brain and behavior study guide 1

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Last updated 8:32 PM on 1/30/26
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143 Terms

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Trepanation

holes were drilled into the skull to release evil spirits thought to cause mental illness or seizures

  • Shows early attempts to link brain and behavior

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Dualism

Mind (soul) and body separate

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Monism

Mind and body are one unified system

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Cardiocentric View

  • Heart = center of thought and emotion

  • Brain seen as unimportant

  • ancient egyptians + ancient greeks

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Aristotle

  • mind resides in heart — mind or soul can reach out to the body to act to interact with the world

  • brain act as car radiator; brain cools body to keep it working how it should

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Hippocrates

  • father of medicine + four humors — blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm

  • mind and soul resides in brain to drive it

  • brain controls movement of fluids to control body for functional outputs which result in behavior

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Galen

  • animal spirits: blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm — mind controls them

  • if you had imbalance it would give you certain behaviors or issues; mind pushes fluid to cause action in body

  • mapped out the ventricles

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Descartes

  • dualism

  • Mind and body interact via the pineal gland → where the mind is

    • animal spirits, reflexes as mechanical

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Galvani

  • used separated frog legs, applied electrical current and legs retracted — body does not move with the movement of fluids; disproves Descartes

  • electrical chemical signaling is how we move/cause physical action

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Franz Gall

Phrenology

  • Belief that personality and moral character could be determined by feeling bumps on the skull

  • Assumed physical characteristics = moral disposition

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Localization of Function

specific brain regions control specific behaviors or abilities

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Müller

  • pushed for direct experimentation

  • Doctrine of Specific Nerve Energies

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Doctrine of Specific Nerve Energies

The brain interprets signals based on which nerve pathway is activated, not the signal itself

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Flourens

  • Studied brain function using animal experiments

  • Used ablation / lesions (removing parts of the brain)

  • Observed how behavior changed after damage

  • Helped show that some functions are localized, while others are more distributed

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Broca’s Aphasia

  • Affects language production

  • Speech is slow, effortful, and limited

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Broca’s area

left frontal lobe

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Wernicke’s Aphasia

  • Affects language comprehension

  • Speech is fluent but meaningless

  • Person has difficulty understanding others and often doesn’t realize their speech makes no sense

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Wernicke’s area

left temporal lobe

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Karl Lashley

  • Memory loss depends on how much brain tissue is removed

  • Not where it’s removed

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Engram

Physical memory trace in the brain

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Model Systems

Used to study complex processes

  • Cell cultures

  • Computer models

  • Animals

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Generalization

Asking whether a phenomenon occurs across different species

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Reductionism

Breaking complex behaviors into simpler components

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Animal welfare

ethical treatment while allowing research

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Animal rights

animals should not be used in research at all

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U.S. Animal Welfare Act

  • Researchers are legally required to:

    • Minimize suffering

    • Use alternatives when possible

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Benefits of Animal Research

  • Improved human healthcare

    • vaccines

    • medications

    • surgical procedures

  • Improved veterinary care for animals

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Charles Darwin

  • survival of the fittest

    • evolution: Change in traits of a population over generations

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Natural Selection

Traits that improve survival/reproduction become more common

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Functionalism

Brain structures evolved because they serve adaptive functions

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Selective Advantage

A trait that increases fitness/likelihood of survival and reproduction

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Ethical Issues in Research with Animals

  • Minimize pain and distress

  • Use the fewest animals necessary

  • Use alternatives when possible

  • Justify scientific value

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Adaptation

A trait or behavior that has evolved because it increases survival or reproductive success.

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Behavioral Neuroscience

The scientific study of the biological bases of behavior, including the brain, nervous system, hormones, and genetics.

What it focuses on:

  • How neural activity produces behavior

  • How behavior changes with brain damage or stimulation

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Distribution of Animal Models

The idea that different animal species are used to study different biological or behavioral processes based on similarity to humans.

Why it matters:

  • Simpler systems → basic processes

  • Complex systems → higher cognition

Examples:

  • Invertebrates (worms, flies): neural circuits

  • Rodents: learning, memory, drug effects

  • Primates: cognition, vision, social behavior

Application:
You wouldn’t study human language in a worm — but you would study basic neural signaling.

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Central Nervous System (CNS)

Brain and spinal cord

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peripheral nervous system (PNS)

somatic nervous system

autonomic nervous system

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Somatic Nervous System

  • part of peripheral nervous system

  • involved in hot cold pain pressure — sensory info and voluntary motor skills or reflexive behavior

    • Spinal Nerves

    • Cranial Nerves

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Spinal nerves

  • all mixed nerves

  • Enter/exit spinal cord

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Cranial nerves

12 pairs of nerves in brain; one on left side and right side

  • can be afferent, efferent, or mixed

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Afferent nerves

uni-directional picks up sensory info from body to brain

  • olfactory nerve; smelling

  • optic nerve; eyes

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Efferent nerves

uni-directional picks up motor info from brain to body

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Mixed Nerves

  • facial nerve; affrent taste info + efferent; motor fibers mixed in to control muscles of face

    • all spinal nerves are mixed

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Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)

Controls involuntary functions (organs, glands).

