Download Topic Presentation: Biopsychology

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Topic Presentation: Neuroscience and Behavior
I. How the Body Communicates Internally
A. Two communication systems
i. The Nervous System – fast acting and focused
ii. The Endocrine System – slow acting
B. The Basic Building Block of the Nervous System
i. The Neuron
1. Receive, integrate, and transmit electrochemical messages
2. Approximately 100 billion nerve cells in adult brain
ii. Types of Neurons (Neurons pass information in one direction only
so separate nerve pathways are required for delivering and
responding to neural messages. These pathways are called the
sensory and motor pathways.)
1. Sensory Neurons
a. Carry messages to the central nervous system
(toward the brain)
b. Afferent – specialized sensory neurons that are
sensitive to external stimuli
2. Motor Neurons
a. Carry messages to the muscles of the body (away
from the brain)
b. Efferent
c. Note: Every one of your actions arises from neural
impulses from the brain delivered to your muscles.
3. Interneurons
a. Relay Information
b. Form complex circuits in the brain
iii. What is the Essential Anatomy of a Neuron?
1. The Cell Body/Soma
2. The Dendrites
3. Axon Hillock
4. Axon
5. Myelin Sheath
6. Terminal buttons
7. Vesicles
8. Neurotransmitters
iv. How do Neurons Communicate?
1. Communication within the neuron (in order)
a. Dendrites – receives information
i. From other neurons
b. Cell Body/Soma – processes information
i. Axon hillock
c. Axon – transmits information to next neuron via
Action Potential
i. Action Potential
1. All or none
a. A stimulus will either ‘fire’
the neuron or it will fail to
fire it.
2. Positive Ions flow into the neuron
(depolarizing the negative charge in
the axon) and moves along the axon
membrane
3. Resting Potential
a. Slight negative charge across
the membrane
d. Terminal Button
2. Communication between neurons – Synaptic Transmission
a. Synaptic Cleft (Gap)
b. Synapse
i. Electrical impulse in the axon is converted
into a chemical message
c. Neurotransmitters
i. Biochemical substances released into the
synaptic cleft to stimulate or suppress other
neurons
ii. Different kinds of Neurotransmitters
molecules have specific shapes
d. Receptors
i. Lock and Key
e. Reuptake
f. Types of Neurotransmitters
i. Dopamine
Excess implicated in Schizophrenia
ii. Serotonin
Imbalances implicated in depression
iii. Norepinephrine
iv. Acetylcholine
Disturbances can produce memory
problems
v. GABA
vi. Glutamate
vii. Endorphins
g. The influence of neurotransmitters
i. Certain neurotransmitters are only found in
specific places (designated pathways in the
brain)
ii. Different neurotransmitters have different
effects
iii. Changes in amounts of neurotransmitters
can affect our mood, memories, mental
abilities, hunger, and more
iv. Boosting or diminishing the effects of
neurotransmitters
1. Diet
2. Drugs
a. Psychoactive drugs cross the
blood brain barrier interact
with neural signaling
pathways
b. Can increase the release of
neurotransmitters into the
cleft
c. Can block neurotransmitter
reuptake
d. Can directly activate or
inactivate post synaptic
receptors.
e. Enhance (agonistic) or inhibit
(antagonistic) the natural
chemical processes.
i. Example: Prozac
(SSRI) blocks return
of serotonin to
sending neuron
v. Glial Cells – The other cell in the nervous system!
1. Specialized support cells for neurons
2. Form the Myelin Sheath
a. Multiple Sclerosis is a disease that involves
degeneration of the myelin sheath.
vi. Plasticity – Ability of the nervous system to adapt or change
1. Learning
2. Effects of experience
3. Repair
a. Examples
i. After Ashley permanently damaged her left
frontal lobe and lost the ability to speak
(though she can still understand speech) she
was able to recover some of her speech due
II.
to other parts of the brain taking over lost
functions.
