Unit 3 Psychology Test

Which component of the limbic system has an essential role in the formation of new memories? (A) Amygdala (B) Hippocampus (C) Pituitary gland (D) Hypothalamus (E) Thalamus

(B) Hippocampus

What is an agonists

1. Agonist: a molecule that, by binding to a receptor site, stimulates a response 2. Agonist molecules excite. It is similar enough in structures to the neurotransmitter molecule that it mimics its effects on the receiving neuron 3. Agonist mimics neurotransmitters a) They are so similar that it can attach to a receptor site and cause the neuron to fire b) Agnosits molecules may be similar enough to a neurotransmitter to bind to its receptor and mimic its effects c) Some opiate drugs are agonists and produce a temporary "high" by amplifying normal sensations of arousal or pleasure

What are the important neurotransmitters?

1. Acetylcholine 2. Serotonin 3. Norepinephrine 4. Endorphins 5. Dopamine 6. GABA 7. Gluatamate

What is the "dual processing' being revealed by today's cognitive neuroscience

1. Cognitive neuroscientists and others studying the brain mechanisms underlying consciousness and cognition have discovered that the mind processes information on two separate tracks, one operating at an explicit, conscious level and the other at an implicit, unconscious level. This dual processing affects our perception, memory, attitudes, and other cognitions

What are the key criticisms of evolutionary psychology, and how do evolutionary psychologists respond?

1. Critics argue that evolutionary psychologist (1) start with an effect and work backward to an explanation, (2) do not recognize social and cultural influences and (3) absolve people from taking responsibility for their sexual behavior 2. Evolutionary psychologists respond that understanding or predispositions can help us overcome them. They also cite the value of testable predictions based on evolutionary principles as well as the coherence and explanatory power of those principles

What are axons and dendrites?

1. Dendrites: a neuron's bushy branching extensions that receive messages and conduct impulses toward the cell body 2. Axon: the neuron extension that passes messages through its branches to other neurons or to muscles or glands 3. Unlike the short dendrites, axons may be very long, projecting several feet through the body a) A neuron carrying orders to a leg muscle has a cell body and amazon roughly on the scale of a basketball attached to a rope 4 miles long b) Some axons are encased in a myelin sheath, a layer of fatty tissue that insulates them and speeds their impulses

How does DNA affect nature vs nurture? What are genes, chromosomes, DNA, genes, and the genome?

1. Genes: our codes for life 2. Chromosomes containing DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) are found in the nucleus of a cell a) Chromosomes: threadlike structure made largely of DNA molecules that contain the genes 3. Nucleus: the inner area of a cell that houses chromosomes and genes 4. Cell: the basic structural unit of a living thing Segments within DNA consist of Genes that make proteins to determine our development 5. DNA: a spiraling, complex molecule containing genes/ a complex molecule containing the genetic information that makes up the chromosomes 6. Genes: segment of DNA containing the code for a particular protein, determines our individual biological development/ the biochemical units of heredity that make up the chromosomes; segments of DNA capable of synthesizing proteins a) All told, you have 20,000 to 25,00 genes b) Genes can be either active (expressed) or inactive c) Environmental events "turn on" genes, rather like hot water enabling a tea bag to express its flavor d) When turned on, genes provide the code for creating protein molecules, our body's building blocks e) Actually, we aren't all that different from our chimpanzee cousins; with them we share about 96% of our DNA sequence f) At "functionally important" DNA site,s report one molecule genetic team, the human chimpanzee DNA similarity is 99.4% g) Yet that wee difference matters 7. Despite some remarkable abilities, chimpanzees grunt and humans can talk a) Small differences matter among chimpanzees too b) Two species, common chimpanzees and bonobos, differ by much less than 1% of their genomes, yet they display markedly differing behaviors c) Chimpanzees are aggressive and male dominated d) Bonobos are peaceful and female led 8. Geneticists and psychologists are interested in the occasional variations found at particular gene sites in human DNA a) Slight person to person variations from the common pattern give clues to our uniqueness-why one person has a disease that another does not, why one person is short and another tall, why one is outgoing and another shy b) Most of our traits are influenced by many genes c) Your height reflects the size of your face vertebrae, leg bones, and so forth-each of which may be influenced by different genes interacting with environment d) Complex traits such as intelligence, happiness and aggressiveness are similarly influenced by groups of genes e) Thus our genetic predisposition-our genetically influenced traits- help explain both our shared human nature and our human diversity 9. Genome is the set of complete instructions for making an organism, containing all the genes in that organism a) Thus the human genome makes us human and the genome for drosophila makes it a common house fly b) There are 46 chromosomes, and each is composed of a coiled chain of the molecule DNA c) There are 23 chromosomes from your mother's egg and 23 from your father's sperm d) Genetically speaking, every other human is nearly your identical twin e) Human genomes researchers have discovered the common sequence within human DNA f) It is this shared genetic profile that makes us human, rather than chimpanzees or tulips 10. Genomes: the complete instructions for making an organism, consisting of all the genetic material in that organism's chromosomes

How drugs and other chemicals alter neurotransmission:

1. If indeed the endorphins lessen pain and boost mood, why not flood the brain with artificial opiates, thereby intensifying the brain's own feel good chemistry 2, One problem is that when flooded with opiate drugs such as heroin and morphine, the brain may stop producing its own natural opiates 3. When the drug is withdrawn, the brain may then be deprived of any form of opiate causing intense discomfort 4. For suppressing the body's own neurotransmitter production, nature charges a price 5. Drugs and other chemicals affect brain chemistry at synapses, often by either exciting or inhibiting neurons' firing

What is included in the biopsychosocial approach to individual development?

1. Individual development results from the interaction of biological, psychological ,ad social cultural influences 2. Biological infleucnes include our shared human genome; individual variations; prenatal environment; and sex related genes, hormones and physiology 3. Psychological influences include gene environment interactions; the effects of early experiences on neural networks' responses evoked by our own characteristics, such as gender and personality; and personal beliefs, feelings, and expectations 4. Social-cultural influence include parental and peer influences; cultural traditions and values; and cultural gender norms

How do neurons communicate?

1. Neurons communicate by means of an electrical signal called the Action Potential a) Action Potentials are based on movements of ions between the outside and inside of the cell b) ..... Resting potential -70mv 2. Neurons transmit messages when stimulated by signals from our senses or when triggered by chemical signals from neighboring neurons 3. Communicate with: a) Action potential b) Resting potential c) Refracting potential

● Why are psychologists concerned with human biology?

1. Psychologists working from a biological perspective study the links between biology and behavior 2. We are biopsychosocial systems, in which biological, psychological, and socio cultural factors interact to influence behavior

● How do nerve cells communicate with other nerve cells?

1. When action potentials reach the end of an axon (the axon terminals) they stimulate the release of neurotransmitters 2. These chemical messengers carry a message from the sending neuron across a synapse to receptory sites on a receiving neuron 3. The sending neuron, in a process called reuptake, then reabsorbs the excess neurotransmitter molecules in the synaptic gap 4. If incoming signals are strong enough, the receiving neuron generates its own action potential and relays the message to other cells

reflect on the meaning of nature and nurture

1. There are trivial truths and great truths the physicist niels bohr reportedly said in reflecting on the paradoxes of science a) The opposite of a trivial truth is plainly false. The opposite of a great truth is also true b) It appears that our ancestral history helped form us as a species c) Where there is variation, natural selection, and heredity, there will be evolution d) The unique gene combination create when our mother's egg engulfed our father's sperm predisposed both our shared humanity and our individual differences 2. This is a great truth about human nature. Genes form us a) But it is also true that our experiences form us b) In our families and in our peer relationships, we learn ways of thinking and acting c) Differences initiated by our nature may be amplified by our nurture d) If genes and hormones predispose males to be more physically aggressive than females, culture mau magnify this gender difference through norms that encourage males to be macho and females to be kinder, gentler sex e) If men are encouraged toward roles that demand physical power, and women toward more nurturing roles, eahc may then exhibit the actions expected of them and find themselves shaped accordingly f) Roles remake their players g) Presidents in time become more presidential, servants more survival, gender roles similarly shape us 3. But gender roles are converting a) Brute strength has become increasingly irrelevant to power and status b) Thus both women and men are now seen as fully capable of effectively carrying out organizational roles at all levels c) And as women's employment in formerly male occupations has increased, gender differences in traditional masculinity or femininity and in what one seeks in a mate have diminished d) As the roles we play change over time, we change with them 4. We are the produce of nature and nurture, but are also an open system, as suggested by the biopsychosocial approach a) Genes are all pervasive but not all powerful; people may defy their genetic bent to reproduce by electing celibacy 5. Culture too, is all pervasive but not all powerful; people may defy peer pressures and do the opposite of the expected a) To excuse our failings by blaming our nature and nurture is what philosopher-novelist Jean Paul Satrtre called "bad faith" attributing responsibility for one's fate to bad genes or bad influences b) In reality, we are both the creatures and the creators of our worlds 6. We are- it is a great truth-the products of our genes and environments a) Nevertheless the stream of causation that shapes the future runs through our present choices b) Our decision today design our environments tomorrow 7. Mind matters a) The human environment is like the weather, we are its architects b) Our hopes, goals, and expectations influence our future and it is what enables cultures to vary and to change so quickly c) In the United States, there is a wide gulf between scientific and lay thinking about evolution d) The idea that human minds are the product of evolution is unassailable fact declared a 2007 editorial in Nature, a leading science magazine e) That sentiment concurs with a 2006 statement of evidence based facts about evolution jointly issued by the national science academies of 66 nations f) In the language of God, human genome project director Grancis Collins, a self described evangelical Christian, complies the utterly compelling evidence that leads him to conclude that Darwin's big idea is unquestionably correct g) Yet gallup reports that half of US adults do not believe in evolution's role in how human beings came to exist on Earth k) Many of those who dispute the scientific story worry that a since of behavior (and evolutionary science in particular) will destroy our sense of beauty, mystery, and spiritual significance of the human culture 8. When Issac Newton explained the rainbow in terms of light of differing wavelengths, the poet Keats feared that Newton had destroyed the rainbow's mysterious beauty a) Yet noted richard dawkins, in unweaving the rainbow, newton's analysis led to an even deeper mystery- einstein's theory of special relativity b) Moreover, nothing about newton's optics need diminish our appreciation for the dramatic elegance of a rainbow arching across a brightening sky c) When galileo assembled evidence that the earth revolved around the sun, not vice versa, he did not offer irrefutable proof for his theory d) Rather, he offered a coherent explanation for variety of observations such as the changing shadows cast by the Moon's mountains e) His explanation eventually won the day because it described and explained things in a way that made sense, that hung together f) Darwin's theory of evolution likewise is a coherent view of natural history g) It offers an organizing principle that unifies various observations k) Collins is not the only person of faith to find the scientific idea of human origin congenital with his spirituality l) In the 5th century, St Uagustine wrote "the universe was brought into being in a less than fully formed state, but was gifted with the capacity to transform itself from unformed matter into a truly marvelous array of structures and life forms" m) Some 1600 years later, Pope John Paull II in 1996 welcomed a science religion dialogue, finding it noteworthy that evolutionary theory has been progressively accepted by researchers following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge 9. Meanwhile, many people of science are awestruck at the emerging understand of the universe and the human creature a) It boggles the mind- the entire universe popping out of a point some 14 billion years ago and instantly inflating to cosmological size b) Had the energy of the Big Bang been the tiniest bit less, the universe would have collapsed back on itself c) Had it been the tiniest bit more, the result would have been a soup too thin to support life d) Astronomer Sir Martin rees had described Just Six Numbers, any one of which if changed ever so slightly would produced a cosmos in which life could not exist e) Had gravity been a tad bit strangers or weaker, or had the weight of a carbon proton been a wee bit different, our universe just wouldn't have worked f) On such matters as the creation and existence of the universe, a humble awed scientific silence is appropriate suggested philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein: whereof one cannot speak thereof one must be silent g) Rather than fearing science, we can welcome it enlarging our understanding of awakening our sense of awe h) In the fragile species, lewis thomas described his utter amazement that the earth in time gave rise to bacteria and eventually to bach's mass in B minor i) In a short 4 billion years, life on Earth has come from nothing to structures as complex as a 6-billion unit strand of DAn and the incomprehensible intricacy of the human brain k) Atoms no different from those in rock somehow formed dynamic entities that became conscious l) Nature says cosmologist Paul Davies seems cunningly and ingeniously devised to produce extraordinary self replicating information processing systems-us m) Although we appear to have been created from dust over eons of time ,the end result is a priceless creature, one rich with potential beyond our imaging 10. EVERYTHING PSYCHOLOGICAL IS SIMULTANEOUSLY BIOLOGICAL a) We have focused on how our thoughts, feelings and actions arise from oru specialized yet integrated brain b) From nineteenth century phrenology to today's neuroscience, we have come a long way c) Yet what is unknown stil dwarfs what is known d) We can describe the brain e) We can learn the functions of its parts f) We can study how the parts communicate 11. But how do we get meat a) Much as gas and air can give rise to something different-fire-so also believed Roger Sperry, does the complex human brain give rise to something different: consciousness b) The mind he argued emerges from the brain's dance of ions, yet is not reducible to it c) Cells cannot be fully explained by the actions of atoms nor minds by the activity of cells d) Psychology is rooted in biology, which is rooted in chemistry, which is rooted in physics e) Yet psychology is more than applied physics f) As jerome kagan reminded us, the meaning of the Gettysburg Address is not reducible to neural activity g) Communication is more than air flowing over our vocal cords h) Morality and responsibility become possible when we understand the mind as a holistic system i) We are not mere jabbering robots j) The mind seeking to understand the brain-that is indeed among the ultimate scientific challenges k) And so it will always be. To paraphrase cosmologist John Barrow, a brain simple enough to be understood is too simple to produce a mind able to understand

how do evolutionary psychologists look at human sexuality?

1. gender differences in sexuality 2. natural selection and mating preferences 3. An evolutionary explanation of human sexuality a) Having faced many similar challenges throughout history, men and women have adaptive in similar ways b) Whether male or female, we eat the same foods, avoid the same predators, and perceive, learn, and remember similarly c) It is only in those domains where we have faced differing adaptive challenges-most obviously in behaviors related to reproduction-that we differ, say evolutionary psychologists d) Evolutionary psychology say some critics, starts with an effect (such as the gender sexualiy difference) and works backward to propose an explanation e) They invite us to imagine a different result and reason backward 4. If men were uniformly loyal to their mates, might we not reason that the children of these committed supportive fathers would more often survive to perpetuate their genes a) Might not men also be better off bonded to one woman-both to increase their odds of impregnation and to keep her from the advances of competing men b) Might not a ritualized bond-a marriage- also spare women from chronic male harassment c) Such suggestions are in fact, evolutionary explanations for why humans tend to pair off monogamously d) One can hardly lose at hindsight explanation which is said paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould mere speculation and guesswork in the cocktail party mode 5. Some also worry about the social consequences of evolutionary psychology a) Does it suggest a genetic determinism that strikes at the heart of progressive efforts to remake society? Does it undercut moral responsibility? Could it be used to rationalize high status men marrying a series of young, fertile women? b) Other argue that evolutionary explanations blue the line between genetic legacy and social cultural tradition c) Show alice eagly and wendy wood a cultural with gender inequality- where men are providers and women are homemakers-and they will show you a culture where men strongly desire youth and domestic skill in their potential mates, and where women seek status and earning potential in their mates d) Show eagly and wood a cultural with gender equality and they will show you a cultural with smaller gender differences in mate preferences e) Much of who we are is not hard wired, agree evolutionary psychologists. Evolution forcefully rejects a genetic determinism insists one research team f) Evolutionary psychologists reassure us that men and women, having faced similar adaptive problems, are far more alike than different and that humans have a greater capacity for learning and social progress g) Indeed, natural selection has prepared us to flexibility adjust and respond to varied environments, to adapt and survive, whether we live in igloos or tree houses 6. Further they agree that cultures vary, cultures change, and cultural expectations can bend the genders a) If socialized to value lifelong commitment, men may sexually bond with one patner; if socialized to accept causal sex, women may willingly have sex with many partners b) Evolutionary psychologists acknowledge struggling to explain some traits and heaviors such as same sex attraction and suicide c) But they also point to the explanatory and predictive power of evolutionary principles 7. Evolutionary psychologists predict and have confirmed, that we tend to favor others to the extent that they share our genes or can later return our favors a) They predict and have confirmed that human memory should be well suited to retaining survival relevant information such as food locations, for which females exhibit superiority b) They predict, and have confirmed various other males and females mating strategies c) Evolutionary psychologists also remind us that the study of how we came to be need not dictate how we ought to be d) Understanding our propensities sometimes helps us overcome them

how do case studies help us to study the brain?

