Chapter 1 (MT1)

Question 1

Reasons for linking the study of the brain and behaviour

Answer 1

How the brain produces behaviour is a major scientific question

Brain is most complex organ, and found in many groups of animals

Growing list of behavioural disorders can be explained/treated as we increase our understanding of the brain

Question 2

What are the two types of cells in the brain?

Answer 2

Half and half, neurons (87 billion) and glial cells (86 billion)

Question 3

Where are most of the interconnections between brain and body made?

Answer 3

Spinal cord (tube of nervous tissue encased in our vertebrae)

Spinal cord sends nerve fibers out to our muscles and organs, and received fibers from sensory receptors

Question 4

Central nervous system

Answer 4

Brain and spinal cord (nervous system encased in bone)

Core structure and core structure mediating behaviour

Question 5

Peripheral nervous system

Answer 5

All processes that radiate beyond the brain and spinal cord

Question 6

Divisions of the brain

Answer 6

Cerebrum, or forebrain (two symmetrical hemispheres), responsible for most conscious behaviours

Brainstem, set of structures responsible for most unconscious behaviours. The cerebellum (second major brainstem structure) is specialized for learning and coordinating movements

Question 7

Embodied behaviour

Answer 7

Proposes that movements we make and perceive in others are central to our behaviour (non verbal communication)

Brain cannot be separated from the bodies activities

Question 8

Studies relating brain and behaviour

Answer 8

Sensory deprivation (unpleasant, hallucinations to create sensory world)

Locked in syndrome (intact brain but inactive nerve fiber pathways that produce movement, frustrating and helpless)

Minimally conscious state (administering small electrical current to improve patient’s behaviour)

Persistent vegetative state (consciousness present in absence of voluntary movement)

Question 9

Plasticity

Answer 9

Brain’s ability to change in response to learning experience

Question 10

Three classic theories of brain/behaviour relationship

Answer 10

Mentalism (Aristotle)
Dualism (Descartes)
Materialism (Darwin)

Question 11

Mentalism

Answer 11

(Aristotle)
Persons mind (or soul/psyche) is responsible for behaviour

Beginning of modern psychology (prevalent today)

Question 12

Psyche (mentalism)

Answer 12

Nonmaterial entity, independent of body but responsible for consciousness, perceptions, emotions, and works through the heart

Question 13

Dualism

Answer 13

(Descartes)
Retained that nonmaterial mind governs rational behaviour
Developed mechanical explanation for how mind interacts with body to produce movement - working through pineal body (pineal gland)

Concluded that mind instructs pineal body, which lies beside fluid filled brain cavities (ventricles), which direct fluid through nerves to fill muscles (produce movement)

Mind and body (two) = dualism

Question 14

Actual role of pineal body (gland)

Answer 14

Related to biological rhythms
(body functions regulated by biological clock)

Question 15

Mind-body problem (dualism)

Answer 15

Inability of dualism to explain how nonmaterial mind and physical brain interact

Question 16

Materialism

Answer 16

(Darwin)
The nervous system can explain rational behaviour
Supported by evolutionary theory

Question 17

Summary of materialism (relation to evolutionary theory)

Answer 17

Because all animal species are related, their brains must be related

Because all animal species are related, their behaviour must be related

Brains and behaviours in complex animals evolved from simpler animals’ brains/behaviours

Question 18

Natural selection

Answer 18

Theory explaining how new species evolve and how existing species change over time - desirable/advantageous traits passed down

Question 19

Phenotype

Answer 19

Set of individual characteristics we can see/measure

Question 20

What did Mendel discover

Answer 20

That heritable traits (genes) govern physical traits displayed by the species

Question 21

Genotype

Answer 21

Particular genetic makeup of individual

Members of species (can breed together) with a genotype are likely to express similar phenotypic traits (similar characteristics due to similar genes)

Question 22

Epigenetics

Answer 22

(beyond genes)

Studies how gene expression is turned on or off at different times - how environment/expression influence our behaviour through their effects on our genes

Question 23

Evolution of brain/behaviour

Answer 23

animal brain cells (700 million)
first brain (250 million)
humanlike brain (6 million)
modern human brain (200,000)

Question 24

Evolution of animal nervous system

Answer 24

1. Neurons and muscles
2. Nerve net (no structure, consists entirely of neurons)
3. Bilateral symmetry
4. Segmentation (division into similar parts)
5. Ganglia (collection of nerve cells that functions like a brain)
6. Spinal cord
7. Brain

Question 25

Primate order

Answer 25

(Humans are members of)
Highly developed vision - excellent colour and 3D vision

Question 26

What is the more complex behaviour in chordates linked to?

Answer 26

Evolution of cerebrum and cerebellum

Question 27

How do we relate brain size and behaviour?

Answer 27

1. Encephalization quotient
2. Counting brain cells (amount and packing density of neurons)
3. Brain cell connections

Question 28

Encephalization quotient

Answer 28

Quantitative measure of brain size obtained from ratio of actual to expected brain size (size relative to body weight), among which we deviate the most above the expected line

Question 29

Brain cell connections

Answer 29

Brains become larger by addition of neurons - and more neurons adds more connections between neurons

Question 30

Why did the hominid brain enlarge?

Answer 30

1. Climate changes (adapt to environment)
2. Primate lifestyle (social group size, food selection/forging - better chance of survival)
3. Altered maturation (prolonged infancy)
4. Changes in physiology (cooking food)
5. Human genome

Question 31

Criticisms of the suggestion that there is a relationship between brain size and behaviour

Answer 31

1. How do we measure a brain (difficult)
2. Correlating brain size and intelligence (difference in physiology can correspond to difference in brain size)
3. Defining intelligence (IQ tests and accurate intelligence testing are a matter of controversy)

Question 32

Correspondence between brain size and intelligence

Answer 32

Between species (yes)
Within species (no)

Question 33

Culture

Answer 33

Learned behaviours (passed from generations, enabled by our large brain