparation before the vent
Increased cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary tone - common pathological consequence of prolonged stress
Hypertension (high blood pressure)
Gonadotropin (GnRH) releasing hormone
Hypothalamic hormone controlling release of follicle-stimulating hormone and luteinizing hormone from pituitary
Ventromedial hypothalamus (VTH)
Hypothalamic region involved in sexual behavior, eating, and aggression; here, activation through optogenetics causes males that have been mating to suddenly attack them
Major endocrine glands
Hypothalamus (controls pituitary gland); pituitary gland (anterior and posterior; master gland, command central for hormone system, regulated by hypothalamus); pineal gland; thyroid; adrenal glands; pancreas; gut; gonads
Stress response in stages
Hypothalamus activates sympathetic nervous system to stimulate many physiological responses including the adrenal medulla to release epinephrine and NE; hypothalamus also stimulates anterior pituitary to release hormones that drive outer part of adrenal gland, the adrenal cortex, to release steroids such as cortisol; all of these hormones prepare the body for action
Dopamine salience model of schizophrenia
Idea that brain's reward system becomes hyper-responsive to many different forms of stimuli rather than filtering out relevant stimuli; psychosis - relinquishing brain's attentional system and responding to all stimuli rather than filtering it
Labeled lines
Idea that each nerve input to brain reports only a specific type of information; occur both across different sensory systems and within sensory systems; very specific neurons responsive to touch, or pain traveling up very set of organized nerves and going to very specific set of cells in brain only registering this kind of input; not committee in brain that figures it out - 1:1 relationship from stimuli in periphery to cells in brain; how action potentials code different kinds of sensations; also different labeled lines within sensory stimuli - touching finger v pinching finger, different labeled lines within same sensory system
Cognition v emotion myth
Idea that parts of brain do emotion are separate from parts that do thinking; interconnected
Twin studies - schizophrenia
Identical (monozygotic) twins share same set of genes; if one develops it, other 50-50; fraternal share half of genes, concordance drops to 17%; environmental influences 50% of identical twin pairs that are discordant
Stage 1 of stress biology
Immediate stress response mediated by noradrenergic system involving activation of CNS neural activity and sympathetic nervous system via NE; very fast
Early adversity sensitizes cells that propagate inflammation
Immune cells that initiate and sustain inflammation; disproportionately exposed to pollutants, second-hand smoke and high-fat and high-sugar diets along with familial instability, sensitive caregiving and neighborhood violence; priming mechanisms - produce larger volumes of inflammatory cytokines when cells stimulated with microbial products, remains evident in adulthood
Suppression of immunity and of inflammatory response - common pathological consequence of prolonged stress
Impaired disease resistance
Aphasia
Impairment in language production and/or understanding that is caused by brain injury
Emotional regulation
Implementation of a conscious or non conscious process to start, stop, or modulate the trajectory of an emotion; triggered when the emotional reaction itself becomes the target of valuation
Oxytocin
Implicated in broad range of social, maternal, affiliative bonding and attachment behavior; lactation and letdown reflect, uterine contractions; facilities monogamy in animals (higher levels, more monogamous); trust and romantic attachment (in contrast to dopamine which is repetitive, goal-directed approach behavior, beginning of relationship); oxytocin modulates dopamine and the two do work together but oxytocin about attachment
Why does chronic stress suppress the immune system?
In chronic stress, adrenal steroids directly suppress the immune system; temporary suppression not bad - stress responses demand rapid mobilization of energy, adrenal steroids inflammation of injuries so can remain mobile long enough find shelter; highly social lives and keen analytical minds in humans means can experience stress for prolonged periods
Dark side of these neuropeptides
In defense of pups, increases effects of aggression; more aggressive vole less aggression decreases after blocking of vasopressin system just as in case of testosterone; increased experience, aggression maintained by social learning rather than by hormone/neuropeptide; PD game - oxytocin made them more likely preemptively stab other in back; prosocial to US but lousy to Other - ethnocentrism
Adult neurogenesis
In dentate gyrus of hippocampus - important role in declarative memory, spatial memory, conditioning; in animals and humans; experience modulates it - neuroplasticity
How are neurons at all levels of visual and touch pathways arranged?
In orderly, maplike manne (i.e. labeled lines)
BJ Casey studies
In teen years, hyperactiviation in reward regions and hypo activation of PFC; more about hyper activation - if not have this, increased risk depression and anxiety later in life
Genital tubercle
In the early fetus, a bump between the legs that will develop into either clitoris or penis
Word deafness
Inability to understand spoken words; auditory regions temporal lobe affected
Word blindness
Inability to understand written words; damage to visual regions
Stages of memory
Incoming info -> sensory buffers (what perceiving at given time) -> STM/working memory (contents of consciousness at any given moment, fairly limited) -> LTM (brain storing content in long term); reconsolidation (memory malleable, changes every time think about it)
Brain changes with depression
Increased activation of amygdala - persists after depression has lifted; increased activity of frontal lobes; decreased activity in parietal and posterior temporal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex - attention; descendants have thinner cortex across large swaths of right hemisphere - make them vulnerable to it; difficult regulating stress hormone release; hippocampal volume reduced activation
Prolonged sleep deprivation and immune system - rats
Increased metabolic rate, lost weight, died within 19 days; sores on bodies; infections from bacteria that could normally fight off; drop in body temperature that sped up infections
Biological elements of OCD
Increased metabolic rates in orbitofrontal cortex, cingulate cortex, caudate nuclei
Childhood is about
Increasing complexity in very realm of behavior, thought, and emotion
Sleep across life span
Infants - 16 weeks for newborn to establish 24 hours sleep rhythm, REM more prevalent; sleep quality reduces in older age and more awakenings, 50% reduction in SWS in 60 year olds, absence in 90 years olds, critical for memory consolidation
Steps for speaking a heard word
Information about sound is analyzed by primary auditory cortex and transmitted to wernickie's area; area analyzes the sound information to determine the word that was said; under the connectionist model this information is transmitted via arcuate fasciculus; broca's area forms motor plan to repeat the word and sends that information to motor cortex; motor cortex implements the plan, manipulating larynx and related structures to say the word
Communication
Information transfer between two individuals
Tricyclics
Inhibits reuptake of monoamines
Can we block memory reconsolidation?
Initial memory formation and reconsolidating involves protein synthesis; injecting a protein synthesis inhibitor (anisomycin) into the rat amygdala blocks reconsolidation of conditioned fear response, helps them unlearn fear by injecting this while exposing to CS+; can't really do that with humans - too complex
Cortisol and stress
Initially anti-inflammatory but then loses regulatory capacity and becomes pro-inflammatory
Immune to brain signaling
Injected people with endotoxin, showed threatening faces; exposed to endotoxin increased threat processing in amygdala; showed them rewards, decreased rewarding signaling in VS
Treatment of Alzheimer's
Injection of Pittsburgh blue (PiB) dye - those with Alzheimer's show buildup of the dye; drugs that interfere with enzymes that favor beta-amyloid production
Sleep changes with depression
Insomnia typical; sleep of people with depression - reduction in SWS, REM much sooner and correlates with severity of depression, distribution of REM altered - increased REM during first half of sleep
Phobic disorders
Intense, irrational fears that become centered on specific object, activity, or situation feel compelled to avoid
Prefrontal cortex and executive control/regulation
Involved in both cognition and emotion; maintains representation of goals (particularly in ambiguous situations - cost-benefit analysis if two competing demands); biases other areas of brain to facilitate task-appropriate behavior (amygdala too - biases threats, directs attention); portion of brain that makes you do the right thing when it is the hard thing to do (sapolsky); delaying short-term gratification for long-term goal
Love compared with friendship in fMRI
Involved increased activity in the insulation and anterior cingulate cortex, and reduced activity in the posterior cingulate and prefrontal cortices; amygdala also reduced activity when thinking about romantic partners; no simple one-to-one relation between specific emotion and changed activity of brain region - no happy center or sad center
Sum up Smith - neuroscientists are probing the connections between intestinal microbes and brain development
Kickmeyer study - see whether microbes that colonize gut in infancy can alter brain development; germ-free mice less anxious behavior than those with natural indigenous microbes; gut microbes directly alter NT levels which may enable them to communicate with neurons - some can promote serotonin production in cells lining colon; germ-free mice much less serotonin in blood; unclear whether altered serotonin levels in gut trigger molecular events which affect brain activity and whether happens in humans too; myelination can also be influenced begun microbes
Emotional dysregulation negative symptoms
Lack of emotional expression, reduced facial expression, inability to experience pleasure in everyday activities (anhedonia)
Psychopathy
Lack of remorse, callousness/lack of empathy, glibness (indifference)/superficial charm, grandiose of self worth, and pathological lying; has to occur with serious criminal history; otherwise, psychopathic traits (CEOs, wall street) but not psychopathy; best predictor or recidivism
Number of neurons that die during early development is
Large; most of young nerve cells die during prenatal development in some brain regions and spinal cord (1958 hamburger - half in chicks spinal toro neurons)
REM sleep lengthens
Lasts up to 40 minutes just before waking; corresponding loss of stage 3 as night goes on - why more dreams, vivid dreams later in night and early morning
Limbic system
Layer 2; central to emotions; hypothalamus - interface between layers 1 and 2, inputs from limbic layer 2 but sends projections to layer 1 regions, midbrain and brainstem
Topographical organization
Location of peripheral sensory neuron maps directly onto specific cells in the cortex; not even - hand more space than arm
Nightmares
Long, frightening dream that awakens the sleep from REM sleep; medications like antidepressants make them more frequent
Hormonal link
Long-term reduction in cortisone levels; perhaps due to persistent sensitivity to cortisol
Brain to gut signaling
Lots of evidence that stress can affect guts and vice versa; cells in gut produce serotonin; brain synapses onto digestive tract - under conditions of stress, suppresses digestion
Individual inheriting altered gene
Makes altered protein which affects any cell structures that include the protein; every behavior can be altered by changes in appropriate genes
Ralph and Menaker 1988
Male hamster very short free-running activity rhythm; 22 hours rather than slightly longer than 24, same with offspring; genetic mutation called tau; abnormal endogenous circadian rhythm only in constant conditions; SCN is a master clock - endogenous rhythm following the transplant was always that of the donor SCN not the recipient, driving circadian rhythms
Penis
Male phallus
Cognitive abilities as get older
Many show little change until reach advanced age
Intermale aggression and testosterone
Markedly increases in many species when testes begin secreting testosterone at sexual maturity; waxes and wanes with seasonally breeding animals; castrating males reduces aggressive behavior
What is adulthood in brain?
Maturation of pathways between the PFC and emotion generation regions such as amygdala and striatum; maturation of these pathways allows one to use their rational mind to regulate emotional mind
Explosion of new languages 15000 years ago
More cultural roles than communicative ones - help social group identify its members and confound rivals
Mood
More diffuse, mild and longer lasting emotional episodes; prolonged periods of time
Layer 2
More recent; emotions, limbic system
Peers, social acceptance, and social exclusion
More social and more complexly social than kids or adults; incidence of eating disorders in adolescents spreads among peers with a pattern resembling viral contagions; same with depression - co-ruminate; dramatic sensitivity of adolescents to peers
Feeling
More transient, less intense than emotion; background hum for hour or day
Examples of synaptic plasticity and memory
More transmitter released from axon terminal or postsynaptic membrane becomes larger or more sensitive to transmitter or synapse enlarges both pre and post-synaptically (after training, each action potential in the relevant neural circuit causes increased release of transmitter molecules); an interneuron modulates polarization of the axon terminal and causes the release of more transmitter molecules per nerve impulse; neural circuit that is used more often increases number of synaptic contacts and new synapses formed (axon collaterals - more of punch); a more frequently used neural pathway takes over synaptic sites formerly occupied by less active competitor leads to shift in synaptic input
Ventricular abnormalities
Most have enlarged cerebral ventricles especially lateral ventricles; those with enlarged ventricles benefit less from antipsychotics
Treatment of OCD
Most respond to treatment; CBT especially and several drugs such as those that inhibit reuptake of serotonin increasing availability of serotonin; heritable component; can be triggered by brain infections
Addiction
Most severe, chronic stage of substance-use disorder in which there is substantial loss of self control as indicated by compulsive drug taking despite desire to stop taking the drug
Masters and Johnson
Observed it; diverse sexuality (what makes humans different)
Fetus
A developing individual after the embryo stage
Biological rhythm
A regular fluctuation in any living process; hormone levels, temperature, drug sensitivity
All steroids based one chemical struggle of
Cholesterol
Other nuclei involved in brain regulation
Hippocampus in cortisol regulation
Temperament
Months, years, whole lifetime
Sertoli cells
Produce sperm
Drugs that help dampen manic phase
Second-gen antipsychotics
Is language uniquely human quality?
Yes
Wernickie's area
A region of the tempoparietal cortex in the brain that is involved in the perception and production of speech
Fusiform gyrus
A region on the inferior surface of the cortex at the junction of the temporal and occipital lobes that has been associated with recognition of faces
Clozapine
A second-gen antipsychotic that blocks 5-HT2A receptors
Chlorpromazine
1950s; early antipsychotic that revolutionized treatment of schizophrenia; replaced lobotomy; reduced positive symptoms
Insomnia
15-30% of adults; more common in older people, women, users of tobacco, caffeine, alcohol
Steps for neurons in mammalian SCN making basis of circadian clock
2 proteins Clock and Cycle (created by neurons in mammalian SCN) bind together to form a dimer; Clock/Cycle dimer binds to DNA, enhancing transcription of genes for period (Per) and Cryptochrome (Cry); Per and Cry bind together as a complex that inhibits the activity of the Clock/Cycle dimer, slowing the transcription of the per and cry genes and therefore slowing production of the Per and Cry proteins; the per and cry proteins eventually break down, releasing Clock/Cycle from inhibition and allowing the cycle to start over gain, rate of gene transcription/protein complex formation and protein degradation takes 24 hours
During height of prenatal growth, add how many neurons per minute
250,000
Sum up Sapolsky - one second before
3 layers of brain's functional domain; amygdala, prefrontal cortex
Stage 2 accounts for
50% of total sleep; REM 20%
Total sleep time
7-8 hours, half of this stage 2; 20% REM
Plutchik 1994
8 basic emotions grouped in four pairs of opposites; joy/sadness, affection/disugst, anger/fear, expectation/surprise; all other emotions combos of these
Retrograde transmitter
A NT that is released by the postsynaptic neuron, diffuses back across the synapse and alters the functioning of the presynaptic neuron; often diffusable gas, LTP changes on both sides of synapse
Postpartum depression
A bout of depression that afflicts a woman either immediately before or after giving birth; CBT best for this
Alpha rhythm
A brain potential of 8-12 Hz that occurs during relaxed wakefulness; drowsiness sets in, time spent in alpha rhythms decreases, and EEG shows waves of smaller amplitude and irregular as well as sharp waves (vertex spikes)
Stem cells
A cell that is undifferentiated and therefore can take on the fate of any cell that donor organism can produce; gathered from umbilical cord blood, miscarried embryos, or unused embryos produced during in vitro; may be possible one day to treat adult tissue and make them stem cells, could help treat Parkinson's and reverse degeneration
Embryonic stem cells
A cell, derived from an embryo, that has the capacity to from any type of tissue; doctors looking for ways to create them from other sources like skin
Sleep spindles
A character 12-14 Hz wave in the EEG of a person said to be in stage 2 sleep
Methylation
A chemical modification of DNA that does not affect the nucleotide sequence of a gene but makes that gene less likely to be expressed; meaney - rodent pups provided with inattentive mothers or subject to interruptions in material care secreted more glucocorticoids in response to stress as adults, same with humans (same gene more likely be methylated in postmortem brains of suicide victims - only if suffered child abuse)
Hormone
A chemical, usually secreted by an endocrine gland, that is conveyed by the bloodstream and regulates distant target organs and tissues; synapses - just a few micrometers apart; hormones all over body
Medial forebrain bundle
A collection of axons traveling in the midline region of the forebrain; brain sites that support self-stimulation response here in subcortical regions
Vomeronasal organ (VNO)
A collection of specialized receptor cells, near to but separate from the olfactory epithelium, that detects pheromones and sends electrical signals to the accessory olfactory bulb in the brain (humans respond to pheromones but detect them in olfactory system, don't have VNO); these neurons send axons to brain's olfactory bulb which projects to medial amygdala which then sends axons to mPOA which then integrates hormonal and sensory information to coordinate motor patterns of copulation
What is an emotion?
A complex feeling-state involving conscious experience and internal and overt physical responses that tend to facilitate or inhibit motivated behavior
Kluver-Bucy syndrome
A condition, brought about by bilateral amygdala damage, that is characterized by dramatic emotional changes including reduction in fear and anxiety; loss of fear; animals fearful before surgery now tame
Polygraph
A device that measures several bodily responses such as heart rate and blood pressure; 65% accurate
Tardive dyskinesia
A disorder associated with first-generation antipsychotic use and characterized by involuntary movements, especially of face and mouth; after prolonged use; tends to be irreversible
PTSD
A disorder in which memories of an unpleasant episode repeatedly plague the victim; genetic factors present; people who display it show memory changes like amnesia from some war experiences, flashbacks, deficits in short-term memory, volume of right hippocampus small and sometimes inherited
Tourette's syndrome
A disorder involving heightened sensitivity to sensory stimuli that may be accompanied by verbal or physical tics; genetics, early diagnosis (6 to 7)
Narcolepsy
A disorder that involves frequent, intense episodes of sleep, which last from 5-30 minutes and can occur anytime during the usual working hours; most display SWS for hour or more before entering REM but with narcolepsy, REM in first few minutes; cataplexy; manifests itself between 15 and 25 but sometimes continues throughout life; many strains of dogs have it; 90% less orexin
Ketamine
A dissociative anesthetic drug, similar to PCP, that acts as an NMDA receptor antagonist
Delusion
A false belief that is strongly held in spite of contrary evidence
AMPA receptors
A fast-acting ionotropic glutamate receptor that also binds the glutamate agonist AMPA
What is an emotion?