Case studies: 1. A century ago, scientists had no tools high-powered yet gentle enough to explore the living human brain 2. Early case studies of patients by physicians and others helped localize some of the brain's functions 3. Damage to one side of the brain often causes numbness or paralysis on the body's opposite side, suggesting that the body's right side is wired to the brain's left side and vice versa. a) Gradually, these early explorers were mapping the brain 4. Now within a lifetime, a new generation of neural cartographers is probing ad mapping the known universe's most amazing organ

what are the criticism and rebuttals on evolutionary perspective?

Criticisms and rebuttals on the evolutionary perspective 1. EP takes a behavior and works backward to explain it in terms of natural selection: a) Answer: it was never intended to be predictive 2. EP proposes genetic determinism and undercuts morality a) Answer: it explains how we adapted, not how we should be

what is cognitive neuroscience and dual processing

Cognitive Neuroscience 1. Scientists assume that the mind is what the brain does a) We just don't know how it does it 2. Even with all the world's chemicals, computer chips, and energy, we still don't have a clue how to make a conscious robot. a) Yet today's cognitive neuroscience is taking the first small step by relating specific brain states to conscious experiences 3. Cognitive neuroscience: the interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with cognition (including perception, thinking, memory, and language) a) A stunning demonstration of consciousness appeared in brain scans of a noncommunicative patient- a 23 year old woman who had been in a car accident and showed no outward signs of conscious awareness b) When researchers asked her to imagine playing tennis, fMRI scans revealed brain activity in a brain area that normally controls arm and leg movements c) Even in a motionless body, the researchers concluded the brain and the mind may still be active d) A follow up study of 22 other "vegetative" patients revealed 3 more who also showed meaningful brain responses to questions 4. Many cognitive neuroscientists are exploring and mapping the conscious functions of the cortex a) Based on your cortical activation patterns, they can now in limited was, read your mind b) They can, for example, tell which of 10 similar objects, you are viewing c) Despite such advances, much disagreement remains 5. One view sees conscious experiences as produced by the synchronized activity across the brain a) If a stimulus activates enough brainwide coordinated neural activity-with strong signals in one brain area trigger activity elsewhere-it crosses a threshold for consciousness b) A weaker stimulus-perhaps a word flashed too briefly to consciously perceive-may trigger localized visual cortex activity that quickly dies out c) A stronger stimulus will engage other brain area such as those involved with language, attention, and memory d) Such reverberating activity (detected by brain scans) is a telltale sign of conscious awareness e) How the synchronized activity produces awareness-hw matter makes mind-remains a mystery 6. Dual processing: the two track mind a) Many cognitive neuroscience discoveries tell us of a particular brain region (such as the visual cortex) that becomes active with a particular conscious experience b) Such findings strike many people as interesting but not mind blowing (if everything psychological is simultaneously biological, then our ideas, emotions, and spirituality must all, somehow, be embodied) c) What is mind blowing to many of us is the growing evidence that we have, so to speak, two minds, each supported by its own neural equipment d) At many moment, you and are are aware of little more than what's on the screen of our consciousness e) But beneath the surface, unconscious information, processing occurs simultaneously on many parallel tracks f) When we look at a bird flying, we are consciously aware of the result of our cognitive processing, but not of our subprocessing of the bird's color, form, movement, and distance g) One of the grand ideas of recent cognitive neuroscience is that much of our brain work occurs off stage, out of sight h) Perception, memory, thinking, language, and attitudes all operate on two levels- a conscious, deliberate, "high road" and an unconscious automatic "low road" i) Today's researchers call this dual processing. 7. Dual processing: the principle that information is often simultaneously processed on separate conscious and unconscious tracks a) We know more than we know we know

The area of the brain stem that is important in controlling breathing is the A. suprachiasmatic nucleus B. cerebellum C. limbic system D. medulla E. hippocampus

D. medulla

what is the endocrine system?

Endocrine System: Communication is carried out by hormones synthesized by a variety of glands. a) Endocrine system: the body's slow chemical communication system; a set of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream 1. the endocrine system's glands secrete another form of chemical messengers, hormones, which travel through the bloodstream and affect other tissues, including the brain. 2. Interconnected with your nervous system is a second communication system, the endocrine system 3. Much slower than the nervous system on reaction time

what are the functions of the cerebral cortex

Functions of the cortex: 1. Motor functions a) Mapping the motor cortex b) Brain computer interface 2. Sensory functions 3. Association areas 4. More than a century ago, surgeons found damage cortical areas during autopsies of people who had been partially paralyzed or speechless a) This rather crude evidence did not prove that specific parts of the cortex control complex functions like movement or speech b) After all, if the entire cortex controlled speech and movement, damage to almost any area might produce the same effect

how do genes interact with your environment? what is interaction?

Gene environment interaction 1. Genes influence traits which affect responses, environment can affect gene activity which influences traits which affect responses, and environment which can affect gene activity a) Genes and environment affect our traits individually, but more important are their interactive effects b) Among our similarities, the most important-the behavioral hallmark of our species is our enormous adaptive capacity c) Some human traits, such as having two eyes, develop the same in virtually every environment 2. But other traits are expressed only in particular environments a) Go barefoot for summer and you will develop toughened, callused feet-a biological adaptation to friction b) Meanwhile, your shod neighbor will remain a tenderfoot c) The difference between the two of you is an effect of environment d) But it is also the product of a biological mechanisms-adaptation 3. Our shared biological enables our developed diversity a) An analogy may hep: genes and environment-nature and nurture-work together like two hands clapping 4. Genes are self regulating a) Rather than acting as a blueprints that lead to the same result no matter the context, genes react b) An african butterfly that is green in summer turns brown in fall, thanks to a temperature controlled genetic switch c) The genes that produce brown in one situation produce green in another d) So too, people with identical genes but differing experiences will have similar but not identical minds. e) One twin may fall in love with someone quite different from the co-twin's love f) Asking whether our personality is more a product of our genes or our environment is like asking, whether the area of a field is more the result of its length or its width g) We are more the result of differences in their length or their width, and also whether person to person personality differences are influenced more by nature or nurture 4. To say that genes and experience are both important is true a) But more precisely, they interact b) Interaction: the interplay that occurs when the effect of one factor (such as environment) depends on another factor (such as heredity) c) Imagine two babies, one genetically predisposed to be attractive, sociable, and easygoing, the other less so d) Assume further than the first baby attracts more affectionate and stimulating care and so develops into a warmer and more outgoing person e) As the two children grow older, the more naturally outgoing child more often seeks activities and friends that encourage further social confidence f) What has caused their resulting personality differences? g) Neither heredity nor experience dances alone 5. Environments trigger gene activity a) And our genetically influenced traits evoke significant responses in others b) Thus a child's impulsivity and aggression may evoke an angry response from a teacher who reacts warmly to the child's model classmates c) Parents too, may treat their own children differently; one child elicits punishment, another does not In such cases, the child's nature and the parents' nurture interact d) Neither operates apart from the other e) Gene and scene dance together f) Evocative interactions may help explain why identical twins reared in difference families recall their parents' warmth as remarkably similar-almost as similar as if they had had the same parents g) Fraternal twins have more differing recollections of their early family life-even if reared in the same family h) Children experience us as different parents, depending on their own qualities i) More over a selective environments well suited to our natures

What is the function of the neurotransmitter glutamate

Glutamate: 1. Major excitatory neurotransmitter 2. Helps for synaptic connections between neurons and closes it afterwards 3. A major excitatory neurotransmitter; involved in memory 4. Too much glutamate (and too little GABA) associated with epileptic seizures a) Excess glutamate destroys the brain tissues with strokes 5. Involved with memory 6. Oversupply can overstimulate the brain, producing migraines or seizures (which is why some people avoid MSG, monosodium glutamate, in food)

What is the hippocampus

IMPORTANT FOR MEMORY 1. damage may cause anterograde amnesia 2. important in forming new memories 3. Can be reduced as a result of trauma 4. Women have bigger ones than men

how have our human traits been influenced by natural selection?

Human traits 1. A number of human traits have been identified as a result of pressures afforded by natural selection a) Although our person to person differences grab attention, we humans are also strikingly alike b) As brothers and sisters in one great human family, we all wake and sleep, think and speak, hunger and thirst. c) We smile when happy and favor what's familiar more than what is foreign d) We return favors, fear snakes, grieve death and as social animals, have a need to belong e) Beneath our differing skin, we all are kin f) Evolutionary psychologist Steven Pinker has noted that it is not wonder our emotions, drives, and reasoning "have common logic across cultures": our shared human traits were shaped by natural selection acting over the course of human evolution 2. Our genetic legacy: a) Our behavioral and biological similarities arise from our shared human genome, our common genetic profile b) No more than 5% of the genetic differences among humans are from population group differences c) Some 95% of genetic variation exists within populations d) The typical genetic difference between two icelandic villagers or between two kenyans is much greater than the average difference between the two groups e) Thus, if after a worldwide catastrophe only Icelanders or Kenyans survived, the human species would suffer only a trivial reduction in its genetic diversity f) At the dawn of human history our ancestors faced certain questions: who is my ally, who is my foe? What food should I eat? With whom should I mate? g) Some individuals answered those questions more successfully than others h) For example, women who experienced nausea in the critical first three months of pregnancy were predisposed to avoid certain bitter, strongly flavored and novel foods i) Avoiding such foods has survival value, since they are the very foods most often toxic to embryonic development j) Early humans disposed to eat nourishing rather than poisonous foods survived to contribute their genes to later generations k) Those who deemed leopards "nice to pet" often did not Similarly successful were those whose mating helped them produce and nurture offspring 3. Over generations, the genes of individuals not so disposed tended to be lost from the human gene pool a) As success-enhancing genes continued to be selected, behavioral tendencies and thinking and learning capacities emerged that prepared our stone age ancestors to survive, reproduced and send their genes into the future, and into you b) Across our cultural differences, we even share "a universal moral grammar" notes evolutionary psychologists Marc Hauser c) Men and women, young and old, liberal and conservative, living in Sydney or Seoul, all respond negatively when asked "if a lethal gas is leaking into a vent and is headed toward a room with seven people, it is okay to push someone into the vent saving the seven but killing the one d) And they all responded more approvingly when asked if it's okay to allow someone to fall into the vent, again sacrificing one life but saving seven e) Our shared moral instincts survive from a distant past where we lived in small groups in which direct harm-doing was punished, argues Hauser 4. For all such universal human tendencies, from our intense need to give parental care to our shared fears and lusts, evolutionary theory proposes a one stop shopping explanation a) As inheritors of this prehistoric genetic legacy, we are predisposed to behave in ways that promoted our ancestors' surviving and reproducing b) But in some ways, we are biologically prepared for a world that no longer exists c) We love the taste of sweets and fats which prepared our ancestors to survive famines, and we heed their call from school cafeteria, fast food outlets and vending machines e) With famine now rare in western cultures, obesity is truly a growing problem f) Our natural dispositions, rooted depp in history are mismatched with today's junk food environment and today's threats such as climate change

how does natural selection influence mating preferences?

Natural selection and mating preferences: 1. Natural selection has caused males to send their genes into the future by mating with multiple females since males have lower costs involved 2. However, females select one mature and caring male because of the higher costs involved with pregnancy and nursing a) Russel Clark and Elaine Hatfield (1978) used average looking student research assistants to ask men and women "I have been noticing you around campus and I find you to be very attractive. Would you go to bed with me tonight?" b) Women = 0% c) Men = 75% d) Some men replied "why do we have to wait until tonight" e) Repeated in 1982 and in the late 1980s with the same results (50-75% of the men said yes.) 3. Males look for youthful appearing females in order to pass their genes into the future 4. Females on the other hand, look for maturity, dominance, affluence, and boldness in males a) Evolutionary psychologists use natural selection to explain why-worldwide- women's approach to sex is usually more relational, and men's more recreational b) The explanation goes like this: while a woman usually incubates and nurses one infant at a time, a male can spread his genes through other females c) Our natural yearning are our genes' way of reproducing themselves d) In our ancestral history, women most often sent their genes into the future by pairing wisely, men by pairing widely e) Humans are living fossils-collections of mechanisms produced by prior selection pressures says evolutionary psychologists David Buss 5. And what do hererosexual men and women find attractive in a mate? a) Some desired traits, such as a woman's youthful appearance, cross place and time b) Evolutionary psychologists say that men who were drawn to healthy; fertile appearing women-women with smooth skin and a youthful shape suggesting many childbearing years to come-stood a better chance of sending their genes into the future c) And sure enough, men feel most attracted to women whose waits (thanks to their genes or their surgeons) are roughly a third narrower than their hips- a sign of future fertility d) Moreover, just as evolutionary psychology predicts, men are most attracted to a women whose ages in the ancestral past (when ovulation began later than today) would be associated with peak fertility e) Thus, teen boys are more excited by a woman several years older than themselves, mid twentieth men prefer women around their own age, and older men prefer younger women f) This pattern consistently appears across European singles ads, Indian marital ads, and marriage records from north and south america, africa, and the philippines g) Women in turn prefer stick around dads over likely cads k) They are attracted to men who seem mature, dominant, bold, and affluent, with a potential for long term mating and investment in their joint offspring 6. In one study of hundreds of welsh pedestrians, men rated a women as equally attractive whether pictured at a wheel of humble ford fiesta or a swanky betley a) Women however, found the man more attractive if he was in the luxury car b) In another experiment, women skillfully discerned which men most liked looking at baby pictures, and they rated those men higher as potential long term mates c) From an evolutionary perspective, such attributes connote a man's capacity to support and protect a family d) There is a principle at work here, say evolutionary psychologists: nature selects behaviors that increase the likelihood of sending one's genes into the future e) As mobile gene machines, we are designed to prefer whatever worked for our ancestors in their environments f) They were predisposed to act in ways that would produce grandchildren-had they not been, we wouldn't be here g) And as carriers of their genetic legacy, we are similarly predisposed h) Without disputing nature's selection of traits that enhance gene survival, critics see some problems with this explanation of our mating preferences i) They believe that the evolutionary perspective overlooks some important influences on human sexuality

give an overview of the neuroscience and behavior?

Neural Communication 1. Neurons a) How Neurons Communicate b) How Neurotransmitters Influence Us 2. The Nervous System a) The Peripheral Nervous System b) The Central Nervous System 3. The Endocrine System a) Hormones in the bloodstream

what are the studies done on separated twins

Separated twins 1. A number of studies compared identical twins reared separately from birth or close thereafter and found numerous similarities a) Like personality, intelligence abilities, attitudes, interests, fears, brain waves, and heart rate 2. On a chilly February morning in 1979, some time after divorcing his first wife, Linda, Jim Lewis awoke in his modest home next to his second wife, Betty. a) Determined that this marriage would work, Jim made a habit of leaving love notes to Betty around the house b) As he lay in bed he thought about other he had love,d including his son James Alan, and his faithful dog, Troy c) Jim was looking forward to spending part of the day in his basement woodworking shop where he had put in many happy hours building furniture, picture frame,s and other items, including a whie bench now circling a tree in his front yard d) Jim also liked to spend his free time driving his chevy, watching stock car racing, and drinking Miller lite beer e) Jim was basically healthy, except for occasional half day migraine headaches and blood pressure that was a little high, perhaps related to his chain smoking habit f) He had become overweight a while back but had shed some of the pounds g) Having undergone a vasectomy, he was done having children h) What was extraordinary about Jim Lewis was that are that same moment, there existed another man, also named Jim for whom all these things were also true i) This other jim-Jim springer happened, 38 years earlier to have been his fetal partner j) 37 days after their birth, these genetically identical twins were separated, adopted by blue collar families, and reared with no contact or knowledge of each other's whereabouts until the day Jim Lewis received a call from his genetic clone who upon learning he had a twin set out to find him k) One month later, the brothers became the first twin pair tested by the University of Minnesota psychologist Thomas Bouchard and his colleagues beginning a study of separated twins that extends to the present l) Their voice intonations and inflections wer so similar that, hearing a playback of an earlier interview, Jim Springer guessed that was him when it was his brother m) Given tests measuring their personality, intelligence, heart rate, and brain waves, the Him twins-despite 38 years of separation- were virtually as alike as the same person tested twice 3. Aided by publicity in magazines and newspapers stories, Bouchard and his colleagues located and studies 74 pairs of identical twins reared apart a) They contained to find similarities not only of tastes and physical attributes but also of personality (characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting), abilities, attitudes, interests, and even fears b) In sweden, Nancy pedersen and her co workers identified 99 separated identical twin pairs and more than 200 separated fraternal twin pairs c) Compared with equivalent samples of identical twins reared together, the separated identical twins had somewhat less identical personalities d) Still, separated twins were more alike if genetically identical than if fraternal e) And separation shortly after birth did not amplify their personality differences 4. Stories of startling twin similarities do not impress Bouchard's critics, who remind us that the plural of anecdote is not data a) They contend that if any two strangers were to spend hours comparing their behaviors and life histories, they would probably discover many coincidental similarities b) If researchers created a control group of biological unrelated pairs of the same age, sex, and ethnicity who had not grown up together but who were as similar to one another in economic and cultural background as are many of the separated twin pairs, wouldn't these pairs also exhibit striking similarities c) Bouchard replies that separated fraternal twins do not exhibit similarities comparable to those of separated identical twins d) Even the more impressive data from personality assessments are clouded by the reunion of many of the separated twins some years before they were tested e) Moreover, identical twins share an appearance and the response it evokes f) Adoption agencies also tend to place separated twins in similar homes g) Despite these criticisms, the striking twin study results helped shift scientific thinking toward a greater appreciation of genetic influence

what is the split brain? What is the corpus callosum?

