Biology and Behavior Ch1 Flashcards
Franz Gall
- Developed doctrine of phrenology: if a particular trait was well developed, then the part of the brain responsible for that trait would expand. The expansion would push skull out creating a bulge
- Believed one could measure psychological attributes by feeling or measuring the skull
Pierre Flourens
- First person to study the functions of the major sections of the brain
- Used Extirpation on rabbits and pigeons, surgically removing parts of the brain and observing the behavioral effect
- Work led to understanding that specific regions had specific functions and that removal of one part weakens the whole brain
William James
- Studied how the mind adapts to the environment
- Formed the foundation of functionalism, which studies how mental processes help individuals adapt to their environments
John Dewey
- Focused on studying the organism as a whole as it functioned to adapt to the environment
- Criticized the concept of the reflex arc, which breaks down reacting to stimulus into discrete parts
Paul Broca
- Examined the behaviour deficits of people with brain damage
- Specific functional impairments could be linked with specific brain lesions
- Discovered Broca’s area which is responsible for speech production
Hermann von Helmoholtz
- First to measure the speed of a nerve impulse
- Related the measured speed of such impulses to reaction time
- Credited with the transition of psychology out of the realm of philosophy and into science
Sir Charles Sherrington
- First inferred the existence of synapses
- However, he thought there with electrical processes
How many nerves are involved in the peripheral nervous system
31 spinal nerves and 12 cranial nerves
Somatic nervous system
consists of sensory and motor neurons distributed throughout the skin joints and muscles
Autonomic Nervous system
- Regulates heartbeat, respiration, digestion, body temperature and glandular secretions
- independent of conscious control
Parasympathetic Nervous system
- Main role is to conserve energy
Functions include; - Constricts pupils
- stimulates flow of saliva
- constricts bronchi
- slows heart beat
- inhibits release of glucose
- stimulates bile release
- inhibits adrenaline production
- stimulates peristalsis and secretion
Sympathetic Nervous system
Mainly activated by stressors
Functions;
- increased heart rate
- redistributes blood to muscles of locomotion
- increases blood glucose concentration
- relaxes the bronchi
- decreases digestion and peristalsis
- dilates the eyes to maximize light intake
- releases epinephrine into bloodstream
- inhibits salivation
- inhibits bladder contraction
Meninges
FUNCTION: protect brain by keeping it anchored in the skull and reabsorbes CSF
Outer layer: Dura mater - connected directly to skull
Middle layer: Arachnoid mater - Fibrous, weblike structure
Inner layer: Pia mater - connected directly to the brain
Cerebrospinal fluid
Aqueous solution that nourishes the brain and spinal cord and provides a protective cushion
Hindbrain
- Controls balance, motor coordination, breathing, digestion, and general arousal processes
MEDUL;A OBLONGATA - breathing, heart rate, digestion
PONS - sensory and motor pathways between the cortex and the medulla
CEREBELLUM - helps maintain posture and balance, and coordinates body movements
RETICULAR FORMATION - Arousal and alertness
Development of the Hindbrain
Begins as rhombencephalon and divides to form the myelencephalon (medulla oblongata) and the metencephalon (pons and cerebellum)
Midbrain
- Receives senesory and motor information for the rest of the body
- Prominent nuclei: Colliculi
Inferior colliculus - auditory
Superior colliculus - visual - Associated with involuntary reflexes triggered by visual and auditory stimulus
Forebrain
- Complex perceptual, cognitive and behavioral processes, emotion, memory, and human behaviour
Development of the forebrain
Prosencephalon divides to form telencephalon (cerebral cortex, basal ganglia, limbic system) and diencephalon (thalamus, hypothalamus, pituitary gland and pineal gland)
Brain lesions
Look for patients that exhibit damage tot hat structure coupled with loss of the function
- DRAWBACK: lesions are rarely isolated to specific brain structures, making it hard to pinpoint specific links
Brain lesions in animal
Create precisely defined brain lesions by extirpation to connect to loss of function
- DRAWBACK: posses ethical concerns
Electrical stimulation of the brain to study function
- Stimulate and record subsequent activity
- uses small electrode
- Looks to activate the behavioral or perceptual processes associate with those neurons to form cortical maps
- Preformed with help of patient while they are awake
EEG
Electroencephalogram
- measures electrical activity generates by larger groups of neurons
- involves placing several electrodes on scalp
Ultrasensitive Microelectrodes
Used to record individual neurons through electrical activity
- inserted into individual cell
Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF)
- Detects broad patterns of neural activity based on increased blood flow to different parts of the brain
- Patient inhales a harmless radioactive gas and a special device that can detect radioactivity in the bloodstream can then correlate radioactivity levels with regional cerebral blood flow
Thalamus
- Important relay station for incoming sensory information - except smell
- transmits them to appropriate areas of the cerebral cortex
Hypothalamus
FOUR Fs
- Serves homeostatic function, emotional experiences during high arousal states, aggressive behavior, and sexual behaviour
- Metabolism, temperature, water balance
- Helps control endocrine function and ANS
- Subdivided into lateral, ventromedial and anterior
Lateral Hypothalamus
Huger center
- special receptors thought to detect when the body needs more food or fluids
Ventromedial hypothalamus
Satiety center
- provides signals to stop eating
Anterior hypothalamus
Sexual behaviour, sleep and body temperature
Posterior pituitary
Axonal projections from the hypothalamus and the site of release for the hypothalamic hormones (ADH and oxytocin)P
Pineal gland
Biological rhythms
Basal ganglia
Coordinate muscle movement as they receive information form the cortex and relay it to the brain and spinal cord
Extrapyramidal system