A feeling-state that tends to facilitate or inhibit motivated behavior; fundamentally homeostatic; stimulus can be internal (cognition, emotion, sensation) or external; short-lived, few minutes or seconds
Arcuate fasciculus
A fiber tract classically viewed as a connection between wernickie's speech area and broca's speech area
Psychosomatic medicine
A field of study that emphasizes the role of psychological factors in disease
Fear conditioning
A form of classical conditioning in which a previously neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with an unpleasant stimulus like foot shock until the previously neutral stimulus alone elicits the response seen in fear
Concussion
A form of closed head injury caused by a jarring blow to the head, resulting in damage to the tissue of the brain with short or long-term consequences for cognitive function; range of symptoms; series of them puts person at risk of permanent brain damage
Alzheimer's disease
A form of dementia that may appear in middle age but is more frequent among the aged; not result of wear and tear in brain - using brain more less likely for it to occur; begins with loss of memory of recent events, eventually becomes all-encompassing - cannot maintain any form of conversation, cognitive decline progressive and relentless; PET scans - reduction of metabolism in posterior parietal cortex and some portions of the temporal lobe
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE)
A form of dementia that may develop following multiple concussions such as in athletes engaged in contact sports
Hippocampus
A medial temporal lobe structure that is important for learning and memory
Endocrine gland
A gland that secretes hormones into the bloodstream to act on distant targets
Cortisol
A glucocorticoid stress hormone of the adrenal cortex; steroids slower than epinephrine but also ready body for action
NMDA receptor
A glutamate receptor that also binds to the glutamate agonist NMDA and that is both ligand-gated and voltage-sensitive
Spinal nucleus of the bulbocavernosus (SNB)
A group of motor neurons in the spinal cord of rats that innervate muscles controlling the penis; males many more than females; many of these cells die in females just before and after birth and BC muscles die as well; single injection of androgens into newborn female rats permanently spare some motor neurons and their muscles, castration fo males leads to them dying
Amygdala
A group of nuclei in the media anterior part of the temporal lobe; key structure for fear; also crucial for appetitive learning - conditioned positive emotional reactions to attractive stimuli
Electroconvulsive shock therapy (ECT)
A last-resort treatment for unmanageable depression in which a strong electrical current is passed through the brain, causing a seizure; can rapidly reverse depression
Learned helplessness
A learning paradigm in which individuals are subjected to inescapable, unpleasant conditions; like shock; linked to decrease in serotonin functioning like depression
Dorsomedial thalamus
A limbic system structure that is connected to the hippocampus
Limbic system
A loosely defined widespread group of brain nuclei that innervate each other to form a network; these nuclei are implicated in emotions; hypothalamus, anterior thalamus, cingulate cortex, hippocampus, amygdala, fornix
Korsakoff's syndrome
A memory disorder, caused by thiamine deficiency, that is generally associated with chronic alcoholism; degenerative disease; damage in mammillary bodies and dorsomedial thalamus but not hippocampus; mammillary bodies processing system connecting medial temporal lobes to thalamus and to other cortical sites; confabulate to fill in gaps; treat with thiamine to prevent further deterioration of memory functions but not reverse damage already done; established declarative memories not stored there
Declarative memory
A memory that can be stated or described; facts and information acquired through learning; what was impaired in HM; can be tested easily - requests for specific information that was learned previously - answer 'what' questions; hippocampus needed to form these but stored elsewhere
Cognitive map
A mental representation of the relative spatial organization of objects and information; rats form cognitive map to solve maze; hippocampus crucial for spatial learning
Melanopsin
A photopigment found in those retinal ganglion cells that project to the SCN; sensitive to light
Beta-amyloid
A protein that accumulates in amyloid plaques in Alzheimer's disease
Depression
A psychiatric condition characterized by such symptoms as an unhappy mood, loss of interest, energy, and appetite and difficulty concentrating; can occur with no readily apparent stress; often lasts several months without treatment, more common over 40, women
Bipolar disorder
A psychiatric disorder characterized by periods of depression that alternate with excessive, expansive moods; rate at which alternation occurs varies; some rapid-cycling bipolar disorder (four or more distinct cycles in one year); men and women equally affected, age of onset earlier than that of depression; heritable; enlarged ventricles (more manic episodes, greater ventricular enlargement - worsening of brain loss over time)
Tuberomammillary nucleus
A region of the basal hypothalamus, near the pituitary stalk, that plays a role in generating slow wave sleep; GABAA receptors stimulated there
Nucleus accumbens
A region of the forebrain that receives dopaminergic innervation from the ventral tegmental area, often associated with reward and pleasurable sensations; theory is that stimulation taps into dopaminergic circuits
Broca's area
A region of the frontal lobe of the brain that is involved in the production of speech
Sexually dimorphic nucleus of the POA (SDN-POA)
A region of the preoptic area that is 5-6 times large in volume in males than in female rats; quirk though - testosterone reaching the brain is converted into estrogens that act on estrogen receptors, not androgen receptors, to masculinize the SDN-POA and some other regions; XY rats that are androgen incentives like people with AIS have testes but feminine exterior; masculine SDN-POA because estrogen receptors normal
Patient NA
A still-living man who is unable to encode new declarative memories because of damage to the dorsomedial thalamus and the mammillary bodies; had accident - mini sword entered nostril and injured his brain; profound anterograde amnesia since; normal short-term memory and can gain new non-declarative but impaired declarative long-term memories
Dentate gyrus
A strip of gray matter in the hippocampal formation
Cerebellum
A structure located at the back of the brain, dorsal to the pons, that is involved in the central regulation of movement and in some forms of learning; crucial for eye-blink conditioning (puff of air); people with hippocampal lesions can acquire conditioned eye blink response but people with damage to cerebellum on one side can only do it on side where it is intact
Emotion
A subjective mental state that is usually accompanied by distinctive behaviors as well as involuntary physiological changes
Hebbian synapse
A synapse that is strengthened when it successfully drives the postsynaptic cell; cells that fire together wire together; if highly active synapse, will form this hebbian synapse
Hebbian synapses
A synapse that is strengthened when it successfully drives the postsynaptic cell; proposed that when presynaptic and postsynaptic neuron repeatedly activated together, synaptic connections between them would become stronger and more stable
Wada test
A test in which a short-lasting anesthetic is delivered into one carotid artery to determine which cerebral hemisphere principally mediates language; 90-95% left hemisphere specialization for language; can simulate massive stroke with this, shutting down entire hemisphere for a few minutes - long enough use behavioral measures to document specializations of each hemisphere; when reverse happens, people usually left-handed
Tachistoscope test
A test in which stimuli are very briefly presented to either the left or right visual half field; if last less than 150 milliseconds, input restricted to one hemisphere because not enough time for eyes to shift their direction; intact brains - further processing involve transmission of information through corpus callosum to other hemisphere; most confirm general verbal-spatial division of labor between the hemispheres - verbal stimuli presented to right visual field (left hemisphere) recognize more accurately than same presented to left visual field (right hemisphere), nonverbal visual stimuli like faces presented to left visual field better recognized than same presented to other side
Delayed non-matching-to-sample task
A test in which the individual must respond to the unfamiliar stimulus in a pair of stimuli; object recognition - monkeys declare what remember by identifying which of two objects was not seen previously; monkeys with damage to medial temporal lobe like HM impaired on this task
Constraint-induced movement therapy (CIMT)
A therapy for recovery of movement after stroke or injury in which the person's unaffected limb is constrained while he is required to perform tasks with the affected limb; people who do this regain up to 75% normal use of paralyzed arm after 2 weeks of therapy
Associative learning
A type of learning in which an association is formed between two stimuli or between a stimulus and a response; includes both classical and instrumental conditioning
Meta-analyses
A type of quantitative review of a field of research in which the results of multiple previous studies are combined in order to ID overall patterns that are consistent across studies; mixed with SSRIs
Positive hallucinations
Abnormal behavioral state; hallucinations, delusions, and excited motor behavior; present but should not be
Negative symptoms
Abnormality that reflects insufficient functioning; emotional and social withdrawal and blunted affect; absent but should be present
Brain activity in REM
Abrupt display of pattern of small-amplitude, high frequency activity similar to pattern of awake individuals except eyes darting rapidly; aside from eyes, all other skeletal muscles are relaxed, show absence of muscle tone (atonia); brainstem regions profoundly inhibiting motor neurons - why called paradoxical sleep (brain waves look wake, but muscles unresponsive); irregular breathing and pulse rate as in wakefulness; vivid dreams
Epinephrine
Aka adrenaline; compound that acts both as a hormone (secreted by the adrenal medulla under the control of the sympathetic nervous system) and as a synaptic transmitter
Phencyclidine (PCP)
Aka angel dust; an anesthetic agent that is also a psychedelic; makes many people feel dissociated from themselves and their environment; NMDA receptor antagonist - blocks NMDA receptor's central calcium channel preventing endogenous ligand glutamate from having usual effects
Cell death
Aka apoptosis; the developmental process during which 'surplus' cells die
Second-generation antipsychotics
Aka atypical antipsychotic; an antipsychotic drug that has primary actions other than or in addition to the dopamine D2 receptor antagonism that characterizes first-generation antipsychotics; just as effective as older ones, supplemented with L-dopa can help reduce symptoms
Episodic memory
Aka autobiographical memory; memory of a particular incident or a particular time and place
Health psychology
Aka behavioral medicine; field of study that focuses on psychological influences on health-related processes
Desynchronized EEG
Aka beta activity; a pattern of EEG activity comprising a mix of many different high frequencies with low amplitude
Nonfluent aphasia
Aka broca's aphasia; a language impairment characterized by difficulty with speech production but not with language comprehension; it is related to damage in broca's area; difficulty producing speech - labored and hesitant manner; reading and writing impaired; ability to utter automatic speech preserved - greetings, short common expressions like oh my god, swear words; comprehension of language still good
Enriched condition (EC)
Aka complex environment; an environment for lab rats in which animals are group-housed with wide variety of stimulus objects
Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
Aka crib death; the sudden, unexpected death of an apparently healthy human infant who simply stops breathing usually during sleep; result of immature systems that normally control respiration; abnormality in brainstem serotonin systems; cut in half by safe to sleep campaign which urges parents to place infants on backs to sleep
Sensitive period
Aka critical period; the period during development in which an organism can be permanently altered by a particular experience or treatment; practice with language must occur in order for language skills to develop normally; early childhood to end around puberty; individuals exposed to language late in period much-reduced language development; learning second language more difficult in adulthood, sensitive period over
Memory trace
Aka engram; a persistent change in the brain that reflects the storage of memory (the record laid down in memory by a learning experience); doesn't simply deteriorate from disease and passage of time - memories suffer interference from events before or after their formation
Ventricular zone
Aka ependymal layer; a region lining the cerebral ventricles that displays mitosis, providing neurons early in development and glial cells throughout life; where mitosis takes place
Prosopagnosia
Aka face blindness; a condition characterized by the inability to recognize faces; no training can restore it; ability to visually recognize objects may be retained though, may have no difficulty identifying by voices; faces simply lack meaning - no disorientation or confusion, no evidence of diminished intellect; right hemisphere impaired due to strokes or wada tests indicate that right hemisphere important for processing faces; split brain individuals do better at recognizing faces presented to right hemisphere than to the left - both hemispheres capacity for recognizing faces
DTI tractography
Aka fiber tracking; visualization of the orientation and terminations of white matter tracts in the lining brain via DTI; arcuate fasciculus appears to terminate in precentral gyrus (motor cortex) just short of broca's area in most people
Orexin
Aka hypocretin; a neuropeptide produced in the hypothalamus that is involved in switching between sleep status, in narcolepsy, and the control of appetite; if knocked out, narcolepsy in rats; humans - 90% loss; neurons that produce it almost exclusively in hypothalamus - axons go to those three brain regions
Impoverished conditions (IC)
Aka isolated condition; an environment for lab rodents in which each animal is housed singly in a small cage without complex stimuli
Antipsychotic
Aka neuroleptic; any of a class of drugs that alleviate symptoms of schizophrenia, typically by blocking dopamine receptors
Priming
Aka repetition priming; the phenomenon by which exposure to a stimulus facilitates subsequent response to the same or a similar stimulus; shown word stamp, then asked complete stem sta- will most likely say stamp not start; does not require declarative memory of the stimulus - HM could do it; not impaired by damage to basal ganglia; bilateral occipitotemporal cortex - perceptual priming (visual form of words); conceptual priming (based on meaning) - reduced activation of left frontal cortex
Amyloid plaques
Aka senile plaque; a small area of the brain that has abnormal cellular and chemical patterns; correlates with dementia
Decorticate rage
Aka sham rage; sudden intense rage characterized by actions (such as snarling and biting in dogs) that lack clear direction; cortex removed - emotional behaviors organized at a subcortical level with cerebral cortex normally inhibiting rage responses
Stage 3 sleep
Aka slow wave sleep (SWS); a stage of non-REM sleep that is defined by the presence of large-amplitude, slow delta waves; slow waves represent widespread synchronization of cortical neuron activity likened to room of people chanting same phrases over and over; about one hour with brief return to stage 2
Growth hormone (GH)
Aka somatotropin or somatotropic hormone; a tropic hormone, secreted by the anterior pituitary that promotes the growth of cells and tissues; reduced if child in abusive conditions
Synapse rearrangement
Aka synaptic remodeling; the loss of some synapses and the development of others; depends on competition for trophic factors during development and/or competition between Hebbian synapses
Neurotrophic factors
Aka trophic factors; a target-derived chemical that acts as if it 'feeds' certain neurons to help them survive
First-generation antipsychotics
Aka typical antipsychotics; an antischizophrenic drug that shows antagonist activity at dopamine D2 receptors
Fluent aphasia
Aka wenickie's aphasia; a language impairment characterized by fluent, meaningless speech and little language comprehension; related to damage in wernickie's area; nonsensical verbal utterances, sound substitutions, word substitutions, neologisms common; ability to repeat words and sentences impaired - difficult comprehending what read or hear; sometimes stroke victims experience word deafness and word blindness; post central somatosensory cortex more likely to be damaged that precentral motor cortex because posterior - more likely have right-sided numbness than weakness common in confluent aphasia
Grammar
All of the rules for usage of a particular language
Genotype
All the genetic information that one specific individual has inherited; moment of fertilization and remains same throughout life
Kinsey 40s
Almost no scientific study of human sexual behaviors until then; lots of surveys
Hallucinogens
Alter sensory perceptions in dramatic way; not very addictive because hard to take chronically
LeDoux's two system model of emotion
Amygdala, BNST, striatum not enough for emotion - need to be represented in consciousness; threat -> sensory system -> cognitive circuit (-> fearful feelings) and defensive survival circuit (-> defensive response); cortex big role in emotion - where represented in consciousness; activation of brain regions alone not enough - may not even notice, feel nothing
Emotional memory where
Amygdala, ventral striatum
Primary target of inflammation in brain is
Amygdala; also ventral striatum (inflammation decreases reward signaling, reduces production and release of dopamine; get out of stressful situation, conserve energy, sickness behavior)
Progressive changes at cellular level in Alzheimer's
Amyloid plaques - in cortex, hippocampus, other limbic system sites, form by buildup of beta-amyloid; neurofibrillary tangles; gradually lose many neurons in the basal forebrain which makes ACh - drugs that boost ACh signaling may reduce some symptoms for a time
Melatonin
An amine hormone that is secreted by the pineal gland at night, thereby signaling day length to the brain
OCD
An anxiety disorder in which the affected individual experiences recurrent unwanted thoughts and engages in repetitive behaviors without reasons or ability to stop
Planum temporale
An auditory region of superior temporal cortex; found to be larger in left hemisphere than right; includes part of posterior cortical region called wernickie's area; larger left planum temporal related to that hemisphere's language specialization; same in infants - have inborn neural mechanism for language
Lithium
An element that administered to people with bipolar disorder, often relieves the symptoms; discovered accidentally
Neural tube
An embryonic structure with subdivisions that correspond to the future forebrain, midbrain, and hindbrain; crests of neural groove come together to form this
Long-term memory (LTM)
An enduring form of memory that lasts days, weeks, months, or years; very large capacity; working memory - ability to actively manipulate information in STM perhaps retrieving information from LTM to solve problems or otherwise make use of information; working memory subset of STM where information can be analyzed and manipulated by some executive part of mind
Supersensitivity psychosis
An exaggerated rebound psychosis that may emerge when doses are reduced
Isolated brain
An experimental preparation in which an animal's brainstem has been separated from the spinal cord by a cut below the medulla; EEGs of these animals showed signs of waking alternating with sleep; demonstrated that SWS, REM, and wakefulness all mediated by networks within the brain
Isolated forebrain
An experimental preparation in which an animal's nervous system has been cut in the upper midbrain, dividing the forebrain from the brainstem; EEG from brain in front of cut displayed constant SWS with no indications of wakefulness or REM, forebrain alone generates SWS without contribution of lower brain regions
Tetanus
An intense volley of action potentials; when brief high-frequent bursts of electrical stimuli applied to presynaptic neurons, causing them to produce high rate of action potentials that drive postsynaptic cell fire repeatedly, response of postsynaptic neurons changes; now produce much larger EPSPs - synapse become stronger, more effective
Endocannabinoids
Analogs of THC produced in brain that activate CB receptors such as anandamide (relief when pains subsides, like endorphins); critical for many functions including brain development; critical molecule - one of reasons why marijuana not good for brain when used in high levels because can affect these processes
Predominate right-handedness
Ancient human characteristic in concert with hemispheric specializations for throwing and speech; preference for one hand or other trait wit primates too; may be genetic as well
Organizational effect
Androgen (testosterone) exposure during early development is central to sexual differentiation of both genitalia and brain; androgens have organizational effect only during specific sensitive periods (early development, adolescence); lordosis pose in female rates/mounting in males
Ecotherm
Animal whose body temperature is regulated by and whose heat comes mainly from the environment
Endotherm
Animal whose body temperature is regulated by internal metabolic processes; make own heat inside body
Gonadotropins (follice-stimulating hormone and lutenizing hormone)
Anterior pituitary hormone stimulates cells of gonads to produce sex steroids (testosterone, estrogen, progestin)
Immunocytochemistry
Antibody and proteins
SSRIs
Antidepressants drug that blocks the reuptake of transmitter at serotonergic synapses; weeks to get better but hours increase synaptic serotonin
Stress
Any circumstance that upsets homeostatic behavior
Benzodiazepines
Any of a class of anti anxiety drugs that are noncompetitive agonists of GABA2 receptors in the CNS; valium; interact with binding sites part of GABA; GABA is inhibitory so when benzos present, GABA produces enhanced hyperpolarization
