KEY

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key information: #c0f1e5

Heredity and Environment

• Evolutionary Perspective

  • natural selection: adaption —> survival —> reproductive success

  • Charles Darwin: came up with natural selection

  • eugenics: how natural selection causes the best traits and processes to be expressed in humans

    • used in history to kill or sterilize large groups of people (eg: Hitler killing the Jews as the ‘inferior’ race)

• Heredity: the traits our parents have are passed to us

  • nature vs nurture debate: are our traits hereditary or from experiences

    • studied through:

      • twin studies

        • identical twins: genetically the same

        • fraternal twins: from two separate eggs (not genetically identical)

      • family studies

      • adoption studies

• Molecular genetics: studies the structure and function of our genes at a molecular level

• Epigenetics: the study of changes in an organism caused by modifications in gene expression rather than changes in the actual genetic code

The Nervous System Structure

• Nervous system

  • receives information about what is happening inside and outside the body

  • directs the body on how to respond

  • maintains homeostasis

• Two systems:

  • Central Nervous System

    • brain and spinal cord

  • Peripheral Nervous System

    • nerves

    • two systems:

      • Somatic

        • controls voluntary actions

      • Autonomic

        • controls autonomic actions

        • Sympathetic and Parasympathetic

          • S: fight, flight, or freeze

            • speeds things up

            • being in love, seeing a bear, etc

            • heartrate increases, breathing increases, digestion slow down, pupils dilate, saliva production stops

          • P: rest and digest

            • pumps the breaks

            • normal heartrate, breathing, and digestion, pupils contract, saliva is produced

  

  • Reflex: a simple, automatic response to sensory stimulus (knee jerk response)

    • doesn’t reach the brain- only goes to the spinal cord

The Endocrine System

• The Endocrine System sends hormone throughout the body

  • slower than

The Neuron and Neural Firing

The Brain