CH1 Flashcards
TBI
traumatic brain injury (concussion)
CNS
central nervous system; brain and the spinal chord (has bones: skull and vertebrae)
PNS
peripheral nervous system; neurons and nerve processes (sense of touch, muscle movement, gut movement and digestion)
embodied behavior
the idea that our cognition and us as a person isn’t just formed from our mind but what we sensually discover and go through physically.
locked in syndrome
where one can see and hear but they can’t move any parts of their body
can the brain remain conscious w/o sensory info and ability to move?
yes bc of embodied behavior, mental emptiness, sensory deprivation effects, locked in syndrome, minimally conscious state
Deep brain stimulation (DBS)
electrodes implanted into brain (thalamus) around brainstem to stimulate brain to treat Parkinson’s and depression (alters brain activity in certain way)
behavior and Irenaus eibl-eibesfeldt
believes we’re born w some innate behaviors such as sympathetic response to fear, rooting and suckling effects, walking, and stepping reflex, but other responses are learned not inherited
Mentalism
idea that behavior is a function of the mind so everything can be explained as a result of the mind like consciousness, sensation, perception, attention ect
Aristotle
believed the brain cooled the blood and had no role in producing behavior, believed in the psyche (believed to be source of human behavior) said it governs our behavior and our consciousness
Descartes
dualism: both nonmaterial mind and material body contribute to behavior
mind-body problem
question of explaining interaction of non-material mind and the physical brain
dualist hypothesis
that the mind resides in the pineal gland where it directs fluid flow through ventricles and muscles of body (influences biorhythms)
Berwick and Chomsky
state that humans language have evolved bc only we’re able to merge words and concepts
Darwin
Materialism: belief that behavior can be explained bc of the nervous system (nothing to do with mind)
Darwin +evolution
evolution by natural selection: new species evolve and existing species change over time and dif phenotypes result from dif environments
Darwin + materialism
epigenetics: different gene expression arising from environment over time, don’t change gene but only how they’re expressed
summary of materialism
all animal species are related -> means brains, behaviour are related and depend on learning
what does modern psych take for granted?
that behaviour and neural function are perfectly correlated
how can our lineage can be traced?
comparing genes, brains, and behaviours of ancestors
what is the evolution of nervous system in animals?
neurons and muscles
nerve net
bilateral symmetry
segmentation
ganglia
spinal chord
brain
nerve net
where simple serve cells connect directly to other neurons to move muscles (allows interneurons to form)
bilateral symmetry
nervous system is symmetric on both sides (and and hand)
segmentation
where neurons start to segment into specific areas that do certain things
ganglia
very primative brains->ganglia’s are clusters of neurons (like brain) but not big enough to be brain
basic classification of life
Kevin Please Come Over For Gay Sex (taxonomy) represents evolutionary sequence (phylogeny) (Kingdome, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species.
what do amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals all have in common
they are a part of the phylum Chordata and display the greatest degree of encephalization (brain size) and have a true brain
what brain was about the same size as that of the living nonhuman apes
Australopithecus
who were the first humans
homo habilis:(handy human) 2 million years ago in Africa and made simple stone tools
homo erectus: (upright human) 1.6 mill years ago in europe and asia, and made more sophisticated tools
how is relative brain to body size estimated
encephalization quotient (EQ) quantitive measure of brain size among dif species
how do brains become bigger?
the addition of neurons which adds disproportionately more connections between those neurons
why did the hominid brain enlarge?
climate change, and the emergence of huma culture such as the primate lifestyle with social group size, complex food foraging, and selection
what has changed hominid physiology
cooking food has made smaller facial muscles and bones = change in diet and energy-rich foods, changes skill form, increased blood circulation, brain cooling =larger brain
what are the animal species life history stages called
heterochronicity: accounts for larger human brain and other features
neoteny: juvenile stages of predecessors become adult features of descendants
what gene has been mutated and may be related to brain size changes in homo habilis
SARGP2
what are issues with brain size measurement?
individual dif in brains, weight, gender, age, nutrition, disease, injury, stress, disorders, plasticity
what are 4 measurements of intelligence
species-typical behavior, general factor intelligence ( spearman’s g), flynn effect, multiple intelligences
how is culture learned?
through learned behaviors, by passing it from one generation to another w/ teaching + experience
how do memes influence us?
exert selective pressure on further brain development and can be studied within an evolutionary framework (meme) = anything that’s passed down
