Biopsychology

  • Men tendency to have brain syndrome

    • Brain slightly sticking away from skull

  • Every human is born with relatively the same amount of neurons it will ever have until the age of 60

    • Your brain produces neurons, but the amount of production will never be enough to replace neurons lost form brain damage

  • Action potential 

    • Put through the axon: on the outside is sodium (Na), inside is potassium (K)

  • Electrical impulse

    • Sodium rushes inside and Potassium rushes out creating an electrical impulse 

    • It’s a domino effect 

    • Chemical reaction induced by the cell body

  • Synaptic Communication

    • Sending neuron transmits the neurotransmitters through the axon to be captured by the dendrites of the receiving neuron

    • Remember that the neuron has a membrane first as a layer 

  • Synaptic cleft: filled with fluid NOT open space

  • Receptor sites on neurons are called ion channels

  • Alcoholism: sensitive to alcohol by the number of ion channels they have in each of their neurons

  • Serotonin: helps human with mood and sleep 

  • Excessive serotonin: causes mood swings = manic phase, bipolar disorder

    • Shift from high to low

  • Reuptake: neuron goes back and reabsorbs neurotransmitters stuck in the synapse

  • Select, Serotonin, Reuptake, Inhibitor (SSRIs)

  • Implications of SSRI 

    • Schizophrenia: too much intake of dopamine that causes people to see hallucinations

  • Acetylcholine: Parkinson’s and muscle spasms

The way your brain works:

  • You have one brain, not three

    • Known as the triune brain 

    • Brain evolved the way it is now

  • Your brain is a network

    • The highly complex human brain 

  • Little brains wire themselves to their world 

  • Baby’s brian will wire itself over time (25 yrs)

  • Brain tunes itself and does pruning

  • Your brain predicts (almost) everything you do 

  • Your brain secretly works with other brains 

    • We regulate one another’s body of budgets (yelling, kindness)

    • Best thing for your NS is another human brain 

  • Brains makes more than one kind of Mind 

    • Raised and wired in a specific culture will produce particular mind 

  • Our brains can create reality

We need a brain that can copy, cooperate, and compress