Brain Midterm 1-15

Materialism/Monism

• Each mental state = a brain state, all contents of consciousness (thoughts, feelings, “free will”) exist solely in the brain by physical law

• No soul, no separate mind, no god, no ultimate external meaning to lifie

Dualism

• Mental states that are acted throughout the brain, a non-physical entity (mind, soul, consciousness)

• Spiritual realm that affects our minds, supernatural forces

  William Occam

States that the simplest answer is the correct answer, the most satisfactory explanation

Why did ancient Egyptians think the heart was more important?

• The heart reacts to your emotions; determines the fate of one’s afterlife

What did the Aristotle contribute to the brain?

• The brain’s job was to cool the blood

What did the renaissance contribute?

• The mind was connected to the ventricles, fluid filling cavities in the brain were causing activities of the mind

What are scientific spporaches to brain function?

• Chemical alteration of the brain by drugs and diet

• Artificial stimulation of the brain

• Redcorded brain activity of correlation to behavior

The nervous system is…

• The manner of conducting oneself

• Anything that an organism does involving action and response to stimulation

• The response of an individual, group, or species to its environment

External behaviors include what?

• Food and water

• Sleep

• Avoiding predators and dangers

Internal behaviors include what?

• Maintaining homeostasis: constant, healthy functioning of body

Proprioception

• Understanding the position of your body in space

What is motor behavior? What does it include?

• Skeletal muscle, smooth muscle, cardiac muscle

Skeletal muscle is…

• Movement of limbs, joints, face

• Conscious, voluntary

Smooth muscle is…

• Lines, organs, and blood vessels

• Unconscious, involuntary, homeostasis

Cardiac muscle is…

• Beating of heart

• Mostly unconscious

The brain remembers conseqeucnes of its behaviors and changes accordingly

• Learning and memory

Output of the brain depends on…

• Emotions

Input of the brain depends on…

• Attention

Plants can exhibit “behaviors”

• Phototropism and gravitropism

Paramecium

• Single cell organisms

• Have tiny hairs called cilia that detect things in their way

Hydra

• Has a nerve net made up of scattered connected neurons (nerve cells)

• Ability to repair themselves endlessly

• Can paralyze prey with toxic barbs triggered by hair-like sensors

Nerves

• Made up of bundles of axons (bundle of fibers) from many individual neurons

The nervous system as a tree

• Symmetrical on both sides

• Communicate directly through synapses

CNS

• Contains of the brain and spinal cord

The human brain weighs about…

• 3 lbs

Cerebral cortex

• Wrinkled surface of the brain

Clefts are called…

• Fissures or Sulci

Ridges are called…

• Gyri (gyrus)

Longitudinal cerebral fissure

• Divides cortex into left and right haves (hemispheres) connected by the corpus callosum

Corpus Callosum

• Connects left and right halves, allows hemispheres to communicate

Sylvian fissure separates the…

• Temporal lobe from Parietal and Frontal lobe

Central sulcus separates…

• Frontal lobe from Parietal lobe

Primary cortex is on the…

• Pre-central gyrus

Primary central cortex is on the…

• Post-central gyrus

Grey matter

• Contains neural cell bodies and synapse - process info and release new info

White matter

• Composed of axons that conduct nerve signals - transmit info

Brain and spinal cord form during development from hollow tube inside the embryo…

• The neural tube

Front part of the brain grows the fastest…

• The forebrain

Covered by the forebrain is the…

• The midbrain

Part of the brain merging into the spinal cord is the…

• The hindbrain

The peripheral NS

• 12 Pairs of cranial nerves branch out the brainstem

• 31 pairs of spinal nerves branch off spinal cord

Somatic NS

• Voluntary movements and sensory functions

• Requires conscious thought

• Manage reflex actions

Cranial nerves are…

• Sensory (input) some are motor (output) and some have both sensory and motor functions

Spinal nerves…

• Branch from the spinal cord to contract both sensory organs and muscles

• All spinal nerves have both sensory and output components

Autonomic NS

• Involuntary bodily functions

• W/o conscious thought

• Controls breathing, heart rate, and organ function