Unit 2: Biological Bases of Behavior Overview

Dopamine

• influences mood, movement, attention, and learning

• motivates people to seek out pleasurable activities like food, sex, or drugs. It's also associated with positive feelings of euphoria and pleasure, and helps with learning by acting as a reward.

Serotonin

• sexual activity, concentration and attention, moods, and emotions.

Albinism

• a lack of pigment and quivering eyes.

• It also makes it difficult to perceive depth with both eyes. 

Paul Broca

________ (1861) performed an autopsy on the brain of a patient, nicknamed Tan, who had lost the capacity to speak, although his mouth and his vocal cords werent damaged and he could still understand language.

Insomnia

inability to fall asleep and /or stay asleep.

Psychological dependence

• emotional and mental withdrawal symptoms that occur after a person stops using a substance or engaging in a behavior for a long time.

• These symptoms include anxiety, depression, and anhedonia. 

Electroencephalograms

• (EEGs) a painless, non-invasive procedure that records the brain's electrical activity. During an EEG, electrodes are attached to the scalp to detect the brain's electrical signals, which are amplified and recorded.

• different states, such as sleeping and dreaming.

Positron emission tomography

• (PET) a visual display of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a given task

Pons

• connects the brain to the spinal cord

• regulates several functions including hearing, equilibrium, taste, and facial sensations and movements.

Cyton/cell body

• main part of the neuron containing the nucleus where the information is processed

Glutamate

main excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system

Nonconscious

body processes controlled by your mind that we are not aware of.

Psychoactive drugs

• substances that cause changes in the normal activities of the central nervous system.

• producing a wide range of effects from mild relaxation or increased alertness to vivid hallucinations.

Glial cells

• support and protect neurons in the central nervous system

• "glue of the nervous system"

Functional MRI

(fMRI) brain at work at higher resolution than the PET scanner.

Circadian rhythm

• our internal clock, controlling our temperature and wakefulness in 24-hour cycles

• natural, internal process that regulates the sleep- wake cycle and repeats roughly every 24 hours.

Tay Sachs syndrome

produces progressive loss of nervous function and death in a baby.

Freud

tried to analyze dreams to uncover the unconscious desires (many of them sexual) and fears disguised in dreams.

Stimulants

• activate motivational centers and reduce activity in inhibitory centers of the central nervous system

• increasing activity of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine neurotransmitter systems.

Unconsciousness

loss of responsiveness to the environment, resulting from disease, trauma, or anesthesia.

Cerebral cortex center

higher- order processes such as thinking, planning, judgment; receives and processes sensory information and directs movement.

endocrine system

consists of glands that secrete chemical messengers called hormones into your blood.

Hypothalamus

• autonomic nervous system by producing and releasing hormones

• "control center" of the brain

• regulate sleep-wake cycles, respiration, and other autonomic responses.

Gamma aminobutyric acid

(GABA) inhibits firing of neurons.

Lucid dreaming

the ability to be aware of and direct ones dreams, has been used to help people make recurrent nightmares less frightening.

Hypnosis

altered state of consciousness characterized by deep relaxation and heightened suggestibility.

dissociation theory

hypnotized individuals experience two or more streams of consciousness cut off from each other.

Antagonists

block a receptor site, inhibiting the effect of the neurotransmitter or agonist.

******an antagonist as a bouncer at a club, preventing certain party-goers (neurotransmitters) from entering the receptor sites. ****

Tolerance

decreasing responsivity to a drug.

Endocrine

glands include the pineal gland, hypothalamus, and pituitary gland in your brain; the thyroid and parathyroids in your neck; the adrenal glands atop your kidneys; pancreas near your stomach; and either testes or ovaries.

Withdrawal symptoms

intense craving for the drug and effects opposite to those the drug usually induces.

Heritability

proportion of variation among individuals in a population that is due to genetic causes.

Agonists

may mimic a neurotransmitter and bind to its receptor site to produce the effect of the neurotransmitter.