Split brain 1. A condition in which two hemispheres of brain are isolated by cutting the corpus callosum a) Split brain: a condition resulting from surgery that isolates the brain's two hemispheres by cutting the fibers (mainly those of the corpus callosum) connecting them 2. Sperry and Gazzaniga a) Vogel and Bogen knew that psychologists Roger SPery, Ronald Myers, and Michael Gazzaniga had dived the brains of cats and monkeys in this manner with no serious ill effects b) So the surgeons operated and the results were that the seizures all but disappeared c) The patients with these split brains were surprisingly normal, their personality, and intellect hardly affected d) Waking from surgery, one even joked that he had a splitting headache e) By sharing their experience, these patients have greatly expanded our understanding of interactions between the intact brain's two hemispheres f) Information from the left half of your left hemisphere, which usually controls speech (not however, that each eye receives sensory information from both the right and left visual fields) g) Data received by either hemisphere are quickly transmitted to the other across the corpus callosum h) In a person with a severed corpus callosum, this information sharing does not take place i) Knowing these facts, sperry and gazzaniga could send information to a patient's left or right hemisphere k) As the person started at a spot, they flashed a stimulus to its right or left l) They could do this with an intact brain, and the hemisphere receiving the information would instantly pass the news to the other side m) Because the split brain surgery had cut the communication lines between the hemispheres, the researchers could with these patients, quiz each hemisphere separately 3. In an early experiment, Gazzaniga asked these people to stare at a dot as he flashed HEART on a screen a) Thus, HE appeared in their left visual field (which transmits to the right hemisphere) and ART in the right field (which transmits to the left hemisphere) b) When he then asked them to say what they had seen, the patients reported that they had seen ART, but when asked to point to the word they had seen, they were startled when their left hand (controlled by the right hemisphere) pointed to HE c) Given an opportunity to express itself, each hemisphere reported what it had seen d) The right hemisphere (controlling the left hand) intuitively knew what it could not verbally report e) When a picture of a spoon was flashed to their right hemisphere, the patients could not say what they had viewed f) But when asked to identify what they had viewed by feeling an assortment of hidden objects with their left hand, they readily selected the spoon g) If the experimenter said "correct" the patient might reply "What? Correct? How could I possible pick out the correct object when I don't know what I saw" h) It is of course the left hemisphere dong the talking here, bewildered by what the nonverbal right hemisphere knows 6. A few people who had split brain surgery have been for a time bothered by the unruly independence of their left hand, which might unbutton a shirt while the right hand buttoned it, or put grocery store items back on the shelf after the right hand put them in the cart a) It was as if each hemisphere was thinking "i've half a mind to wear my green shirt today" b) Indeed said sperry, split brain surgery leaves people with two separate minds c) With a split brain, both hemispheres can comprehend and follow an instruction to copy-simultaneously-different figures with the left and right hands d) When the "two minds" are at odds, the left hemisphere does mental gymnastics to rationalize reactions it does not understand e) If a patient follows an order sent to the right hemisphere (to walk) , a strange thing happens f) Unaware of the order, the left hemisphere doesn't know why the patient begins walking g) Yet when asked why, the patient doesn't say "i don't know" instead the interpretive left hemisphere improvides h) Gassaniga who considers these patients "the most fascinating people on earth" concluded that the conscious left hemisphere is an "interpreter" or a press agent that instantly constructs theories to explain our behavior 7. With corpus callosum severed, objects presented in right visual field can be named (objects in left visual field cannot) a) In 1961, two los angeles neurosurgeons, Phillip Vogel and Joseph Bogen, speculated that major epileptic seizures were caused by an amplification of abnormal brain activity bouncing back and forth between the two cerebral hemispheres b) If so, they wondered could they put an end to this biological tennis game by severing the corpus callosum 8. Corpus callosum: the large band of neural fibers connecting the two brain hemispheres and carrying messages between them

what is heritability and what affect does it have on temperament?

Temperament and heredity 1. Temperament refers to a person's stable emotional reactivity and intensity a) Identical twins express similar temperaments, suggesting heredity predisposes temperament b) Using twin and adoption studies, behavior geneticists can mathematically estimate the heritability of a trait-the extent to which variations among individuals can be attributed to their differing genes 2. Heritability: the proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes. The heritability of a trait may vary, depending on the range of populations and environments studies a) If the heritability of intelligence is, say 50%, this does not mean that you intelligence is 50% genetic (the heritability of height is 90% but this does not mean that a 60-inch tall woman can credit her genes for 54 inch and her environment for the other 6 inches b) Rather, it means that genetic influence explains 50% of the observed variation among people 3. WE CAN NEVER SAY WHAT PERCENTAGE OF AN INDIVIDUAL'S PERSONALITY OF INTELLIGENCE IS INHERITED.it makes no sense to say that your personality is due x percent to your heredity and y percent to your environment 4. HERITABILITY REFERS INSTEAD TO THE EXTENT TO WHICH DIFFERENCES AMONG PEOPLE ARE ATTRIBUTABLE TO GENES a) Even this conclusion must be qualified, because heritability can vary from study to study b) As environments become more similar, heredity as a source of differences necessarily becomes more important c) If all schools were of uniform quality, all families equally loving and all neighborhoods equally healthy, then heredity would increase (because differences due to environment would decrease) d) At the other extreme, if all people have similar heredties but were raised in dramatically different environments (some in barrels, some in luxury homes) heritability would be much lower 5. If genetic influences help explain individual diversity in traits such as aggressiveness, for example, can the same be said of group differences between men and women, or between people of different races a) Not necessarily because individual differences in height and weights are highly heritable; yet nutritional rather than genetic influence explain why as a group, today's adults are taller and heavier than those of a century ago b) The two groups differ, but not because human genes have changed in a mere century's eyeblink of time c) Although the height is 90% heritable, South Koreans, with their better diets, average six inches taller than North Koreans, who come from the same genetic stock d) As with height and weight, so with personality and intelligence score: heritable individual differences need not imply heritable group differences e) In some individuals are genetically disposed to be more aggressive than others, that needn't explain why some groups are more aggressive than others f) Putting people in new social context can change their aggressiveness g) Today's peaceful scandinavians carry many genes inherited from the Viking warrior ancestors

what is the hypothalamus?

The hypothalamus: a neural structure lying below the thalamus, it directs several maintenance activities (eating, drinking, body temperature) helps govern the endocrine system is the pituitary gland, and is linked to emotions and reward a) The hypothalamus lies below (hypo) the thalamus 1. EATING, DRINKING ,BODY TEMPERATURE, AND CONTROLS OF EMOTIONS 2. IT HELPS TO GOVERN THE ENDOCRINE SYSTEM VIA THE PITUITARY GLAN 3. HELPS TO REGULATE: a) temperature b) appetite c) libido d) emotions 4. The four f's a) feeding b) fighting c) fleeing d) mating 4. Some neural clusters in the hypothalamus influence hunger others regulate thirst, body temperature, and sexual behavior 5. Together they help maintain a steady internal state 6. As the hypothalamus monitors the state of your body, in tunes into your blood chemistry and any incoming orders from other brain parts a) For example, picking up signals from your brains cerebral cortex that you are thinking about sex, your hypothalamus will secrete hormones b) These hormones will in turn trigger the adjacent "master gland" your pituitary to influence our se glands to release their hormones c) These will intensify he thoughts of sex in your cerebral cortex (once again, we see the interplay between the nervous and endocrine systems: the brain influences the endocrine system, which in turn influences the brain 7. Two young McGill University neuropsychologists, James Olds and Peter Milner were trying to implant an electrode in a rat's reticular formation when they de magnificent mistake: they laced the electrode incorrectly a) Curiously, as f seeking more stimulation, the rat kept returning to the location where it had been stimulated by he misplaced electrode b) One discovering that they had actually placed the device in a region of the hypothalamus, Olds and Milner realized they had stumbled upon a brain center that provides pleasurable rewards c) In a meticulous series of experiments, Olds went on to locate other "pleasure centers" as he called them (today's scientists refer to them as reward centers) d) When allowed to press pedals to trigger their own stimulation in these areas, rats would sometimes do so at a feverish pace up to 7000 times per hour until they dropped from exhaustion e) Moreover, to get this stimulation, they would even cross an electric floor that a starving rat would not cross to reach food f) When the limbic system is manipulated a rat will navigate fields or climb up a tree g) rats cross an electrified grid for self stimulation when electrodes are placed in the reward (hypothalamus) center 8. damage to one area can cause overwhelming urge to eat a) damage to another area in males causes sex organs to degenerate and sex drive to decrease drastically

Which of the following would most likely result from an injury to the medulla? (A) Visual problems that make spatial judgments difficult (B) Receptive aphasia that makes it difficult to understand what other people are saying (C) Retrograde amnesia that destroys previously established memories (D) A problem regulating hunger (E) A life-threatening disruption of heartbeat and breathing

(E) A life-threatening disruption of heartbeat and breathing

what is consciousness

1. Consciousness: our awareness of ourselves and our environment 2. Today' science explores the biology of consciousness a) Evolutionary psychologists speculate that consciousness must offer a reproductive advantage b) Consciousness helps us act on our long term interests (by considering consequences) rather than merely seeking short term pleasure and avoiding pain c) Consciousness also promotes our survival by anticipating how we seem to others and helping us read their minds d) Such explanations leave us with the "hard problem": how do brain cells jabbering to one another create our awareness of the taste of a taco, the idea of infinity, the feeling of fright. Scientists are pursuing answers e) Sometimes science confirms widely held beliefs. Other times, science is stranger than science fiction 3. When overcome by carbon monoxide, a woman whom they called DF suffered brain damage that left her unable to recognize and discriminate objects brain damage visually a) Consciously she could see nothing b) Yet she exhibited BLINDSIGHT -she would act as if she could see c) Asked to slip a postcard into a vertical or horizontal mail slot, she could do so without error d) Although unable to report the width of a block in front of her, she could grasp it with just the right finger thumb distance e) If you were to experience temporary blindness (with magnetic pulses to your brain's primary visual cortex area) this too would create blindsight-as you correctly guess the color or orientation of an object that you cannot consciously see f) How could this be? Don't we have one visual system? g) Researchers know from animal research that the eye sends information simultaneously to different brain area, which support different tasks h) Sure enough ,a scan of D.F. brain's activity revealed normal activity in the area concerned with reaching for, grasping, and navigating objects but damage in the area concerned with consciously recognizing objects 4. So would the reverse damage lead to the opposite symptoms? a) Indeed, there are few patients who can see and recognize objects but have difficulty pointing toward or grasping them b) We may think of our vision as one system controlling our visually guided actions, but it is actually a dual processing system c) A VISUAL PERCEPTION TRACK enables us "to think about the world" to recognize things and to plan future actions d) A VISUAL ACTION TRACK guides our moment to moment movements 5. On rare occasions, the two conflict a) Shown the hollow face illusion, people will mistakenly perceive the inside of a mask as a protruding face b) Yet they will unhesitatingly and accurately reach into the inverted mask to flick off a buglike target stuck on the face c) What the conscious mind doesn't know, the hand does d) Another patient who lost all his left visual cortex, leaving him blind to objects presented on the right side of his field of vision-can nevertheless sense the emotion expressed in faces he does not consciously perceive e) The same is true for normally sighted people who visual cortex has been disabled with magnetic stimulation 6. THIS SUGGESTS THAT BRAIN AREAS BELOW THE CORTEX ARE PROCESSING EMOTION RELATED INFORMATION a) People often have trouble accepting that much of our everyday thinking, feeling, and acting operates outside our conscious awareness b) We are understandably biased to believe that our intentions and deliberate choices rule our lives c) But consciousness, though enabling us to exert voluntary control and to communicate our mental states to others, is but the tip of the information processing iceberg d) Being intensely focused on an activity, increases your total brain activity o more than 5 percent above its baseline rate e) And even when you rest "hubs of dark energy" are whirling inside your head f) Experiments show that when you move your wrist at will, you consciously experience the decision to move it about 0.2 seconds before the actual movement g) But your brain waves jump aout 0.35 seconds before you consciously perceive your decision to move h) This readiness potential has enabled researchers (using fMRI brain scans) to predict with 60 percent accuracy and up to 7 seconds ahead-participants' decisions to press a button with their left or right finger 7. The startling conclusion: CONSCIOUSNESS SOMETIME ARRIVES LATE TO THE DECISION MAKING PARTY a) Running on automatic pilot allows our consciousness-our mind's CEO to monitor the whole system and deal with new challenges while neural assistants automatically take care of routine business b) Walking the familiar path to your next class, your feet do the word while your mind rehearses the presentation you're about to give c) A skilled tennis player's brain and body respond automatically to an oncoming serve before becoming consciously aware of the ball's trajectory (which takes about three tenths of a second) d) Ditto for other skilled athletes,, for whom action precedes awareness 8. The bottom line: IN EVERYDAY LIFE, WE MOSTLY FUNCTION LIKE AN AUTOMATIC POINT-AND SHOOT CAMERA BUT WITH A MANUAL (CONSCIOUS ) OVERRIDE a) Our unconscious parallel processing is faster than sequential conscious processing but both are essential SEQUENTIAL PROCESSING is skilled at solving new problems which require our focused attention b) Two difficult tasks require conscious attention which can be in only one place at a time c) If time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once, then consciousness is nature's way of keeping us from thinking and doing everything at once

How might evolutionary psychologists explain gender differences in sexuality and mating preferences?

1. Men tend to have a recreational view of sexual activity' women tend to have a relational view 2. Evolutionary psychologists reason that men's attraction to multiple healthy, fertile appearing partners increase their chances of spreading their gene widely 3. Because women incubate and nurse babies, they increase their own and their children's chances of survival by searching for mates with the potential for long term investment in their joint offspring

What is the promise of molecular genetics research?

1. Molecular geneticists study the molecular structure and function of genes, including those that affect behavior 2. Psychologists and molecular geneticists are cooperating to identify specific genes-or more often, teams of genes- that put people at risk for disorders

what is natural selection and artificial selection?

1. Natural selection is an evolutionary process through which beneficial traits are passed on because these traits aid survival/reproduction a) Natural selection: the principle that, among the range of inherited trait variations, those contributing to reproduction and survival will most likely passed on to succeeding generations 2. Natural selection is simplified is this: a) Organisms' varied offspring compete for survival b) Certain biological and behavioral variations increase organisms' reproductive and survival chances in their particular environment c) Offspring that survive are more likely to pass their genes to ensuring generations d) Thus, over time, population characteristics may change. 3. A fox is a wild and wary animal a) If you capture a fox and try to befriend it, be careful because if you stick your hand in the cage and he timid fox cannot flee, it may snack on your fingers b) Russian scientist dmitri belyaev wondered how our human ancestors had domesticated dogs from their equally wild wolf forebears c) Might he within a comparatively short stretch of time, accomplish a similar feat, by transforming the fearful fox into a friendly fox? d) To find out, Belyaev set to work with 30 male and 100 female foxes e) From their offspring he selected a mated the tamest 5% of males and 30% of females (he measured tameness by the foxes' responses to attempts to feed, nadle and stroke them) f) Over more than 30 generations of foxes, Belyaev and his successor, Lyudmila Trut, repeated that simple procedure g) Forty years and 45,000 foxes later, they had a new breed of foxes that, in Trut's words are docile, eager to please, and unmistakably domesticated. Before our eyes, the beast has turned into beauty as the aggressive behavior of our herd's wild ancestors entirely disappeared h) So friendly and eager for human contact they are so included to whimper to attract attention and to lick people like affectionate dogs that cash strapped institute seized on a way to raise funds-marketing its foxes to people as house pets 4. overtime, traits that are selected confer a reproductive advantage on an individual or a species and will prevail a) Animal breeding experiments manipulated genetic selection and shows its powers b) Dog breeders have given us sheepdogs that herd, retrievers that retrieve trackers that track and pointers that point c) Psychologists, too have bred animals to be serene or reactive, quick learners or slow 5. Nature had indeed selected advantageous variations from the new gene combinations produced at each human conception and the mutations that sometimes result a) Mutations: a random error in gene replication that leads to a change b) But the tight genetic leash that predisposes a dog's retrieving, a cat's pouncing, or an ant's next building is looser on humans c) The genes selected during our ancestral history provide more than a long leash; they endox us with a great capacity to learn and therefore to adapt to life in varied environment,s from the tundra to the jungle d) Genes and experience together wire the brain. Our adaptive flexibility in responding to different environments contributes to our fitness-our ability to survive and reproduce 6. Artificial selection a) Any trait that is favored artificially spreads to future generations

How do heredity and environment work together?