Anxiety disorders
Any of a class of psychological disorders that includes recurrent panic states and generalized persistent anxiety disorder
Cogenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH)
Any of several genetical mutations that can cause a female fetus to be exposed to adrenal androgens, resulting in partial masculinization at birth; adrenal glands produce a lot of androgens - between those of normal females and males; newborn often has intersex appearance (phallus size between typical clitoris and normal penis; skin folds resemble labia and scrotum); given medicine to prevent further androgen production; controversy - surgery or wait until adulthood
Analgesia (painkilling) - common pathological consequence of prolonged stress
Apathy
Sum up Nusslock and Miller - early-life adversity and physical and emotional health across life span
Argues that early-life adversity amplifies crosstalk between peripheral inflammation and neural circuitries subserving threat-related, reward-related, and executive control-related processes; results in chronic low-grade inflammation contributing to predisease states; inflammatory mediators act on amygdala threat and ganglia reward in way that predisposes individuals to self-medicating behaviors like smoking, drugs, high-fat diets; kids who experience chronic stressors vulnerable to emotional and physical health problems across lifespan
Melatonin
As night approaches, pineal gland secretes it; informs brain about day length and entrainment (synchronization) of circadian rhythms; exogenous melatonin standard treatment for sleep disorders; exogenous melatonin is a chronotbiotic (slightly advancing circadian phase by 30 min to 1 hour, reduces core body temp)
Humans and social part
As sensitive to social influences as rates; most cultures treat boys and girls differently
Clones
Asexually produced organisms that are genetically identical; pigs - as much variation in behavior and temperament as do normal siblings; raised in different labs behave very differently; experience important
Stress and health problems
Associated with lots of inflammation-related mental and physical health problems across developmental spectrum (asthma in kids for example)
Depression and reward-related brain function
Associated with reduced ventral striatal/nucleus accumbens activation to reward cues; too much amygdala, not enough reward
James Papez 1937
Associations between emotional changes and limbic system
Binge and intoxication
Associative learning; repeated exposure to same reward, dopamine cells stop firing in response to reward itself and instead fire in anticipatory manner to conditioned stimulus that predicts delivery of the reward; strengthen synaptic connections; drug-induced neuroplasticity; CR deeply ingrained and can trigger strong cravings long after use stopped; greater motivation attribute associated with a a reward, greater the effort person willing exert to get it and generate negative consequences willing to endure; addictive drugs circumvent natural satiation and continue to directly increase dopamine levels - explain compulsive behavior
Superficial facial muscles
Attach only between different points of facial skin; so when contract, they change the shape of the mouth, eyes, or nose or maybe create a dimple
Deep facial muscles
Attach to bone and produce larger-scale movements like chewing
Enriched environment most strongly modulates
Basal dendrites (environment has less effect on apical dendrites - dendrites along axons, axon collaterals); modulates size, distribution and density of synaptic spines on basal dendrites
In cases where right hemisphere known to be dominant for language, person more likely to
Be left-handed
When required to generate an appropriate verb to go with supplied noun, language-related regions including broca's area
Became active
Steps for air puff
Before training, puff of air on surface of eye triggers reflexive eye blink: puff to tegmental nucleus (to cerebellum to cranial motor nuclei) to cranial motor nuclei to eye blink; information also sent to cerebellum - but can send information to cranial motor nuclei that trigger eye blink, at this stage those synapses inactive; during conditioning, information about sound of bell also reaches cerebellum - there, impulses from this auditory signal and air puff converge on particular neurons, repeated pairings of bell and air puff strengthen particular synapses within cerebellum, after training complete, sound of bell now triggers activity in cerebellum that drives cranial motor nuclei to trigger eyeblink even if air puff never happens; repeated presentation of bell without air puff begins weaken cerebellar connections so that even bell stops eliciting eye blink
Maternal behaviors
Behavior of adult females that has the goal of enhancing the well-being of their own offspring, often at some cost to the parents (nest building, crouching over pups, retrieving pups, nursing in rats)
Aggression
Behavior that is intended to cause pain or harm to others
3 kinds of temperature regulatory behaviors
Behaviors that change exposure of body (huddling, extending limbs); behaviors that change external insulation (clothes or nests); behaviors that change surroundings (moving into sun, shade, burrow)
4 outputs from amygdala
Bidirectioanl connection; amygdala/hippocampus interface (extreme fear, pulls hippocampus into fear learning); motor outputs (second shortcut; tradeoff again); arousal (central amygdala go to bed nucleus of the strait terminalis (BNST) - then projects to parts of hypothalamus that initiate hormonal stress response as well as to midbrain and brainstem activate sympathetic nervous system), also locus coeruleus - brain's own sympathetic NS, sends NE releasing projections throughout brain particularly cortex, sex and aggression activate sympathetic NS which can influence behavior
Interface between limbic system and cortex
Bidirectional - talk to tech other; frontal cortex interface between 2 and 3
Body paralysis during REM
Big burst of GABA by brainstem to motor activity and suppress it
How addiction disrupts reinforcement learning
Big shot of dopamine - when initial unexpected reward; over time, using basic concepts of pavlovian condoning, schultz conditioned stimulus to orange juice; monkey - getting cue, must be getting juice; no increase in dopamine anymore to actual sugar; increase is to the cue - this is biology of addiction; reward switches from substance to cue that predicts it
Frontal cortex and social behavior
Bigger size of social group, larger size of frontal cortex; fission-fission - at times split up, function independently, then regroup - better frontocortical control over behavior; larger social network in humans, larger PFC subregion (not sure if causes sociality or reverse; one study brain region changes)
Most cases of prosopagnosia caused by
Bilateral damage; there are cases of congenital prosopagnosia (at north)
Most modern sleeping pills do what
Bind to GABA receptors, inhibiting broad regions of the brain
Genomic effect
Bind to and alter expression of certain genes; why hormones have sustained and prolonged effect on body and why critical for biological development - changes in tissue production
Negative feedback system
Binds to receptors in brain, tells hypothalamus have enough hormones in body and can turn off now; hormones regulated by negative feedback circuit - shuts down own release
Entrainment
Biological process by which push back circadian budge and keep it on 24-hour clock; more disregulated if in dim room
Treatment of PTSD with beta-adrenergic antagonist propranolol
Blocks epinephrine; during trauma recall; reduces symptoms; creating new memory without some of that peripheral stress biology
Energy conservation
Body uses up less energy when asleep than when awake - lowered heart rate, less tension, blood pressure, lower body temperature in SWS; smaller the mammal, higher its metabolic rate, more time spends asleep
Early adversity potentiates crosstalk between threat circuitry and immune system
Both components are integrated, bidirectional network that detects threats to well-being and mobilizes resources for coping; brain to immune traffic (when stimulus perceive threatening and uncontrollable, cell groups in amygdala signal hypothalamic centers that mobilize fight or flight responses mediated by SNS and HPA axis; descend from brain into organs - these fibers release NE acting inflammatory gene expression program, aggressively release mediators); immune to brain traffic (cytokines can access brain through active transport to enter circumventricular organs or leaky regions of blood-brain barrier; modulate coritco-amygdala circuitry involved in threat processing; stress-evoked neuroinflammatory response occurs in parallel with anxiety-like behaviors)
Amygdala central for fear learning - people with anxiety and psychopaths
Both no big difference between CS+ and CS- but for different reasons; anxious people - often have higher response to CS-, hard time saying actually safe and turning off amygdala
Nonfluent aphasia
Broca's; characterized by difficulty with speech production but no language comprehension; hemiplegia involving paralysis on one side of body common; there mentally but can't produce the words; writing and typings still difficult
What religion focuses on nature of perception?
Buddhism; lots of insights about nature of mind from idea of sensation and perception
Oxytocin in women v men
Calming effects on amygdala more consistent in men than in women; enhances charitably but only in people who already area; cultural contingencies - americans seek emotional support more readily than do east asians for example
Chronic stress/HPA activity associated with stress-related illness
Cardiometabolic and inflammatory illnesses; social stress test - can increase their cortisol with public speaking
How testosterone affects aps
Causes them to fire at faster rate if they are stimulated by something else; not causing aps in neurons
3 ingredients of brain development
Cell death (apoptosis, when born more neurons than ever will); synapse rearrangement, synaptic modeling, synaptic pruning (neurotrophic factors - don't get it, dies; microglial cells important for pruning; neurons complex as age - part of it gene expression, part experience; last part of brain to develop is PFC - most affected by experience); myelination (more peripheral than CNS)
Teen years + still developing prefrontal executive control system
Cell death and synapse rearrangement/pruning results in reduced gray matter density in PFC; increased myelination
Mammals and light
Cells in the eye tell SCN when it is light out; retinohypothalamic pathway; cells synapse directly within SCN and carries information about light to hypothalamus to entrain rhythms; rely not on photoreceptors but on ganglion cells; melanopsin (in retinal ganglion cells); these ganglion cells absent in most totally blind humans show free-running circadian rhythms with difficulty getting to sleep at night and staying awake during the day - taking melatonin at bedtime, mimicking normal nightly release helps sighted people get to sleep and blind people entrain to daylight
Cell migration
Cells move over long distances to fill out brain; don't look like mature nerve cells
How chronic alcohol abuse damages the brain
Cells of superior frontal cortex, cerebellum, and hippocampus show particularly prominent pathological changes; excessive binging suppresses neurogenesis in hippocampus (memory); korsakoff syndrome (chronic memory disorder caused by deficiency of thiamine (vitamin B-1) secondary to alcohol abuse, some beer companies suggesting put this in beer
Pituitary gland
Central endocrine gland, serves as bridge between hypothalamus and periphery; half in brain, half out of brain
Thalamus
Central relay station of information to cortex for most senses; information about each sensory modality sent to separate division of thalamus; input to thalamus corresponds with predetermined nerves so automatically directed
Hippocampus
Centrally involved in declarative memory or the consolidation of "what" information, and the transfer of "what" information from STM to LTM; also spatial memory; memories stored in cortex, not hippocampus; hippocampus as doorway/portal for memory before can embed itself into cortex
Plastic changes at synapses
Changes in amount of NT released, changes in number or sensitivity of postsynaptic receptors resulting in larger (or smaller) PSPs; inhibited inactivation of NT (reuptake, degradation); influenced by inputs from other neurons causing extra depolarization or hyper polarization of axon terminals and therefore changes in amount of NT released; long-term memories may require changes in NS so substantial that they can be directly observes; new synapses can form (or old die) as result of use; training can lead to reorganization of synaptic connections - can cause more active pathways to take over sites formerly occupied by a less active competitor
Preoccupation and anticipation
Changes in function of prefrontal cortex regions involved in executive processes - down-regulation of dopamine; further disrupted by neuroplastic changes in glutaminergic signaling - weakens ability resist urges
Epigenetic regulation
Changes in gene expression that are due to environmental effects rather than to changes in the nucleotide sequence of the gene
Sum up Insel - brain disorders?
Changing medicine to better diagnose and treat mental disorders; not about symptoms, about biology too; RDoC initiative by US NIH 0 change framework
Sleep during infancy
Clear cycle of sleeping and waking takes several weeks to settle in - 24-hour rhythm evident by 16 weeks of age; infant sleep characterized by shorter sleep cycles than adults reflecting immaturity of the brain; larger percentage of REM, half of sleep during first two weeks; can move directly from awake state to REM - very active, provide stimulation essential to maturation of NS
Orgasm
Climax of sexual behavior, marked by extremely pleasurable sensations; 4 phases: increasing excitement (phallus engorged with blood, making it erect, vaginal produces lubricating fluids, waves of contractions of genital muscles during orgasms; 3 patterns for women, 1 for men); plateau, orgasm, resolution
Lateral PFC also involved in
Cognitive and executive control processes (response inhibition, conflict monitoring, task switching); working memory; goal-directed behavior
Sleep state misperception
Commonly a person's perception that he has not been asleep when in fact he has; typically occurs at start of sleep episode
Language
Communication in which arbitrary sounds or symbols are arranged according to a grammar in order to convey an almost limitless variety of concepts
Cytokines
Communicators to create heightened inflammation in other parts of body, signaling molecules, accentuating inflammation
They die as a consequence of
Complex interactions with surrounding cells; chromosomes carry death genes - genes expressed only when cell undergoes apoptosis
Synesthesia
Condition in which boundaries between adequate stimuli deviate; senses blend together, see sounds, see colors with certain types of touch; person processes one adequate stimuli in another part of the brain - visual system proximal to auditory stimuli
REM behavior disorder
Condition in which person has deficit in suppression of motor activity via these GABAergic neurons, person acts out dreams; debilitating - denagerous
Turner's syndrome
Condition, seen in individuals carrying single X chromosome but no other sex chromosomes, in which an apparent female has underdeveloped but recognizable ovaries; unless indifferent gonad becomes testes and begins secreting hormones, immature mammals develop as females in most respects; sex chromosome determines sex of gonad, and gonadal hormones drive sexual differentiation of the rest of the body
Adoption studies - schizophrenia
Confuse hereditary and environmental factors because members of family share both; adopted people confirm strong genetic factor in schizophrenia
Uncinate fasciculus
Connects amygdala and PFC; nerve tract from orbital frontal cortex to amygdala; plays role in top-down regulation of amygdala by PFC
Geniculostriate system
Conscious vision; retina -> lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) of thalamus -> strait cortex (primary visual cortex, V1) -> other visual cortical areas
Explicit emotion regulation
Consciously regulating it (calm down, not end of world); requires conscious effort, active monitoring, and is associated with insight and awareness; solves dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC)
Thinning process
Continues in caudal-rostral direction during maturation so prefrontal cortex matures last; delayed brain maturation - teens' impulsivity
Sperry - studied split-brain humans
Contralateral - stuff on left processes right; sensory information in split-brained individuals remains trapped within receiving hemispheres so person's response to stimuli reflects the processing specializations of that hemisphere in isolation
LTP in some forms of memory
Correlational observations (time course of LTP has strong similarities to the time course of memory formation); somatic intervention experiments - treatments that interfere with LTP also impair learning, NMDA receptor blockage interferes with performance in water maze and other memory tests; behavioral intervention experiments (demonstration that training animal in memory task induces LTP somewhere in brain; difficult though - uncertainty about exactly where to put the recording electrodes to detect induced LTP); LTP is kind of synaptic plasticity that underlies certain forms of learning and memory
Steroid-sensitive regions of the brain
Cortex, brainstem nuclei, medial amygdala, hypothalamus
Layer 3
Cortex; most recent; upper surface of brain; cognition, memory storage, sensory processing, abstractions, philosophy, navel contemplation
Early adversity sensitizes early threat vigilance and response systems
Cortico-amygdala neural circuit; physically abused youth develop vigilance for facial cues that connote anger, caused them to respond aggressively to provocation even when subtle, monitor environment for danger and maintain low threshold for judging situation as threatening; fMRI - maltreated youth show greater amygdala reactivity to emotional stimuli relative to control subjects; development of coupling between frontal cortex and amygdala accelerated in kinds exposed to adversity
Early adversity potentiates crosstalk between reward circuitry and immune system
Cortico-basal ganglia circuit - supports reward processing, projection from midbrain nuclei and cortical target regions, D2 NT; early adversity and reward sensitivity - higher thresholds for brain stimulation reward, blunted responses to amphetamines and dopamine agonists; reduces sensitivity to rewarding stimuli like food, promotes tolerance for drugs; forecast depressive symptoms and episodes; facilitates high-risk behaviors, reward deficiency model of addiction; reduced PFC activation
CRH
Corticotropic releasing hormone; from hypothalamus to anterior pituitary gland
Split-brained and reading words projected visually to either side
Could easily read and verbally repeat words projected to left hemisphere but not words directly to right hemisphere; right hemisphere limited amount of linguistic ability - can recognize simple words and emotional content of verbal material; in most people, vocab and grammar exclusive domain of the left hemisphere; stimuli from left visual field reach right hemisphere visual cortex but split corpus callosum prevents visual information from getting from right hemisphere to language areas of left hemisphere making verbal response to stimuli impossible; can respond verbally to stimuli appearing in right visual field because interhemispheric transfer not required - already in left hemisphere
Ovarian hormones produced in
Cycles - approximately 28 days in humans
Dorsolateral PFC dlPFC v ventromedial PFC vmPFC
Deciders, most rational, cognitive, utilitarian, unsentimental part, doing harder thing, damage to this impaired in planning or gratification postponement; impact of emotion on decision making, damage to it can't decide and make utilitarian, bad decisions
Long-term memory
Declarative (factors, things can tell other people; learning about declarative memory, hippocampus dependent; episodic (storage in cortex, remembering event like first day of school); semantic (storage in cortex, knowing capital of france, fact)); non declarative (procedural; things you know that can show by doing; skiing, play piano; hippocampus independent; skill learning (basal ganglia, motor cortex, cerebellum; knowing how to ride bike ski); priming (cortex); conditioning (cerebellum), also ventral striatum and amygdala - reward and threat)
2 general categories of memory
Declarative memory; non-declarative memory
Summary of long-term memory
Declarative: episodic -> storage in cortex, first day of day, semantic -> storage in cortex, capital of France; non-declarative (procedural): skill learning -> basal ganglia, motor cortex, cerebellum, how ride bike; priming -> cortex, more likely use word heard recently, classical conditioning -> cerebellum, salivating when see favorite food
If woken up during first two stages, many people
Deny they have been asleep
Runner's high
Depends on cannabinoid receptors in mice; running increases plasma levels of beta-endorphin (an opioid) and anandamide (an endocannabinoid) in mice and humans
Threat-circuitry in depression and anxiety
Depression and anxiety associated with elevated amygdala, BNST, and insula activation; depression hurts emotionally (why insula)
Marijuana
Derived from cannbis sativa plant - main active ingredient in delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol(THC); not been studied that frequently, not enough funding - can't say for sure whether addictive or not; brain contains cannabinoid (CB) receptors that mediate effects of THC, high concentration of these in hypothalamus, prefrontal cortex, emotional regions
Steps from retinal ganglion cells
Detect light with melanopsin and their axons in the tract release glutamate onto neurons in the SCN; the glutamate stimulation leads to increased transcription of the per gene, synchronizing (entraining) the molecule clock of the day-night cycle
Notch gene mutation
Determines number of neurons, cell divisions that happen in prefrontal circuit; what distinguishes humans from non-human mammals - tons of neurons in prefrontal cortex
Right-ear advantage
Dichotic presentation; right-handed people identify verbal stimuli delivered to right ear more accurately than that presented to left ear; right-ear advantage of verbal information; up to 50% of left-handed individuals may show reduced or reverse pattern with no difference between ears or clear left-ear advantage; left hemisphere specialized for language
