Psych 255-Lecture 2

What are the three ways of measuring brains and associating them with intelligence?

• Relating brain size and behavior

• Counting brain cells

• brain cell connections

What is a topographic map?

A map representing the different functional areas of the brain

Connectome maps

Represents the connections through which each of these regions influences each other

Heterochronicity

Accounts for larger human brain and other distinctive features

What is the radiator hypothesis?

To increase the size of the car’s engine, you have to increase the size of the radiator that cools it: essentially the radiator in this case is the circulating blood and increases to allow the brain to increase

heterochrony

The study of processes that regulate the onset and end-of-life stages and their developmental speed and duration

Neoteny

Juvenile stages of predecessors become adult features of descendants

Howard Gardner

proposed that humans have a number of intelligences each dependent on the function of a particular brain region(s)

Alex Mesoudi

suggests that cultural elements, ideas, behaviors, or styles that spread form person-to-person can be studied within an evolutionary framework (memes)

brain plasticity

neural tissue has the capacity to change in response to the world by changing how its organized

Phenotypic plasticity

The individual’s capacity to develop a range of phenotypes

Afferent neurons

Sensory (incoming) neurons that send information coming in and towards the central nervous system

Efferent neurons

Motor (outgoing) neurons that send information away from the central nervous system

Peripheral nervous system (PNS)

carry sensory information into the CNA and carry motor information from the CNS to the body’s muscle and tissue

Somatic neurons

Gather sensory information from the CNS and convey information from the CNS to move muscles

Sympathetic nervous system (SNS)

Includes the spinal cord and cranial nerves carrying sensory information to the CNS from the muscles, joints, and skin

Autonomic nervous system (ANS)

produces the rest and digest responses through the parasympathetic nerves

Enteric nervous system (ENS)

Formed by a mesh of neurons embedded in the lining of the gut, controls the gut

Dorsal

Structures atop the brain or a structure within the brain

Ventral

Structures towards the bottom of the brain or

Medial

towards the midline of the brain

lateral

pushing towards the outside

Anterior

frontal lobes, in front of the brain

Posterior/caudal

occipital lobes, in the back

Coronal section (frontal)

cuts on the vertical plane, from the crown of the head down slicing the temporal lobe and creating a frontal view

Describe a horizontal section

cuts on the horizontal plane, usually viewed from above and creates a dorsal view

Describe a sagittal section

lengthwise cut from the front to the back and viewed from the side produces a medial view

What is a midsagittal section?

A sagittal section in which the slice is made directly down the middle

Brain-body orientation

Illustrates brain structure location from the frame of reference of the human face

Spatial orientation

Illustrates the structure location in relation to other body parts and body orientation

Anatomical orientation

Illustrates the direction of a cut or section through the human brain from the perspective of a viewer

What are the two divisions of the nervous system?

Anatomical and functional

Harry Jerison

Relates brain size and body size

he calculated that as body size increases, brain size increases by about 2/3 the increase in body weight

What is the encephalon quotient? (EQ)

A numerical value that takes the measured brain size from an actual and experimental measure and compares the two

How does the EQ graph relate brain size to intelligence?

Species below the line have a smaller brain and a lower EQ, species lying above the line have a larger brain than expected for that species and a higher EQ

What did Fonseca-Azevedo propose?

Described that by counting brain cells, they can estimate the number of neurons in the brain or that part of the brain and the neuron’s packing density

Inferior

Below

Superior

Above

Rostral

towards the beak (front) of the animal