1. Our genetic predisposition and our surrounding environment interact. Environments can trigger gene activity and genetically influenced traits can evoke responses from others 2. The field of epigenetics studies the influences on gene expression that occur without changes in DNA

what is epigenetic? how can the environment cause genes to be active or inactive?

1. Recall that genes can be either active or inactive a) A new field, epigenetics (meaning "in addition to" or "above and beyond" genetics) is studying the molecular mechanism by which environments trigger genetic expressions 2. Epigenetics: the study of environmental influences on gene expression that occur without a DNA change a) Although genes have the potential to influence development, environmental triggers can switch them on or off 3. One such epigenetic mark is an organic methyl molecule attached to a part of a DNA strand a) It instructus the cell to ignore any gene present in that DNA segment, thereby preventing the DNA from producing the proteins coded by that gene 4. Environmental factors such as diet, drugs, and stress can affect the epigenetic molecules that regulate gene expression a) In one experiment, infant rats deprived of their mothers normal licking had more molecules that blocked access to the "on" switch for developing the brain's stress hormone receptors b) When stressed, the animals had more free floating stress hormones and were more stressed out c) Child abuse may simiarily affect its victims d) Humans who have committed suicide exhibit the same epigenetic effect if they had suffered a history of child abuse 5. Researchers now wonder if epigenetics might help solve some scientific mysteries, such as why only one member of identical twin pair may develop a genetically influenced mental disorder, and how experience leaves it fingerprints in our brains a) So from conception onward we are the product of a cascade of interactions between genetic predispositions and our surrounding environment b) Our genes affect how people react to and influence us c) Biological appearances have social consequences d) So forget nature vs nurture, think nature via nurture

what are glial cells?

Glial cells: 1. Cells in the nervous system that are not neurons but that support, nourish and protect neurons 2. Glial cells: cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons; they may also play a role in learning and thinking a) Neurons cannot feed or sheathe themselves so glial cells provide nutrients and insulating myelin, guide neural connections, and mop up ions and neurotransmitters 3. Glia may also play a role in learning and thinking a) By chatting with neurons they may participate in information transmission and memory 4. In more complex animal brains, the proportion of glia to neurons increases a) A postmortem analysis of Einstein's brain did not find more or larger than usual neurons, but it did reveal a much greater concentration of glial cells that found in an average Albert's head

how does the MRI scan help us to study the brain?

MRI (magnetic resonance imaging): a technique that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce computer generated images of soft tissue. MRI scans show brain anatomy 1. Then, a radio wave pulse momentarily disorients the atoms 2. When the atoms return to their normal spin, they emit signals that provide a detailed picture of soft tissues, including the brain 3. MRI scans have revealed a larger than average neural area in the left hemisphere of musicians who display perfect pitch 4. They have also revealed enlarged VENTRICLES- fluid filled brain areas - in some patients who have schizophrenia, a disabling psychological disorder 5. In MRI brain scans, the person's head is put in a strong magnetic field, which aligns the spinning atoms of brain molecules

What is heritability, and how does it relate to individuals and groups?

1. Heritability describes the extent to which variation among members of a group can be attributed to genes 2. Heritable individual differences (in traits such as height or intelligence) do not necessarily imply heritable group differences. Genes most explain why some people are taller than other,s but not why people are taller today than they were a century ago

How do evolutionary psychologists use natural selection to explain behavior tendencies?

1. Evolutionary psychologists seek to understand how our traits and behavior tendencies are shaped by natural selection, as genetic variations increasing the odds of reproducing and surviving are most likely to be passed on to future generations 2. Some genetic variations arise from mutations others from new gene combinations at conception 3. Humans share a genetic legacy and are predisposed to behave in ways that promote our ancestors' surviving and reproducing 4. Charles darwin's theory of evolution is an organizing principle in biology/ he anticipated today's application of evolutionary principles in psychology

what are evolutionary psychologist?

1. Evolutionary psychology studies why we as humans are similar a) Behavior geneticists explore the genetic and environmental roots of human differences b) Evolutionary psychologists instead focus mostly on what makes us so much alike c) Evolutionary psychologist: the study of the evolution of behavior and the mind, using principles of natural selection d) They use charles darwin's of natural selection to understand the roots of behavior and mental processes Richard dawkins called natural selection "arguably the most momentous idea ever to occur to a human mind 2. Evolutionary psychology today a) Darwin's theory of evolution has been an organizing principle for biology for a long time b) Jared Diamond noted virtually no contemporary scientists believe that darwin was basically wrong c) Today's darwin's theory lives on in the second darwinian revolution: the application of evolutionary principles to psychology d) In concluding on the origin of species, Darwin anticipated this, foreseeing open fields for far more important researchers. Psychology will be based on new foundation 3. To see how evolutionary psychologists think and reason, let's pause now to explore their answers to these two questions: how are men and women alike? How and why does men's and women's sexuality differ?

What are genes, and how do behavior geneticists explain our individual differences?

1. Genes are the biochemical units of heredity that make up chromosomes, the threadlike coils of DNA 2. When genes are turned off (expressed_ they provide the code for creating the proteins that form our body's building blocks 3. Most human traits are influenced by many genes acting together 4. Behavior geneticists seek to quantify genetic and environmental influence on our traits, in part through studies of identical twins, fraternal twins, and adoptive families 5. Shared family environments have little effect on personality, and the stability of personality suggests a genetic predisposition

what are the parts of the central nervous system

1. From the simplicity of neurons "talk" to other neurons arises the complexity of the central nervous system's brain and spinal cord 2. It is the brain that enables our humanity-our thinking, feeling, and acting a) Tens of billions of neurons, each communicating with thousands of other neurons, yield an ever changing wiring diagram b) With some 40 billion neurons, each connecting with roughly 10,000 other neurons, we end up with perhaps 400 trillion synapses-places where neurons meet and greet their neighbors c) A grain of sand sized speck of your brain contains some 100,00 neurons and 1 billion "talking" synapses 3. The brain and neural networks a) Interconnected neurons form networks in the brain b) Neural networks: complex connections to axons and dendrites/ the work groups that the brain's neurons cluster in c) We have a complex neural network with several neurons taking an input and going to certain neurons to get an output d) Like people networking with people, neurons network with nearby neurons with which they can have short, fast connections e) Each layer's cells connect with various cells in the neural network's next layer f) Learning to play the violin, speaking a foreign language, solve a math problem-occurs as experience strengthens connections g) Neurons that fire together wire together 4. Brain is selective in which neurons connect to make it smaller since not every neuron can connect to each other 5. The other part of the CNS, the SPINAL CORD, is a two way information highway connecting the peripheral nervous system and the brain a) Ascending neural fibers send up sensory information, and descending fibers send back motor control information b) The neural pathways governing our reflexes, our automatic responses to stimuli, illustrate the spinal cord's work A) Reflex: a simple, automatic response to a sensory stimulus, such as the knee jerk response c) A simple spinal reflex pathway is composed of a single sensory neuron and a single motor neuron d) These often communicate through an interneuron e) The knee jerk response, for example, involves one such simple pathway. A headless warm body could do it 6. Another such pathway enables the pain reflex a) When our fingers touches a flame, neural activity (excited by the heat) travels via sensory neurons to interneurons in your spinal cord b) These interneurons respond by activating motor neurons leading to the muscles in your arm c) Because the simple pain reflex pathway runs through the spinal cord and right back out, your hand jerks away from the candle's flame before your brain receives and responds to the information that causes you to feel pain d) That's why it feels as if your hand jerks away not by your choice, but on its own 7. Information travels to and from the brain by way of the spinal cord a) Were the top of your spinal cord severed, you would not feel pain from your paralyzed body below b) Nor would you feel pleasure c) With your brain literally out of touch with your body, you would lose all sensation and voluntary movement in body regions with sensory and motor connection to the spinal cord below its point of injury d) You would exhibit the knee jerk without feeling the tap. To produce bodily pain or pleasure, the sensory information must reach the brain

What is the body's chemical messengers?

1. The body's chemical messengers: a) Neurotransmitters: in the nervous system b) Hormones: blood based c) Neurohormones: can be in the brain or blood [1] What is the body's chemical messengers?

How does the CT scan help us to study the brain

A series of x-ray photographs taken from different angles and different angles and combined by computer into a composite representation of a slice through the body; also called CAT 1. the CT scan examines the brain by taking X-ray photographs that can reveal brain damage

How do EEG helps us to study the brain

An recording of the electrical waves weeping across the brain's surface, measure by electrodes placed on the scalp 1. Used to monitor brain waves for 24 waves 2. Can use strobe light to change brain waves 3. Used with strokes, headaches, and seizures 4. Electroencephalogram: an amplified recording of the eaves of electrical activity seeping across the brain's surface. These waves are measured by electrodes placed on the scalp a) Researchers record the brain waves through a shower cap like hat that is filled with electrodes covered with a conductive gel b) Studying an EEG of the brain's activity is like studying a car engine by listening to its hum c) With no direct access to the brain, researches present a stimulus repeatedly and have a computer filter out brain unrelated to the stimulus

What is the function of the neurotransmitter dopamine

Dopamine 1. Feel good neurotransmitters 2.Important for movement, rewards & pleasure. 3. How the body gets us to do stuff by rewarding us with dopamine a) Things that are good for us and evolutionary necessary will release dopamine (ex: eating peeing, sex, exercise, etc) b) Influences movement, learning, attention, and emotion 4. Involved with diseases such as schizophrenia and Parkinson's Disease. a) Schizophrenia means there is too much dopamine b) Parkinson's disease is there is too little dopamine (part of the brain that produces dopamine has neurons that die out which causes pakinsons c) Certain pesticides lead to an increased risk of getting parkinsons d) Symptoms of parkinson's disease are tremors, have hard time stopping and starting movement, hard time feeding themselves, trememores in the voice e) Treatments: eldopha, brain tissue transplants to that part of the brain of electro transmitters in that part of the brain f) Oversupply linked to schizophrenia. Undersupply linked to tremors and decreased mobility in parkinson's disease

how do the different genders look at sexuality?

Gender differences in sexuality 1. Differences in sexes arise in regards to reproductive behaviors a) Men have more casual sex and think about sex everyday than women. Women have more sex for affection than men b) And differ we do c) Consider men's and women's sex drives d) The answer worldwide is that men think more about sex, masturabtes moer oftne, initiates more sex, and views more pornography than women e) No surprise then that in one BBC survey of more than 200,000 people in 53 nations, men everywhere more strongly agreed that I have a strong sex drive and it doesn't take much to get me sexually excited Indeed with few exceptions anywhere in the world, reported cross cultural psychologists Marshall Segall and his colleagues, males are more likely than females to initiate sexual activity f) Men also have a lower threshold for perceiving warm responses as a sexual come on g) In a study after study, men more often than women attribute a woman's friendliness to sexual interest h) Misattributing women's cordiality as a come on helps explain, but does not excuse, men's greater sexual assertiveness i) The unfortunate results can range from sexual harassment to date rape

What is the myelin sheath?

Myelin Sheath: a) "Practice makes Myelin, Myelin makes perfect." 1. Specialized Glial cells 2. Acts as an electrical insulator 3. Not present on all cells 4. Increases the speed of neural signals down the axon. a) Conserves energy by using less sodium pumps by having connections jump b) White matter is myelin and grey matter is the glial cells c) Makes connections which allows for learning d) Listening to music and exercising help you to learn better 5. Myelin sheath: a fatty tissue layer segmentally encasing the axons of some neurons; enables vastly greater transmission speed as neural impulses hop from one sausage like node to the next 6. As myelin is laid down up to about age 25, neural efficiency, judgment, and self control grow 7. If the myelin sheath degenerates, multiple sclerosis results: communication to muscles slows with eventual loss of muscle control

What is the function of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine

Norepinephrine: (adrenaline) 1. Arousal 2. Sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight increases) a) Nonvoluntary 3. "Fight or flight" response 4. Wakefulness, sleep 5. Learning 6. Mood regulation 7. Helps control alertness and arousal 8. Undersupply can depress mood

What is a synapse?

Synapse: a junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron. a) Synapse: the junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron. The tiny gap at this junction is called the synaptic gap or synaptic cleft 1. Electrical charge goes through amazon, causing neurotransmitters to close the gap and the electrical change continues through receptor sites 2. Each synapse has a different reaction sequence a) Neurons interweave so intricately that even with a microscope you would have trouble seeing where one neuron ends and another begins b) Scientists once believed that the axon of one cell fused with the dendrites of another in an uninterrupted fabric c) Then british physiologist Sir Charles Sherrington (1857-1952) noticed that neural impulses were taking an unexpectedly long time to travel a neural pathway d) Inferring that there must be a brief interruption in the transmission, Sherrington called the meeting point between neurons a synapse e) We now know that the axon terminal of one neuron is in fact separated from the receiving neuron by a synaptic gap (or synaptic cleft) less than 1 millionth of an inch wide e) When an action potential reaches the knoblike terminals at an axon's end, it triggers the release of chemical messengers, called neurotransmitters

what is the limbic system?

THE LIMBIC SYSTEM IS A SYSTEM OF NURAL STRUCTURES ASSOCIATED WITH EMOTIONS SUCH AS FEAR, AGGRESSION, ND DRIVES FOD FOOD AND SEX a) Limbic system: a neural system including the hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus, located below the cerebral hemispheres, associated with emotions and drives 1. Between the oldest and newest brain areas lies the limbic system 2. The hippocampus processes conscious memories 3. Animals or humans who lose their hippocampus to surgery or injury also lose their ability to form new memories of facts and events 4.The limbic system has links to emotions such as fear and anger, and to basic motives such as those for food and sex 5. IT INCLUDES THE HIPPOCAMPUS, AMYGDALA, AND HYPOTHALAMUS

what are hormones?

Hormones are chemicals synthesized by the endocrine glands that are secreted in the bloodstream. a) Hormones: chemical messengers that are manufactured by the endocrine glands travel through the bloodstream and affect other tissues 1. Some hormones are chemically identical to neurotransmitters (the chemical messengers that diffuse across a synapse and excite or inhibit an adjacent neuron) a) Ex: testosterone and estrogen, adrenaline b) For example, epinephrine (adrenaline) increases heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar, and feelings of excitement during emergency situations. 2. When hormones act on the brain, they influence our interest in sex, food, and aggression

compare and contrast hormones and neurotransmitters

Hormones vs Neurotransmitters: 1. Both produce molecules that act on receptors elsewhere 2. Distance traveled between release and target sites a) Hormones travel a greater distance than neurotransmitters 3. Speed of communication a) Neurotransmitters are much faster than hormones b) The speedy nervous system zips messages from eyes to brain to hand in a fraction of a second c) Endocrine messages trudge along in the bloodstream, taking several seconds or more to travel from the gland to the target tissue d) If the nervous system's communication delivers messages with the speed of a text message, the endocrine system is more like sending a letter through the mail e) Endocrine messages tend to outlast the effects of neural messages A) That helps explain why upset feelings may longer beyond our awareness of what upset us B) When this happens, it takes time for us to "simmer down."

how are brain's lateralize?

