Chapter 2 Flashcards
Cartesian dualism
the universeis composed of two elements: (1) physical matter,which behaves according to the laws of nature and is thusa suitable object of scientific investigation; and (2) thehuman mind (soul, self, or spirit), which lacks physicalsubstance, controls human behavior, obeys no naturallaws, and is thus the appropriate purview of the Church.
ethology
(the study of animal behavior in the wild), dominant approach to study of behavior in Europe
instinctive behaviors
behaviors that occur in all like members of a species, even when there seems to have been no opportunity for them to have been learned
2 lines of evidence against physiological/psychological debate
1) the many demonstrations that even the most complex psychological changes (e.g., changes in self-awareness, memory, or emotion) can be produced by damage to, or stimulation of, parts of the brain2) demonstrations that some nonhuman species, particularly primate species, possess abilities that were once assumed to be purely psychological and thus purely human
asomatognosia
deficiency in the awareness of parts of one s own body.Asomatognosia typically involves the left side of the body and usually results from damage to theright parietal lobe
all behavior is the product of interactionsamong three factors:
(1) the organisms genetic endowment, which is a product of its evolution; (2) its experience; and (3) its perception of the current situation.
understand the biology of behavior schematic illustration on pg 25!!!
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three important points about evolution of humain brain, considering changes in brain stem and cerebrum:
+ It has increased in size during evolution.+ Most of the increase in size has occurred in thecerebrum.+ An increase in the number of convolutions folds on the cerebral surface has greatly increased the volume of the cerebral cortex, the outermost layer of cerebral tissue
autosomal chromosomes
typical chromosomes that come in matched pairs
sex chromosomes
.the one non-autosomal chromosome pair.the pair of chromosomes that determines an individual s sex
two types of sex chromosomes
There are two types of sex chromosomes, X and Y, and the two look different and carry different genes.Female mammals have two X chromosomes, and male mammals have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome.
sex-linked traits
Traits that are influenced by genes on the sex chromosomes
Virtually all sex-linked traits arecontrolled by genes on the: y?:
X chromosome because the Y chromosome is small and carries few genes
traits controlled by genes on the X chromosome
-occur more frequently in one sex than the other-if dominant, it occurs more frequently in females-Females have twice the chance of inheriting the dominant gene because they have twice the number of X chromosomes
recessive sex-linked traits occur more frequently in _____: y?
males. The reason is that recessive sex-linkedtraits are manifested only in females who possess two of the recessive genes one on each of their X chromosomes whereas the traits are manifested in all males who possess the gene because they have only one X chromosome. The classic example of a recessive sex-linked trait is color blindness. Because the color-blindness gene is quite rare, females almost never inherit two of them and thus almost never possess the disorder; in contrast, every male who possesses one color-blindness gene is color blind.
______ have twice the chance of inheriting the dominant gene because…
females. because they have twice the number of X chromosomes
proteins
-long chains of amino acids-they control the physiological activities ofcells and are important components of cellular structure
how do different cells develop if they all contain exactly the same genes?
The answer lies in stretches of DNA that lack structural genes - indeed, although all genes wereonce assumed to be structural genes, those genes compose only a small portion of each chromosome-these stretches include enhancers
Enhancers
-stretches of DNA whose function is to determine whether particular structural genes initiate the synthesis of proteins and at what rate (gene expression)-Enhancers are like switches, and like switches, they can be regulated in two ways: They can be turned up or they can be turned down.
transcription factors
Proteins that bind to DNA and influence the extent to which genes are expressed-Many of the transcription factors that control enhancers are influenced by signals received bythe cell from its environment
RNA
ribonucleic acid-like DNA except that it contains the nucleotidebase uracil instead of thymine and has a phosphateand ribose backbone instead of a phosphate and deoxyribose (the D in DNA) backbone
mRNA
messenger RNA-carries the genetic code out of the nucleus of the cell.Once it has left the nucleus, the messenger RNA attaches itself to one of the many ribosomes in the cell’s cytoplasm
codon
-Each group of three consecutive nucleotide bases along the messenger RNA strand-Each codon instructs the ribosome to add 1 of the 20 different kinds of amino acids to the protein that it is constructing; for example, the sequence guanine-guanine-adenine instructs the ribosome to add the amino acid glycine
tRNA
transfer RNA-Each kind of amino acid is carried to the ribosome by molecules of tRNA (during protein synthesis)-as the ribosome reads a codon, it attracts a transfer RNA molecule that is attached to the appropriate amino acid