****stimulating agents****

Reflex

A simple, automatic response to a sensory stimulus, such as the knee-jerk response.

Narcotics

(pain reducers) that work by depressing the central nervous system.

Preconscious

level of consciousness that is outside of awareness but contains feelings and memories that you can easily bring into conscious awareness.

Depressants

psychoactive drugs that reduce the activity of the central nervous system and induce relaxation.

Central nervous system

brain and your spinal cord

Somatic nervous system

has motor neurons that stimulate skeletal (voluntary) muscle

Autonomic nervous system

has motor neurons that stimulate smooth (involuntary) and heart muscle

Plasticity

brain's ability to reorganize itself after an accident or tragedy, or to modify itself in response to experience or change.

Pineal Gland

secretes melatonin; contributes to circadian rhythm

Pituitary Gland

secretes growth hormone & oxytocin promotes pair bonding and trust

Thyroid Gland

affects metabolism

Parathyroids

maintain calcium ion level in blood necessary for normal functioning of neurons

Adrenal Glands

trigger fight or flight

release epinephrine and norepinephrine

Pancreas

regulates blood sugar levels and release insulin

Ovaries and Testes

gonads in females and males, respectively, that produce hormones necessary for reproduction and development of secondary sex characteristics

Tolerance

decreasing responsivity to a drug

epigenetics

environment influences how genes are expressed w/o the change in DNA

somatic NS

charge of voluntary movements of skeletal muscles

automatic NS

control automatic functions of internal organs (heart beating)

sympathetic NS

in charge of arousal

parasympathetic NS

remains up to a calm and natural state

sensory/afferent neurons

carry incoming sensory info into brain & spinal cord

motor/efferent neurons

impulses away from the brain or spinal cord to the peripheral nervous system, initiating an action.

dendrites

recieve info & transfers it to the cell body

axon

passes messages to its terminal branches

myelin sheath

layer of tissues that causes axon & speeds up neural impulse

terminal branches

pass chemical messages to other cells & parts of the body

what must occur for messages to continue to travel down axons

action potential

action potential

short-term change in the polarization of a nerve cell

inhibitory

pushes neurons “brakes” - block responses

excitatory

pushes neurons “accelerator” - encites response

dopamine influences…

movement, learning, attention, emotion

serotonin affects

mood, hunger, sleep, arousal

norepinephrine helps control…

alertness and arousal

GABA major

inhibitory neurotransmitter

glutamate major

excitatory neurotransmitter (memory)

endorphins diminish

the perception of pain & act as a natural sedatiue

acetylcholine enables

muscle action, learning, and memory

dopamine malfunction

oversupply = schizophrenia

undersupply = parkinson’s disease

serotonin malfunction

undersupply = depression

norepinephrine malfunction

undersupply = depress mood

GABA malfunction

undersupply = seizures, insomnia

glutamate malfunction

oversupply = over stimulates in brain = migraines and seizures

endorphins

undersupply = depression, anxiety, moodiness

depressants

reduce or slow neural activity and body functions

stimulates

excite neural activity and speed up body functions

hallucinogens

disory perceptions & sensory images w/o any sensory input

thalamus

receives sensory input

cerebellum

processes sensory input

ex. coordinated mov, balance, & nonverbal learning

pons

coordination of mov

medulla

heart rate and breathing

reticular formation

consciousness

amygdala

linked w/emotion

hypothalamus

maintaining homeostasis & reward system

hippocampus

explicis memory

cerebral cortex

control & processing center

frontal cortex

speaking, planning, judgment

parietal lobes

sensory input for touch & body position

somatosensory cortex

registers touch & movement

occipital lobe

visual input

temporal lobe

auditory input

association areas

higher mental functioning : learning, remembering, thinking, speaking

corpus callosum

communication between hemispheres

“split brain”

both hemispheres operate independently

dual processing

info processed on the unconscious track

left hemi

right hand, spoken langauge, written language, logical thoughts

right hemi

artistic, visual,left, emotional thoughts