Our brains are lateralized 1. A number of brain scan studies show normal individuals engage their right brain when completing a spatial, artistic, or musical task and their left brain when carrying out a linguistic or logical task 2. Several different types of studies indicate that each of our hemispheres also performs distinct functions in the undivided brain a) When a person performs a perceptual task, for example, the brain waves, blood flow, and glucose consumption reveal increased activity in the right hemisphere b) When the person speaks or calculates, activity increases in the left hemisphere 3. To the brain, language is language, whether spoken or signed a) Just as hearing people usually use the left hemisphere to process speech, deaf people use the left hemisphere to process sign language b) Thus, a left hemisphere stroke disrupts a deaf person's signing, much as it would disrupt a hearing person's speaking c) The same brain area is involved in both 4. Although the left hemisphere is adept at making quick, literal interpretations of language, the right hemisphere: a) Excels in making inferences: b) Primed with the flashed word foot, the left hemisphere will be especially quick to recognize the closely associated word hell. c) But if primed with foot, cry, and glass, the right hemisphere will more quickly recognize another word distantly related to all three like cut d) And if given an insight-like problem- "what word goes with boot, summer, and ground"- the right hemisphere more quickly than the left recognizes the solution: camp e) As one patient explained after a right hemisphere stroke "i understand words, but i'm missing the subtleties f) Helps us modulate our speech to make meaning clear g) As when we ask "what that's in the road ahead" instead of "what's that in the road ahead?" 5. Helps orchestrate our sense of self a) People who suffer partial paralysis will sometimes obstinately deny their impairment-strangely claiming they can move a paralyzed limb-if the damage is to the right hemisphere b) Simply looking at the two hemispheres, so alike to the naked eye, who would suppose they contributed uniquely to the harmony of the whole c) Yet a variety of observations-of people with split brains, of people with normal brains, and even of other species' brains-coverage beautifully, leaving little doubt that we have unified brains with specialized parts 6. Our brain's look alike left and right hemispheres serve different functions a) This lateralization is apparent after brain damage b) Research collected over more than a century has shown that accidents, strokes, and tumors in the left hemisphere can impair reading ,writing,s speaking, arithmetic reasoning, and understanding c) Similar lesions in the right hemisphere have effects that are less visibly dramatic d) Many believe that the right hemisphere was the minor hemisphere until 1960 when researchers found that the "minor" right hemisphere was not so limited after all

how does the PET scan help us to study the brain?

PET (positron emission tomography) scan is a visual display of the brain activity that detects a radioactive form of glucose while the brain performs a given tasks 1. Even more dramatic is the PET scan which depicts brain activity by showing each brain area's consumption of its chemical feel, the sugar glucose 2. Active neurons are glucose hogs and after a person receives temporarily radioactive glucose, the PET scan can track the gamma rays released by this food for thought" as the person performs a given task 3. Rather like weather radar showing rain activity, PET scan "hot spots" show which brain areas are most active as the person does mathematical calculations, looks at images of faces, or daydreams

what affect does parenting have on children?

Parenting: 1. Parenting does have an effect on biological related and unrelated children 2. Parenting influences children's attitudes, values, manner,s belief,s faith and politics 3. Parenting matters! a) In adoptive homes, child neglect and abuse and even parental divorce are rare b) Adoptive parents are carefully screened; natural parents are not c) So it is not surprising that despite a somewhat greater risk of psychological disorder, most adoptive children thrive, especially when adoptive as infants d) Seven in eight reports freeling strongly attached to one or both adoptive parents e) As self giving parents, they grow up to more self giving and altruistic than average f) Many score higher than their biological parents on intelligence tests, and most grow into happier and more stable adults g) In one swedish study, infant adoptees grew up with fewer problems than were experienced by children whose biological mother has initially registered them for adoption but then decided to raise the children themselves k) Regardless of personality differences between parents and their adoptees, children benefit from adoption

What is the peripheral nervous system

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS): the sensory and motor neurons that connect the central nervous system (CNS) to the rest of the body 1. Feeling, moving, reacting to situations 2. The peripheral nervous system is responsible for gathering information and for transmitting CNS decisions to other body parts a) Peripheral nervous system (PNS): the sensor and motor neurons that connect the central nervous system (CNS) to the rest of the body

what is action potential for neural communications?

1. Action potential: electrical charge moving down the axon a) When the axon is resting it is negative on inside and positive on outside (resting period) b) When it is in action, sodium ions are pumped in and it is positive on inside and outside 2. Neutral is the refracting period (the in between) a) In response, a neuron fires an impulse called the action potential-a brief electrical charge that travels down its axon 3. Action potential: a neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down an axon a) Depending on the type of fiber, a neural impulse travels at speeds ranging from sluggish 2 miles per hour to 180 miles per hour, but eve this top speed is 3 million times slower than that of electricity through a wire b) We measure brain activity in milliseconds (thousandths of a second) and computer activity in nanoseconds (billionths of a second0 c) Thus unlike the nearly instantaneous reactions of a high speed computer, your reaction to a sudden event may take a quarter-second or more d) Your brain is vastly more complex than a computer, but slower at executing simple responses e) Neurons generate electricity from chemical events I the neuron's chemistry to electricity process-ions (electrically charged atoms) are exchanged

what is the adrenal glands?

1. Adrenal glands secrete adrenaline (epinephrine and norepinephrine) during stressful and emotional situations. a) Adrenal glands: a pain of endocrine glands that sit just above the kidneys and secret hormones (epinephrine and norepinephrine) that help arouse the body in times of stress 2. Inner part, called the medulla, helps trigger the "fight or flight" response 3. Sits atop of the kidneys and controls fight or flight 4. In a moment of danger, for example, the ANS orders the adrenal glands on top of the kidneys to release epinephrine and norepinephrine (also called adrenaline and noradrenaline) a) These hormones increase heart rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar, providing us with a surge of energy, known as the fight or flight response b) When the emergency passes, the hormones-and the feelings of excitement-linger a while

what is aphasia, Broca's and wernicke's?

1. Aphasia: a) Impairment of language, usually caused by left hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (speaking impaired) or wernicke's area (understanding impaired) 2. Broca's a) Area of left frontal lobe that directs muscle movements in speech b) Your speech machinery is broken 3. Wernicke's a) area of left frontal lobe involved with language comprehension b) Understanding impaired c) Similarity, the acquisition, development and use of language depends on both specialized neural networks and their integration d) 19th century research by French physician Paul Broca and German investigator Carl Wernicke led to the discovery of specialized language brain areas e) Damage to Broca's area disrupts speaking, while damage to Wernicke's area disrupts understanding f) Today's neuroscience has shown that language functions are distributed across other brain areas as well

what is a behavior geneticists? What is environment?

1. Behavior Geneticists study our differences and weight the relative effects of heredity and environment a) Behavioral geneticists: the study of the relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behavior b) Environment: every external influence, from prenatal nutrition to the people and things around us 2. Behind the story of our human brain is the essence of our universal human attitudes and our individual traits a) In important ways, we are each unique and look and sound different, have varying personalities, interests, cultural and family backgrounds. b) Our human family shares not only a common biological heritage but also common behavioral tendencies c) Our shared brain architecture predisposes us to sense the world, develop language, and feel hunger through identical mechanisms d) Our kinship appears in our social behaviors as well We start fearing strangers at about eight months and as adults we prefer the company of those with attitudes and attributes similar to our own e) Coming from different parts of the globe, we know how to read one another's smiles and frowns f) As members of one species, we affiliate, conform, return favors, punish offenses, organize hierarchies of status and grieve a child's death g) A visitor from outer space could drop in anywhere and find humans dancing and feasting, singing, and worshipping playing sports and games, laughing and crying, living in families and forming groups. Taken together such universal behaviors define our human nature

what are the older brain structures

1. Brainstem 2. Thalamus 3. The reticular formation 4. the cerebellum 5. An animal's capacities come from its brain structures. In primitive animals, such as sharks, a not so complex brain primarily regulates basic survival functions: breathing, resting, and feeding a) In lower mammals, such as rodents, a more complex brain enables emotion and greater memory b) In advanced mammals, such as humans, a brain that processes more information enables increased foresight as well c) This increasing complexity arises from new brain systems built on top of the old, much as Earth's landscape covers the ld with the new d) Digging down, one discovers the fossil remnants of the past- brainstem components performing for us much as they did for our distant ancestors 6. Note: these older brain functions occur without any conscious effort. a) This illustrates another recurring theme: OUR BRAIN PROCESSES MOST INFORMATION OUTSIDE OF OUR AWARENESS b) We are aware o the results of our brain's labor but not of how we construct the visual image c) Likewise, whether we are asleep of awake, our brainstem manages its life sustaining functions, freeing or newer brain regions to think, talk, dream, or savor a memory

What is the history of biological psychology? What is a biological psychologists?

1. By studying the links between biological activity and psychological events, biological psychologists are announcing discoveries about the interplay of our biology and our behavior and mind at an exhilarating pace 2. Biological psychologists: the scientific study of the links between biological (genetic, neural, hormonal) and psychological processes. Some biological psychologists call themselves behavioral neuroscientists, neuropsychologists, behavior geneticists, physiological psychologists, or biopsychologists a) Although we find it convenient to talk separately of biological and psychological influences on behavior, we need to remember: to think, feel, or act without a body would be like running without legs 3. The ancient Greek philosopher, Plato correctly located the mind in the spherical head-his idea of the perfect form a) His student, Aristotle, believed the mind was in the heart, which pumps warmth and vitality to the body b) The heart remains our symbol for love, but science has long since overtaken philosophy on this issue. Its your brain, not your heart that falls in love

What are the techniques used to study the brain

1. Case Studies 2. Brain lesions 3. Labotomies 4. EEG 5. CT scan 6. PET Scan 7. MRI scan 8. fMRI scan 9. Today's neuroscientists can also electrical, chemically, or magnetically stimulate various parts of the brain and note the effect a) Depending on the stimulated brain part, people may giggle, hear voices, turn their head, feel themselves falling, or have an out of body experience b) Scientists can even snoop on the messages of individual neurons c) With tips so small they can detect the electrical pulse n a single neuron, modern microelectrodes can now detect exactly where the information goes in a cat's brain when someone strokes ts whisker d) Researchers can also eavesdrop on the chatter of billions of neurons an can see color representations of the brain's energy-consuming activity e) Today's techniques for peering into the thinking, feeling brain are doing for psychology what the microscope did or biology and the telescope if got astronomy f) From them we have learned more about the brain in the last 20 years than in the previous 30,000 g) To be learning about the neurosciences now is like studying world geography while Magellan was exploring the seas[1] put with list questions

How do neuroscientists study the brain's connections to behavior and mind?

1. Case study and lesioning first revealed the general effects of brain damage 2. Modern electrical, chemical, or magnetic stimulation has also revealed aspects of information processing in the brain 3. CT and MRI scans show anatomy, EEG, PET, and fMRI recordings reveal brain function

label the neuron's parts and give the function of each part

1. Cell body: (big thing in the front with the round middle): the cell's life support center a) Keeps cell alive 2. Dendrites (the little branches coming off the cell body): receive messages from other cells 3. Axon (the things inside the myelin sheath): passes messages away from the cell body to other neurons, muscles, or glands a) Have receptors that will inhibit or go when enough receptors are attach 4. Myelin sheath (long tail of cell body that covers axons): covers the axon of some neurons and helps speed neural impulses a) Made in glial cells 5. Terminal branches of axon (branches off the axons): form junctions with other cells Neural impulses: electrical signal traveling down the axon (arrow going down the axon) 6. Synapses is the gaps in between the axon tips and the dendrite or the cell body

What are identical and fraternal twins

1. Identical twins are the same sex only, fraternal twins are the same or opposite sex a) To scientifically tease apart the influences of environment and heredity, behavior geneticist would need to design two types of experiments b) The first would control the home environment while varying heredity c) The second would control heredity while varying the home environment d) Such experiments with human infants would be unethical but happily for our purposes, nature has done this work for us 2. Identical Versus Fraternal Twins a) Identical twins: twins up develop from a single fertilized egg that splits in two, creating two genetically identical organisms A) Thus the are two genetically identical-nature's own human clones B) They are clones who share not only the same genes but the same conception and uterus, and usually the same birth date and cultural history C) Two slight qualifications: 1) Although identical twins have the same genes, they don't always have the same NUMBER OF COPIES OF THOSE GENES. That helps explain why one twin may be more at risk for certain illnesses 2) Most identical twins share a placenta during prenatal development, but one of every three sets has two separate placentas. One twin's placenta may provide better nourishment, which may contribute to identical twin difference b) Fraternal twins: twins who develop from separate fertilized eggs. They are genetically no closer than brothers and sisters, but they share a fetal environment A) Shared genes can translate into shared experiences A person who identical twin has Alzheimer's disease has a 60% risk of getting the disease; if the affected twin is fraternal the risk is 30% 3. To study the effects of genes and environment,s hundreds of researchers have studies some 800,000 identical and fraternal twin pairs a) Studies of twin pairs in Sweden, Finland, and Australia find that both extraversion (outgoingness) and neuroticism (emotion instability), identical twins are much more similar than fraternal twins b) Researches studies divorce rates among 150 same sex, middle aged twin pairs c) Their result: if you have a fraternal twin who has divorced,the odds of your divorcing at 1.6 times greater than if you have a not divorced twin d) If you have an identical twin who has divorce,d the odds of your divorcing are 5.5 times greater e) From such data, the researchers estimate that people's differing divorce risks are about 50% attributable to genetic factors f) Identical twins, more than fraternal twins also report being treated alike g) So do their experiences rather than their genes account for their similarity?: No h) Studies have shown that identical twins whose parents treated them alike were not psychologically more alike than identical twins who were treated less similarly i) In explaining individual differences, genes matter

To what extent can a damaged brain reorganize itself, and what is neurogenesis?

1. If one hemisphere is damaged early in life, the other will pick up many of its functions by reorganizing or building new pathways. This plasticity diminishes later in life 2. The brain sometimes mends itself by forming new neurons, a process known as neurogenesis

what is phrenology?

1. In 1800, Franz Gall suggested that bumps of the skull represented mental abilities. 2. The bumps on your skull give you a personality and ability reading 3. One good things comes out it which is the belief that certain locations in the brain are responsible for different functions a) Other than that it is a joke science 4. In the early 1800s, German physician Franz Gall proposed that phrenology, studying bumps on the skull could reveal a person's mental abilities and character traits a) At one point ,Britain had 29 phrenological societies, and phrenologists traveled North America giving skull readings b) Using a false name, humorist Mark Twain put one famous phrenologist to the rest by finding a cavity and startled me by saving that the cavity represented the total absence of the sense of humor c) Three months later, Twain sat for a second reading, this time identifying himself. Now the city was gone and in its place was the loftiest bump of humor he had ever encountered in his life long experience 5. Although its initial popularity faded, phrenology succeeded in focusing attention of the localization of function-the idea that various brain regions have particular functions

How can Neurotransmitters influence us?

1. In their question to understand neural communication, researchers have discovered dozens of different neurotransmitters and almost as many new questions 2. Neurotransmitters can influence our motions, emotions, hunger, thinking, depression, euphoria addictions, and therapy a) A particular brain pathway may use only one or two neurotransmitters and particular neurotransmitters may affect specific behaviors and emotions 3. But neurotransmitter systems don't operate in isolation; they interact and their effects vary with the receptors they stimulate 4. Acetylcholine (ACh) which is one of the best understood neurotransmitters, plays a role in learning and memory a) In addition, it is the messenger at every junction between motor neurons (which carry information from the brain and spinal cord to the body's tissues) and skeletal muscles b) When ACh is released to our muscle cell receptors, the muscle contracts. c) If ACh transmission is blocked, as happens during some kinds of anesthesia, the muscles cannot contract and we are paralyzed ask this question

What are nerves?

1. Nerves consist of neural "cables" containing many axons. They are part of the peripheral nervous system and connect muscles, glands, and sense organs to the central nervous system. a) Nerves, electrical cables formed of bundles of axons, link the CNS with the body's sensory receptors, muscles, and glands 2. Nerves: bundled axons that form neural "cables" connecting the central nervous system with muscles, glands, and sense organs a) The optic nerve, for example, bundles a million axons into single cable carrying the messages each eye sends to the brain b) Nerves are basically bundles of axons that connect muscles, glands, and sense organs (skin for example is the biggest sense organ)

What are neural impulses? What is the threshold?

1. Neural impulse: when an Action Potential occurs a molecular message is sent to neighboring neurons 2. Threshold: when the excitatory signals exceed a minimum intensity the neuron fires an action potential/ the level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse a) The amount of stimulus in the form of neurotransmitters, needed for a nerve to fire b) Then it can fire again (in myelinated neurons, the action potential speeds up by hopping from the end of one myselin sausage to the next) c) The mind boggles when imagining this electrochemical process repeating up to 100 or even 1000 times a second, but this is just the first of many astonishments d) Each neuron is itself a miniature decision making devise performing complex calculations as it receives signals from hundreds, even thousands, of other neurons e) Most signals are excitatory, somewhat like pushing a neuron's accelerator f) Some are inhibitory more like pushing its brake g) If excitatory signals exceed inhibitory signals by a minimum intensity of threshold, the combined signals trigger an action potential h) The action potential then travels down the axon, which branches into junctions with hundreds or thousands of other neurons or with the body's muscles and glands

how does neural communications in the body work?

