Chapter 1) Origins Of Brain And Behavior

Question 1

Brain

Answer 1

-Tissue found within the skull
-describes part of the human nervous system

Question 2

Human Nervous System

Answer 2

-Composed of cells
-Half the cells are neurons and the other half are glial cells

Question 3

Neurons

Answer 3

-Specialized in that they interconnect with each other and with the muscles and organs of the body with fibers that can extend over long distances
-Through interconnectedness, the neurons send electrical and chemical signals to communicate with one another with sensory receptors in skin, muscles, an with internal body organs

Question 4

Glial cells

Answer 4

Support function of the neurons

Question 5

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

Answer 5

-Spinal cord (tube of nervous tissue encased in vertebrae)
-Spinal core in turn sends nerve fibers out to our muscles and internal body organs and receives fibers from sensory receptors on many parts of our body

Question 6

Cerebrum (forebrain)

Answer 6

-Two nearly symmetrical halves, called hemispheres
-Responsible for most of our conscious behaviors
-Enfolds the brainstem

Question 7

Brainstem

Answer 7

-Set of structures responsible for most of our unconscious behaviors
-Second major brainstem structure is Cerebellum

Question 8

Cerebellum

Answer 8

-Specialized for learning and coordinating our movements
-Conjoint evolution with the cerebrum shows that it assists the cerebrum in generating many behaviors

Question 9

Embodied behaviour

Answer 9

-Proposes that the movements we make and the movements we perceive are central to our behavior
-According to this view the brain as an intelligent entity cannot be divorced from the body’s activities

Question 10

Locked-in syndrome

Answer 10

Condition in which the brain is intact, functioning and sensitive to the external world but with its nerve fiber pathways that produce movement inactivated

Question 11

What is Behaviour

Answer 11

-Movements, vocalizations, thinking
-Inherited ways of responding, learned
-Innate (fixed)
-Learned actions that are part of cultural transmission

Question 12

Mentalism

Answer 12

-Aristotle
-Explanation of behavior as a function of the nonmaterial mind
-Consciousness, sensation, perception, attention, imagination, emotion, motivation, memory and volition
-Measurable descriptions for behavior

Question 13

Psyche

Answer 13

-Entity once proposed to be the source of human behavior
-Nonmaterial entity governs our behavior, and our essential consciousness survives our death

Question 14

Dualism

Answer 14

-Descartes
-Both a nonmaterial mind and the material mind contribute to behavior
-Turning test
-Mind body problem

Question 15

Mind-body problem

Answer 15

-Quandary of explaining interaction of a nonmaterial mind and a physical brain

Question 16

Dualist hypothesis

Answer 16

-Mind resides in the pineal gland where it directs the flow of fluid through the ventricles into the muscles to move the body
-In reality the pineal gland actually influences daily and seasonal biorhythms

Question 17

Pineal gland

Answer 17

-Influences daily and seasonal biorhythms

Question 18

Darwin and materilism

Answer 18

-Behavior can be explained as a function of the nervous system without recourse to the mind
-Evolution by natural selection explains how new species evolve and existing ones change over time
-Natural selection
-Epigenetics

Question 19

Epigenetics

Answer 19

-Study of differences in gene expression arising from environment and experience
-Do not change genes, influence how genes express traits inherited by parents

Question 20

Brain cell connections

Answer 20

Brains become larger by the addition of neurons and the addition of neurons adds disproportionately more connections between those neurons

Question 21

Cell assembly (Hebb)

Answer 21

-Small groups of neurons forming new connections with one another (substrate for a memory)
-Cell assemblies interact (connect to one another)
-Linking of cell assemblies is the linking of memories
-According to Hebb, this is what produces our complex behavior

Question 22

Evolution of nervous systems

Answer 22

1) Neurons and muscles
2) Nerve net
3) Bilateral symmetry
4) Segmentation
5) Ganglia
6) Spinal cord
7) Brain
8)

Question 23

1) Neurons and muscles

Answer 23

-Brain cells and muscles evolves together, enabling animals to move
-Origins in single-cell animals (amoebe)

Question 24

2) Nerve net

Answer 24

-No structure that resembles a brain or spinal cord
-Consists entirely of neurons that receive sensory information and connect directly to other neurons that move muscles
-Human PNS is reminiscent of the nerve net

Question 25

3) Bilateral symmetry

Answer 25

-Nervous system more organized in more complex animals (flatworms)
-Nervous system on one side mirrors that on the other side
-Human nervous system is bilaterally symmetrical

Question 26

4) Segmentation

Answer 26

-Series of similar muscular segments
-Human spinal cord and brain display segmentation
-Vertebrae contain the similar repeating nervous system segments of the spinal cord

Question 27

5) Ganglia

Answer 27

-Clusters of neurons
-Resemble primitive brains and function somewhat like them as they are command centers
-Some insects ganglia are large enough to merit it the word brain

Question 28

6) Spinal cord

Answer 28

-Single nervous system pathway connects the brain with sensory receptors and muscles
-Bony, vertebrae incase the spinal cord
-Notochord (flexible rod that runs down back)
-Notochord only present for humans in embryo before replaced with vertebrae

Question 29

7) Brain

Answer 29

-Humans have largest brain relative to body size
-Brain displays specializations related to distinctive behaviors of that species