7 steps
Different neurotrophic factors produced by different target cell groups (tell arriving cells what to become); innervating neurons take up particular neurotrophic factors and transport them to their cell bodies (travel along axon to nucleus - opposite of ap); upon reaching cell body, neurotrophic factors regulate expression of genes, affecting development of neuron; early in development, neurons that manage to gather sufficient amounts of appropriate neurotrophic facto survive, neurons that don't die; because amount of neurotrophic factor matches number of target cells, this process results in rough matching of size of target and number of innervating neurons; later in development, axonal processes also compete for neurotrophic factors, active synapses compete more successfully than inactive synapses; because experience can modulate synaptic activity, different experiences can result in maintenance of different patterns of synaptic connectivity (memories nothing more than neuronal connections)
7 steps for action of neurotrophic factors
Different trophic factors are produced by different target cell groups; innervating neurons take up particular tropic factors and transport them to the cell bodies; upon reaching the cell body, trophic factors regulate the expression of various genes affecting the development of the neuron; early in development, neurons that manage to gather sufficient amounts of appropriate trophic factor survive, those that don't die; because amount of trophic factor matches number of target cells, process results in rough matching of the size of the target and the number of innervating neurons; later in development, axonal processes also compete more successfully than inactive synapses; because experience can modulate synaptic activity, different experiences can result in the maintenance of different patterns of synaptic connectivity
Once get to destination
Differentiate and become specific types of neurons
If cells that have not yet differentiated extensively can be obtained and placed in particular brain regions, they can
Differentiate in an appropriate way and become properly integrated; stem cells
Sleep-maintenance insomnia
Difficulties in staying asleep; neurological and psychiatric factors; sleep punctuated by frequent nighttime arousals
Sleep-onset insomnia
Difficulty in falling asleep; shift work, time zone, changes in daily routine
Anterograde amnesia
Difficulty in forming new memories beginning with the onset of a disorder
Retrograde amnesia
Difficulty in retrieving memories formed before the onset of amnesia; unlikely that longer-term retrograde memory loss has ever occurred - more a few days, hours or even a year
Dyskinesia
Difficulty or distortion in voluntary movement
Steroid hormone action
Diffuse passively in binding to large receptor molecules inside target cells; the steroid-receptor complex then binds to DNA, altering the expression of certain genes - genomic effect; not like ionotropic or metabotropic - diffuse through cell membrane where bind to receptor, receptor then initiates action that modifies gene expression
Gut
Digestion and appetite control
Hamsters on wheels
Dimly lit room - same pattern of activity despite absence of day versus night, internal clock; free running - own personal cycle, a bit more than 24 hours long in absence of external cues
People with hemispatial neglect following right parietal lobe damage
Disregard the left half of the world despite having otherwise normal vision; fail to notice left halves of words they see, resulting in poor reading
Low road in thalamus
Distinct projection from thalamus to amygdala; bypasses conscious processing and allows for immediate emotional reactions to stimuli
Ekman
Distinctive expressions for sad, happy, anger, fear, disgust, surprise, contempt, embarrassment; cross-cultural similarity but also some differences - cultural conditioning to reinforce assessments
Empathy in young kids
Doesn't distinguish between intentional and unintentional harm or between harm to a person and to an object - distinctions emerge with age around time when PAG part of pathetic response lessens and there is more engagement of vmPFC and ToM regions; intentional harm now activates amygdala and insula; more sophisticated age 7 - express their empathy; 10-12 empathy more generalized and abstracted, hints of justice and growing tendency of kids to respond to an injustice when someone treated unfairly; not until 8-10 do kids respond negatively to someone else being treated unfairly; preadolescence - egalitarianism gives way to acceptance of inequality because of merit or effort or for greater good
Dopamine v opioids
Dopamine about anticipation - wanting something, craving; opium - pleasure when consuming that which you want
Damage to pathways connecting to hippocampus also associated with severe anterograde amnesia
Dorsomedial thalamus and mammillary bodies
Two cranial nerves that innervate facial muscles
Facial nerve (VII) - innervates superficial muscles; motor branch of the trigeminal nerve (V) - innervates muscles that move the jaw; cranial nerves governed by motor cortex - disproportionately large area in human brain
Schultz experiment with monkeys
Drop of juice on tongue, huge spike in ventral striatum; learning, reward predictor; eventually dopamine neurons fire to cue and not to juice; same with addiction
Psychotomimetic
Drug that induces a state resembling schizophrenia; auditory hallucinations, disorientation
General anesthetics
Drug that renders an individual unconscious; produce slow waves in EEG that resemble those in SWS
Mullerian ducts
Duct system in the embryo that will develop into female reproductive structures (oviducts, uterus, upper vagina) in absence of AMH
Wolffian ducts
Duct system in the embryo that will develop into male reproductive structures (epididymis, vas deferent, and seminal vesicle) if androgens present
Adolescent risk taking
During risky decision making, they activate prefrontal cortex less than adults do - less activity, poor risk assessment; more novelty seeking as well - when develop stable tastes in music, food, fashion, openness thereafter; ventral tegmentum source of mesolimbic dopamine projection to nucleus accumbens and of mesocortical dopamine projection to frontal cortex - dopamine projection density and signaling steadily increase in both pathways, more anticipatory activation in adolescents than in adults while others show the opposite; activation in nucleus accumbens in adolescents distinctive - experience bigger than expected rewards more positively than do adults
Extrinsic factors
Factors originating outside of the developing cell
Sensitive period 0-5/6
Early life stress problematic - entry point to neuroimmune dysregulation; includes in utero period (mother's behavior, stress has effect)
Electrical stimulation mapping
Early studies; handheld electrode stimulates certain areas of cortex while effects on behavior observed; data from surgery for seizures; only local anesthesia - awake and conscious, perform various cognitive tasks; stimulation anywhere within large anterior zone stopped speech outright; misnaming or impaired repetition of words - stimulation throughout anterior and posterior cortical speech zones; compartmentalization of linguistic systems like naming, reading, speech production, verbal memory; different places where stimulation caused naming errors in english and Spanish in bilingual person; transcranial magnetic stimulation - further problems organization of language areas in healthy volunteers, confirmed general organization of left-hemispheric language networks and revealed new details about compartmentalization of functions within traditional speech areas
Ocum
Egg, the female gamete
Amygdala activity modulates declarative memory
Electrical stimulation of amygdala alters memory; both NE injected into amygdala and epinephrine/cortisol released from adrenal glands during times of distress enhances memory; injecting beta-blockers (propranolol) blocks emotional modulation fo memory, reduces activation of SNS in periphery - attenuate memory; under conditions of chronic stress, memory deteriorates because cortisol targets hippocampus
All recreational drugs
Elevate dopamine transmission (via different mechanisms) in the nucleus accumbens, driving their pleasurable effects; hijacks system
Major Depressive Disorder associated with
Elevated REM activity/density; take longer to get to REM sleep but then spend more time in REM
In humans, elevated testosterone associated with
Elevated dominance (trait-like and state-like - levels rise in winners and fall in losers after competitions ranging from wrestling to chess); sometimes leads to violence but not always
Adolescence characterized by asynchrony between
Elevated negative and positive emotions and an immature prefrontal executive control system
Role of oxytocin in human pair-bonding
Elevated when first have sex, reduce cheating; higher levels more physical affection, more behaviors are synchronized, more long-lasting relationships
Intranasal oxytocin
Elevates empathy, generosity, bonding, and in-group affiliation; elevate out-group distancing
Genes intrinsic factors
Factors that originate within the development of the cell itself
James-Lange theory
Emotions caused by bodily changes; experience fear because perceive activity that dangerous conditions trigger in our body; different emotions feel different because generated by different constellations of physiological responses; no distinctive autonomic pattern for each emotion - why this theory is wrong
3 processes of memory formation
Encoding; consolidation; retrieval
Beginnings of most body organs when
End of 8th week
4 biological functions of sleep
Energy conservation (SWS in particular metabolically conservative, small mammals with high metabolism sleep more); ecological niche adaptation (dangerous at night so sleep); body and brain restoration (growth hormones central to cell reproduction and regeneration secreted in SWS; immune system processes at night; glial cells during SWS); memory consolidation (not storing new information during sleep; but consolidate memories experienced before bed - remember better if learn right before sleep; SWS for consolidation of declarative (factual) memory and REM for perceptual skill learning (visual discrimination tasks))
4 biological functions of sleep
Energy conservation; niche adaptation; body and brain restoration; memory consolidation
How inflammation/cytokines can access brain
Enter at leaky portions of blood brain barrier, ventricular parts of brain, bind to vagus nerve and activate signaling in cortex, recruit cells from periphery and up-regulate them into brain
Monoamine oxidase (MAO)
Enzyme that breaks down monoamine transmitters, thereby inactivating monoamine transmitters; causes transmitters to accumulate in synapses
5-alpha-reductase enzyme
Enzyme that converts testosterone into DHT
Semantic memory
Generalized declarative memory such as knowing the meaning of a word
Simpler visual processing like detection of light, hue, simple patterns performed
Equivalently by the two hemispheres
Nonassociative learning
Even simpler, one stimuli; habituation; slugs and closing gills less and less to water spray
Amygdala modulates
Every other part of brain; monosynaptic path to visual cortex, auditory cortex - what you feel affects what you see, hear, think
THC v cannabidiol
Evidence CB some efficacy in minimizing seizures but unknown if benefits for other processes, really marketing thing; both bind to CB1 receptors but in different ways - THC saturates them, CB1 agonist; CBD can act as antagonist or agonist, but overall much milder effects and can in some cases block CB1 receptor; some evidence less of high if do both CBD and THC - can partially cancel out
Cognitive decline from childhood to midlife as result of persistent cannabis use
Evidence it can be addictive; study followed people over 30, 40 years; gave people IQ tests; measured change scores in performance on these tests - can establish causality; people who have 3 or more diagnoses of marijuana abuse - substantial decrease in cognitive functioning on neuropsychological tasks
Does prenatal testosterone influence sexual orientation in humans?
Evidence that it does
How experience can modulate neurogenesis
Exercise enhances it in hippocampus (increases BDNF); meditation increases hippocampal volume (reduces stress which suppresses it); stress and depression reduces it - neurotoxic effects of cortisol (why hard time remembering facts); learning increases it
Fetal-like development of human brain after birth molded by
Experience and social guidance
2 variables that confound correlations between testosterone and aggression
Experience can affect testosterone levels - like seeing team win or lose; dominance (testosterone levels should be associated with behaviors that confer or protest individual's social status - proactive)
Idea that raising testosterone levels increases aggression at time of challenge - challenge hypothesis
Explains why basal levels of testosterone have little to do with subsequent aggression, and why increases in testosterone due to puberty, sexual stimulation, or start of mating season don't increase aggression either; rise in it after challenge makes aggression more likely; promotes prosociality in right setting - makes us more willing to do what takes to again and maintain status (decreases men's cheating in a game)
Amygdala and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST)
Extended amygdala; amygdala - short-term threat/defense response, fear, punctuated threat and fear, spikes in response to specific stimuli; BNST sustained threat/defense, anxiety, background anxiety
Frontal cortical efficiency diluted with
Extraneous synapses failing to make the grade, sluggish communication due to undermyelination and jumped of uncoordinated subregions
Frontal metabolism
Extremely high metabolic rate - tons of energy; cognitive load
Amygdala provocateurs
Facial expressions, snakes, spiders, weapons; whites of eyes - probably experiencing strong emotions; variability (experience differently)
4 visual pathways
Geniculostriate system; tectopulvinar system; retinohypothalamic pathway; pupillary pathway
Problems with reliance on sleeping pills
Fall far short of being suitable remedy - even newest class of sleeping pills produce little more sleep than placebos, continued use of sleeping pills lose effectiveness, declining ability to induce sleep often leads to increased self-prescribed dosage that can be dangerous; sleeping pills produce marked changes in the pattern of sleep both while the drug is being used and for days afterward; use of sleeping pills may lead to persistent sleep drunkenness coupled with drowsiness, that impairs waking activity or to memory gaps about daily activity
Sum up Katsnelson - the neuroscience of poverty
Farah; hippocampus smaller in SES childhood; lower test scores grades, college attendance; cortical thickness decreases and surface area increases during adolescence - every additional year of parental education associated with increase of cortical surface area, specifically in parts of cortex that deal with language, reading, self-regulation; hippocampal disparity in kids not seen in adults consistently - trajectory starts to fall off for poor kids in toddler years with clear differences by age 3
AMPA receptors
Fast-acting ionotropic receptors that are involved in LTP
Mobilization of energy at cost of energy storage - common pathological consequence of prolonged stress
Fatigue, muscle waning, diabetes
Clitoris
Female phallus
Conduction aphasia: Speech, comprehension, paraphasia, repetition, naming
Fluent; good; common; poor; poor
Fluent aphasia: Speech, comprehension, paraphasia, repetition, naming
Fluent; poor; common; poor; poor
Frontal cortex and cognition
Focusing on task; getting you to do the harder thing; executive function - looking for patterns, choosing strategic action, categorical thinking, organizing information
Sexual differentiation pertains to effect of androgens on___; sexual origination pertains to effect of androgens on____
Genitals; brain
4 interacting neural systems underlying sleep
Forebrain system that generates SWS; brainstem system that activates the sleeping forebrain into wakefulness; pontine system that triggers REM sleep; hypothalamic system that coordinates the other three bran regions to determine which state we're in
Neural tube
Forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain; diencephalon, telencephalon; correspond to specific anatomical formations
Presynaptic and postsynaptic neurons that repeatedly activate together
Form a stronger and more stable synaptic connection
Day 18 of embryo
Formation of a few layers - ectoderm, mesoderm, endoderm; ectoderm forms groove at 20 days to form neural tube
Humans when deprived of light cues
Free-run like hamsters
Alcohol targets what
GABA
What is not affected by ketamine?
GABA
SRY gene
Gene on Y chromosome that directs developing gonads to become testes; sex-determining region on the Y chromosome
Affect
General term encompassing emotion, feeling, and mood; stems from word evaluation
Sum up first Sapolsky reading
Goes into hormones, testosterone, stress
Basal ganglia
Group of forebrain nuclei including caudate nucleus, globes pallid us, and putamen found deep within cerebral hemispheres; crucial for skill learning; all three skill learning impaired in people with damage here
Postnatal increase in human brain weight due to
Growth in the size of neurons, branching of dendrites, elaboration of synapses, increase in myelin, and addition of glial cells
H.M.
Had debilitating seizures - basically destroy whole temporal lobe and extended hippocampus; could not form any new declarative memory (anterograde amnesia); but could still learn tasks
KE family in England
Half of members severe language disorder; take long time to learn to speak and difficult with particular language tasks like learning verb tenses; FOXP2 gene - important for normal acquisition of human language, all have mutation of this gene; stuttering; williams syndrome
Psychosis
Hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thought and speech, bizarre behaviors
Ecstasy (MDMA)
Hallucinogenic amphetamine derivative; stimulates visual cortical serotonin (5-HT2A) receptors; also changes levels of dopamine and hormone prolactin explaining sensory component of drug; prolactin related to tactile stimulation and familial love; makes you want to be close to and touch people
Alcohol
Has biphasic effects - initial stimulant phase involving stimulation of dopamine pathways (euphoria, pleasure), more prolonged depressant phase involving increase in GABAergic activity (social disinhibition, motor control, attentional myopia)
Early in adolescence, frontal cortex neurons
Has fewer of them, dendritic branches, and synapses than in adulthood; levels increase into mid-20s; programmed cell death; competitive pruning - greater volume of gray matter at beginning of adolescence, more synapses than in adults - thickness declines as less optimistic processes and connections pruned away ; frontal cortical maturation about more efficient brain and not more brain
Individuals with depression and cortisol
Have higher levels of it
Effects on EC animals
Heavier, thicker cortex especially in somatosensory and visual cortex areas; enhanced cholinergic activity throughout the cortex; more dendritic branches on cortical neurons and many more dendritic spines on those branches; larger cortical synapses consistent with storage of long-term memory in cortical areas through changes in synapses and circuits; more neurons in hippocampus because newly generated neurons live longer; show enhanced recovery from brain damage
Animals in enriched environment have
Heavier, thicker cortex; more dendritic branches/spines; larger cortical synapses; enhanced neurogenesis in hippocampus; enhanced recovery from brain damage
Ventral striatum adolescents v adults
Helps regulate emotions in adolescents but not adults
Extinction of conditioned fear response
High vmPFC correlates with successful extinction to the conditioned stimulus; unlearning a fear is driven by top-down suppression of amygdala by vmPFC; without input from cortex, amygdala never unlearn anything
Opiates
Highly addictive substances generated from poppy flower; morphine, the psychoactive substance in opium, is effective analgesic; heroin, oxytocin, Vicodin derivatives of morphine; opioid receptors in the periaqueductal gray central to analgesic effect (saturated in opioid receptors, where drugs target)
All forms of addiction due what
Hijack the mesolimbocortical dopamine reward circuit; down regulation of D2 dopamine receptors in the nucleus accumbens drives excessive 'wanting' and craving - neuroadaptive responses, don't necessarily enjoy the substance anymore, but still crave it, stuck in hedonic treadmill, need more and more of substance have same effect, brain so out of whack, need drug just to feel normal
Memory impairment correlates with
Hippocampal shrinkage during aging; PET scans of elderly people - cerebral metabolism norm remains almost constant as we age, contrast to dramatic decline of cerebral metabolism in Alzheimer's disease
Hippocampal function creates two interlocking c-shaped structures
Hippocampus; dentate gyrus
Paraphasia
Less severe; symptom of aphasia that is distinguished by the substitution of a word by a sound, an incorrect word, an unintended word, or a neologism (meaningless word); 1/4 of people with stroke exhibit this
Internal clock normally reset by
Light
People who feel energetic in the morning
Likely to carry different version of Clock gene than night owls have; human night owls greater risk for depression and obesity because forced to adapt natural sleep rhythm to fit into early-bird society; at puberty, most people shift circadian rhythm to get up later in the day - but go to school very early
Some rat hippocampal neurons act like grid cells
Likened to latitude and longitude in maze which have been recorded in people too
Brain regions and psychopathy
Limited fear conditioning in the amygdala - low fear hypothesis; low insula activation
Hypothalamus summary
Links NS to endocrine system; regulates body temperature, hunger, thirst, sleep, drives; regulates stress response; regulates autonomic NS; peripheral states that go with emotions; important in panic disorder
SM
Literally fearless; loss of the amygdala; disorder causes accumulation of calcium deposits in amygdala, starting in late childhood, which eventually destroys nuclei in both hemispheres; poor at recognizing facial expressions of fear in other people but recognize other emotional expressions
Zeitgeber
Literally time giver; the stimulus (usually light-dark cycle) that entrains circadian rhythm
Words repeating or reading aloud, activation in broca's area?