1. Neurobiologists and other investigators understand that humans and animals operate similarly when processing information. a) Outside of the brain gets bigger, but the inside is more complex b) Outside of the brain is personality, memory, and thinking (there are limits to thoughts based on the brain in nature) 2. A baby's brain develops through biopsychosocial a) Connecting with adults: social b) Bonding with caregivers: psychological (neglect vs caregiving affects your psychological well being) c) Brain is growing: biology 3. For scientists, it is a happy fact of nature that the information systems of humans and other animals operate similarly-so similarly that you could not distinguish between small samples of brain tissue from a human and a monkey a) This similarity allows researchers to study relatively simple animals such as squids and sea slugs to discover how our neural systems operate b) It allows them to study other mammals' brains to understand the organizations of our own c) Animals differ yet their nervous systems operate similarly d) Though the human brain is more complex than a rat's both follow the same principles

What are the parts of a neuron and how are neural impulses generated?

1. Neurons are the elementary components of the nervous system, the body's speedy electrochemical information system 2. A neuron receives signals through its branching dendrites and sends signals through its axons 3. Some axons are encased in a myelin sheath, which enables faster transmission 4. If the combined received signals exceed a minimum threshold, the neuron fires, transmitting an electrical impulse (the action potential) down its axon by means of a chemistry-to-electricity process. The neuron's reaction is an all or none process

what is the lock and key mechanism? What are interfere of it?

1. Neurotransmitters bind to the receptors of the receiving neuron in a key-lock mechanism. 2. Neurotransmitter molecule has a molecular structure that precisely fits the receptor sit on the receiving neuron, much as a key fits a lock 3. Interferers are: a) Agonists b) Antagonists

● How does neurotransmitters influence behavior, and how do drugs and other chemicals affect neurotransmission?

1. Neurotransmitters travel designated pathways in the brain and may drive specific behavior and emotions 2. Acetylcholine (ACh) affects muscle action, learning, and memory 3. Endorphins are natural opiates released in response to pain and exercise 4. Drugs and other chemicals affect brain chemistry at synapses 5. Agonists excite by mimicking particular neurotransmitter or by blocking their reuptake 6. Antagonists inhibit a particular neurotransmitter's release or block its effect

What are neurotransmitters? What is the reuptake?

1. Neurotransmitters: (chemicals) released from the sending neuron travel across the synapse and bind to receptor sites on the receiving neuron. a) Neurotransmitters: chemical messengers that cross the synaptic gaps between neurons. When released by the sending neuron, neurotransmitters travel across the synapse and bind to receptor sites on the receiving neuron, thereby influencing whether that neuron will generate a neural impulse b) Each receptor site is specific to a neurotransmitter 2. Genetic variation with neurotransmitters and receptor sites 3. Pharmaceutical drugs can block neurotransmitters going to site or can hold them back from being released by the axon terminal a) Neurons that have same receptor sites are found in the same area of the brain 4. Steps: a) the sending neuron (action potential) b) Vesicle containing the neurotransmitters goes down the axon terminal 5. Synaptic gaps will open to release the neurotransmitters at receptor sites on the receiving neuron a) Within 1/10,000th of a second he neurotransmitter molecules cross the synaptic gap and bind to receptor sites on the receiving neuron b) For an instant, the neurotransmitter unlocks tiny channels at the receiving site and ions flow in, exciting or inhibiting the receiving neurons readiness to fire 6. Reuptake: a) Neurotransmitters in the synapse are reabsorbed through the process of reuptake b) Reuptake: a neurotransmitter's reabsorption by the sending neuron c) Back to the axond d) Depression medicine make the neurotransmitters better at doing their job e) Then in a process called reuptake, the sending neuron reabsorbs the excess neurotransmitter

what are the types of gland and what do they do

1. Pituitary Gland 2. Adrenal Gland 3. Thyroid gland: metabolism, calcium (common problem among women when this doesn't work) 4. Pineal gland: sleep and wakefulness 5. Pancreas: regulates blood sugar level a) Pancreas helps to regulate the level of sugar in the blood and works with the adrenal glands 6. Ovaries and testes: secrete sex hormones such as testosterone and estrogen

what are the characteristics of the brain?

1. Problem with the way we view the brain is that we think it is rubbery when it is actually like warm butter a) This is why concussions and head injuries are so dangerous 2. Brain has a 100 billion neurons: a) Brain has 5 to 10 times that many glial cells to support those neurons b) Each neuron can have up to 40,000 connections with other neurons c) Brain is estimated to hold 6 million years of the Wall Street Journal in information d) Brain and intestinal track consume same amount of calories 3.The intestinal tract has more neurons than the spinal cord a) Bain and stomach are closely linked b) Intestinal tract is the second brain c) They use the same amount of energy 4. Human's brains are big and intestinal tract is small (other animals have it reversed) a) Evolutionary, brains got so large because the quality our diet increase and the intestinal tract is good at getting out the nutrients the brain needs b) "It has been calculated that the number of possible permutations and combinations of brain activity...exceeds the number of elementary particles in the known universe." - Ramachandran in Brief Tour of Human Consciousness 5. Brain is the most complex thing in the universe 6. Billions of neurons and hundreds of thousands of neuron connections in it 7. The brain is biological with electrochemical reactions responsible for emotions ,thoughts, love, life, religion, and feelings a) Brain uses 20% of energy, but only accounts for 2% of body weight b) Brain uses same amount of energy for hard compel tasks as they do for relaxing c) Neurons don't get cancer, the brain cells themselves get it (cancer of the cells) 8. The brain enables the mind-seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling, remembering, thinking, speaking, dreaming, loving a) It is the brain that self reflectively analyzes the brain b) When we're thinking about our brain, we're thinking with our brain by firing across millions of synapses and releasing billions of neurotransmitter molecules c) Neuroscientists tell us that the mind is what the brain does d) Brain, behavior, nd cognition are an integrated whole

Name and define the kinds of neurons

1. Sensory/Afferent Neurons: carry incoming information from the sense receptors to the CNS. a) Sensory (afferent) neurons: neurons that carry incoming information from the sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord b) Sense receptors are specialized cells to detect stimuli (heat, pressure, vibration) and connect to sensory neurons in the peripheral nervous system c) Sensory neurons carry messages from the body's tissues and sensory receptors inward to the brain and spinal cord for processing 2. Motor/Efferent Neurons a) carry outgoing information from the CNS to muscles and glands. b) Motor (efferent) neurons: neurons that carry outgoing information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands c) Motor neurons carry instructions from the central nervous system out to the body's muscles and glands 3. Interneurons connect the two neurons. a) All of these neurons will be in the spinal cord and the brain b) Interneurons: neurons within the brain and spinal cord that communicate internally and intervene between the sensory inputs and motor outputs c) Between the sensor input and motor output, information is processed in the brain's internal communication system via its interneurons d) Our complexity redies mostly in our interneuron systems e) Our nervous system has a few million sensory neurons, a few million motor neurons, and billions and billions of interneurons

What do split brains reveal about the functions of our two brain hemispheres?

1. Split brain research (experiments on people with a severed corpus callosum) has confirmed that in most people, the left hemisphere is the more verbal, and that the right hemisphere excels in visual perception and the recognition of emotion 2. Studies of healthy people with intact brains confirm that each hemisphere makes unique contributions to the integrated functioning of the brain

what are the pats of the autonomic nervous system (part of the PNS)

1. Sympathetic Nervous System: Division of the ANS that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy in stressful situations. a) Fight or flight b) Heart rate increases, glands activate (make it easier to get away), pupils dilate, digestion almost stops, constricted blood vessels, release endorphins (aids in fighting cause you feel less pain), hair stands up (hightness sense of touch) 2. The sympathetic nervous system arouses and expends energy: a) Sympathetic nervous system: the division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy in stressful situations b) If something alarms or challenges you, your sympathetic nervous system will accelerate your heartbeat, raise your blood pressure, slow your digestion, raise your blood sugar, and cool you with perspiration, making you alert and ready for action 3. Parasympathetic Nervous System: Division of the ANS that calms the body, conserving its energy....HOMEOSTASIS a) Blood pressure and heart rate go down, blood flows to gentlest internal organs, digestion increases, pupils constrict b) Parasympathetic nervous system: the division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body, conserving its energy c) In everyday situations, the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems work together to keep us in a steady internal state d) When the stress subsides, your parasympathetic nervous system will produce the opposite effects, conserving energy as it calms you by decreasing your heartbeat, lowering your blood sugar, and so forth

What is the understanding of the brain that researchers have gained the last century?

1. The body is composed of cells 2.Among these are nerve cells that conduct electricity and "talk" to one another by sending chemical messages across a tiny gap that separates them 3. Specific brain systems serve specific functions (though not the functions Gall supposed) 4. We integrate information processed in the different brain systems to construct our experience of sights and sounds, meanings and memories, pain and passion 5. Our adaptive brain is wired by our experience 6. We have also realized that we are each a system composed of subsystems that are in turn composed of even smaller subsystems a) Tiny cells organize to form body organs. These organs form larger systems for digestion, circulation, and information processing. And those systems are part of an even larger system-the individual who in turn is a part of a family, culture, and community b) Thus we are biopsychosocial systems c) To understand our behavior, we need to study how these biological, psychological, and social systems work and interact

What is a neuron?

1. The body's information system is built from billions of interconnected cells called neurons a) Neuron: a nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system b) Neuron is just one cell c) Our body's neural information system is complexity built from simplicity. d) Its building blocks are neurons or nerve cells 2. To fathom our thoughts and actions, memories and moods, we must first understand how neurons work and communicate 3. Allows you to feel and have emotions 4. All behavior and thoughts are biologically based, but biology doesn't explain all of it 5. Glial cells help neurons (the other half of the brain is glial cells) a) Neurons need glial cells to constantly repair them or they will break down b) Glial cells produces a cover for the amazon which allows for nutrients to get to the neurons and for learning to happen c) No new neurons are being developed but they are constantly growing (in length of axon) 6. Neuron DNA can't be replicated so you can't grow new neurons. a) Neurons differ but all are variations of the same theme b) Each consists of a cell body and its branching fibers 7. The bushy dendrite fibers receive information and conduct it toward the cell body a) From there, the cell's lengthy axon fiber passes the message through its terminal branches to other neurons or to muscles or glands b) Dendrites listen and the axons speak

What structures make up the brainstem, and what are the functions of the brainstem, thalamus, and cerebellum

1. The brainstem, the oldest part of the brain, is responsible for automatic survival functions. it's components are the medulla (controls heartbeat and breathing) , the pons (helps coordinate movement) , and the reticular formation (which affects arousal) 2. The thalamus, sitting above the brainstem, acts as the brain's sensory control center 3. The cerebellum, attached to the rear of the brainstem, coordinates muscle movement and balance and also helps process sensory information

● What are the functions of the nervous system's main divisions, and what are the three main types of neurons?

1. The central nervous system (CNS) the brain and the spinal cord is the nervous system's decision maker 2. The peripheral nervous system (PNS) which connects the CNS to the rest of the body by means of nerves gathers information and transmits CNS decisions to the rest of the body a) The two main PNS divisions are the somatic nervous system (which enables voluntary control of the skeletal muscles) and the autonomic nervous system (which controls involuntary muscles and glands by means of its sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions) 3. Neurons cluster into working networks 4. There are three types of neurons: a) Sensory neurons carry incoming information from sense receptors to the brain and spinal cord b) Motor neurons carry information from the brain and spinal cord out to the muscles and glands c) Interneurons communicate within the brain and spinal cord and between sensory and motor neurons

What are the functions of the various cerebral cortex regions?

1. The cerebral cortex has two hemispheres and each hemisphere has four lobes: the front, parietal, occipital ,and temporal lobes. Each lobe performs many functions and interacts with other areas of the cortex 2. Glial cells support, nourish, and protect neurons and may also play a role in learning and thinking 3. The motor cortex at the rear of the frontal lobes, controls voluntary movements 4. The somatosensory cortex, at the front of the parietal lobes, registers and processes body touch and movement sensations 5. Body parts requiring precise control or those that are especially sensitive occupy the greatest amount of space in the motor cortex and somatosensory cortex, respectively 6. Most of the brain's cortex-the major portion of each of the four lobes is devoted to uncommitted association areas which integrate information involved in learning, remembering, thinking, and other higher level functions 7. Our mental experiences arise from coordinated brain activity

● What is nature and what are the functions of the endocrine system, and how does it interact with the nervous system?

1. The endocrine system is a set of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream, where they travel through the body and affect other tissues , including the brain. The adrenal glands, for example, release the hormones that trigger the fight or flight response 2. The endocrine system's master gland, the pituitary, influences hormone release by other glands. In an intricate feedback system, the brain's hypothalamus influences the pituitary gland, which influences other glands, which release hormones, which in turn influence the brain

What are the limbic systems structures and functions?

1. The limbic system is linked to emotions, memory, and dives 2. Its neural centers influence the hippocampus processes conscious memories), the amygdala (involved in responses of aggression and fear0; and the hypothalamus (involved in various bodily maintenance functions, pleasurable rewards, and the control of the endocrine system) 3. The pituitary (the master gland) controls the hypothalamus by stimulating it to trigger the release of hormones

what is molecular genetics?

1. The new frontier of behavioral genetics research draw on "bottom up" molecular genetics as it seeks to identify specific genes influencing behavior 2. Molecular genetics: the subfield of biology that studies the molecular structure and functions of genes a) Most human traits are influenced by teams of genes b) Twin and adoption studies tell us that heredity influences body weight but there is no single obesity gene c) More likely some genes influence how quickly the stomach tells the brain "i'm full" d) Other might dictate how much fuel the muscles need how many calories are burned off by fidgeting and how efficiently the body converts extra calories into fat 3. Given that genes typically are not solo players, a goal of molecular behavior genetics is to find some of the many genes that together orchestrate traits such as body weight, sexual orientation, and extraversion a) Genetic tests can now reveal at risk populations for many dozens of diseases b) The search continues in labs worldwide, where molecular genetics are tearing with psychologists to pinpoint genes that put people at risk for such genetically influenced disorders as learning disorder, depression, schizophrenia, and alcohol use disorder 4. To tease out the implicated genes, molecular behavior geneticists find families that have had the disorder across several generations a) They draw blood or take cheek swabs from both affected and unaffected family members b) Then they examine their DNA looking for differences c) The most powerful potential for DNA is to predict risk so that steps can be taken to prevent problems before they happen d) Aided by inexpensive DNA scanning techniques, medical personnel are becoming able to give would be parents a readout on how their fetus' genes differ from the normal pattern and what this might mean 5. With this benefit come risks a) Might labeling a fetus "at risk for a learning disorder" lead to discrimination b) Prenatal screening poses ethical dilemmas c) In china and india, where boys are highly valud, testing for an offsping's sex has enabled selective abortions resulting in millions of missing women d) Assuming it were possible should prospective parents take their eggs and sperm to a genetics lab for screening before bombing them to produce and embryo e) Should we enable parents to screen their fertilized eggs for health and for brains or beauty f) Progress is a double edged sword, both hopeful possibilities and difficult problems g) By selecting out certain traits, we may deprive ourselves of future Handels and van Goghs, Churchills and Lincolns, Tolstoys and Dickinson's-troubled people all.

how do lesions and lobotomies help us to study the brain

1.A brain LESION experimentally destroys brain tissue to study animal behaviors after such destructions a) Lesion: tissue destruction, a brain lesion is a naturally or experimentally caused destruction of brain tissue 2. Scientists can selectively lesion tiny clusters of brain cells, leaving the surrounding tissue unharmed a) In the laboratory, such studies have released, for example, that damage to one area of the hypothalamus in a rat's brain reduces eating to the b) Unethical to do it humans c) Only study human lesion brains when their is brain damage like stroke d) Mass murders and violent individuals have lesions in the front cortex which controls impulse control 3. Lobotomies are a technique of disconnecting the front part of the brain by going up your nose or eye with an ice pick to stop aggressive behavior and hallucinations a) You can survive it, but you are like a vegetable

what are the motor functions of the cerebral cortex?

