PSYC 1100 Exam 1

Structuralism

1879

Science of the mind (the mind can be studied scientifically through elements of thought)

Introduced by Wilhelm Wundt, who created the first lab for psychology. Focuses on introspection (looking inwards)

Edward Tichener studied under Wundt, created a view of Structuralism

Behaviorism

1913

Science of Behavior

John Watson argues psychology needs to be an observable science UNLIKE introspection

Cognitivism

1967

Science of Mind and Behavior

Ulric Neisser combined the previous definitions, created stable field

focuses on: attention, perception, language, memory, and our brains ability to act like a computer using input of information and sending outputs (software = mind, hardware = brain)

The Science of Experimental Epistemology

Where do we get our knowledge from?

Nativism: “native” (goes with Rationalism)

• you are born with the knowledge - it is innate

• natural instincts (evolutionary)

Empiricism: “experience” (goes with Associationism)

• knowledge comes from experience

• nurture (upbringing)

• you are born as a clean slate, or ‘tabula rasa’

• everything we know comes from our experiences

The Science of Experimental Epistemology

How do you learn knowledge?

Rationalism “rational” (goes with nativism)

• manipulation of concepts and ideas

• learn by thinking about things

• making inferences + using reasoning

Associationism “association” (goes with empiricism)

• you need to connect experience together to learn the knowledge

The Science of Knowing and Experiencing

Knowing - our thoughts are about something

• not just storing the information

• we understand it, we are aware of it - we know how to behave

• computers “know” things - they store and retrieve info

Experiencing - sensations and impressions

• a computer cant experience things like we can, such as seeing color or listening

• different from knowledge and information

• ex. experiencing the flavor of mint

  • telling someone about the flavor isn’t the same as experiencing it

  • you can only taste mint to experience

• makes us motivated:

  • we are hungry so we are motivated to eat something we like (pizza) because of a pervious good experience we had with pizza

How are our mind and physical body related? How do they interact? Two views:

Dualism: descartes

• there are two things that make up the universe and they interact

• the physical

• the non-physical

  • mind

  • soul

  • thought

Materialism:

• everything in the world is physical

• therefore, a though is a part of the physical world

  • electrical signals are physical

  • and thoughts are electrical signals

  • if thoughts were non-physical, you would be able to levitate a pen since it would require no physical connection between mind and object, but we can’t - there must be a physical connection somewhere (signals from brain)

The Science of things that move around on their own

Four years: What is everything made of? Why do things happen?

• matter and motion (physics) was the focus (even biology)

• physics biology do NOT account for: animate motion (movement without applying anything to it) - things moving around their own

• jumping, stepping to the side (behavior)

Psychology: DOES account for animate motion (behavior)

• things that move around on their own form a continuum - some things move a lot, some a little - also how much we study them

• humans, chimps, dogs, bacteria, NOT rocks

Things that move on their own:

• make up psychology:

  • have goals and knowledge of success of goals

  • have perception

  • able to learn environment (change behavior based on experience)

  • have memory - records of experiences

    • these are all ideas of locomotion - coordinated movements of the body for meeting goals using perception

Reflexes

Reflex definition: an automatic, stereotyped movement produced as the direct result of a stimulus

Occurs without though from the frontal cortex - mechanical

Steps in Reflex of the Knee Tap:

1. knee tap

2. sensory neuron from muscles goes up through the back of the spinal cord

3. signal goes to the brain (but not involved)

4. then goes to the muscle - motor output (through front of spinal cord)

5. then you kick out your foot

Sensory: back

Motor: front

Neuron Definiton

A nerve cell

The neuron receives and passes along information all around the body

Direction from cell body to axon terminal

1. Cell body (soma): contains the nucleus

2. Dendrites: receive input from the previous neuron (presynaptic neuron) - think of dendrites like a big hand grabbing/receiving something

3. Axon: sends the signal away from cell body to the next neuron (AP is send down the axon)

4. Myelin Sheath: fatty material that insulates the axon from the information to pass faster and efficiently

5. Nodes of Ranvier: breaks in the myelin sheath (exchange of ions along the axon can happen here)

6. Axon terminals: where the neuron connects (with a gap in between) to another neuron to send signals (neurotransmitters)

7. Synapse: gap in between the first neuron and the second neuron (the signal has to jump across the synapse to pass along)

Multiple Sclerosis

• an autoimmune disease where the Nervous System treats myelin sheath as a foreign substance and attacks it

• Demyelination occurs = not many action potentials correctly fire

• this makes signals have a harder time traveling or happening at all

• Makes it harder to walk, move around, see, etc.