Little
Destruction of hippocampus and rest of medial temporal lobe - effect on conditioned eye blink response
Little effect; cerebellar circuit necessary for eye blink conditioning
Hormones in fetal ovaries v fetal testes
Little hormone; several hormones (if not exposed to testicular hormones, female characteristics)
Is there evidence that variation in prenatal androgen can account for gay v straight men?
Little; some suggest that gay men were exposed to less prenatal testosterone and others suggest exposed to more; more older brothers boy has, morel more likely grow up gay
Generator potentials
Local change in resting potential of receptor cell in response to stimuli; resemble EPSPs, one local change substantial enough, initiate action potential from that sensory neuron; difference is that in standard EPSPs and IPSPs is neurotransmission from another neuron, here input is stimuli from environment; if it exceeds firing threshold, action potentials are generated that travel via sensory nerves
Neurocognitive impairment
Memory problems, poor attention span, reduced decision-making capacity, poor spatial cognition, abnormal movement patterns
Key differences between men and women
Men 1 pattern, women 3; most men have absolute refractory phase but not women; brain circuitry similar but different networks active during sexual activity prior to orgasm; sex drive greater in men; emotional components and cognitive factors greater role in women; women more flexible sexually, more emphasis on intimacy
DTI
Modified form of MRI in which the diffusion of water in a confined space is exploited to produce images of axonal fiber tracts
Dihydrotestosterone (DHT)
Metabolist of testosterone; potent androgen that is principally responsible for the masculinization of the external genitalia in mammals; promoted by 5-alpha-reductase enzyme
Deep brain stimulation (DBS)
Mild electrical stimulation through an electrode that is surgically implanted deep in the brain; pacemaker that periodically applies mild electrical stimulate to the vagus nerve; where drugs or ECT ineffective
THC
Mimics anandamide, binding to cannabinoid type 1 receptors (CB1)
Fully awake, alert person
Mix of low-amplitude waves with many relatively fast frequency; desynchronized EEG (beta activity)
Some view aphasia primarily as disorder of
Motor control
Repeating words orally activates
Motor cortex of both sides, along with motor cortex and some of cerebellum
Sexual orientation
Much more complicated than sexual differentiation - brain not binary organ, continuous with normal curve; sexual orientation independent of sexual differentiation - not binary; androgen exposure on brain tissue much more complex than exposure on genitalia
Females with CAH
Much more likely to be described as tomboys; in adulthood, many describe themselves as straight but more likely than other women to report being lesbians
Amphetamine and methamphetamine
Multiple mechanisms of action on monoamines (especially dopamine); work first in axon terminals, causing larger-than-normal release of neurotransmitter as well as release in absence of action potential; then interference with reuptake and degradation of monoamine neurotransmitters in synaptic cleft; tolerance develops quickly leading to rapid increase in dosage to obtain same effects; leads to symptoms resembling paranoid schizophrenia (common side effect is psychosis)
Huntington's disease
Mutation; subcortical regions that coordinate signaling to muscles are destroyed and sufferer progressively incapacitated by involuntary writhing movements; behavior disinhibition
Second-generation antidepressants
NE and dopamine reuptake inhibitors (NDRIs), SNRis, noradenergic and speciifc serotonergic antidepressants (NaSSAs); serotonin antagonist and reuptake inhibitors (SARIs), opioid receptor modulators, ketamine
NT v hormones
NT directly affect neurons on other side of synapses, hormones affect each cell in body; NT local change in flow of ions across membrane of that dendritic spine; hormone change activity of particular proteins, more specific; NT milliseconds, hormones hours to days
Disorders of excessive drowsiness
Narcolepsy; drowsiness associated with psychiatric problems; drug-related drowsiness; drowsiness associated with sleep-induced respiratory impairment (sleep apnea)
Pontine system
Near locus coeruleus is a region that sends widespread projections to promote REM, axons projecting to the spinal cord profoundly inhibit motor neurons so that they cannot fire, causing deep muscle relaxation (atonia)
Microbial diversity
Need to have it; why impoverished people have impoverished gut diversity (not diverse diet)
Similar events in cerebellum, brainstem, visual cortex, autonomic NS
Net loss of synapse from late childhood until midadolescence in human cerebral cortex; thinning of cortical gray matter as pruning of dendrites and axon terminals progresses
Hypothalamus
Neural region central to homeostasis that links NS to endocrine system; peripheral emotional experience too
Neuroendocrinology
Neural regulation of hormonal system
Order of events
Neurogenesis, cell migration, cell differentiation, synaptogenesis, cell death, synapse rearrangement
6 stages of the development of the nervous system
Neurogenesis; cell migration; cell differentiation; neuronal cell death; synapses rearrangement
Place cells
Neuron in the hippocampus that selectively fires when the animal is in particular location; if moved to new location, place cell activity indicates that hippocampus remaps to new locations
Invertebrate nervous system
Neurons arranged identically in different individuals - possible construct detailed neural circuit diagrams for particular behaviors and study same few identified neurons in multiple individuals
Neuroendocrine cell
Neurons that releases hormones into local or peripheral circulation (bloodstream)
Norepinephrine
Neurotransmitter produced and related by sympathetic postganglionic neurons to accelerate organ activity
2 common disorders in children
Night terrors; sleep enuresis; associated with SWS
Do different levels of testosterone predict who will be aggressive?
No
Does increasing testosterone raise baseline activity in the amygdala?
No
Is REM deep sleep?
No
Is there a lot of myelin at birth?
No
Is increased testosterone reliably associated with increased aggression in humans?
No - aggression not socially acceptable in humans so don't have lots of opportunities to be aggressive
People with only lateral temporal cortex removed
No memory impairment; improvement over days of practice on mirror-tracing task
Do neurons divide?
No, but cells that give rise to neurons begin as single layer of cells along inner surface of neural tube
Are all hormones regulated in pituitary gland manner? Are they cheap?
No; yes
Nonfluent aphasia: Speech, comprehension, paraphasia, repetition, naming
Nonfluent; good; uncommon; poor; poor
Global aphasia: Speech, comprehension, paraphasia, repetition, naming
Nonfluent; poor; variable; poor; poor
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS)
Noninvasive treatment in which repeated pulses of focused magnetic energy are used to stimulate the cortex through the scalp
6 steps for LTP
Normally, NMDA channel blocked by Mg2+ and only AMPA channel functions in exciting the neurons; with repeated activation of AMPA receptors, depolarization of neuron drives Mg2+ out of NMDA channel allowing Ca2+ ions in (Ca2+ increase voltage of cell; influx of Ca2+ what doing it); rapid entry of Ca2+ ions triggers second-messenger systems that lead to LTP, increasing the effectiveness of existing AMPA receptors and moving more into the membrane (presynaptic membrane grows more AMPA receptors); retrograde transmitters like nitric oxide reach the presynaptic terminal to enhance neurotransmitter release (further release of glutamate; when have tetanus and cell fires more, causes NMDA receptors to pop Mg2+ out, Ca2+ comes in and modulates gene expression pathways in nucleus to increase AMPA receptors in membrane and facilitate release of nitric oxide; nitric oxide released in postsynaptic membrane, goes back to presynaptic to facilitate release of more glutamate); these changes make the synapse more responsive; the postsynaptic cell now has a stronger response, as more transmitter is released and more AMPA receptors are present
Steps for long-term potentiation
Normally, NMDA channel is blocked by Mg2+ molecule and only the AMPA channel functions in exciting the neuron; with repeated activation of AMPA channel functions in receptors, depolarization of the neuron drives Mg2+ out of the NMDA channel, allowing Ca2+ in; the rapid entry of Ca2+ ions triggers second-messenger systems that lead to LTP, increasing effectiveness of existing AMPA receptors and moving more into the membrane; retrograde transmitter perhaps NO, reach presynaptic terminal to enhance NT release; these changes make the synapse more responsive; the postsynaptic cell now has a stronger response, as more NT is related and more AMPA receptors are present
Experiment - negative photos v positive ones
Not depressed: PFC increase, amygdala decreases, depressed: PFC increases, amygdala increases; orbital PFC and ventral striatum, not depressed (PFC up, striatum up), depressed (PFC up, ventral striatum down, dampen positive emotions, down regulate it)
Immanuel Kant
Noumenal (beyond our perception) v phenomenal world; our perception is constrained by the fact that we are only seeing the universe throughout the apparatus of our body
Cell death
Now post-natal; apoptosis
Dimorphism with POA
Nucleus in POA larger volume in males than in females; SDN-POA
Symptoms of OCD
Obsessions (thoughts): dirt/germs/environmental toxins, something terrible happening, symmetry/order/exactness, religious obsessions, body wastes or secretions, luck or unlucky numbers, forbidden/aggressive or pervasive sexual thoughts/images/impulses, fear of harming self or others, household items, intrusive nonsense sounds/words/music; compulsion (acts): performing excessive or ritualized hand washing/showering/bathing/tooth brushing/grooming, repeating rituals, checking, engaging in miscellaneous rituals, decontaminating, touching, counting, ordering or arranging, preventing harm to self or others, hoarding or collection, cleaning household or inanimate objects
What happens when in state of depression
Often proinflammatory things like drinking, drugs, food - positive feedback loop
Paternal age
Older fathers, greater risk of developing it - more cell division, more likely mutations
Frontal cortical changes in emotional regulation
Older teens experience emotions more intensely than kids and adults - more reactive to faces expressing strong emotions, reappraisal
Brains rely on two different languages systems during reading
One focused on sounds of letters; meanings of whole words; disconnection between these systems in dyslexia impairing coordination of sounds with their meanings; presumably system shaped by training - brains mold themselves to accommodate our acquired expertise with written language, and lifelong avoidance of reading may be responsible for some of sensory and word meaning problems evident in adults with dyslexia; may be why remedial training in people with dyslexia induces measurable changes in left hemisphere systems used for reading
Mammillary bodies
One of a pair of limbic system structures that are connected to the hippomcapus
What is inflammation?
One of first responses of immune system to irritation or infection; stimulated by chemical factors (cytokines) to facilitate tissue repair and clearance of pathogens; chronic leads to inflammatory related health problems
Dimer
Pair of proteins attached to each other
Extended hippocampus
Parahippocampal, perirhinal, entorhinal; relay stations - transmit information to hippocampus
Hemiplegia
Paralysis of one side of the body; brain injuries that cause broca's aphasia also cause this; usually right side (controlled by left hemisphere)
Circadian rhythms
Pattern of behavioral, biochemical or physiological fluctuation that has a 24-hour period (e.g. hormone levels, body temperature, drug sensitivity); most common rhythms
Circadian rhythm
Pattern of behavioral, biochemical, or physiological fluctuation that has a 14-hour period; last about a day
Capgras delusion
People believe significant others replaced by impostors; brain damage to low road connection between visual stimuli and emotions would normally elicit
Social aspects of AIS
People with AIS raised as girls because XY genotype not discovered until puberty; women tend to be very feminine, including being sexually attracted to men, and often seek family through adoption; feminine because social tutoring or because could not respond to testosterone?
2 main mechanisms of hormone action
Peptide hormone action; steroid hormone action
Peptide hormone action
Peptide hormone receptors embedded in the cell membrane bind to the hormone, activating a second-messenger system that affects various processes inside the target cell; like metabotropic and NT; second-messenger molecules then go into nucleus of cell and alter cell function
Anti-mullerian hormone (AMH)
Peptide hormone secreted by the fetal testes that inhibits mullerian duct development
3 major classes of hormones
Peptide hormones; amine hormones; steroid hormones
Auditory areas of right hemisphere play major role in
Perception of music; perfect pitch relies on left hemisphere mechanisms perhaps owing to its verbal aspects
A primary target for opioids in the brain
Periaqueductal gray
Sensitive period
Period during development in which organism can be permanently altered by particular experience or treatment; steroid organization effect only during this period
Organizational effect
Permanent activation of the NS and thus permanent change in behavior resulting from action of steroid hormone on one animal early in its development
Fear conditioning in PTSD
Persistent and involves amygdala and brainstem pathways part of circuit of response behaviors; persistence of memory and fear in PTSD may depend on failure of mechanisms to forget
Memory trace
Persistent change in the brain that reflects the storage of a memory; becomes progressively less dependent on hippocampus
Generalized anxiety disorder
Persistent, excessive anxiety and worry experienced for months; strong genetic contributions
Fraternal birth order effect
Phenomenon in human populations such that the more older biological brothers a boy has, the more likely he is to grow up to be gay; theory - immune system of mother carrying son exposed to first time to proteins from Y chromosome so may produce antibodies that affect development of subsequent sons
Most vertebrates - photoreceptors and light for SCN
Photoreceptors outside the eye that are part of the mechanism of light entrainment; pineal gland in some birds sensitive to light - entrain circadian rhythms, primitive third eye on back of head (skull over pineal gland thin in some species), melatonin secreted by pineal gland at night, signaling day length to the brain
Cannon and Bard
Physiological reactions slow; brain's job to decide which particular emotion is an appropriate response to stimuli; cerebral cortex stimulation decides on appropriate emotional experience and activates autonomic nervous system to appropriately prepare body
Hippocampal and spatial memory
Place, glial cells; london taxi cab drivers larger hippocampus over time; when use and learn new things, grow new cells in hippocampus and increase dendritic branching, increase axonal sprouting, glial cell functioning - neuroplasticity
Medial amygdala
Portion of the amygdala that receives olfactory and pheromonal information
Medial amygdala
Portion of the amygdala that receives olfactory and pheromonal information; distinguishes between male rivals attacked and female courted in male rates
Effects of sustained stress
Positive feedback loop - amygdala indirectly activates glucocorticoid stress response which enhances amygdala excitability; decreases accuracy, working memory disrupted, decreased frontal function and increased amygdaloid function during stress alter risk-taking behavior; gender differences - moderate stressors bias men toward and women away from risk taking
Passive viewing of words activated
Posterior area within left hemisphere
Order of events with anterior v posterior
Posterior: immediate dump of contents into circulation system, anterior involves multiple stages; anterior: hypothalamus -> releasing hormone (hypothalamic pituitary portal veins) -> pituitary gland -> tropic hormone (general circulation) -> target endocrine gland -> target hormone
Treatment for insomnia without pills
Practice good sleep hygiene; develop regular routine to exploit body's circadian clock - use alarm clock to wake up faithfully at same time each day including weekends and then go to bed once feel sleepy, avoid daytime naps and having caffeine at night, avoiding use of devices before bedtime, melanopsin sensitive to blue light
Subregions of frontal cortex
Prefrontal cortex (PFC) - decider, chooses between conflicting options, once decided sends orders to rest of frontal cortex then talk to premotor cortex then to motor cortex then to muscles then behavior happens
Neuron formation, migration, synaptogenesis is mostly___in humans
Prenatal
Prenatal factors
Prenatal stress like infections during pregnancy; incompatible blood types or mother becomes diabetic during pregnancy; birth complications that deprive baby of oxygen; results from complex interaction of genetic factors and environmental stress
2 different hypothalamic sites that control 2 different thermoregulatory systems
Preoptic area (POA): cold, shivering, physiological but not behaviors; lateral hypothalamus - behavioral regulation of temperature but not affect physiological responses
How LTP can affect whether new synapses are formed or old synapses retracted
Presynaptic neurons that fire out of synch with other inputs are not likely to depolarize the postsynaptic neurons enough to activate NMDA receptors; eventually will be retracted - leads to forgetting, details fuzzier
Cognitive impairment
Problems with processing and acting on external information
Learning, memory
Process of acquiring new information; ability to store, consolidate, retrieve that information
Right hemisphere does what
Processes spatial stimuli; geometric shapes, direction sense and navigation, face processing, 3D rotation imagined in mind's eye; damage to right hemisphere can produce impairments of spatial cognition
Dissociative drugs like PCP and Ketamine
Produce feelings of depersonalization and detachment from reality; both NMDA-type glutamate receptor antagonists; ketamine being used fore treatment of resistant depression - horse tranquilizer, used as analgesic in hospitals, but milder doses appearing to be powerful drug for treating people with depression; ketamine first targets glutamate, which then increases dopamine (give substance that modulates glutamate - these neurons are regulators of dopamine, by blocking gluatminergic neurons in cortex, altering signaling of dopamine in sub cortex; very immediate effect (within a few hours), but SSRIs 4-6 weeks
Sex steroids in women
Progestins (e.g. progesterone) and estrogens (estradiol) and gametes are ova (eggs); produced in ovaries
Suppression of growth - common pathological consequence of prolonged stress
Psychogenetic dwarfism, bone decalcification
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
Psychotherapy aimed at correcting negative thinking and conciously changing behaviors as a way of changing feelings; rate of relapse lower than SSRI; together more effective
Secretion of cortisol similar effects to activation of SNS
Pupil dilation, elevated heart rate, immune system suppression; prepares body for defense; more sustained than SNS but slower
Pupillary pathway
Pupillary light reflex; retina -> Edinger-Westphal nucleus
Maneuver circadian rhythm with light stimuli
Put rodent in dim light constant room (same light all of the time), slowly shift but each day a bit later
Guevedoces and social
Raised as girls but grow penis and behave like males as adults; competing explanations: prenatal testosterone may masculinize their brains, brains lead them to seek out females for mates, social influences growing up unimportant; early hormones have no effect - local culture teaches children that some start as girls and change to boys later
2 ways for intensity
Range fractionation (specialized cells sensitive to varying levels of intensity - as strength of stimulus increases, additional sensory neurons recruited; multiple neurons can act in parallel - as the stimulus strengthens, more neurons are recruited; light touch, low threshold neurons activated; hard touch, higher threshold neurons activated); a single neuron can convey stimulus intensity by changing the frequency of its action potentials
2 classes of sleep
Rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep; non-REM (sleep)
Child's brain and language
Rapidly acquires phonemes, vocab, grammar of local language without formal instruction; babbling all known phonemes of all human languages but soon use only those heard in use around them; 7 months old - sense of grammar and react to exceptions
Insula - role, what implicated in
Re-representation of interception (brain-body bridge); bladder distension and orgasm, cigarette craving and maternal love, decision making, attention and pain perception; threat-related decision making - heightened activation of insula, more impulse, risk averse in economic decision making; olfactory and moral disgust; immoral behavior if damage to it
ERPs - time base for language processing
Read a sentence in which there is word that is grammatically correct but doesn't fit because of meaning - 400 milliseconds after the participant reads the word, enhancement of ERP component N400 detectable, specific to word meanings and originate in temporoparietal cortex including wernickie's area; words that are inappropriate because of grammar rather than meaning elicit positive potential about 600 milliseconds after encountered
Innate fear v learned fear
Really prepared learning - learning to be afraid of snakes more readily than pandas; dichotomy between two fuzzy
Body and brain restoration
Rebuilding or restoration of materials used during waking like proteins - growth hormone mostly during slow wave sleep; prolonged deprivation interferes with immune system, more sensitive to pain; glial cells control flow of CSF, faster flow during sleep, flushing brain waste
Injury to parietal lobe
Related partly to large expanse of lobe to diversity of behavioral changes; anterior end - post central gyrus, primary for receiving somatic sensation (alterations in touch sensitivity on opposite side of body, impairments in sensory processing)
How basic mammalian thermoregulatory system works
Receptors in skin, body core, and hypothalamus detect temperature and transit that information to three neural regions (spinal cord, brainstem, hypothalamus); if body temperature outside set zone, each of these regions can initiate physiological and behavioral response to return to set zone
Phenylketonuria (PLU)
Recessive hereditary disorder of protein metabolism that at one time resulted in many people with intellectual disability; 1 in 100 persons is a carrier, defect is absence of enzyme necessary to metabolize phenylalanine, an amino acid present in many foods; measured in kids a few days after birth; early detection important - brain impairment can be prevented by reducing phenylalanine in diet
Panic disorder
Recurrent transient attacks of intense fearfulness; some temporal lobe abnormalities especially in left hemisphere
Impaired motivation negative symptoms
Reduced conversation (alogia), diminished ability to begin or sustain activities, social withdrawal
Changes to brain following quitting chronic alcohol abuse
Reduction of cortical volume - can get it back over time; lateral ventricles decrease (neurogenesis in hippocampus not cortex; but as cortex grows, lateral ventricles decrease; arborizing brain - not new trees but trees getting bigger and broader branches)