Gathers information about body position and carries this information to the central nervous system, but does not function directly through motor neurons
Limbic System
Emotion and memory
- includes the septal nuclei, amygdala, hippocampus and anterior cingulate cortex
Septal Nuceli
Primary pleasure center in the brain
Amygdala
Defensive and aggressive behaviours
Hippocampus
Learning and memory processing
- helps consolidate information to form long-term memory and can redistribute remote memories to the cerebral cortex
- communicates with other portions of the limbic system through fornix (long projection)
Anterograde amnesia
not being able to establish new long-term memories, whereas memories that occurred before brain injury in usually intact
Retrograde amnesia
Memory loss of events that transpired before the brain injury
Anterior cingulate cortex
Functions in higher order cognitive processes, including regulation of impulse control and decision-making
- also emotion and motivation
Frontal Lobe
PREFRONTAL CORTEX
- manages executive function by supervising and directing the operations of other bein regions
- regulates attention and alertness by communicating with the reticular formation
- supervises processes associated with perception, memory, emotion, impulse control and long-term planning
PRIMARY MOTOR CORTEX
- Initiate voluntary movements by sending neural impulses down the spinal cord
association area
area that integrates input from diverse regions of the brain
Projection areas
perform more rudimentary perceptual and motor tasks
Parietal Lobe
SOMATOSENSORY CORTEX
- involved in sensory input processing from touch, pressure, temperature and pain
CENTRAL REGION
- associated with spatial processing and manipulation
- allows for orientation of oneself and objects in 3D, spatial manipulation of objects and to apply spatial orientation skills
Temporal lobe
Primary site of sound processing, including speech, music, and other sound information
- Contains wernicke’s area which is associated with language recognition and comprehension
- Also has functions in memory processing, emotion and language
Dominant hemisphere
primarily analytic in function, making it well suited for managing details
Nondominant hemisphere
Associated with intuition, creativity, music cognition and spatial processing
- more sensitive to emotional tone of spoken language, and permits us to recognize others mood based on visual and auditory cues
Agonist Drug
mimics the action of some neurotransmitter
Antagonist drug
acts to block the action of the neruotransmitter
Acetylcholine
- Found in both the central and peripheral nervous system
- Primarily PNS in peripheral NS
- been linked to attention and arousal
Epinephrine and norepinephrine
Both monoamines and catecholamines
- involved in controlling alertness and wakefulness
- primary neurotransmitter of the SNS
- norepinephrine acts locally as NT and epinephrine acts systemically as a hormone released from the adrenal medulla
Dopamine
Important role in movement and posture
Dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia
Argues that delusions, hallucinations, and agitation associated with schizophrenia arise from either too much dopamine or form an oversensitivity to dopamine in the brain
DOWNSIDE: does not account for all the findings of the disease
Serotonin
- A monoamine
- regulating mood, eating, sleeping, and dreaming
- plays a role in depression and mania
GABA
produces inhibitory postsynaptic potentials and is thought to play an important role in stabilizing neural activity in the brain
Glycine
Inhibitory neurotransmitter in the CNS by increasing chloride influx into the neuron
Glutamate
acts as excitatory neurotransmitter in the CNS
Neuromodulators
- involves more complicated chain of events in the postsynaptic cell than that of regular neurotransmitters
- relatively slow and have longer effects on the postsynaptic cell
Endorphine
- Neuropeptides
- Natural pain killers
- act similar to morphine or other opioids
Pituitary Gland
Releases hormones that regulate activities of endocrine glands elsewhere in the body
Adrenal Glands
ADRENAL MEDULLA
- Release epinephrine and norepinephrine as part of the sympathetic nervous system
ADRENAL CORTEX
- produces many hormones called corticosteroids (including cortisol)
- Testosterone and estrogen release
Adaptive Value
the extent to which a trait or behaviour positively benefits a species by influencing the evolutionary fitness of the species
Concordance rates
the likelihood that both twins exhibit the same trait
Neurulation
Occurs at 3-4 weeks
- Ectoderm overlying the notochord begins to furrow, forming a neural groove surrounded by two neural folds
- Cells at the leading edge of the neural fold are called the neural crest will migrate throughout the body to form disparate tissues, including dorsal root ganglia, melanocytes and calcitonin producing cells of the thyroid
- Furrow closes to form neural tube, which has an alar plate for sensory neurons and basal plate for motor neurons
Maternal malnutrition
leading cause of abnormal development
- PROTEIN deficiency: slow growth leading to intellectual disability and reduced immune function
- NARCOTIC: infant chemically dependent
- CIGARETTE: slowed growth, increased fetal heart rate, greater chance for premature birth
- ALCOHOL: leads to slowed growth both physically and psychologically
Moro reflex
react to abrupt movements of their heads by flinging out their arms and then slowly retracting their arms and crying
Babinski reflex
Causes the toes to spread apart when the sole of the foot is stimulated
Grasping Reflex
when infants close their fingers around object placed in palm
Stranger anxiety
- A fear and apprehension of unfamiliar individuals
- develops at 7 months
Separation anxiety
- A fear of being separated from a parental figure
- Develops at one year
Parallel play
Children will play alongside each other without influencing each other’s behaviour
- develops at 2 years
When does awareness of gender, gender-stereotype play and knowing their full name develop
3
When does conformity to peers and romantic feelings for others develop
5
Order of gross motor skill development
head to toe and core to extremity
social skill devleopment
Go form being parent-oriented to self-oriented to other-oriented
