Transcript The Brain - Cal State LA - Instructional Web Server

The Human Brain
Cerebrum
Cerebrum
Corpus Callosum
Hypothalamus
Pituitary
“In the most intelligent races,
as among the Parisians, there
are a large number of women
whose brains are closer in size
to those of gorillas than to the
most developed male brains.
This inferiority is so obvious
that no one can contest it for a
moment; only its degree is
worth discussion.
All psychologists who have
studied the intelligence of
women, as well as poets and
novelists, recognize today that
they represent the most inferior
forms of human evolution and
that they are closer to children
and savages than to an adult,
civilized man. They excel in
fickleness, inconstancy,
absence of thought and logic,
and incapacity to reason.
Without doubt there exist some
distinguished women, very
superior to the average man,
but they are as exceptional as
the birth of any monstrosity, as,
for example, of a gorilla with two
heads; consequently, we may
neglect them entirely.” –
Gustave LeBon, 1879
Founder of Social Psychology
Morton’s final summary of craqnial
capacity by race
German, English, Am
Semitic
Mongolian group
Malay group
Peruvian, Mexico
Barbarous tribes
Negro group
Australian aborigian
92 sq in
89
82
85
79
84
83
75
Bean’s Plot
Length of
brain
White
black
Width of brain
Gould used more modern
methods
•
•
•
•
Blind test
Adjust for body size
Adjusted for cause of death
Adjusted for age at death
Mall’s Plot – Steven Jay Gould
Length
of Brain
Width of Brain
Synapse
Neurotransmitter
The human brain – Flexible ciruitry
50 billion neurons
(chimps have 5.5 billion)
Each of these neurons can receive
messages from 1,000 other neurons
An also send messages to 1,000 other
neurons
Brain development after birth
Before birth and for 6 months after birth
500,000 new neurons are produced each
minute.
Brain doubles in size from birth to 1 year
Doubles again by age 4 – reaching adult
size by 4 or 5.
Ruth Bleier’s Theory of Intelligence
Intelligence is a complex entity of:
brain
body
behavior
environment
mind
The parts of this complex are inextricable from one
another. The parts and the whole are
ceaselessly interacting and changing and carry
within themselves the entire history of their
interactions.
Back to flexibility of circuitry
The functional validity of developing
synapses occurs through environmental
input as a means by which neurons
acquire normal anatomical connections
and function.
Different experiences will develop different
anatomic connections.
Ruth Bleier
-Genes cannot encode for all the complex
behavior for a species that occupies every
possible niche
-We learn how we are supposed to be
-Culture – values, beliefs, expectations,
conformity become known as:
HUMAN NATURE