Found when we tried to discover how opium based pain killers work'

1

• Found when we tried to discover how opium based
  pain killers work.
• Logic If the body will respond to the extract
  of a plant, it must be because there is something
  like that already present.

2
Need

• Opium based pain killers (morphine, heroin, etc.)
  work but they are addictive.
• A natural pain killer might work as well
  without the problems of addiction.

3
Findings

• Sure enough, the body does produce a number of
  natural pain killers that look very much like the
  opiates.
• Actually several different types -- the class is
  called endorphins

4
Natural stimulants to endorphin production

• Running (long distances)
• Labor/childbirth
• Acupuncture
• Possibly meditation/hypnosis

5
The other discovery

• Endorphins are addictive too.
• A healthy addiction vs.. damaging addiction.

6
Marijuana and neurotransmitters

• Previous notion The active ingredient of
  marijuana doesnt fill receptor sites, so the
  usual rules of addiction dont apply.
• Cannibol attaches to other neurotransmitters and
  reduces their effectiveness.
• Result time and sensory distortion, mood
  changes, suggestibility, etc.

7
Marijuana

• Recent discovery of endorpho-cannibus
  neurotransmitter in tiny amounts in non-users
• Psychoactive properties of marijuana may be the
  result of some built-in response to the hypnotic
  effects of the drug.

8
Types of Neurons

• An apparent side trip, but ties in to what comes
  next.
• Organizer
• sensory neurons
• motor neurons
• interneurons

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Three neuron types
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Sensory Neurons

• Technically called Afferent neurons
• Run from a sensory organ (ear, eye, skin, etc) to
  an interneuron
• Usually, but not always, myelinated
• About 1 of all neurons

11
Motor Neurons

• Called Efferent neurons
• Run from an interneuron to a muscle
• Usually, but not always, myelinated (white
  tissue)
• About 2 of all neurons

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Interneurons

• serve as a connector between two other neurons,
• can connect other interneurons (most of the time)
  or motor and sensory neurons
• rarely myelinated (gray matter)
• about 97 of all neurons
• altogether, the three types combine to produce

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The Nervous System

• The organized network of neurons that combine to
  carry out all information processing in the
  organism.

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Organizational Chart of the Nervous System
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The Peripheral Nervous System

• Peripheral Outside of, from perimeter. Thus,
  outside the brain and spinal cord.
• Made up of 43 pairs of nerves
• 12 Cranial Nerves for facial sensation and
  control
• 31 Spinal Nerves for everything else

16
Somatic System

• Control of VOLUNTARY skeletal muscles
• The system we use when we walk, hit golf balls,
  tie our shoes

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Autonomic System

• Controls smooth muscles -- GI muscles, heart,
  etc.
• Autonomic, not automatic
• Autonomy Operates on its own, without direct
  supervision
• Two divisions Sympathetic and Parasympathetic

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Two Divisions
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Sympathetic Division Functions

• Arousing/Energy Spending
• Dilates Pupils
• Speeds up heart rate
• Inhibits digestion
• Increase sugar levels
• Triggers orgasm

20
Parasympathetic Divisions Functions

• Calming/Energy Saving
• Constricts pupils
• Slows heart rate
• Stimulates digestion
• Lowers blood sugar
• Promotes sexual arousal

21
The Evolutionary Role of the Autonomic System

• A primitive systems inherited from early mammals
• Survived because it helped deal with external
  treats

22
The FIGHT or FLIGHT Syndrome

• When faced with external threats, the basic
  choices are to run or to struggle
• In either case, the organism needs stored energy
  very quickly.
• The Caveman and the Saber-toothed Tiger

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Fight or Flight and modern stress

• Stress A demand that the organism do something
• A primitive system that sees all stress as threat
• The impact of cumulative stress
• Failure to close the loop

24
Increasing control of the Autonomic System

• The Harvard heart attack studies
• Meditation and Systematic Relaxation
• The effects of exercise

25
Some trivial but interesting effects of knowledge
about the Autonomic system

• Why are candle light dinners romantic?
• Why do they usually keep the lights low in bars?
• Why are there so many fights at dances?
• Why is the bar-scene so frenzied at ski areas?
• The scary bridge study

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The Central Nervous System

• The Spinal Cord
• The Brain

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The Spinal Cord

• Two functions Conduction and reflexes
• Large bundle of running up the center of the
  spine
• About the size of your thumb

28
Two kinds of tissue

• White matter myelinated cells which conduct
  messages
• Gray matter unmyelinated cells (interneurons)
  that control reflexes

29
The Reflex arc
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The Reflex arc

• Stimulation of a sensory neuron sends message
  toward the spinal cord
• sensory neuron connects with an interneuron which
  immediately sends a response back through a motor
  neuron
• which causes a muscle to react
• the interneuron also sends a message toward to
  brain, for Info only.

