Unit 3 Psych 1

• ·         The brain is a mesh of neurons
• ·         Neurons transmit

• ·         When the action potential reaches the terminal button, vesicles release neurotransmitters
• ·         Neurotransmitters travel across the synapse receptors to the dendrites on the next neuron
• Have either “excitatory” or “inhibitory” effects

·         Neurotransmitters are reabsorbed by presynaptic neuron

• Reward, movement (deficient in Parkinson's)
• Regulates anxiety
• Stimulatory- Fight or flight
• Chief inhibitor
• Increases brain arousal

• ·         parts of the brain do different things
• -          Important for understanding brain dysfunction
• -          Important for understanding brain evolution

Reasoning, problem solving, movement, emotions, planning, parts of speech

-          Important for controlling fine movements (finger and toe)

-          Memory for what has happened and what you are going to do next (decision making)

-          Movement, orientation, recognition, perception of stimuli, specialized for senses

-          Has cells sensitive to touch in different body areas

-          Visual processing

-          Ability to point to or indicate visual stimulus when occipital lobe is shut down

-          Perception and recognition of auditory stimuli, memory, and speech

responds strongly to emotional situations

Fighting, fleeing, feeding, fornicating- the 4 fs

Important for transferring short-term memory

Prepares the body for fight or flight

calms the body

• ·         In 1848, a 3.5-foot iron rod passed through his skull
• ·         Was basically fine-          Initially interpreted as brain function is not localized

Stage 5: Social Contract orientation. Laws are social contracts. They can be changed if they no longer create the greatest good.

Stage 6: Universal Ethical Principles Orientation. Moral reasoning based on concept of justice. Laws can be broken if they're unjust

Stage 3: Nice boy, good girl orientation (conformity to norms of behavior. Whatever the group thinks is good is right by definition)

Stage 4: Law and order orientation. Emphasis is on doing one's duty, respecting authority, maintaining social order. The law is right because its the law

Typical of children

• Stage 1: Punishment, obedience, orientation. Whatever gets me punished is wrong
• Stage 2: Self-interest orientation. Whatever gets rewarded is good

Developed the theory of stages of moral development building off of Piaget's stages of cognitive development. Consists of three levels, with two stages per level.

• ·         Had epileptic seizures due to a childhood bike accident
• ·         In 1953 had much of temporal lobes removed, including hippocampi

• ·         Due to removal of hippocampi, had anterograde amnesia (could not form new memories)
• ·         Could learn new skills, but could not remember learning them

• ·         People with severe epilepsy can have their corpus callosum severed
• ·         This leaves the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere unable to communicate with each other

• ·         Immune system attacks the myelin sheath
• Interferes with signal transmission

• ·         Exact cause is not known
• ·         Bigger sulci, smaller gyri
• ·         Plaques (buildup of amyloid proteins)·         Tangles (Breakdown of tau proteins leads to neurofibrillary tangles)

·         Communicates with body by peripheral nervous system- nerves connecting the spinal cord with the rest of the body

• 1) Connects skin to muscles
• 2) connects to heart, stomach, organs

Outer coating of forebrain

hindbrain, midbrain, forebrain

Opposite sides of the body

Active when you make a movement and also when you watch someone else make a movement

Uses electrodes on the scalp to record rapid changes in brain electrical activities

Set of axons that connect the left and right hemispheres of the cerebral cortex

Records magnetic data

• Records various activity of various brain areas emitted from injected chemicals
• uses radioactively labeled glucose

• Uses magnetic detectors outside the head to compare the amounts of hemoglobin and oxygen in different areas.
• ·         Most active brain areas use the most hemoglobin

Hunger, thirst, and temperature regulations

• 1) controls muscles of the head
• 2) controls muscles from neck down

Important for behavior that requires aim or timing, such as tapping out a rhythm.

Controls heart, digestive system, and other organs

brain change as a result of experience

New neurons

How separate brain areas combine forces to produce a unified perception of a single object (hearing a piano play and identify that that piano is the piano being played)

Support neuron cells in many ways by insulating them, synchronizing activity among neighboring neurons, and removing waste products