C. The Divisions of the Nervous System
i. Central Nervous System
ii. Peripheral Nervous System
1. relays information directly from the outside world to the
brain
D. The Endocrine System
i. Secretes hormones into the bloodstream reaching many distant
organs
ii. Pituitary gland can either stimulate or inhibit the release of
hormones from a gland.
iii. Adrenal gland produces hormones that energize your body for
“fight or flight” responses.
The Brain
A. How We Study the Brain
i. Lesions and Probes
ii. EEG
1. An amplified recoding of brain electrical waves
iii. Brain Scans
1. CT
a. Computerized image of X rays passed through the
brain at various angles
2. PET
a. A composite picture of neuron activity produced by
detecting atomic particles emitted by a radioactive
dye
3. MRI
a. Best for distinguishing between closely related
brain structures
4. fMRI
a. distinguishes more active tissue from less active
ones
iv. Other
B. Layers and Functions of the Brain
i. Brain Stem and Cerebellum
 Drives vital functions such as heart rate, breathing,
digestion
ii. Limbic System
 Adds emotions, complex motives, increased memory
abilities
iii. Cerebrum
 Enables reasoning, planning, creating, problem solving
 Accounts for 2/3 of brain’s total mass

C.
D.
E.
F.
Corpus callosum interconnects the two hemispheres of
the brain
The Brain Stem Area
i. Medulla
1. basic bodily functions like breathing!
2. cross over location of some nerve fibers that interconnect
the left and right side of the body
ii. Pons
1. regulates sleep
iii. Reticular formation (reticular activating system)
1. regulates awake and alertness
iv. Thalamus: directs most incoming and outgoing signals, focuses
attention
1. “sensory switchboard” for all sensory systems except smell.
a. Example: Listening to your favorite music involves
the transfer of the auditory information from the ear
through the thalamus en route to the auditory
cortex.
Cerebellum: controls complex movements; orders series
i. Examples: tap dancing, walking a tightrope, balance beam
ii. Functions are mostly automatic
Limbic System
i. Hippocampus-memory
1. Example: damage would impact your ability to name
events that occurred after the damage (newer information)
2. IF damaged , you would not be able to attend college
ii. Amygdala – emotion
1. A stroke damaging part of the amygdale could change your
emotions such as calming an angry disposition.
iii. Hypothalamus- regulates
1. appetite, thirst
2. sexual behavior
3. temperature
4. motivation
5. communicates directed to the pituitary “master gland” of
the endocrine system 6. pleasure centers
7. homeostasis (body’s internal balance or equilibrium)
iv. Concept Check
Cerebral Cortex – forms the outer layer of he brain (divided into lobes by
central and lateral fissures).
i. Frontal Lobes
1. Personality and Temperament
2. Motor Control
i. Motor cortex – left and right sides govern
opposite side of body
3. Planning
4. Damage to frontal lobes can have devastating effects on
human action and personality
ii. Parietal Lobes
1. Somatosensory cortex
a. Tactile experiences such as temperature, texture,
density
2. Location of objects in space
3. Coordination of various senses
iii. Occipital Lobes
1. Vision
a. Color
b. Movement
c. Shape
d. Shading
2. Visual Cortex
a. Devoted mostly to the retina
iv. Temporal Lobes
1. Auditory Cortex
2. Memory
v. Association Cortex across the Lobes
1. interpretation, planning
2. Example: deciding as to whether you want to ask an
attractive person out for a date
vi. Cerebral Hemispheres/Cerebral Dominance – The tendency for
each hemisphere of the brain to take control of different functions
1. Left –
a. language centers
i. Broca’s area
ii. Wernike’s area
b. analytical and verbal processing including
vocabulary
c. Memory for words and numbers
d. Anxiety and emotion
e. Movement sequences
2. Right
a. Spatial orientation processing
i. Facial recognition
b. Music and shape memory
c. Emotional responsiveness