How does a neuron fire?

1. Resting state = -70 mV

• Na+ ions are OUTSIDE the neuron

• fewer K+ ions and Cl ions are inside the neuron

• more negative ions inside the neuron and more positive ions outside the neuron

• this makes it MORE negative inside the neuron than outside -70mV

2. Neuron is stimulated by other neuron (neurotransmitters)

• Na+ ions start slowly going inside the neuron

• -70 mV goes up and up and up until it hits -55mV

• -55 mV is the threshold that catapults us towards the action potential at the peak

3. Depolarization occurs - this means the neuron become more positive

• once the threshold (-55mV) is reached, Na+ rushes into the neuron

• this makes it more positive inside the neuron until it reaches +40 mV

• Action Potential is fired at +40mV - AP is all or nothing - no such thing as a little excited

4. Repolarization / hyperpolarzation

• Potassium (K+) ions flood out the neuron because it is too positive

• the neuron kicks out potassium (instead of sodium) because it is faster - plus the Na+ wants to stay inside

• this makes it more negative in the neuron

• this process overshoots the resting state and cell will be very negative momentarily - this is called hyperpolarization

5. Back to Resting state: the neuron really wants this!

• sodium-potassium pumps push the potassium (K+) back into the neuron (where it belongs) and push sodium (Na+) out of the neuron (where it doesn’t belong)

• More Na+ outside the cell making it positive outside the cell

• Cl- inside the cell making it more negative than the outside

• Back to -70 mV

• Resting potential

Action Potential traveling down axon

Depolarizing at each part of the axon (inside the nodes of Ranvier)

Nodes of Ranvier allow the exchange of ions (at breaks in myelin sheath)
Travels at about 50 to 100 m/sec

Synapse

The gap between the presynaptic and postsynaptic neuron

Neurotransmitters (the “key” vesicles)

Vesicles are located in the axonal buttons in the presynaptic neuron. Vesicles contain neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that convey electrical signals from one neuron to the next. Vesicles release neurotransmitters during the Action Potential.

Receptor molecules (the “lock”)

Located on the dendrites of the postsynaptic neuron. The neurotransmitters (keys) land on the receptors (lock) and this opens ion gates for the Na+ to come into the neuron and start making it more positive … causing the process to repeat.

When neurotransmitters bind to the receptor molecules, it opens the channels for Na+ to come in.. or leave depending on if its excitatory or inhibitory

Neurotransmitters (sequence)

1. Vesicles full of neurotransmitters travel down to the presynaptic axon terminals

2. When they reach the cell membrane (end of presynaptic neuron), they burst open and attach to cll membrane, releasing NTs inside

3. Neurotransmitters travel across the synapse

4. Acting like a key and lock, the NTs attach to their respective receptor molecules (same shape) on the postsynaptic neuron

5. This opens the ion gates in the postsynaptic neuron

6. Na+ starts entering the neuron, making it more positive in the hopes of creating an action potential

What happens to the neurotransmitters after the synapse?

• Neurotransmitters can’t stick around forever (they would fire endlessly) … some of them broken down or

• Neurotransmitters are taken back up into the presynaptic neuron to be used again = reuptake

• Some drugs can stop this reuptake such as:

  • SSRI’s (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) - nhibits the reuptake of serotonin

  • Keeps the serotonin in the synapse to have more serotonin to use

  • Less depressed = happier (lack of serotonin can cause depression)

  • “Antidepressant”

Excitatory Postsynaptic Potential (EPSP)

• More likely to fire an Action Potential in the postsynaptic neuron

• Neurotransmitters can open the Na+ channels to start coming in to possibly start an Action Potential

• Makes it more likely to fire because it starts to get more positive (-65, -60, -50…)

Inhibitory Postsynaptic Potential (IPSP)

• Less likely to fire an Action Potential in the postsynaptic neuron

• Neurotransmitters can open the gates of the K+ ions and have them flood out the neuron

• Neurotransmitters can have Cl- come into the neuron as well

• Both makes the neuron less likely to fire because it starts to get more negative (-71, -75, -80)

Charles Sherrington

Discovered the existence of the synapse

• made discovery without looking at the actual neuron …

• Dog Experiment:

  • Scratch the dog in an area and they itch

  • Eventually, they stop scratching - this means there is an inhibition coming from the brain … Sherrington wanted to stop this so:
    He snips the spinal column - the dog now has disinhibition (no inhibition from the brain)

• Now: Sherrington stimulates:

  • One area repeatedly over time and it creates the reaction to scratch (temporal summation)

  • Three areas just once and together it creates the reaction to scratch (spatial summation) - therefore there must be one area where they all come together = the synapse

Vocab:

Inhibition - you stop a behavior

Disinhibition - stops your ability to stop that behavior (in this case by snipping spinal column that sends the messages to the brain)

Reciprocal Inhibition

• Flexing the flexor muscle (biceps) = contracting muscle

• Inhibits extensor muscle

• Extending extensor muscle (making arm long) = contacting muscle

• Inhibits flexor muscle

  • When one muscle is excited, it is inhibiting the other muscle - the other muscle must be relaxed

Ex: If you have a fear of public speaking, you might practice breathing exercises to relax. When you do the breathing exercises, your body is relaxed, which inhibits the fear response of public speaking.