  • Sympathetic Nervous System

  • Parasympathetic Nervous System

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Sympathetic Nervous System

in autonomic nervous system

  • “Fight or flight”

    • Increases heart rate

    • Dilates pupils

    • Inhibits digestion

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Parasympathetic Nervous System

in autonomic nervous system

  • “Rest and digest”

    • Slows heart

    • Stimulates digestion

    • Conserves energy

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Neuroaxis

imaginary line through CNS

  • bent in humans to allow us to stand upwards

    • bipedal

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Anterior / Rostral

toward front

  • nose

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Posterior / Caudal

toward back

  • occipital lobe

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Dorsal

toward top

  • top of brain

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Ventral

toward bottom

  • brainstem

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medial

toward midline

  • Corpus callosum

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Lateral

towards sides

  • temporal lobes

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Ipsilateral

same side

  • left arm, left leg

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Contralateral

opposite sides

  • right arm, left leg

  • Motor control is mostly this

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Cross section

Any slice of the brain

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Coronal / Frontal / Transverse

front to back

  • like bread

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Horizontal

a slice parallel to a table top (like a biscuit)

  • top hamburger bun to bottom bun

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Sagittal

Left and right sides

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Midsagittal

exactly down the middle; left and right hemispheres

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Meninges

The three membranes (the dura mater, arachnoid, and pia mater) surround brain and spinal cord

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Dura Mater

“tough mother”

  • outter layer

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Arachnoid Membrane

  • Web-like middle layer

  • Subarachnoid space contains CSF

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Pia Mater

  • attached to brain

    • covers white matter in brain

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Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF)

  • Cushions brain

  • Removes waste

  • Provides nutrients

    • produced in Choroid Plexus in ventricles

      • just filtered plasma

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Ventricles

continuous hollow interconnected cavities in brain

  • filled with CSF

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Lateral ventricle

first ventricle of brain; largest

  • one in each hemisphere

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Third ventricle

third ventricle

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Fourth ventricle

carrys to spinal cord down midline to central canal

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Hydrocephalus

Excess CSF buildup → increased brain pressure.

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nerves

bundle of axons in periphery

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tract

bundle of axons in CNS

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spinal cord nerves

  • cervical (8 nerves)

  • thoracic (12 nerves)

  • lumbar (5 nerves)

  • sacral (5 nerves)

  • coccygeal (1 nerve)

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spinal tap / lumbar puncture

  • collects CSF

    • diagnostic — to test for issues and monitor levels in patients

  • deliver anesthetic and medications

    • epidural

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Grey matter in spinal cord

  • cell bodies; in center

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White matter in spinal cord

on the outside, makes sending messages faster

  • due to mylienation

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Grey matter in brain

outer layer; cortex

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White matter in brain

inner layers

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Brain Development

Neural Plate → Neural Groove → Neural Tube

  • forms central nervous system

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Neurogenesis

Birth of new neurons.

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Dorsal and Ventral Roots

bundles of nerve fibers connecting the spinal cord to spinal nerves

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Dorsal Root

carries sensory (afferent) information to the spinal cord

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Ventral Root

carries motor (efferent) signals away from the cord to muscles and glands

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forebrain

prosencephalon

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midbrain

mesencephalon

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forebrain contains

  • telencephalon

  • diencephalon

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hindbrain contains

  • metencephalon

  • mylencephalon

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stem cell

  • undifferentiated

  • pluripotent; can make anything they want

  • self-renew; divide

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progenitor cells

  • undifferentiated

  • limited self-renewal; makes another PC and a differential which has another function to another part of the body

  • become the workers for SC

  • asymmetrical and symmetrical division

    • eventually comes symmetrical to produce two differientiated cells to take on a specific job in body

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neuron migration

driven by radial glia

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radial glia

a ‘scaffold’ for neuron migration

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Ventricular Zone

Where neurons are born.

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cerebral cortex

part of telencephalon

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hypothalamus and thalamus

part of diencephalon

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pons, cerebellum

part of metencephalon

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medulla

part of mylencephalon

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medulla

controls basic autonomic functions (e.g., breathing, heart rate, pump blood)

  • in hindbrain

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cerebellum

“little brain” motor behavior

  • recieves sensory input from motor cortex in cerebral cortex

  • regulation of coordination; has access to them to help add in details to make a coordinated movement

    • sequence, balance, and coordination — through force, speed, timing

    • in hindbrain

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pons

“bridge”

  • connecting the cerebellum and the cerebral cortex; a bidirectional relay station

  • arousal, sleep, and respiration

  • in hindbrain

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tectum

roof of midbrain/mesencephalon — processing sensory info

  • contains superior colliculus and inferior colliculus