Download Brain Anatomy

NERVOUS SYTEM!!!! One of the keys to
the biological approach in Psychology.
Brain Anatomy
• Frontal lobe (pink)
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Original thought
Decision making
Planning
Problem solving
Phineas Gage
Gage began to have startling changes in personality in mood. He became
extravagant and anti-social, a fullmouth and a liar with bad manners, and could
no longer hold a job or plan his future. "Gage was no longer Gage", said his
friends of him. He died in 1861, thirtheen years after the accident, penniless
and epileptic, and no autopsy was performed on his brain.
Brain Anatomy
• Parietal lobe (yellow)
– Senses and movement
Paralysis is a condition of parietal
lobe damage
Brain Anatomy
• Occipital lobe (green)
– vision
Art piece called “Struck by Blindness”. Why is this a great
name for this piece?
Brain Anatomy
• Temporal lobe (blue)
– Memory, emotion,
hearing, language
Seizures from epilepsy are a
Temporal lobe disorder.
Neurons, the cells of the nervous
system
• They send chemical signals to:
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Other neurons
Muscles
Organs
glands
Neurons
• The action of a neuron is electrical, yet the
neuron sends a chemical signal called a
neurotransmitter.
neurotransmitter
*Break for Video graphic*
250 to 500,000 neurons/minute are made in
the fetus!
Neurotransmitters:
Chemicals that neurons use to
talk to each other!
Neurotransmitter: Acetylcholine
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Works on the voluntary muscles
Also abundant in the brain.
Nicotine reacts with the receptors
that respond to acetylcholine.
Alzheimer’s patients lose neurons
that release Acetylcholine.
Dopamine
• Thought (generally) to control pleasure and
motivation
• Controls movement, so Parkinson’s patients
have benefited from dopamine-type medicines
• Too much dopamine has been linked to
psychosis… limit the dopamine, limit the
psychosis.
• Might regulate hormones through the pituitary
gland.
Serotonin
• Linked to sleep, depression, and anxiety.
• Prozac is a serotonin reuptake inhibitor.
(Not intuitive, but it is thought that a lack of
serotonin is a cause of depression. If you
keep it in the synapse longer, it is more
active.)
– Used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder
– Used to treat depression.
Learning
• Learning is the
physical growth of
connections between
neurons.
• Improve connections
with ‘linking,’
emotion, repetition
and practice
Nervous System!
• Fetal (developing baby)
brain cells develop at the
(average) rate of 250,000
neurons per minute!
Nervous System Cells are called
neurons
• The human brain has
about 100 BILLION
neurons at birth!
• (This is a sheep’s
brain)
Nervous System
• Central Nervous
System
– Brain and spinal cord
– Brain uses 20% of all
oxygen, even though is
is 2% of the body’s
total mass.
• Peripheral Nervous
system
– Accessory nerves that
branch off of the CNS.
In pairs or by yourself,
1. Sleep and the brain… how do they affect each
other?
-No wrong answers… hypothesize how the brain affects
sleep (think of 3 hypotheses)
-Hypothesize how sleep affects the brain (think of 3
hypotheses
2. Behaviors and the brain… how do they affect each
other? Come up with 5 hypotheses
3. Memory and retrieval of memories… How do you
go about putting things into long-term memory?
List 3 strategies
Homework due 9-26-06
1. Draw and label a neuron.
2. Explain in detail an action potential