Transcript 3. The Central Nervous System

Biological Basis of Behaviour
Music:
“Insane in the Membrane”
Cypress Hill
“Comfortably Numb”
Pink Floyd
Chapter 3: Agenda
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1. Mind-body Questions
2. Communication Systems Within the Body:
– a) Endocrine b) Nervous
3. The Central Nervous System:
– a) The hindbrain
– b) The midbrain
– c) The forebrain
– d) Left and right hemisphere specialization
4. The Peripheral Nervous System
5. Neurons in Action
6. Tutorial: Practice questions
1. Mind-Body Questions
• Why learn about the brain?
• Is the mind reducible to biological
mechanisms?
– Biological reductionism
• Two-way interactions:
– Can ‘mind’ affect biology?
– Reciprocal effects
2. Two Communication Systems
Within the Body:
• 1. Endocrine System (p. 106)
– Basic building block:
• Hormones released in bloodstream regulate
basic body processes
– Endocrine glands: hypothalamus, down to
pituitary and others found throughout body
– Fig. 3.23
• 2. Nervous System
– Neurotransmitters carry signals between nerve
cells
– Central Nervous System: brain & spine
– Peripheral Nervous System: extends outward
from the spine to organs and limbs
3. Central Nervous System
Fig. 3.15, p. 96
• a) Hindbrain:
– Cerebellum
– Medulla
– Pons
• b) Midbrain:
– Reticular formation
• c) Forebrain:
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Thalamus (relay center)
Hypothalamus
Limbic System
Cerebrum
3. c) Forebrain (cont’d)
• Hypothalamus:
– Regulation of basic biological drives related to survival
• 4 F’s (including fight or flight response)
– Control of hunger, thirst, sex, body temperature
• Limbic System:
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Center of emotion, memory, motivation
Amygdala (emotion)
Hippocampus (memory)
Pleasure Centers
• includes dopamine releasing neurons in hypothalamus
3. c) Cerebrum
 Cortex:
 What makes us distinctively human
 100 trillion synaptic connections!
 4 lobes:
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Occipital
Parietal
Temporal
Frontal
3. c) Illustration of the 4 lobes
3.c) Frontal Lobes: Motor Cortex
3. d) Right brain/Left Brain
 Differentiation of functions
 See application section for critical appraisal
3. Split-Brain Research (p. 102-103)
4. The Peripheral Nervous
System
 Beyond the brain and spinal cord
 Somatic and autonomic nervous system
 Autonomic:
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most relevant for psychology
4. The Autonomic System (p. 89)
 Fight or flight
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Hypothalamic pituitary axis (HPA)
5. Neurons in Action (p. 82-83)
 Figures 3.3 & 3.4
6. Tutorial/Practice Questions
• Perhaps the greatest advantage associated with descriptive research
methods is:
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a) a sensitivity to ethical concerns
b) the isolation of cause and effect linkages in behaviour
c) the ability to focus on specific, isolated behaviours
d) the ability to explore questions that cannot be examined using experimental
procedures
• Maria plans to study the relationship between self-esteem and being
raised in a single-parent or a two-parent family. Maria is most likely
to chose a correlational method because correlational studies:
– a) tend to be more accurate than experiments
– b) have higher internal validity than experiments when there are two
dependent variables
– c) can be used to investigate factors that would be impossible to manipulate in
an experimental study
– d) can be used to study either positive or negative relationships, whereas
experiments can only be used to study positive relationships
Practice Questions (cont’d)
• A correlation coefficient of zero indicates:
– a) a positive relationship between 2 variables
– b) a negative relationship between two variables
– c) the lack of a relationship between 2 variables
– d) a perfect relationship between 2 variables
Practice Questions (cont’d)
• Imagine that a picture of a spoon is briefly flashed in the
left visual field of an individual with a severed corpus
callosum. At the same time, a picture of a cup is briefly
flashed in the right visual field. Based on the work with
split brain patients, you could predict that this individual
will say:
– a) “I didn’t see anything.”
– b) “I saw a spoon resting in a cup.”
– c) “I saw a spoon.”
– d) “I saw a cup.”
– e) It does not really matter since both hemispheres “talk
to one another.”
• Short answer:
– What are the three layers of the brain? Briefly list the
functions of one layer.
See you next week!