Infraradian rhythms
Refer to a rhythmic biological event with a period longer than a day (menstrual cycle, animal breeding behavior)
Ultraradian rhythms
Refer to a rhythmic biological event with a period shorter than a day, usually from several minutes to several hours; bouts of activity, feeding, hormone release
Ultradian
Referring to a rhyme biological event with a period shorter than a day, usually from several minutes to several hours long; repeat more than once per day; activity, feeding, hormone release
Free-running
Referring to a rhythm of behavior shown by an animal deprived of external cues about time of day
Infradian
Referring to a rhythmic biological event with a period longer than a day; repeat less than once per day; menstrual cycle, breeding season, behavioral disorders like depression
Intersex
Referring to individuals with atypical genital development and sexual differentiation, whose genitalia are generally intermediate in form between typical male and typical female genitalia
Parabiotic
Refers to a surgical preparation that joins two animals to share a single blood supply; two female rats (one pregnant, one virgin) - other one at end shows maternal behavior
Hypothalamic system
Region in the hypothalamus, including neurons that use orexin as a NT, sends axons to the other three sleep centers and seems to coordinate them, encoding the patterns of sleep; loss of orexin can lead to disorganized sleep such as REM-like muscle atonia while still awake (narcolepsy)
Ventricular zone
Region lining cerebral ventricles providing neurons early in development and glial cells throughout life; where developmental neurogenesis occurs ; layer of cells around tube, cells populating out of tube and going along spokes to populate brain
Biological rhythms
Regular fluctuations in any living process
Amygdala and nuclei in hypothalamus and brainstem
Regulates physiological symptoms; highly activated emotional state - body needs to prepare; amygdala not enough on its own for emotion; HR, GSR (sweating), BR, pupils open, panting, respiratory distress, increased vigilance, freezing (primary response of amygdala - figure out what to do then act), each mediated by specific nuclei in hypothalamus and brainstem
Brainstem system
Reticular formation projects axons to the brain, activating it to promote wakefulness
Reconsolidation
Return of a memory trace to stable long-term storage after it has been temporarily made changeable during process of recall; every time have memory, that memory is reconsolidated or recreated; not adaptive if memories fixed - need to have updated memories
High road in thalamus
Routes incoming information through sensory cortex, allowing for processing that, while slower, is conscious, fine-grained and integrated with higher-level cognitive processes
Reappraisal
Réponses to strong emotional stimuli are regulated by thinning about them differently; get better during adolescence with logical neurobiological underpinnings; engaged ventral striatum - more activation predicts less amygdaloid activation and better emotional regulation
Primary pathway by which brain affects body is and how
SNS; hyper activation of SNS primary driver of stress-related illnesses; SNS synapses NE onto white blood cells in bone marrow which increases inflammation (good at fighting bacteria, bad at fighting viruses - why subject to colds); also secrets NE onto stem cells, affecting differentiation into inflammatory pathway instead of lymphocyte pathway (t cells)
Tectopulvinar system
Saccades, attentional orienting; retina -> superior colliculus (of the tectum) -> pulvinar (of the thalamus) -> other visual cortical areas
Set point
The point of reference in a feedback system
Manic phase similar to what
Schizophrenia delusions; self-aggrandizing ideas and extreme talkativeness
Anterior pituitary gland
Secretes six tropic hormones; neuroendocrine cell bodies in hypothalamus produce releasing hormones; releasing hormones traverse hypothalamic-pituitary portal system to control pituitary's release of tropic hormones; cells in anterior pituitary respond to releasing hormones by releasing/inhibiting release of their own hormones, known as tropic hormones; tropic hormones travel through bloodstream to regulate endocrine glands throughout the body (prolactin, FSH and LH, thryoid-stimulating, ACTH, growth hormone); tropic released into general circulation, come to glands in periphery, connect to receptors on them, which then stimulates release of hormones we care about
Languages that sound very different
Seem to activate much of same brain regions in native speakers
Hypothalamus
Sense and controls body temperature
4 stages of childhood development
Sensorimotor stage (birth-24 months; thought concerns only what child can directly sense and explore; around 8 months object permanence - understand it still exists even if cannot see it, can generate mental image of something no longer there); preoperational (2-7; can maintain ideas about how world works without explicitly experiencing it in front of them; thoughts increasingly symbolic; imaginary play; reasoning intuitive - no logic, cause and effect; can't yet demonstrate conservation of volume); concrete operational stage (7-12; think logical; but abstract thinking iffy); formal operational stage (adolescence onward; abstraction, reasoning, metacognition)
3 stages of memory
Sensory buffers; short-term memories (STMs); long-term memories (LTMs)
Pacinian corpuscle
Sensory cells in skin particularly sensitive to vibration, stretching (of neural membrane that opens ion channels and permitting entry of Na+); Na+ starts to enter cell and then same steps
4 inputs into amygdala
Sensory inputs (specifically BLA gets projections from all sensory systems; amygdala can be informed about something scary before cortex has clue - high road v low road; shortcut projections form stronger, more excitable synapses in BLA than do ones from sensory cortex; tradeoff - faster but less accurate); information about pain (mediated by projections from periaqueductal gray - stimulation of it can evoke panic attacks, enlarged in people with chronic panic attacks; unpredictable pain not just pain that activate amygdala); disgust (from insular cortex, also morally disgusting); tons of inputs from frontal cortex
Gut to body - when SNS activated
Separation of cells in digestive tract; leaky gut syndrome (develops under chronic stress) - some of bacteria in digestive tract can pass into vascular system of body; now have endotoxin
The only input our brain receives from the real world is
Series of action potentials passed along neurons of sensory pathways; how nerves turn energy (light, touch) into nerve impulses (sensory transduction) is understood; the pathways those nerve impulses take to reach the brain are known; less is known about how we generate an experienced perception from these nerve impulses - experiences integrated sense of seeing things in unified way, every part of sensory experience broken into different, separate pathways but somehow comes together in unified field, hard problem in consciousness
Bucharest orphan study
Serious social isolation, no attention, love, cognitive input; normative - negative coupling between PFC and amygdala as get older (positive when childhood); except for these kids happened early on - learned distress signals can be maladaptive, so growing connections at faster rate; higher rates depression, anxiety, panic
Amnesia
Severe impairment of memory
Sleep apnea
Sleep disorder in which respiration slows or stops periodically, waking the patient; excessive daytime sleepiness results from the frequent nocturnal awakening; progressive relaxation of muscles of chest, diaphragm, and throat cavity (self-choking, constricts airway) or changes in pacemaker neurons of brainstem; common in obese people but often undiagnosed; loud interrupted snoring
Concordance
Sharing of a characteristic by both individuals of a pair of twins
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS); conditioned stimulus + (CS+); conditioned stimulus - (CS-)
Shock or loud noise; bell or tone predictive of it; predictive of safety; fear conditioning
Tonic receptors
Show slow or no decline in action potential frequency to a maintained stimulus; pain receptors - don't habituate, need to change, hurt
Interior cingulate cortex and psychopathy
Similar to amygdala, fire alarm in brain, tells you when something dissonant in environment; very little activation of this - more likely return to prison faster than others
Development of brain: within 12 hours of fertilization, 18 days, 20 days, 22 days, 25 days
Single cell begins dividing (three cell layers within a week); endotherm, mesoderm, ectoderm (thickening of this leads to development of neural plate); neural groove begins to develop; groove closed to form neural tube; forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain discernible
Organizational hypothesis
Single steroid signal (androgen) diffuses through tissues, masculinizing the body, the brain, and behavior; NS from this view just type of tissue listening for androgenic signal - if NS does not detect it , develop as female; full masculine behavior requires androgens both during development (to organize NS to enable later behavior) and in adulthood (activate that behavior)
Sum up Rudoy - strengthening individual memories by reactivating them during sleep
Sleep promotes memory storage; experiment - taught people associate each of 50 objects with location on computer screen, then took nap, played white noise, during REM sounds of 25 objects played and white noise lowered, after waking viewed again and tried position them, more accurate for objects cued by sounds, forgetting between final stage of learning and posting test; EEG less forgetting accuracy was superior post nap compared with recap, more-forgetting accuracy was superior prenap compared with post nap; degree of recall improvement influenced by sound-induced memory processing during sleep as indexed by brain potentials; information presented during sleep can influence subsequent retrieval during waking
Non-REM sleep
Sleep, divided into stages 1-3, that is defined by the presence of distinctive EEG activity that differs from that seen in REM sleep
Dysfunctions associated with sleep, sleep stages, or partial arousal
Sleepwalking, sleep neurosis, night terror, nightmares, sleep-relative seizures, teeth grinding, REM behavior disorder (RBD)
Somnambulism
Sleepwalking; sometimes persists into adulthoods; few seconds to minutes - usually does not remember; during stage 3 - more common in first half of night; sexsomnia - no memory during non-REM early on in night
Non-REM: autonomic activities (heart rate, respiration, brain temperature, cerebral blood flow); skeletal muscular system (postural tension, knee-jerk reflex, twitches, eye movements); cognitive state (dream state); hormone secretion (GH secretion); neural firing rates (cerebral cortex activity)
Slow decline; slow decline; decreased; reduced; progressively reduced; normal; reduced; infrequent, slow, uncoordinated; vague thoughts; high in SWS; many cells reduced
Second messengers
Slow-acting substance in a target cell that amplifies the effects of synaptic or hormonal activity and regulates activity within the target cell
Delta wave
Slowest type of EEG wave, about 1/sec, character of stage 3 sleep
Midbrian
Small area; substantial nigra, tegmental area (midbrain dopamine); superior and inferior colliculi (sensation, perception)
Morpheme
Smallest grammatical unit of a language; a word or meaningful part of a word; assembled into words which have meaning; words assembled into sentences or phrases according to language's syntax (grammatical rules)
2 kinds of development influences on sexual orientation
Sociocultural influences teach kids how they should behave when grow up; but differences in fetal exposure to testosterone could also organize developing brains to be attracted to girls or boys in adulthood; most straight people - no way distinguish between these two influences because favor same outmode
George Berkeley
Solipsism: to be is to perceive; state of nihilism - there is not true existence, it is only perception, world fabrication of mind rather than something perceiving
Primary somatosensory cortex involves
Somatotopic map that is a spatially organized neural representation of the body
Can CBT help bipolar disorder?
Some forms
Genetic tendency to sleep very little
Some people sleep only a few hours per night and healthy
Why do more females than males suffer from depression?
Some say about reporting, others say difference in endocrine physiology - female reproductive cycle appearance of clinical depression
Two experimental approaches to understanding organization of language in the brain
Some stimulate discrete regions of cortex and measure associated changes in language function; others participants are asked to engage in specific verbal behaviors while researchers measure associated changes in brain activity using functional brain imaging
Connectionist model of aphasia
Speaking a heard word; speaking a written word; aka the Wernickie-Gerschwind model; a theory proposing that left-hemisphere language deficits result from disconnection between the brain regions in a language network, each of which serves a particular linguistic function
Retintotopic map
Specific rods and cones in eyes map onto specific cells in brain
Radial glial cells
Spokes out of ventricular zone to edges of brain; progenitor cells sliding along them until get to final destination
Long-term potentiation (LTP)
Stable and enduring increase in the effectiveness of synapses following repeated string stimulation; cellular mechanism of memory; after brief tetanus (brief explosion of neuronal firing, lots of EPSPs), EPSP respond increases and remains high ; occurs in hippocampus and other brain regions (where memory happens, where have LTP)
Summary of typical night's sleep
Stage 1 (alpha rhythms; brain waves decreasing, space in peaks between waves, 12 cycles per second); stage 2 (starting fall asleep; sleep spindles/K-complexes - products of activity in thalamus being emitted); stage 3 (SWS; super important fo neuronal microglial activity; slow, large delta waves); REM (high neuronal state, like awake; aside from eyes atonia); early part of night, cycles 90 min and REM short, but later in night spend more time in REM
Two types of oral contraceptives
Standard types when taking progestin and estrogen in same pill - chronic level of these hormones in body which results in disruption of ovulatory cycle, fluctuations in the hormones that drives the cycle, blocking ovulation, inducing chronic negative feedback to stop endogenous release of these hormones, purely exogenous; heather pill - progesterone pill, creating chronic level of this hormone, person still ovulating but progesterone helpful in creating inhospitable uterine wall so eggs won't implant, still menstruate
Adolescence - how it has changed
Started earlier and earlier; but PFC not earlier - so adolescence lengthening
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD)
Starts by damaging frontal cortex; first neurons killed are von Economo neurons unique to certain species; disinhibition and socially inappropriate behaviors
Frontal cortical changes in cognition in adolescence
Steady improvement in working memory, flexible rule use, executive organization and frontal inhibitory regulation; accompanied by increasing activity in frontal regions during tasks with extent of the increase predicting accuracy; also improve mentalization tasks (understanding someone else's perspective) - purer cognitive challenges not emotional perspective
Adrenal steroid hormones
Steroid hormone that is secreted by the adrenal cortex
Adrenal cortex
Steroid-secreting outer rind of the adrenal gland
Empathy, sympathy, and moral reasoning
Still better at first- than third-person perspective taking than adults (how would you feel in her situation); moral judgements growing but not at adult levels; meritocratic decisions - more sophisticated than egalitarian but less complex than adults; increasingly distinguish between intentional and accidental harm; increasing dlFPC and vmPFC activation when contemplating intentional harm; increasingly distinguish between harm to people and harm to objects; intensity of feeling as the other can border on being the other in adolescents - specialists in empathy, open mind pre-req for open heart, egoism as well (seems possible to make the world whole so why not)
Activation-synthesis theory
Still don't know what function fulfilled by dreams is; but suggest random results of which neurons happen to get activated, brain strings these together into more or less coherent story
Zetigeber
Stimuli in environment that help entrain circadian rhythms; sun, people, roommates
Hippocampus and cortisol
Stress effects on memory mediated through neurotoxic effects of chronic cortisol on hippocampal neurons; primary receiver of negative feedback - hippocampus super important for stress biology because deals with memory and learning, remember stressful situations; brain saturated with glucocorticoid receptors - short-term great but if chronically stressed, cortisol can kill cells in hippocampus and have neurotoxic effect; depression and anxiety - smaller volumes of hippocampus, may be due to chronic stress reducing size of hippocampus (coritsol reduces neurogenesis there to if chronic)
Inheritance with depression
Strong hereditary contributions; concordance rates substantially higher for identical twins 60% than fraternal 20%; haven't identified particular genes though - many genes contribute to it and environmental factors
Stress and amygdala
Structural and functional alterations that persist into adulthood; kids who grow up in abusive households more accurate at detecting angry and fearful faces, detect them faster too
Early adversity alters
Structure and function of the three pillars of emotional brain (ventral striatum, PFC, amygdala)
Threat-defense circuitry - amygdala
Subcortical brain region, two of them; more than fear - salience system (positive and negative stimuli important); low road (faster, unrefined straight from optic nerve to thalamus to amygdala); high road (additional refined information, assessment); anxiety disorders some low road, some high road
Perception
Subjective interpretation of sensations by the brain; our visual experience is not objective reproduction of what is out there but rather a subjective construction of reality manufactured by the brain
Steps for memory
Subset of memory information that enters sensory buffers is encoded and placed into short-term memory (STM) -> if info is rehearsed or used, it may be consolidated into long-term memory (LTM) lasting for minutes up to a lifetime -> when we probe participant's memory, she must retrieve information from LTM and place it into STM to perform a task like reporting the items in a list -> at any stage of the process, information may be forgotten; incoming info -> sensory buffers (iconic memory) -> encoding -> STM -> performance or consolidation into LTM -> retrieval information STM
Night terror
Sudden arousal from stage 3 sleep that is marked by intense fear and autonomic activation; does not recall vivid dream; common in children during early part of sleep
Cataplexy
Sudden loss of muscle tone, leading to collapse of the body without loss of consciousness; component of narcoleptic attacks - can be triggered by sudden, intense emotional stimulus including laughter and anger
2 categories of facial muscles
Superficial facial muscles; deep facial muscles
Suppression of reproduction - common pathological consequence of prolonged stress
Suppression of ovulation, loss of libido
Stress and pro and antisocially
Sustained stress - more fearful, thinning muddled, assess risks poorly and act impulsively out of habit rather than nicorpoate new data; stress fosters aggression, reduces stress, biases us toward selfishness egoistic due to poor frontal function; alcohol only evokes aggression in individuals prone to aggression and those who believe that alcohol makes you more aggressive (social learning)
Synapse rearrangement
Synapses formed, neurons survive, but cells rearranged over time, strengthen or weaken associations with other neurons
Brain's connections during sleep
Synapses larger during day as part of learning but metabolically demanding and unstable; brain downsizes these connections by up to 20% during sleep (microglial cells); not all synapses scaled down - certain ones unphased corresponding to strong connections/memories; scale down recently active ones that are not highly linked to anything relevant
3 pathways display LTP
Synapses that use glutamate - critically dependent on glutamate receptors subtype called the NMDA receptor; treatment with drugs that block NMDA receptors prevents new LTP in this region but does not affect synaptic changes that have already been established; these work in conjunction with AMPA receptors; if larger quantities of glutamate released in response to barrage of action potentials caused by tetanus - stronger stimulation of AMPA depolarizes postsynaptic membrane so much that Mg2+ plug repulsed from NMDA receptor's channel
Most studied form of LTP occurs at
Synapses that use the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate, particularly subtype NMDA
4 types of chemical communication and summarize each
Synaptic communication (very precise in timing and location); endocrine communication (not precise and much more sustained; released into bloodstream and travel throughout body until happen to come across receptor, pulled into target cell, bind to target cell, then that initiates action of hormone; communication within an organism); pheromone communication (communication of molecules within a species; dogs smelling each other - molecule in previous dog's urine being perceived by other dog, lets them know hierarchy/who's here); allomone communication (cross species communication; flowers produce scents that attract bees to come and get pollen and then take to another flower, cross-fertilize flowers)
Once differentiated
Synaptogenesis - need to grow dendritic and synaptic connections
Androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS)
Syndrome caused by an androgen receptor gene mutation that renders tissues insensitive to androgenic hormones like testosterone; affected XY individuals are phenotypic females but have internal testes and regressed internal genital structures; gonads develop as normal testes and testes produce ACH and plenty of testosterone; but absence of working androgen receptors, wolffian ducts fail to develop and external form labia and clitoris; puberty, women with it develop breasts but don't menstruate; infernal but otherwise look and behave like women
Fentanyl
Synthetic (made in lab, not from plant) opiate; people starting to mix this into opioids; super powerful, hard to regulate; slows brain down so much, brain stem can stop
Self-perpetuating cycle
System overshoot threat responses, generating increased traffic through the neuroimmune network; takes on life of its own over time creating positive feedback circuit
Sum up Volkow - neurobiological advances from the brain disease model of addiction
Talks about addiction; 3 stages (binge and intoxication - brain regions and circuitry, withdrawal and negative affect, preoccupation and anticipating (craving)); biologic and social factors in addiction; talks about public health policy, behavioral and medical interventions (early screening, medication help prevent relapse, maintenance therapy with agonists or partial agonists)
Neurotrophic factors
Target-derived chemicals that facilitate cell migration and synaptogenesis; brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF); produced by other neurons
Passive hearing of words shifts focus to
Temporal lobes