Central Nervous System

Brain - receives and processes sensory information, initiates responses, stores, memories, generates thoughts and emotions

Spinal Cord - Conducts signals to and from the brain, controls reflex activities

Peripheral Nervous System

Somatic Nervous System - Controls voluntary movements (muscles, senses = voluntary)

Autonomic Nervous System - Controls involuntary movements (vital functions, heart, rate, breathing, digestions, reproduction = involuntary)

Sympathetic Nervous System - Fight or Flight

Parasympathetic Nervous System - Rest or Digest

Sympathetic Nervous System

• Fight or flight

• Emergency state (ex. car crash)

• Using all energy to survive

• Increased heart rate

• Inhibits parasympathetic NS

Parasympathetic Nervous System

• Cal state

• Feed and breed / rest and digest (binge watching a show)

• relaxing and allows for digestion, sexual reproduction

• Slow heart rate

• Inhibits sympathetic NS

The Brain (Hindbrain)

Hindbrain

• Medulla, Pons, Cerebellum

  • Medulla - breathing, heart rate, blood circulation

  • Pons - arousal and attention (talking to friends) coordinates facial expressions too

  • Cerebellum - integration of fine motor movements (NOT in charge of movement) and balance

    • Is not in charge of why you are moving

    • playing piano - helps the muscles work together to make movements happen

    • Neuroplasticty: parts of the brain can take over functions from other parts of the brain

    • No cerebellum: other parts of the brain carry out functions of the cerebellum to makeup for its absence

    • Some aspects of language function

The Brain (Midbrain)

Midbrain:

• Puts movements into acts (can walk) but still no purpose

• Controls whole body responses (visual and auditory stimuli)

• Superior colliculus

  • Superior colliculus (visual stimulus) - orients eyes and attention towards something.

  • Ex. you see a flash in the corner of your eye and you turn to see what it is

• Substantia nigra

  • Manufactures dopamine (a neurotransmitter)

  • gets sent up to the forebrain, specifically basal ganglia

The Brain (Forebrain)

Forebrain:

• Thalamus - sends sensory and motor information to the specific parts of the brain (call center)

• Hypothalamus - controls responses to basic needs (motivation) such as:

  • fight, flee, feed, … sexual functioning

  • regulates temperature (tells body to sweat if it’s too hot)

  • remove hypothalamus of a rat: cannot regulate hunger, never stops eating

  • Temperature control: when a rat presses a panel in its cage, warm air comes down, and the rat learns cage gets warmer

  • Wire implanted into hypothalamus (cool the wire and it makes the hypothalamus cooler)

  • Rat presses the button for hot air because his hypothalamus feels cold (voluntary)

• Basal ganglia - regulates muscle contractions for smooth voluntary movements

  • “release the breaks on the movements” normally your muscles are inhibited, basal ganglia disinhibits to allow you to move

  • Uses dopamine from substantia nigra

  • Parkinson’s Disease:

    • Substantia nigra cells die off and cannot produce dopamine

    • Basal ganglia are not getting dopamine to work

    • Symptoms: tremors, slow movements, rigidity

• Limbic System - memory (hippocampus) and emotion (amygdala)

  • Classical conditioning example with blue slides:

  • Missing amygdala - do not get scared of blue slide (that was paired with loud noise), but remember why they should be scared

  • Missing hippocampus - fear response of the blue slide, but do not remember why they are scared

Cerebral Cortex

• Surrounds the Frontal, Parietal, Occipital, and Temporal Lobes

• Higher intellectual function (language, thoughts, problem solving, planning)

• Tissue is folded together to create surface of the brain

Cerebral Cortex Mapping

Frontal lobe: responsible for planning, social behavior, motor control

• front part of brain

• Brocas Area - speech/language production

• Motor cortex

Parietal lobe: sense of touch

• Somatosensory cortex

• sense of touch

• on top of brain

Occipital lobe: responsible for vision

• Primary visual cortex

Temporal lobe: responsible for language comprehension and memory

• Side of brain

• Wernicke’s Area - language comprehension

• Primary auditory cortex

Non primary areas:

