Brain and Behavior: Intro

neuroscience

the scientific study of the nervous system

behavioral neuroscience

the field that relates behavior to bodily processes

Galan (Greco-Roman Physician)

Observed gladiator injuries to the head and noticed that they behaved differently when different parts were hit. Connected that the brain controlled behavior and movement.

Leonardo da Vinci

Drew neuroanatomical illustrations of nerves and brain structures from studying cadavers

Michaelangelo

Depicted God to have a striking resemblance to the human brain, was doing cadavers at the time

Rene Descartes

Control of behavior compared to a machine, discovered spinal reflexes and brought up the idea of a neural pathway. Also brought up the idea of a "reflex".

Dualism

The notion that the mind has an immaterial aspect that is distinct from the body and brain, also brought up the idea that there was a "soul" that sat in the pineal gland.

Phrenology

the belief that bumps on the skull reflect enlargements of brain regions responsible for certain behavioral faculties

localization of function

different brain regions specialize in different behaviors

Paul Broca (1824-1880)

Saw that damage to a certain region on the left side of the brain causes problems with speech production. Patient "Tan" had a stroke in what is now called Broca's Area, responsible for speech production, but he could still understand and process what was being said.

William James (1890)

Wrote "Principles of Psychology", was a modern approach to behavioral neuroscience. Thought that things like consciousness and human experience were part of the nervous system and not the soul.

Ivan P. Pavlov (1849-1936)

Classical conditioning with dogs, created the idea of learned helplessness through the classical conditioning.

Margaret Floy Washburn (1908)

Looked at behavior in many different species and researched how and why they evolved to have those certain behaviors.

Karl Lashley (1890-1958)

Showed that memory wasn't localized to a specific region in the brain, wrote "search for the engram"

engram

specific long-term memory

Donald O. Hebb (1904-1985)

Saw that cognitive processing could be accomplished by networks of neurons, repeated activation patterns were formed into functional circuits

Hebbian Synapse

a type of plastic connection between neurons that remains in research today

Theoretical Orientations to Research Behavior

1. Systematic Description of Behavior

Describe behavior in detailed acts or processes, or results, functions, has to be precise

Theoretical Orientations to Research Behavior

2. Biological mechanisms of behavior

To look at mechanisms of behavior, you have to think of the organism as a machine

Theoretical Orientations to Research Behavior

3. Lifespan Development of the brain and behavior

Looking at an organism over its life and see how it changes

Ontogeny

The process by which an individual changes in the course of its lifetime

Theoretical Orientations to Research Behavior

4. Evolution of brain and behavior

Evaluating similarities among species that reflect shared ancestry, and looking for species-specific differences in behavior and biology that have evolved to different environments.

Theoretical Orientations to Research Behavior

5. Applications of behavioral neuroscience discoveries

Neuroscience can be applied to many other branches of science

neuroplasticity

the ability of the nervous system to change in response to experience or the environment

adult neurogenisis

the creation of new neurons in the brain of an adult

social neuroscience

a field of study concerned with the biological bases of social behavior and the effects of social circumstances on brain activity

evolutionary psychology

a field of study devoted to asking how natural selection has shaped behavior in humans and other animals

epigenetics

the study of factors that affect gene expression without making any changes in the nucleotide sequence of the genes themselves

gene expression

the process by which a cell makes an mRNA transcript of a particular gene; the turning on or off of specific genes

neuroeconomics

the study of brain mechanisms at work during economic decision making

consciousness

the state of awareness of one's own existence, thoughts, emotions, and experiences

Renee Descartes

said that animals are mechanical, control is response to external stimuli

Luigi Galvani

Electrical stimulation of the nerve in a frog's leg produced contraction of the leg muscle, nerves are stimulated by electricity, not pneumatics (blood flow and muscle contraction)

Assandro Volta

Disagreed with Galvani, and he thought that bodies aren't able to produce electricity, he thought that the metal table in the experiment conducted the electricity that moved the frog leg

Electrophysiology

the study of the electrical activity of cells and how it influences the body

Johannes Muller

found that nerves send signal to the brain in the same way, it is the brain's job to decode what is going on

Marie Jean Pierre Flourens (1850's)

Worked with experimental ablation, took out or destroyed parts of the brain and studied what it did

chloroform

an anesthetic popularized in the 1850s that helped with experimental procedures in ablation

Phineas Gage (1848)

railroad worker who survived a severe brain injury that dramatically changed his personality and behavior; case played a role in the development of the understanding of the localization of brain function

Fritsch and Hitzig (1870s)

used dogs to stimulate parts of the brain and see what it did, found the motor cortex

Johann Purkinje

discovered neurons in 1837 by cutting very fine slices of cerebellum and viewing them under a microscope