Disorders of sleep-waking schedule
Temporary disruption caused by time zone change by airplane flight; shift work, especially night work; persistent disruption (irregular rhythm)
Gonads
Testes or ovaries
Sex steroids in men
Testosterone (androgens) and gametes are sperm; produced in testes
Dominance and altruism
Testosterone can increase it - increases dominance that is appropriate for situation (so if altruism mechanism for dominance, increases altruism)
Female convicts
Testosterone concentration highest in women with unprovoked violence and lower with defensive violent crimes
System masculinized by two testicular secretions
Testosterone which promotes development of wolffian system; anti-mullerin hormone (AMH)
Mammalian sex chromosomes
The SRY gene on the Y chromosome is responsible for developing testes and sexual differentiation
Memory
The ability to learn and neurally encode information, consolidate the information for longer-term storage, and retrieve or reactivate the consolidated information at a later time; the specific information that is stored in the brain
Spatial cognition
The ability to navigate and to understand the spatial relationships between objects
Thermoregulation
The active process of maintaining a relatively constant internal temperature through behavioral and physiological adjustments
Stress immunization
The concept that mild stress early in life makes an individual better able to handle stress later in life; the benefits seem to be due to effective comforting after stressful events, not the stressful events themselves; picking up rats as pups less adult stress later on - mothers comforting them by licking, grooming; if deprived of mother for long time, more stress as adults
Sexual dimorphism
The condition in which males and females of the same species show pronounced sex differences in appearance; androgens responsible for it in brain
Sensory transduction
The conversion of sensory energy from an adequate stimulus into a local change of membrane potential in a sensory receptor cell (i.e. a generator potential)
Adult neurogenesis
The creation of new neurons in the brain of an adult; especially in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus formation; 700 new neurons every day; enhanced by exercise, environmental enrichment, training; hippocampus-dependent learning like spatial memory and fear conditioning
Embryo
The earliest stage in a developing animal; first 10 weeks
SCN and retinohypothalamic pathway
The entrainment pathway consists of specialized retinal ganglion cells (optic nerve) that project o SCN via this tract; these cells do not rely on traditional photoreceptors but a photopigment called melanopsin that helps keep you on 24-hour circadian clock
Synaptogenesis
The establishment of synaptic connections as axons and dendrites grow; once cells take on characteristics of neurons
Encoding
The first process in the memory system, in which the information entering sensory channels is passed into short-term memory
Forebrain
The front division of the brain which in the mature vertebrate contains the cerebral hemisphere, the thalamus, and the hypothalamus
Cell-cell interactions
The general process during development in which one cell affects the differentiation of other, usually neighboring cells; hallmark of vertebrate development; cells sending chemical signals to each other shaping development of the other
Onuf's nucleus
The human homolog of the spinal nucleus of the SNB in rats; most female animals retain BC muscle into adulthood
Glutamate hypothesis
The idea that schizophrenia may be caused by under stimulation of glutamate receptors; account for reduced frontal cortex activity; but drugs that stimulate NMDA can cause seizures so not ideal
Hyperfrontality hypothesis
The idea that schizophrenia may reflect under activation of the frontal lobes
Dopamine hypothesis
The idea that schizophrenia results from either excessive levels of synaptic dopamine or excessive postsynaptic sensitivity to dopamine; problems - no correspondence between speech with which drugs that block dopamine receptors (hours) and how long it takes for symptoms to diminish (weeks)
Facial feedback hypothesis
The idea that sensory feedback from our facial expressions can affect our mood; controversial - would mean smiling makes us feel happy; but people with botox report feeling less intense emotions after treatment than before
Amonia
The inability to name persons or objects readily
Alexia
The inability to read; most people with aphasia have some form of this
Astereognosis
The inability to recognize objects by touching and feeling them
Agnosia
The inability to recognize objects despite being able to describe them in terms of form and color; may occur after localized brain damage
Agraphia
The inability to right; most people with aphasia have some form of this
Stage 1 sleep
The initial stage of non-REM sleep which is characterized by small-amplitude EEG waves of irregular frequency, slow heart rate, and reduced muscle tension; vertex spikes begin it; several minutes
Period
The interval of time between two similar points of successive cycles, such as sunset to sunset; differed from one hamster to another; each animal has own endogenous clock
Patient HM
The late Henry Molaison, a man who was unable to encode new declarative memories because of surgical removal of medial temporal lobe structures; most old memories intact but could not form new memories; anterograde amnesia; short-term good but not long term; surgery removed amygdala, most of hippocampus, and surrounding cortex from both temporal lobes; memory deficit caused by loss of the medial temporal lobe including hippocampus
Patient KC
The late Kent Cochrane who sustained damage to the cortex that rendered him unable to form and retrieve episodic memories; could no longer retrieve any personal memory of his past but general knowledge good; extensive damage to left frontoparietal and right pairteooccipital cerebral cortex as well as shrinkage of both right and left hemispheres and nearby cortex; bilateral hippocampal damage accounts for kent's anterograde declarative amnesia - but cannot account for selective loss of nearly all his autobiographical memory because other people with that damage lack this symptom; could be result of damage to frontal and parietal cortex
Synaptic rearrangement
The loss of some synapses and the development of others, to refine synaptic connections
Corpus callous
The main band of axons that connects the two cerebral hemispheres; cut it to treat seizures
Homeostasis
The maintenance of a relatively constant internal physiological environment
Midbrain
The middle divisions of the brain
Neurogenesis
The mitotic division of nonneural cells to produce neurons
Cell migration
The movement of cells from situation of origin to final location; establish distinct cell populations (nuclei in CNS, layers of cortex)
Set zone
The optimal range of a variable that a feedback system tries to maintain; can be change under certain circumstances like dropping at night to conserve energy, elevated to produce fever to fight infections; narrow limits though - too hot, proteins lose correct shape and malfunction, too cool body reactions too slow
Ectoderm
The outer cellular layer of the developing embryo, giving rise to the skin and the nervous system; outermost layer; as cell layers thicken, grow to form a groove that will become midline; at head end, thickened collection of cells forms
Sleep deprivation
The partial or total prevention of sleep; similarities between schizophrenia and bizarre behavior provoked by sleep deprivation; depend on general personality and age; experiment 8.5 days - few showed hallucinatory episodes, most common behavior changes were increased irritability, difficulty concentrating, episodes of disorientation; moderate effects if sleep debt accumulates successive nights of little sleep - deficits in attention, reaction time, often report not feeling sleep but behavioral deficits
Prosody
The perception of emotional tone of voice aspects of language - right hemisphere thing; two hemispheres collaborate in most functions
Gene expression
The process by which a cell makes an mRNA transcript of a particular gene; begins once cells reach designations; each cell makes particular subset of genes to make proteins that type needs
Sexual differentiation
The process by which individuals develop either male or female-like bodies and behavior; before birth in mammals
Brain self-stimulation
The process in which animals will work to provide electrical stimulation to particular brain sites, presumably because the experience is very rewarding; people sometimes feel warmth, pleasure
Learning
The process of acquiring new and relatively enduring information, behavior patterns, or abilities, characterized by modifications of behavior as a result of practice, study, or experience
Skill learning
The process of learning to perform a challenging task simply by repeating it over and over again; improving at mirror-tracing tasks with HM or learning read mirror-reversed text; sensorimotor skills (mirror tracing); perceptual skills (reading mirror-reversed text); cognitive skills (tasks involving planning and problem solving)
Sleep recovery
The process of sleeping more than normally after a period of sleep deprivation, as though in compensation; stage 3 greatest relative difference from normal - increase in stage 3 at expense of stage 2, never completely makes up for deficit accumulated though, but more intense sleep for a few nights
Entrainment
The process of synchronizing a biological rhythm to an environmental stimulus
Mitosis
The process of the division of somatic cells that involves duplication of DNA
Negative feedback
The process whereby a system monitors its own output and reduces its activity when a set point is reached
Adaptation
The progressive loss of receptor sensitivity as stimulation is maintained; many sensory systems emphasize change in external world which is most relevant for behavior and survival; smell (once smell it, brain suppresses intensity of smell), touch (like feeling clothes against skin), background noise; anxiety, obsessive conditions - hard time filtering that out, co-opts consciousness; not psychology but biology - reduced frequency of firing of cell is what lets us adapt
Motivation
The psychological process that induces or sustains a particular behavior; deviations from an optimum state affect this
Hindbrain
The rear division of the brain which in the mature vertebrate contains the cerebellum, pons, and medulla
Recovery of function
The recovery of behavioral capacity following brain damage from stroke or injury; in months following brain injury, people show conspicuous improvements in neural functions as injury site stabilizes, unaffected tissue reorganizes and compensations occurs
Cell differentiation
The refining of cells into distinctive types of neurons or glial cells
Sensation
The registration of physical stimuli from the environment by sensory organs
Reconsolidation
The return of a memory trace to stable long-term storage after it has been temporarily made changeable during the process of recall; memories temporarily unstable and susceptible to disruption or alteration before underpin it; can create false memories when use leading questions to have people retrieve memories; possibility of planting false memories of childhood sexual or physical abuse - hypnosis or guided imagery can inadvertently plan false memories
Retinohypothalamic pathway
The route by which specialized retinal ganglion cells send their axons to the suprachiasmic nuclei
Consolidation
The second process in the memory system in which information in STM is transferred to LTM
Neuronal cell death
The selective death of many nerve cells
Dichotic presentation
The simultaneous delivery of different stimuli to both the right and the left ears at the same time
Epigenetics
The study of factors that affect gene expression without making any changes in the nucleotide sequence of the genes themselves; mothering mice - if genetically identical embryos implanted into womb of foster mother of either own strain or another strain, behavior is affected - different behaviors due to different prenatal environment and postnatal experience
Endocrinology
The study of hormones
Psychoneuroimmunology
The study of the immune system and its interaction with the nervous system and behavior; how the immune system interacts with the organs; people with happy social lives less likely develop cold and have mild symptoms if do develop cold, more antibodies after flu vaccine; brain influences immune system and immune system affects brain activities
Phenotype
The sum of an individual's physical characteristics at one particular time; changes throughout life; interaction of genotype and extrinsic factors like experience; individuals with identical genotypes not identical phenotypes - not identical extrinsic influences
Lobotomy
The surgical separation of a portion of the frontal lobes from the rest of the brain, once used as a treatment for schizophrenia and many other ailments; used for almost any mental disorder
Stuttering
The tendency of otherwise healthy people to produce speech sounds only haltingly, tripping over certain syllables or being unable to start vocalizing certain words
Motor theory of language
The theory that speech is perceived using the same left-hemisphere mechanisms that are used to produce the complex movements that go into speech; anterior and posterior left-hemispheric language zones both specialized for motor control; ASL - employ same language-related regions of the left hemisphere as hearing people who use spoken language and show compatible aphasia-like symptoms after focal left-hemispheric damage; brain has several speech-related areas outside classical model implying greater connectivity than proposed under wernickie model
Retrieval
The third process of the memory system in which a stored memory is used by an organism
Global aphasia
The total loss of ability to understand language or to speak, read or write; may retain ability to make speech-like sounds especially emotional exclamations; but can utter very few words, no semblance of syntax remains; results from very large left-hemisphere lesions that encompasses both the anterior and posterior language zones; frontal, temporal, and parietal cortex affected; poor prognosis for language recovery
Adequate stimulus
The type of stimulus to which sensory organ is particularly adapted; eyes respond to photic stimuli, ears respond to sound waves, tongues to variation in chemical configurations, nose to odorants
Indifferent gonads
The undifferentiated gonads of the early mammalian fetus which will eventually develop into either testes or ovaries
Ecological niche
The unique assortment of environment opportunities and challenges to which each organism is adapted; most either nocturnal or diurnal; each species better at gathering food either during day or at night and same with avoiding predators
Extinction
The unlearning of the association between CS+ and CS-
Standard condition (SC)
The usual environment for lab rodents, with a few animals in a cage and adequate food and water but no complex stimulation
Allostasis
The varying behavioral and physiological adjustments that an individual makes in order to maintain optimal (rather than unchanging) functioning of a regulated system in the face of changing environmental stressors; heart rate and blood pressure continually shifting; chronic stress bad though - puts at risk of pathology due to allostatic overload
Arthur Schopenhauer
The world is my representation; everything I am experiencing filtered through my perceptive frame - I don't know what the world is; all living in self-created perception of the world that presumably exists but is our representation
ToM
Theory of mind; early stage - toddlers form ego boundaries (there is a me separate from everyone else); stage of realizing other individuals have different information than you do; false belief tests; then to insightfulness, grasping irony, perspective taking, secondary ToM (understanding person A's ToM about person B); various cortical regions mediate ToM - parts of medial PFC and some new players; then to people can have different feelings than me including pained ones, not sufficient for empathy though
Localization of function with language processing and storage
There is some but more complex; involves distribution of thematically driven semantic maps across entire brain; findings inconsistent with human lesion studies arguing that semantic representation is lateralized to left hemisphere; hard to separate word from meaning - think of word mom, activates left but also visual cortex
Dreaming in REM v non-REM
Thinking type in non-REM; visual imagery, vivid, story with odd perceptions, sense that dreamer is there; people can be trained to predict accurately whether describe dream occurred during REM or SWS
Neurons compete for connections to target structures
Those that make adequate synapses remain, those that don't die; all compete for chemical neurotrophic factors that the target structure makes and releases - receive enough, survive
Feeling too much
Those who feel most strongly with most pronounced arousal and anxiety are actually less likely to be prosocial; personal distress induces self-focus that prompts avoidance; more can regulate adverse empathic emotions, more likely act prosocially
Factors that determine how thoroughly person will recover from brain injury
Time; immediate medical treatments limit extent of damage but months before recovery; aphasia following stroke - 3 months very steady recovery for 1-1.5 years; recovery better when brain injury due to trauma rather than stroke - difficulty may be due to generation of cell-damaging signaling chemicals in cells that have been starved of oxygen during stroke; age also factor
Confabulate
To fill in a gap in memory with a falsification; often seen in Korsakoff's syndrome
Sleep in old people
Total amount of sleep declines while number of awakenings increases - insomnia common complaint; less and less stage 3 sleep, disappeared by age 90 (may be related to diminished cognitive functioning, characteristic of people with dementia; loss of growth hormone may lead to it as well, impairs memory); elderly people who complain of poor sleep may sleep more than those who are satisfied with their sleep
Mirror therapy
Treated people who had reduced use of one arm after stroke by placing them before mirror with only good arm visible; to them, looked as though seeing entire body; told to make symmetrical fluid motions with other arms - in mirror, looked perfectly symmetrical even though real arm movements not perfect; learned to use the weak arm more extensively
Humans and male aggression/testosterone
Treating adult volunteers with extra testosterone does not increase aggression; young men in puberty experience sudden large increase in testosterone but not correlated increase in aggressive behavior; nonaggressive tendencies in males - satisfaction in family, lower levels of serum testosterone
Suppression of digestion - common pathological consequence of prolonged stress
Ulcers
Depression associated with reduced structural integrity in
Uncinate fasciculus connecting PFC and amygdala - poor top-down regulation
Developmental dyslexia
Unique to written language, not general cognitive defect; several types of neurological abnormalities - aberrant layering of neurons of cortex along with excessive cortical folding and clusters of extra neurons in unexpected locations, evidence in frontal and temporal lobes, defective migration of newborn neurons during development; impaired neural activity in left posterior speech zones overactivation of anterior regions; genetic bases
Memory consolidation
Unless describe dreams to someone or write then down soon after waking, forget them - not wasting storage; experiment in 1924 - better retention when period of sleep intervened between learning period and tests of recall; SWS helps memory consolidation more than REM (if REM eliminated, can still learn); but some synapses rearranged during REM, some memory consolidation depends on REM
Treatment for narcolepsy
Use of amphetamines in day time - old treatment; drug GHB helps some people; newer drug modafinil (Provigil) sometimes effective - alertness drug for people with ADHD
Optogenetics
Use of light to excite or inhibit neurons expressing light-sensitive membrane channels, typically in transgenic mice
Only remember a dream when
Wake up in the middle of it; because hippocampus offline when sleeping (working memory shut off)
REM sleep: autonomic activities (heart rate, respiration, brain temperature, cerebral blood flow); skeletal muscular system (postural tension, knee-jerk reflex, twitches, eye movements); cognitive state (dream state); hormone secretion (GH secretion); neural firing rates (cerebral cortex activity)
Variable with high bursts; variable with high bursts; increased; high; eliminated; suppressed; increased; rapid, coordinated; vivid dreams, well organized; low; increased firing rates
Basal forebrain
Ventral region in the forebrain that has been implicated in sleep; constant SWS generated by this; promotes SWS by releasing GABA into tuberomammillary nucleus
Neural tube
Ventricle, ventricular zone, white matter, neurocortex
Precise nature of circadian rhythm
Very precise; beginning of activity may vary only a few minutes from one day to another; watches and clocks, but animals - built-in biological clock
Insula
Viscerotropic (body map - but not sensation, viscera (organs, gut))); physical aspects of emotion (strong emotion, feel in chest; butterflies in stomach when anxious); also pain matrix - highly activated if place hand on hot stove, also if deeply rejected emotionally, physical and emotional pain
Steps for speaking written word
Visual cortex analyzes image and transmits information about the image to the angular gyrus; angular gyrus decodes the image information to recognize the word and associate this visual form with the spoken form in wenickie's area; information about new word is transmitted via the arcuate fasciculus to broca's area; broca's area formulates a motor plan to say the appropriate word and transmits the plan to motor cortex for implementation; motor cortex implements the plan, manipulating the larynx and related structures to say the word
Unique cell type in frontal cortex
Von Economo neurons (spindle neurons ) - other primates, whales, dolphins, elephants; only in insula and anterior cingulate (empathy)
Hemiparesis
Weakness of one side of the body; sometimes this rather than full paralysis
Fluent aphasia
Wernickie's; left posterior speech zone; characterized by impairment in language production and/or understanding that is caused by brain injury; can produce words but nonsense; produce plenty of verbal output but utterances contain paraphasia like sound substitutions (girl becomes curl) and/or word substitutions (bread becomes cake); if severe stroke, words scrambled
Presynaptic changes in LTP
When postsynaptic cell strongly stimulates and NMDA become active and admit Ca2+, retrograde transmitter released
Adolescent violence
When violence peaks; heightened emotional intensity, craving for peer approval, novelty seeking, frontal cortex; adolescent peak of violence not caused by surge of testosterone; less responsible for criminal acts - poorer judgment and self-regulation
Fate of differentiating cell depends on
Where it is in brain and what is neighbors are doing
Mutation that disables 5-alpha-reductase
XY individuals wit this will develop testes and normal male internal reproductive structures but external genitalia fail to masculinize fully; phallus only slightly masculinized and resembles large clitoris and genital folds resemble labia; usually no vaginal opening; puberty - testes increase androgen production and external genitalia more fully masculinized; individuals begin acting like young men
Are some declarative memories stored in cortex?