• border the primary areas

• also includes the prefrontal cortex (very front of the brain) in the frontal cortex

Corpus Callosum

• Connects the two hemispheres (right and left) like a bridge “commissure”

• Communicates information from one hemisphere to the other

• Hemispheres control opposite side of the body (contralateral)

  • example

  • My right hemisphere controls my left arm moving up and down

Franz Joseph Gall

Legitimate discoveries:

1. cortex as functioning tissue, not just protective covering (“cortex” is literally “bark” or “skin”)

2. Commissures (connecting pathways) between hemispheres of the brain, other than the already known corpus callosum

3. Located where nerve pathways cross from spinal cord to contralateral hemispheres of the brain

4. Difference between gray matter and white matter (gray matter = neuron cell bodies doing information processing (local connections), (white matter = myelinated axons sending signals over long distances)

Phrenology - not all accurate…

True:

• The brain is the instrument through which the mind interacts with the outer world

• The mind has a congeries (jumbled collection) of discrete mental faculties each with its own specific center or organ

False

• The size of each organ corresponds with functional efficiency of each ability

• The development of the organ is reflected in the shape, size, and irregularities of the skull (bumps and dips in skull)

Phineas Gage

Iron went right though his frontal lobe:

• personality changed (from responsible to impulsive)

• May be exaggerated

• Changed suggested that the frontal lobe controls personality, decision making, and self control

Why this matters:

• helped prove localization of brain functions - different areas control different abilities/functions

Wilder Penfield Findings

• On the operating table: (patients do not feel pain on the cortex - patients were awake)

• Found specific regions of the body were in specific parts of the brain - localization of functions

• Drew the “little man” on the brain

• Why were certain body parts bigger and smaller than others?

  • Due to:

  • Amount of brain tissue devoted to controlling these areas

  • Motor and somatosensory areas

• Hands are bigger: takes a lot of brain tissue to move your fingers/hands

• Face is bigger: takes a lot of brain tissue to move your face

Cortical Functions

• Left hemisphere: language function

  • Broca’s area

  • Wernicke’s area

• Right hemisphere: spatial function

• Front part of the brain: expression, creating plans, initiating actions

• Back part of brain: receiving information, perceptions, interpretations

Damage (lesion) to Non-Primary Areas

• Prefrontal damage: loses ability to plan, no moral reasoning, sensitive to sensitive topic, lose ability to initiate actions (Phineas Gage)

• Apraxia: inability to put movements together “not doing” - frontal lobe affected (forward of motor cortex)

  • not able to organize movements in a certain sequence

  • How do I tie my shoe? Brush my teeth?

• Agnosia: don’t understand what you are perceiving “not knowing”

  • Auditory agnosia: might not understand what kind of sound they heard (temporal)

  • Visual agnosia: might not know what your feet are - can describe visual input but doesn’t know what it means (occipital)

  • ex. patients would describe a key as metallic, jagged, shiny but never say the word “key” - doesn’t know it’s a key

• Neglect: damage to the right hemisphere parietal lobe (only place it happens) leads to neglect of entire left side of body

  • forget to shave left side of face, puts pants on only right side

Aphasia

Broca’s Aphasia (speech) “expressive”

• Identified by Paul Broca

• Left hemisphere damage in frontal lobe

• Broca’s area is damaged

• cannot produce speech - very difficult to speak

• can comprehend

Wernicke’s Aphasia (comprehension) “receptive”

• Identified by Carl Wernicke

• Left hemisphere damage in temporal lobe

• Wernickes area damaged

• Cannot comprehend speech - do not understand what is being said

• Can produce fluent speech, but often doesn’t make sense

Split Brain Studies

What we need to know:

• Corpus callosum - allows info to be passed across hemispheres, important for communication between hemispheres

• Left visual field goes to right hemisphere

• Right visual field goes to left hemisphere

• Language is in the left hemisphere

• Body parts are controlled by opposite hemisphere - left arm controlled by right hemisphere

In split brain studies:

• severed corpus callosum to help reduce seizures

• put an image on the left - goes to right hemisphere (normal)

• put an image on the right - goes to left hemisphere (normal)

• BUT they don’t have a corpus callosum

• image on the left visual goes to right hemisphere - ask them what they saw verbally - patient does not say what they saw - did not communicate to left hemisphere (language)

• Tell them to grab object with left hand and they pick up the correct object - right hemisphere knows what it is, but just can’t communicate to left hemisphere, where language is located