Motor functions: 1. Scientists had better luck in localizing simpler brain functions a) For example, in 1870, German physicians Gustav Fritsch and Eduard Hitzig made an important discovery: mild electrical stimulation to parts of an animal's cortex made parts of its body move b) The effects were selective: stimulation caused movement only when applied to an arch shaped region at the back of the frontal lobe, running roughly ear to ear across the top of the brain c) Moreover, stimulating parts of this region in the left or right hemisphere caused movements of specific body parts on the opposite side of the body d) Fritsch and Hitzig had discovered what is now called the motor cortex 2. Motor cortex: an area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movements 3. Mapping the motor cortex: a) Lucky for brain surgeons and their patients, the brain has no sensory receptors b) Knowing this, Otfrid Foerster and Wilder Penfield were able to map the motor cortex in the hundreds of wide awake patients by stimulating different cortical areas and observing the body's responses c) They discovered that body areas requiring precise control, such as the fingers and mouth, occupy the greatest amount of cortical space d) In one of his many demonstrations of motor behavior mechanics, Spanish neuroscientist Jose Delgado stimulated a spot on a patient's left motor cortex, triggering the right hand to make a fist e) Asked to keep the fingers open during the next stimulation, the patient, whose fingers closed despite his best efforts remarked "I guess, doctor, that your electricity is stronger than my will" 4. More recently, scientists were able to predict a monkey's arm motion a tenth of a second before it moved-by repeatedly measuring motor cortex activity preceding specific arm movements a) Such findings have opened the door to research on brain controlled computers 5. Brain computer interfaces: a) Could brain computer interface command a cursor to write an e-mail or search the internet b) To find out, brown university brain researchers implanted 100 tiny recording electrodes in the motor cortices of three monkeys c) As the monkeys used a joystick to move a cursor to follow a moving red target (to gain rewards), the researchers match the brain signals with the arm movements d) Then they programmed a computer to monitor signals and operate the joystick e) When a monkey merely thought about a move, the mind reading computer moved the cursor with nearly the same proficiency as had the reward seeking monkey f) In the follow up experiments, two monkeys were trained to control a robot arm that could grasp and deliver food and then a human did the same g) Clinical trials of such cognitive neural prosthetic are now under way with people who have suffered paralysis or amputation h) The first patient, a paralyzed 25 year old man was able to mentally control a TV, draw shapes on a computer screen, and play videogames all thanks to an aspirin size chip with 100 microelectrodes recording activity in his motor cortex i) If everything psychological is also biological- if every thought is also a neural event then microelectrodes perhaps could detect thoughts well enough to enable people to control events

what is the nucleus of the limbic system?

1.Other limbic system reward centers, such as the NUCLEUS acumens in front of the hypothalamus were later discovered in many other species, including dolphins and monkeys 2. In fact, animal research has revealed a general dopamine related reward system and specific centers associated with the pleasures of eating, drinking, an sex Animals, it seems, come equipped with built in systems that reward activities essential to survival 3. Contemporary researchers are experimenting with new ways of using limbic stimulation to control animal's actions in future applications such as search and rescue operations a) By rewarding rats for turning left or right, one research team trained previously caged rats to navigate natural environments b) By pressing buttons on a laptop, the researches were then able to direct the rat which carried a receiver, power source and video camera on a backpack to turn on cue, climb trees, scurry along branches, and turn around and come back down 4. Humans also have limbic centers for pleasure a) To calm violent patients, one neurosurgeon implanted electrodes in such areas b) Stimulated patients reported mild pleasure; unlike Olds' rats, however, they were not driven to a frenzy c) Experiments have also reveal the effects of a diamond related reward system in people d) Other research team had people rate the desirability of different vacation destinations e) Then, after receiving either a dopamine increasing drug or a sugar pill, they imagined themselves vacationing at half the locations f) A day later, when present with pairs of vacation spots they had initially rated equally, only the dopamine takers preferred the places they had imagined under dopamine's influence g) The participants, it seems associated the imagined experiences with dopamine induced pleasant feelings h) Some researchers believe that addictive disorders such as substance use disorders and binge eating may stem from malfunctions in natural brain systems for pleasure and well being i) People genetically predisposed to this reward deficiency syndrome may crave water provided that missing pleasure or relieves negative feelings

What are the parts of the peripheral nervous system

1Our peripheral nervous system has two components- somatic and autonomic 1. Somatic Nervous System: The division of the peripheral nervous system that controls the body's skeletal muscles. a) Somatic nervous system: the division of the peripheral nervous system that controls the body's skeletal muscles. Also called the skeletal nervous system b) Our somatic nervous system enables voluntary control of our skeletal muscles c) Your somatic nervous system reports to your brain the current state of your skeletal muscles and carries instructions back, triggering your body to rise from your seat 2. Autonomic Nervous System: Part of the PNS that controls the glands and other muscles. a) Autonomic nervous system (ANS): the part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs (such as the heart). It's sympathetic division arouses; its parasympathetic division calms b) Our autonomic nervous system (ANS) controls our glands and the muscles of ur internal organs, influencing such functions as glandular activity, heartbeat, and digestion c) Like an automatic pilot, this system may be consciously overridden, but usually operates on its own (autonomously) 3. The autonomic nervous system serves two important basic functions: a) Sympathetic nervous system b) Parasympathetic nervous system

What is the function of the neurotransmitter Acetylcholine

Acetylcholine (ACh) 1. Found in neuromuscular junction 2. Involved in muscle movements 3. Enables muscle action, learning, and memory a) My muscles AChe...get it... 4. Disruption of ACh functioning: a) Curare - blocks ACh receptors A) paralysis results b) Nerve gases and Black Widow spider venom - too much ACh leads to severe muscle spasms and possible death A) OD on ACh c) Nicotine works on ACh receptors A) can artificially stimulate skeletal muscles, leading to slight, trembling movements B) Makes you shake 5. Alzheimer's disease: a) Deterioration of memory, reasoning, and language skills b) Symptoms may be due to loss of ACh neurons c) Can be caused by the brain damage that pollution causes d) ACh- producing neurons deteriorate

Name and define the action potential properties

Action potential properties: 1. All-or-None Response: A strong stimulus can trigger more neurons to fire, and to fire more often, but it does not affect the action potential's strength or speed. a) 100% or nothing at all b) The neuron's reaction is an all-or-none response c) All or none response: a neuron's reaction of either firing (with a full strength response) or not firing d) A strong stimulus can trigger more neurons to fire and to fire more often, but it does not affect the action potential's strength or speed 2. Intensity of an action potential remains the same throughout the length of the axon. a) Increasing the level of stimulation above the threshold will not increase the neural impulse's intensity

what is an antagonists

Antagonist: a molecule that, but binding to a receptor site, inhibits or blocks as response 1. Antagonists also bind to receptors but their effect is instead to block a neurotransmitter's function 2. Antagonist blocks neurotransmitter a) This antagonist molecule inhibits. 3. It has a structure similar enough to the neurotransmitter to occupy its receptor site and block its action, but not similar enough to stimulate the receptor. 4. Curare poisoning paralyzes its victims by blocking ACh receptors involved in muscle movement 5. It blocks the receptor site so neurons can't fire a) Botulin, a poison that can form in improperly canned food, causes paralysis by blocking ACh release (small injections of botulinum-botox smooth wrinkles by paralyzing the underlying facial muscles b) These antagonist are enough like the natural neurotransmitter to occupy its receptor site and block its effects, but are not similar enough to stimulate the receptor c) Curare, a poison some south american indians have applied to hunting dart tips occupies and blocks ACh receptor sites on muscles, producing paralysis in animals struck by the darts

what are association areas

Association areas: 1. Buick of cerebral cortex-more association area you have, the smarter you area 2. Areas of the cerebral cortex that are not involved in primary motor or sensory functions a) Association areas: areas of cerebral cortex that are not involved in primary motor or sensory functions; rather, they are involved in higher mental functions such as learning, remembering, thinking and speaking 3. Involved in higher mental functions a) Hard to map because associations is based on timing and emotions so there can be different associations for different people held in different parts of the brain b) Mental rod through your brain and you survive (Phineaus story from textbook) c) His doctor didn't believe him until he started throwing up brain matter d) Consider the classic case of railroad worker, Phineas Gage e) One afternoon in 1848, Gage then 25, was packing gunpowder into a rock with a tamping iron f) A spark ignited the gunpowder, shooting the rod up through his left cheek and out the top of his skull, leaving his frontal lobes massively damaged g) To everyone's amazement, he was immediately able to sit up and speak, and after the wound healed he returned to work h) But the affable, soft spoken man was now irritable, profane, and dishonest i) This person was no longer Gade j) Although his mental abilities and memories were intact, his personality was not (Although Gage lost his job, he did overtime, adapt to his injury and find work as a stagecoach driver 4. So far, we have pointed out small cortical areas that either receive sensory input or direct muscular output a) Together these occupy about one fourth of the human brain's thin wrinkled cover b) In these association areas, neurons are busy with the higher mental functions-many of the tasks that make us human c) Electrically probing an association area won't trigger any observable response d) So unlike the sensory and motor areas, association area functions cannot be neatly mapped. e) Their silence has led to what Donald McBurney has called "one of the hardiest weeds in the garden of psychology": the claim that we ordinarily use only 10% of our brains f) If true wouldn't this imply a 90% chance that bullet to your brain would land in an unused area 5. Surgically lesioned animals and brain damaged human bear witness that association areas are not dormant a) Rather these areas interpret, integrate, and act on sensory information and link it with stored memories- a very important part of thinking 6. Association area are found in all four lobes a) The prefrontal cortex in the forward part of the frontal lobes enables judgement, planning, and processing of new memories b) People with damaged frontal lobes may have intact memories, high scores on intelligence tests, and great cake baking skills c) Yet they would not be able to plan ahead to begin baking a cake for a birthday party d) Frontal lobe damage also can alter personality and remove a person's inhibitions 7. More recent studies of people with damaged frontal lobes have revealed similar impairments a) Not only may they become less inhibited (without the frontal lobe brakes on their impulses,) but their moral judgements may seem unrestrained by normal emotions b) Most people with damage behind the eyes often advocate to push someone in front of a runaway boxcar to save five others but people without injury do not c) With their frontal lobes ruptured, people's moral compass seems to disconnect from their behavior 8. Association areas also perform other mental functions a) In the parietal lobes, parts of which were large and unusually shaped in Einstein's normal weight brain, they enable mathematical and spatial reasoning b) In patients undergoing brain surgery, stimulation of one parietal lobe area produced a feeling of wanting to move an upper limb, the lips, or the tongue (but without any actual movement) c) With increased stimulation, patients falsely believed they actually had moved d) Curiously, when surgeons stimulated a different association area near the motor cortex in the frontal lobes, the patients did move but had no awareness of doing so e) These head scratching findings suggest that our perception of moving flows not from the movement itself, but rather from our intention and the result we expected 9. Yet another association area, on the underside of the right temporal lobe, enables us to recognize faces a) If a stroke or head injury destroyed this area of your brain, you could still be able to describe facial features and to recognize someone's gender and approximate age, yet be strangely unable to identify the person as say, Lady Gaga or even your grandmother b) Nevertheless, we should be way of using pictures of brain areas c) Complex mental functions don't reside in any one place d) There is no one spot in a rat's small association cortex that when damaged will obliterate its ability to learn or remember a maze e) Memory, language, and attention result from the synchronized activity among distinct brain areas f) Ditto for religious experience g) Reports of more than 40 distinct brain regions becoming active in different religious states, such as praying and meditating indicate that there is no simple "God spot" 10. The big lesson: OUR MENTAL EXPERIENCES ARISE FROM COORDINATED BRAIN ACTIVITY

what is the brain stem and what are the parts of it

Brainstem: the oldest part and central core of the brain, beginning where the spinal cord swells as it enters the skull; the brainstem is responsible for automatic survival functions 1.The brain's oldest and innermost region is the brainstem 2. It begins where the spinal cord swells slightly after entering the skull a) The brainstem is a crossover point, where most nerves to and from each side of the brain connect with the body's opposite side b) This peculiar cross-wiring is but one of the brain's many surprises 3. Two parts of the brainstem: a) Medulla: the base of the brainstem; controls heartbeat and breathing A) This slight swelling is the medulla B) Here lie the controls for your heartbeat and breathing C) As some brain damaged patients in a vegetative state illustrate, we need no higher brain or conscious mind to orchestrate our heart's pumping and lungs' breathing D) The brainstem handles those tasks b) The Pons: Just above the medulla,, which helps coordinate movements a) If a cat's brain stem is severed from the rest of the brain above it, the animal will still breathe and live an even run climb and groom b) But cut off from the brains higher regions, it won't purposefully run or climb to get food c) Sever cat brainstem, cat will breathe, climb, run and groom but will not purposefully run or get food....check for vid d) Conclusion of Bard & Macht (1958): "...a purely reflex animal. ...fails to do any act that requires performance of a series of reflexes in a proper sequence." e) Anosmic and blind, with loss of cranial nerves 1 and 2. f) Failure to eat spontaneously; licking & chewing responses to food placed in the mouth (Forced feeding keeps cats alive.) g) Failure to groom 4. No spontaneous sexual or other social behavior; sexual reflexes elicited by genital stimulation a) Good standing, sitting, righting, walking, but abnormal posture & gait; failure to reposition limbs b) Rage responses (e.g., to tail pinching), but failure to bite or strike out 5. Autonomic responses: piloerection, thermoregulatory responses but only to extreme temperatures unless hypothalamus left attached. (A hypothalamic island was usually spared because of need for crucial visceral regulation, e.g., water balance. The island was attached to posterior pituitary.) 6. Minimal learning: Conditioned eye blink or respiratory changes, but rapid loss a) In reality, the 6 parts of the brain are: cerebrum, diencephalon, midbrain, pons, medulla oblongata, cerebellum. The major groups are forebrain (the most visible part), the brain stem (three parts piled atop the spinal cord and within the centre of the brain), and the cerebellum hanging off the back.

what is the central nervous system?

Central nervous system (CNS): the brain and spinal cord 1. The brain and spinal cord form the central nervous system, the body's decision maker a) Central nervous system (CNS): the brain and spinal cord 2. The spinal cord and the brain 3. Doctor tests reflexes of the whole body by testing the sensory neuron from the muscle in your leg with a knee tap 4. The sensory neuron in your muscle connects to the spinal cord and brain a) If there is a problem with reflexes, doctors can narrow it down to a centralized area b) Sensory neurons from muscle travel to the spinal cord and the brain after getting tapped on the knee. Then the neurons travel to the other knee c) The reflex motor output causes thigh muscle to contract d) Single synapse in reflex

what is the cerebellum

Cerebellum: the "little brain" at the rear of the brainstem' functions include processing sensory input, coordinating movement output, and balance, and enabling nonverbal learning and memory 1. COORDINATES VOLUNTARY MOVEMENTS AND BALANCE 2. Extending from the rear of the brainstem is the baseball sized cerebellum, meaning "little brain," which is what its two wrinkled halves resemble 3. The cerebellum enables nonverbal learning and memory 4. It also helps us judge time, modulate out emotions, and discriminate sounds and textures and it coordinates voluntary movement (with assistance from the pons) 5. If you injure your cerebellum, you would have difficulty walking, keeping your balance, or shaking hands a) Your movements would be jerky and exaggerated b) Gone would be any dreams of being a dancer or guitarist 6. Under alcohol's influence on the cerebellum, coordination suffers, as many a driver has learned after being pulled over and given a roadside test

What is the function of the neurotransmitter endorphins

Endorphins 1. Endorphins: "morphine within"- natural, opiate-like neurotransmitters linked to pain control and to pleasure 2. Body's natural painkillers 3. Control pain and pleasure a) Feel good neurotransmitters like dopamine 3. Released in response to pain 4. Morphine and codeine work on endorphin receptors a) Runner's high or end pain 5. Body is good at regulating pain by making endorphins and can also stop making endorphins or hormones if they are being artificially produced a) Researchers made an exciting discovery about neurotransmitters when they attached a radioactive tracer to morphine, showing where it was taken up in an animal's brain b) The morphine, an opiate drug that elevates mood and eases pain, bound to receptor in areas linked with mood and pain sensations c) But why would the brain have thee "opiate receptors" d) Researchers soon confirmed that the brain does indeed produce its own naturally occurring opiates e) Our body releases several types of neurotransmitter molecules similar to morphine in response to pain and vigorous exercise f) These endorphins (short for endogenous (produced within) morphine) help explain good feelings such as the runner's high, the pain killing effects of acupuncture, and the indifference to pain in some severely injured people

what is the pituitary gland

Pituitary Gland: 1. The pituitary gland: the endocrine system's most influential gland. Under the influence of the hypothalamus, the pituitary regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands 2. The Master gland 3. Regulates other glands and governs water and salt balance. 4. Secretes many different hormones, some of which affect other glands 5. It is found around the brain 6. Works with the hypothalamus which samples blood for the pituitary gland 7. Release hormones and controls other glands a) Water and salt balance are important for your heart 8. Effects of pituitary gland going ary can be extreme height levels (shortest or tallest person) and can cause an earlier death 9. The pituitary releases certain hormones a) One is a growth hormone that stimulates physical development b) Another oxytocin, enables contractions associated with birthing, milk flow during nursing and orgasm c) Oxytocin also promotes pair bonding, group cohesion, and social trust d) During a laboratory game, those given a nasal squirt of oxytocin rather than a placebo were more likely to truth strangers with their money e) Pituitary secretions also influence the release of hormones by other endocrine glands f) The pituitary, then, is a sort of master gland whose own master is the hypothalamus) g) For example, under the brain's influence, the pituitary trigges your sex glands to release sex hormones h) These in turn influence your brain and behavior i) So, too with stress j) A stressful event triggers your hypothalamus to instruct your pituitary to release a hormone that causes your adrenal glands to flood your body with cortisol, a stress hormone that increases blood sugar k) This feedback system (brain to pituitary to other glands to hormones to body and brain) reveals the intimate connection of the nervous and endocrine systems l) The nervous system directions endocrine secretions, which then affect the nervous system m) Conducting and coordinating this whole electrochemical orchestra is that maestro we call the brain

what is the brain plasticity? What is neurogenesis?