Yes
Are there distinctive receptors for each hormone?
Yes
Can early brain injuries account for shift to left-handedness?
Yes
Have mammals produced most of the neurons they'll ever have at birth?
Yes
Is handedness associated with cerebral lateralization?
Yes
Language vested in left hemisphere in majority of left-handers as well as right-handers?
Yes
Do birds and SWS and REM? Reptiles? Dolphins?
Yes - REM present in common ancestor; yes; no - late adaption (come to surface to breathe, incompatible with deep relaxation of muscles, also only side of brain engages in SWS at a time - come up to surface)
Do we like mild and transient stress?
Yes - rollercoasters; willing give up control; inverted U curve
Is there evidence that sexual orientation may be heritable?
Yes; both biological and social factors at play; 50% variation in orientation accounted for by genetic factors, ample room for early social influences
Is long-term memory subject to distortion?
Yes; can fade over time
Can change in handedness occur in adults?
Yes; double hand transplants reportedly both became left-handers - right hemisphere required less reorganization in order to take control of its contralateral hand whearas reconnection of left hemisphere to new right hand initially hampered by strong preexisting cortical representation of the former right had
Does testosterone affect emphatic mimicry?
Yes; less adept to identify emotions by looking at people's eyes and faces of strangers activate the amygdala or than familiar ones and are rated as less trustworthy
Do nearly all mammals display REM and SWS? Which don't?
Yes; marine mammals like dolphins, birds (atonia of paradoxical incompatible; unilateral sleep - one hemisphere in delta wave while other bringing it up to surface and switch throughout night)
Is there evidence of difference in POA of gay v straight rams organized by testosterone acting on brain during fetal development? Humans?
Yes; nucleus in POA of humans larger in men than in women and larger in straight than gay men
Can you suddenly become dyslexic as an adult?
Yes; result of disease or injury usually to left hemisphere
Is elevated testosterone associated with elevated aggression in many species?
Yes; seasonally breeding species - intermale aggression varies with seasonal changes in levels of testosterone
Can emotion affect memory of past events?
Yes; treated with propranolo - emotional enhancement of memory vanishes, directly interferes with ability of adrenal stress hormones to act on the brain to enhance memory; epinephrine during times of stress from adrenal glands and strong emotion affects memory formation by influencing amygdala
Do most animals lack grammar?
Yes; vocalizations preprogrammed
Estradiol
17-beta-estradiol; primary type of estrogen secreted by ovary
First major endocrine experiment
1849, Berthold; when roosters castrated as juveniles, failed to develop normal reproductive behavior and secondary sex characteristics; returning one testis back to body to young birds allowed them to develop normal male anatomy and behavior; no nerves had reestablished contact with transplanted testis - had to be chemicals in testes
Pair-bonds
A durable and exclusive relationship between two individuals; oxytocin help prairie voles bond to mates in females, vasopressin in males
Lordosis
A female receptive posture in four-legged animals in which the hindquarters are raised and the tail is turned to one side, facilitating intromission by the male
Ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH)
A hypothalamic region involved ins sexual behaviors, eating, and aggression; lesions there abolish the response; estrogen treatment causes dendrites of VMH to grow and become more complex; sends axons to periaqueductal gray; these project to spinal cord; in spinal cord, sensory information provided by males evokes motor response of lordosis when estrogen and progesterone levels right; monitor steroid hormone concentrations and at right time in ovulatory cycle to activate a neural circuit that allows a lordosis response to a male
Oxytocin
A peptide hormone, released from the posterior pituitary that triggers milk letdown in nursing females and is also associated with a variety of complex behaviors; stimulates contractions
Refractory period
A period following copulation during which an individual does not recommence copulation; varies from minutes to months
Clocal exstrophy
A rare medical condition in which XY individuals are born completely lacking a penis
Activational effect
A temporary change in behavior resulting from the availability of a hormone to an adult animal; hormone transiently promotes certain behaviors; rise of androgen secretion at puberty activates masculine behavior in male; estrogen secreted at beginning of 4-5 day ovulatory cycle facilitates proceptive behavior in female rats
Pituitary stalk
A thin piece of tissue that connects the pituitary gland to the hypothalamus
Adrenal glands
Adrenal cortex (outer bark; salt and carb metabolism, inflammatory reactions); adrenal medulla (inner core; emotions arousal - epinephrine)
Vasopressin
Aka arginine vasopressin or antidiuretic hormone; peptide hormone from the posterior pituitary that promotes water conservation and increases blood pressure
Amine hormones
Aka monoamine hormones; hormone imposed of a single amino acid that has been modified into a related molecule like melatonin or epinephrine; epinephrine, NE, thyroid hormones, melatonin
Hypothalamic-pituitary portal system
An elaborate bed of blood vessels leading from the hypothalamus to the anterior pituitary
Gonadotropins
Anterior pituitary tropic hormone that stimulates the cells of the gonads to produce sex steroids and gametes
Tropic hormones
Any of a class of anterior pituitary hormones that affect the secretion of hormones by other endocrine glands; travels through bloodstream and reaches all glands but only target glands that have appropriate receptors to respond to it; once reaches target gland, drives the gland to produce its own hormone
Androgens
Any of a class of hormone that includes testosterones and similar steroids
Steroid hormones
Any of a class of hormones each of which is composed of four interconnected rings of carbon atoms; estrogens, progestins, androgens like testosterone
Releasing hormones
Any of a class of hormones, produced in the hypothalamus, that traverse the hypothalamic-pituitary portal system to control the pituitary's release of tropic hormones; synthesized by neuroendocrine cells
Estrogens
Any of a class of steroid hormones, including estradiol, produced by female gonads
Progestins
Any of a major class of steroid hormones that are produced by the ovary, including progesterone
Gonads
Any of the sexual organs (ovaries, testes) that produce gametes for reproduction
Order of hormones for anterior starting with neuroendocrine cells
Axons converge on the median eminence; contains blood vessels that form the hypothalamic-pituitary portal system; in response to inputs from the rest of the brain, axon terminals of hypothalamic neuroendocrine cells secrete releasing hormones into the local bloodstream; blood carries hormones short distance into anterior pituitary (rate at which arrive controls rate at which anterior tropic hormones then regulate the activity of major endocrine glands); brain's releasing hormones affect anterior pituitary's tropic hormones which affect the release of hormones from endocrine glands
How peptide and amine hormones intuitive actions
Bind to specific proteins on surface of the target cell and activate chemical signals inside the cell that are called second messengers; peptides usually rapid - within seconds to minutes
Oral contraceptives
Birth control pill, typically consisting of steroid hormones to prevent ovulation; small doses of synthetic estrogen and/or progestins - exert negative feedback of hypothalamus, inhibiting release of GnRH which prevents release of FSH and LH, fails to realize egg
Gonads (ovaries/testes)
Body development, maintenance of reproductive organs in adults
Brain and control over hormones
Brain has strict control over all hormone secretion - receptors to detect almost all hormones; monitors internal and external cues to decide whether and how much released
Endocrine communication
Chemical signal is hormone released into bloodstream to selectively affect distant target organs
Allomone
Chemical signal that is released outside the body by one species and affects the behavior of other species - flowers to attract insects
Pheromone
Chemical signal that is released outside the body of an animal and affects the behavior of other species; dogs and wolves urinating
Hormones
Chemicals, usually secreted by an endocrine gland, that is conveyed by the bloodstream and regulates target organs or tissues
Pituitary gland
Composed of anterior pituitary (hormone secretion by thyroid, adrenal cortex, and gonads; growth) and posterior pituitary (water balance, salt balance)
Hypothalamus
Control of hormone secretions
Two influences on hypothalamic neuroendocrine cells
Directly affected by circulating messages (other hormones, especially those secreted in response to tropic hormones) - important part of negative feedback because typically hormones secreted from an endocrine gland feedback to inhibit the secretion of releasing hormones and tropic hormones, goes from hormones of endocrine gland to both the hypothalamus and the anterior pituitary; receives synaptic inputs from many other brain regions (release of hormones from anterior pituitary coordinated with ongoing events like time of day, year, safety of individual)
Effect of testosterone and mating behaviors in rats
Drives male's interest in copulation; if castrated, stop ejaculating within a few weeks; hormone's effects the days or weeks to dissipate; treating castrated male with testosterone restores mating behavior
How steroid hormones initiate actions
Easily pass through membranes so receptors located generally inside the target cell; multiple steps and synthesis of large new molecules - typically slower acting, hours, days, years; study where it is active by injecting radioactively tagged molecules of steroid and observing where accumulates
Ovaries
Female gonads, which produce eggs for reproduction; ovarian hormones produced in cycles - average 4 weeks
Ejaculation
Forceful expulsion of semen from the penis
Sperm
Gamete produced by males for fertilization of eggs
Endocrine glands
Glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream to act on distant targets
Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH)
Gonadotropin, named for its actions on ovation follicles; stimulates growth of follicles and secretion of estrogen from the follicles; in males, governs sperm production
Luteinizing hormone (LH)
Gonadotropin, named for its stimulatory effects on the ovarian copora lutea; stimulate follicles of ovary to rupture, release eggs, and form into corpora lutea; males stimulates testes to produce testosterone
Thyroid
Growth and development, metabolic rate
Testosterone
Hormone, produced by male gonads, that controls a variety of bodily changes that become visible at puberty; class of hormones called androgens
Gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH)
Hypothalamic hormone that controls the release of luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone from the pituitary gland; secreted into capillaries of median eminence, travel via hypothalamic-pituitary portal system to arrive at anterior pituitary; anterior pituitary releases one or both of the tropic hormones that act on the gonads (follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH)
All mammals what type of fertilization
Internal; fusion of gametes within female's body to form zygote
Hormones as cyclical interactions
Levels of circulating hormones altered by experience which can affect future behavior and future experience
Testes
Male gonads which produce sperm and androgenic steroid hormones; sertoli cells, leading cells
In situ hybridization
Method for detecting particular RNA transcripts in tissue sections by providing a nucleotide probe that is complementary to and will therefore hybridize with the transcript of interest
Periaqueductal gray
Midbrain region involved in pain perception
Median eminence
Midline feature on the base of the brain that marks the point at which the pituitary stalk exits the hypothalamus to connect to the pituitary; contains one end of the hypothalamic-pituitary portal
Semen
Mixture of fluid and sperm that is released during ejaculation
4 kinds of signals possible between neurons and endocrine cells and explain each
Neural-to-neural (visual processing when dove sees potential mate); neural-to-endocrine (details of visual stimulus activates this link which causes neuroendocrine cells to secrete GnRH); endocrine-to-endocrine (GnRH stimulates pituitary to release gonadotropins); endocrine-to-neural (testosterone alters excitability of neurons in brain through this link causing males to display courtship behavior)
Neuroendocrine cells
Neurons that releases hormones into local or general circulation; receive input from other neurons and produce action potentials; release hormone, not NT
How is the same hormone able to cause many different responses in different organs?
Often more than one receptor responds to given hormone; sometimes same receptor will have a different effect because the target cell responds differently
Vagina
Opening from outside of the body to the cervix and uterus in females
3 categories of hormones
Peptide hormones; amine hormones; steroid hormones
Estrus
Period during which female animals are sexually receptive; may show behaviors for days before participate; receptive only when mating likely produce offspring in most species - seasonal breeders
Ovulatory cycle
Periodic occurrence of ovulation in females; begins when FSH stimulates follicles to grow and secrete estrogens; estrogens induce hypothalamic and pituitary to realize LH which triggers release of egg from follicle (ovulation) and causes follicle to develop as corpus luteum; corpus luteum then secrets progesterone for limited time to maintain uterus for pregnancy; if not pregnant, cycle starts over again
Two regions of pituitary gland
Posterior pituitary and anterior pituitary
Progesterone
Primary type of progestin secreted by the ovary
Leydig cells
Produce and secrete testosterone
2 classes of steroid hormones in ovaries
Progestins; estrogens
Coolidge effect
Propensity of an animal that appears sexually satisfied with a current partner to resume sexual activity when provided a new partner
Endocrine
Referring to glands that release chemicals to the interior of the body; secrete principal hormones used by the body
Proceptive
Referring to state in which a female advertises her readiness to mate through species typical behaviors; approach, remain close or approach and retreat
Sexually receptive
Referring to state in which individual (usually female) willing to copulate
Medial preoptic area (mPOA)
Region of the anterior hypothalamus implicated in the control of many behaviors including sexual behavior, gonadotropin secretion, and thermoregulation; provides higher-order control of male copulatory behaviors; coordinate copulatory behavior by sending axons o ventral midbrain and spinal cord which mediates genital reflexes like ejaculation; brainstem projections of serotonergic fibers to spinal cord maintain erection - why drugs like prozac can lead to difficulty
Gametes
Sex cell (sperm or ovum) that contains only unpaired chromosomes and therefore has only half of the usual number of chromosomes
4 steps of reproductive behavior
Sexual attraction; appetitive behavior; copulation; postcopulatory behavior
Follicles
Structure of the ovary that contains an immature ovum (egg)
Corpora lutea
Structures that form from the collapsed ovarian follicle after ovulation; major source of progesterone
Pancreas
Sugar metabolism
Autoradiography
Technique that shows the distribution of radioactive chemicals in tissues
Zygote
The fertilized egg
Postcopulatory behavior
The final stages in mating behavior, species-specific postcopulatory behaviors include rolling, grooming; variations shaped by evolution
Sexual attraction
The first step in the mating behavior of many animals in which animals emit stimuli that attract members of the opposite sex; physiological readiness to reproduce; males attracted by female odors which reflect estrogen levels; female sexual attractiveness peaks alongside fertility because estrogen secretion associated with release of eggs
Anterior pituitary
The front division of the pituitary gland; secretes tropic hormones
Ovulation
The production and release of an egg; spontaneous in rats
Negative feedback
The property by which some of the output of a system feeds back to reduce the effect of input signals; set points of person's endocrine feedback system can change to meet varying circumstances
Posterior pituitary
The rear division fo the pituitary gland; organ does not make the hormones; hormones made by neuroendocrine cells in two hypothalamic regions (supraoptic and paraventricular nuclei) - they transport hormones down axons which extend through pituitary stalk to terminate in posterior pituitary; action potentials from neuroendocrine cells release hormones directly onto capillary in posterior pituitary; oxytocin and vasopressin
Milk letdown reflex
The reflexive release of milk by the mammary glands of a nursing female in response to suckling or to stimuli associated with suckling; 30-60 second delay at first - activates receptors in skin, transmit information to hypothalamic cells that contain oxytocin, produce action potentials that travel to posterior pituitary where release oxytocin into blood; oxytocin reaches muscle tissue and muscle contracts to make milk available
Appetitive behavior
The second stage of mating behavior; helps establish or maintain sexual interaction; if mutually attracted; species-specific behaviors that establish, maintain, promote sexual interaction; proceptive
Copulation
The sexual act; intromissions, ejaculation, refractory period
Estrogen and progesterone sensitive area of hypothalamic nuclei
Ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH)
Do all hormones act on more than one target organ?
Yes; can have different effects on different organs; often act to coordinate different parts of body