Plasticity: 1. Brain is sculpted by our genes but also by our experiences 2. Plasticity refers to brain's ability to modify itself after some type of injury or illness a) Our brains are sculpted not only by our genes but also by our experiences b) MRI scans show that well practiced pianists have larger than usual auditory cortex area that encodes piano sounds c) The brain's plasticity is its ability to modify itself after damage 3. Plasticity: the brain's ability to change especially during childhood, by reorganizing after damage, or by building new pathways based on experience a) Some of the effects of brain damage described earlier can be traced to two hard facts b) Severed neurons usually do not regenerate (if your spinal cord were severed, you would probably be permanently paralyzed c) Some brain function seem preassigned to specific areas d) One newborn who suffered damage to temporal lobe facial recognition areas later remained unable to recognize faces e) But there is good news: some of the brain's neural tissue can reorganize in response to damage 4. Under the surface of our awareness, the brain is constantly changing, building new pathways as it adjusts to little mishaps and new experiences a) Plasticity may also occur after serious damage, especially in young children b) Constraint induced therapy aims to rewire brains and improve the dexterity of a brain-damaged child or even and adult stroke victim c) By restraining a fully functioning limb, therapists force patients to use the "bad" hand or leg gradually reprogramming the brain d) One stroke victim, a surgeon in his 50s, was put to work cleaning tables with his good arm and hand restrained e) Slowly, the bad arm recovered its skills f) As damaged brain functions migrated to other brain regions, he gradually learned to write again and even to play tennis 5. The brain's plasticity is good news for those who are blind or deaf a) Blindness or deafness makes unused brain areas available for other uses b) If a blind person uses one finger to read braille, the brain area dedicated to that finger expands as the sense of touch invades the visual cortex that normally helps people see c) Plasticity also helps explain why some studies find that deaf people have enhanced peripheral vision d) In those people whose native language is sign, the temporal lobe area normally dedicated to hearing waits in vain for stimulation 5. Finally, it looks for other signals to process, such as those from the visual system a) Similar reassignment may occur when disease or damage free up other brain areas normally dedicated to specific functions b) If a slow growing left hemisphere tumor disrupts language (which resides mostly in the left hemisphere) the right hemisphere may compensate c) If a finger is amputated ,the somatosensory cortex that received its input will begin to receive input from the adjacent fingers, which then become more sensitive 6. Although the brain often attempts self repair by reorganizing existing tissue, it sometimes attempts to mend itself by producing new brain cells a) This process known as neurogenesis has been found in adult mice birds, monkeys, and humans b) Neurogenesis: the formation of new neurons c) These baby neurons originated deep in the brain and may then migrate elsewhere and form connections with neighboring neurons d) Master stem cells that can develop into any type of brain cell have also been discovered in the human embryo e) Today's biotech companies are hard at work on the possibilities of creating neural stem cells that can rebuild damage brains f) In the meantime, we can all benefit from other natural promoters of neurogenesis such as exercise, sleep, and non stressful but stimulating environments

What is the resting potential of a neuron communication? What is the refractory period?

Resting Potential: 1. The fluid outside an axon's membrane has mostly positively charged ions; a resting axon's fluid interior has mostly negatively charged ions a) This positive-outside/negative inside state is called the resting potential b) Like a tightly guarded facility, the axon's surface is very selective about what it allows through its gates. Way say the axon's surface is selectively permeable c) When a neuron fires however, the security parameters change: the first section of the axon opens it gates, and positively charged sodium ions flood through the cell membrane d) This depolarizes that axon section, causing another azon channel to open and then another, each tripping the next 2. During the resting pause called the refractory period, the neuron pumps the positively charged sodium ions back outside a) Refractory Period: a period of inactivity after a neuron has fired

what s the reticular formation

Reticular formation: nerve network that travels through the brainstem and thalamus and plays an important role in controlling arousal and attention a) it is net like 1. Inside the brainstem, between your ears lies the reticular formation, a neuron network that extends from the spinal cord right up through the thalamus 2. So the spinal cord's sensory input flows up to the thalamus, some of it travels through the reticular formation, which filters incoming stimuli and relays important information to other brain areas 3. In 1949, Giuseppe Moruzzi and Horace Magoun discovered that electrically stimulating the reticular formation of a sleeping cat almost instantly produce an awake alert animal a) When Magoun served a cat's reticular formation without damaging the nearby sensor pathways, the effect was equally dramatic: the cat lapsed into a coma from which it never awakened b) The conclusion: the reticular formation enables arousal

what are the sensory cortex of the cerebral cortex?

Sensory functions 1. Wilder Penfield also identified the cortical area that specializes in receiving information from the skin senses and from the movement of body parts. a) This area at the front of the parietal lobe, parallel to and just behind the motor cortex, we now call the somatosensory cortex 2. Somatosensory cortex: area at the front of the parietal lobe that registers and processes body touch and movement sensations a) Simulate a point on the top of this band of tissue and a person may report being touched on the shoulder; stimulate some point on the side and the person may feel something on the face b) The more sensitive the body region, the larger the somatosensory cortex area devoted to it c) Your super sensitive lips project a larger brain area than do your toes which is one reason we kiss with our lips rather than touch toes d) Rats have a large area of the brain devoted to their whisker sensations, and owls to their hearing sensations 2. Scientists have identified additional areas where the cortex receives input from senses other than touch a) At this moment you are receiving visual information in the visual cortex in your occipital lobes at the very back of your brain b) A bad enough bash there would make you blind Stimulated there, you might see flashes of light or dashes of color c) From your occipital lobes, visual information goes to other areas that specialize in tasks such as identifying words, detecting emotions, and recognizing faces d) Any sound you now hear is processed by your auditory cortex in your temporal lobes (just above your ears) 3. Longitudinal Neuroimaging of Brain Maturity a) Brain doesn't fully mature until you are 25 years old 4. Visual and Auditory cortex: a) In temporal cortex b) Auditory cortex lights up light you are really hearing voices when you actually hallucinating c) Visual cortex in occipital lobe d) Occipital cortex will light up when you are seeing a hallucination e) Most of this auditory information travels a circuitous route from one ear to the auditory receiving area above you opposite ear f) If stimulated there, you might hear a sound g) MRI scans of people with schizophrenia reveal active auditory areas in the temporal lobes during auditory hallucinations h) Even the phantom ringing sound experienced by people with hearing loss is-if heard in one ear- associated with activity in the temporal lobe on the brain's opposite side

What is the function of the neurotransmitter serotonin

Serotonin: 1. Serotonin is involved with mood regulation. 2. Affects mood, hunger, sleep, and arousal 3. Prozac works by keeping serotonin in the synapse longer, giving it more time to exert an effect (blocking reuptake) 4. There are serotonin regulations throughout your body a) Undersupply linked to depression. Some antidepressant drugs raise serotonin levels b) Depression causes bad sleep patterns (sleep late and wake up early) c) Suicide victims have lower serotonin metabilities than people who don't commit suicide d) Can't test for serotonin but can test for serotonin metabolites e) Antidepressants give really depressed people the energy they need to kill themselves which is the dangerous side effect f) Prozac increases the length that serotonin in the body but doesn't produce more serotonin g) Affects sleep and depression

what is the specialization and integration of the brain?

Specialization and integration 1. Seeing, hearing, and speaking happen in different areas of the brain 2. A dramatic demonstration of hemispheric specialization happens before some types of brain surgery a) To locate the patient's language centers, the surgeon injects a sedative into the neck artery feeding blood to the left hemisphere, which usually controls speech b) Before the injection, the patient is lying down, arms in the air, chatting with the doctor c) Within seconds, the person's right arm falls limp when the drug puts the left hemisphere to sleep d) If The left hemisphere is controlling language, the patient will be speechless until the drug wears off e) If the drug is injected into the artery to the right hemisphere, the left arm will fall limp, but the person will be able to speak

what is the structure of the cerebral cortex

Structure of the cerebral cortex: 1. Without the wrinkles of the flattened cerebral cortex, it would require triple the area a) The brain's left and right hemispheres are filled mainly with axons connecting the cortex to the brain's other regions b) The cerebral cortex-that thin surface layer- obtains some 20 to 23 billion nerve cells nad 300 trillion synaptic connections c) Being human takes a lot of nerve 2. Supporting these billions of nerve cells are nine times as many spidery glial cells 3. Each brain hemisphere is divided into four lobes that are separated by prominent fissures: a) Starting at the front of your brain and moving over the top, there are the frontal lobes (behind your forehead), the parietal lobes (at the top and to the read) and the occipital lobes (at the back of your head) b) Reversing direction and moving forward, just above your ears, you find the temporal lobes 4. Each of the four lobes carries out many functions, and many functions require the interplay of several lobes: a) Frontal lobe: does thinking and planning A) Involved in speaking and muscle movements an in making plans and judgement B) portion of the cerebral cortex lying just behind the forehead; involved in speaking and muscle movements and in making plans and judgements b) Primary motor area: any type of movement c) Primary somatosensory area: takes in all senses (mostly touch) and keeps in in contact with your environment d) Parietal lobe: facial recognition A) Include the sensory cortex portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the top of the head and toward the rear; receives sensory input for touch and body position e) Occipital lobe: vision center A) Including the visual areas which receive visual information from the opposite visual field portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the back of the head; includes areas that receive information from the visual fields f) Temporal lobes: A) Include the auditory areas B) Consider right and left to be the same lobe C) Right side of the brain controls the left side of the body and the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body D) Motor cortex and sensory cortex line up together generally in parts of the body E) Primary auditory area: helps with hearing, sleeping, and recognizing voices F) portion of the cerebral cortex lying roughly above the ears; includes the auditory areas, each receiving information primarily from the opposite ear KNOW THE DIAGRAM ON POWER SCHOOL

what is the thalamus

Thalamus: the brain's sensory control center, located on the top of the brainstem; it directs messages to the sensory receiving areas in the cortex and transmits replies to the cerebellum and medulla 1. Sitting atop the brainstem is the thalamus, a pair of egg shaped structures that act as the brain's sensory control center 2. The thalamus receives information from all the sense except smell and routes it to the higher brain regions that deal with seeing, hearing tasting, and touching a) The thalamus also receives some of the higher brain's replies which it then directs to the medulla and the cerebellum 3. Think of the thalamus as being to sensory information what london is to england's trains: a hug through which traffic passes en route to various destinations

What is the nervous system and what is its parts (and subparts)

The Nervous System: 1. Consists of all the nerve cells. It is the body's speedy, electrochemical communication system 2. To live is to take in information from the world and the body's tissues, to make decisions, and to send back information and orders to the body's tissues. a) All this happens thanks to our body's nervous system 3. Nervous system: the body's speedy, electrochemical communication network, consisting of all the nerve cells of the peripheral and central nervous systems 4. Nervous system is made up of two parts: a) Peripheral nervous system: any nerve other than the brain and spinal cord A) Autonomic: controls self regulated action of internal organs and glands (digestion, swallowing, excursion, breathing) 1) Sympathetic: arousing (fight or flight) 2) Parasympathetic: calming (rest and digest part) B) Somatic: controls voluntary movements of skeletal muscles (any body movement in your skeletal muscles) b) Central nervous system: A) Brain B) Spinal cord

what is the amygdala?

The amygdala: two lima bean sized neural clusters in the limbic system; linked to emotion 1. LINKED TO THE EMOTIONS OF FEAR AND ANGER 2.Research has linked the amygdala to aggression and fear a) In 1939, psychologist Heinrich Kluer and neurosurgeon Paul Busy surgically removed a rhesus monkey's amygdala, turning the normally ill tempered animal into the most mellow of creatus b) In studies with other wild animals, including the hynx, wolverine, and wild rat, researchers noted the same effect c) If we electrically stimulate the amygdala of a normally placid domestic animal in one spot, the cat prepares to attack, hissing with it back arched, its pupils dilated, its hair on end d) Move the electrode only slightly within the amygdala, cage the cat with a small mouse and now it cowers in terror e) These and other experiments have confirmed the amygdala's role in rage and fear including the perception of these emotions and the processing of emotional memories f) But we must be careful because the brain is not neatly organized into structures that correspond to our behavior categories 3. When we fell or act in aggressive or fearful ways, there is neural activity in many levels of our brain a) Even within the limbic system, stimulating structures other than the amygdala can evoke aggression or fear 4. Amygdala damage eliminates a sense of personal space 5. PTSD sufferers show unusual activity in the amygdala 6. HELPS TO IDENTIFY EMOTIOM FROM FACIAL EXPRESSIONS 7. AMYGDALA DAMAGE MAKES THIS TASK DIFFICULT

what is the cerebral cortex

The cerebral cortex: 1. Fabric of interconnected neural cells that covers the cerebral hemispheres a) Ultimate control and information processing center Personality, intelligence, and memories lie in the cerebral cortex 2. Cerebral cortex: the intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells covering the cerebral hemispheres; the body's ultimate control and information processing center a) Our big cerebral cortex helps us to become human beings b) Older brain networks sustain basic life functions and enable memory, emotions, and basic drives c) Newer neural networks within the cerebrum- the hemispheres that contribute 85% of the brain's weight-form specialized work teams that enable our perceiving, thinking, and speaking d) Like other structures above the brainstem (including the thalamus, hippocampus, and amygdala), the cerebral hemispheres come as a pair e) Covering those hemispheres, is the cerebral cortex, a thin surface layer of interconnected neural cells It is your brain's thinking crown, your body's ultimate control and information processing center 3. The cerebral cortex expands, tight genetic controls relax, and the organism's adaptability increases as we move up the ladder of animal life a) Frogs and other small cortex amphibians operate extensively on preprogrammed genetic instructions b) The larger cortex of mammals offers increased capacities for learning and thinking, enabling them to be more adaptable c) What makes us distinctly human mostly arises from the complex functions of our cerebral cortex

how does the fMRI scan help us to study the brain?

fMRI (function MRI): a technique for revealing blood flow and therefore brain activity by comparing successive MRI scans. fMRI scans show brain function as well as its structure 1. A special application of MRI (fMRI) can reveal the brain's function as well as its structure 2. Where the brain is especially active, blood goes a) By comparing MRI scans taken less than a second apart, researchers can watch as specific brain areas activate, showing increased oxygen-laden blood flow b) As the person looks at a scene, the fMRI machine detects the blood rushing to the back of the brain, which processes visual information c) Such snapshots of the brain's changing activity are providing new insights-albeit sometimes overstated-into how the brain divides its labor 3. A mountain of recent fMRI studies suggests which brain areas are most active when people feel pain or rejection, listen to angry voices, thinking about scary things, feel happy, or become sexually excited a) The technology enables a very crude sort of min reading b) After scanning 129 people's brain as they dd eight different mental tasks (such as reading, gambling, or rhyming) neuroscientists were able with 80% accuracy to predict which of these mental activities people were doing c) other studies have explored brain activity associated with religious experience through without settling the question of whether the brain is producing or perceiving God

What is the function of the neurotransmitter GABA

○ GABA (Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid) 1. Stops neurons firing to relax you 2. Main inhibitory neurotransmitter of the CNS when you sleep 3. A major inhibitory neurotransmitter 4. Benzodiazepines (which include tranquilizers such as Valium) and alcohol work on GABA receptors a) If you are anxious, you are running low on GABA b) Alcohol produced GABA so when it wears off you get shaky 5. Huntington's Disease is caused by the loss of GABa neurotransmitters a) Symptoms are jerky movements and not being sharp as you are right not 6. GABA inhibits dopamine so you have to have a balancing act in the body a) If GABA is not keeping dopamine in balance, you can get dopamine related diseases b) Undersupply linked to seizures, tremors, and insomnia