31
Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) and Reflexes

• Effects of spinal cord injury on
• muscle tone
• sexual response

32
The Brain

• An Encephalized System
• Major nerve centers at the top of the spinal cord
• 200 BILLION neurons controlling
• thinking
• emotions
• behavior

33
The Brain

• An evolved (rather then planned) organ
• Started with primitive structures shared with all
  vertebrates
• Gradual development of additional structures
  above and around a primitive base

34
Evolution of the Brain

• Can be traced through different parts of the
  brain
• Sometimes called the
• reptilian brain
• aviary brain
• mammalian brain
• primate (human) brain

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The HindBrain

• Medulla Oblongata
• Pons
• Cerebellum

36
The Medulla

• First swelling or bulge at the top of the spinal
  cord
• Composed mostly of gray matter
• Function control of heartbeat and respiration

37
The Pons

• From the Latin word for Bridge
• Composed mostly of white matter
• Connects the two hemispheres of the Cerebellum
• Controls respiration and primitive facial
  movements
• Source of slow wave non-dreaming sleep

38
The Cerebellum

• Latin for Little Brain
• Two Hemispheres, each golf ball sized
• Mostly gray matter
• Control balance and motor behavior
• Trauma leads to poor coordination, loss of muscle
  tone

39
The Reptilian Brain

• Also called the R-chassis
• Made up of medulla, pons, cerebellum
• common to all vertebrates above reptiles
• most primitive from an evolutionary perspective

40
The Midbrain

• Not very large in humans
• Major part of brain in birds (bird-brains)
• In birds controls the extra motor needs connected
  with flight and
• Increases visual acuity (eagle-eyes)
• One aspect, the RAS, important in human

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The Reticular Activating System (Formation)

• The core of the brain-stem moving up through the
  medulla,and pons and into the base of the
  forebrain
• Mostly gray matter
• Controls attention, sleep and arousal
• Acts as a filter for what needs attention

42
RAS and filtering

• Orienting reflexes
• The cocktail party phenomenon
• Effects of drugs and alcohol
• Coma states
• Hyperactivity

43
The Forebrain

• The old mammalian brain
• Processes needed for self-regulation
• Parts
• thalamus
• hypothalamus
• pituitary gland
• the limbic system

44
Thalamus

• Greek word meaning inner chamber
• Walnut sized, lobed, organ
• Mostly gray matter

45
Thalamus functions

• relay station or switchboard routing sensory
  input
• controls sleep and attention (with RAS)
• secondary center for emotional control,
  especially aggression

46
Hypothalamus

• Means below the thalamus
• complex, peanut sized organ
• mostly gray matter with some glandular tissue
• The Chem-lab of the body

47
Hypothalamus Functions

• Temperature regulation
• Stop-start centers for homeostasis
• eating center
• drinking center
• Instinctive sex centers -- Fishers Mixed-up
  Rats

48
Hypothalamus Functions

• Secondary role in emotional behavior (controlling
  the production of adrenaline)
• The medical lab function -- monitoring and
  regulating endocrine production by controlling
  the Pituitary gland

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The Pituitary Gland

• The Master Gland, mostly glandular with some gray
  matter
• Produces stimulating hormones that control other
  glands
• Also produces
• Growth hormone giantism and dwarfism
• Prolactin stimulates milk production
• Anti-diuretic hormones - regulating water and
  food retention

50
The Endocrine System

• A system of glands throughout the body that in
  response to messages from the hypothalamus and
  the pituitary gland, serve as a second, chemical
  (as opposed to electrical) system for changing
  states in the body.

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The Limbic System

• Word is Latin for border
• A group of structures surrounding the thalamus,
  inside the cerebrum
• Sometimes called the New Mammalian brain
• Controls those responses we call emotions

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Limbic System Structures

• Amygdala
• Septum
• Hippocampus
• Basal Ganglia
• Corpus Collosum

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The Amygdala

• Primary center for stereotyped rage behaviors
• Lesioning (cutting out) leads to passivity
• Stimulation leads to aggression
• Charles Whitaker and the Texas Tower

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The Septum

• Multiple functions including
• Stop Aggression centers
• Delgados raging bulls
• Pleasure and Pain centers
• Olds and Milners self-stimulating rats

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The Hippocampus

• Wish-boned shaped tissue surrounding the thalamus
• Function transfer of sensory material to long
  term memory

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The Hippocampus

• Source of NEW brain cells, produced over about
  two weeks
• Cells migrate to sites on frontal, temporal and
  parietal lobes
• New cells develop connections with existing cells

57
Hippocampus Damage

• Inability to transfer short-term memories into
  long term storage
• Traumatic damage through accidents or surgery
• life in the continuous present
• The Sacks case
• the Birmingham case

58
Basal Ganglia

• functions and the motor control link between the
  cerebrum and the cerebellum
• sends stop-start kinds of orders for the
  cerebellum to follow
• primary site of dopamine problems in Parkinsons
  Disease

59
Corpus Collosum

• Heavy band of tissue connecting the two halves of
  the Cerebrum
• Almost totally white tissue
• Allows specialization of function on different
  hemispheres of the brain

60
The Cerebrum (cerebral cortex)

• The human part of the brain
• Contain nearly 97 of the cells in the Nervous
  System
• The source of adaptive behaviors

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Human vs. amphibian adaptiveness

• Frog on a lily pad
• Frog in a box
• The difference between instinctive, preprogrammed
  behavior and adaptive behavior -- the variety of
  human environments

62
Capabilities of the Human Brain

• Flexibility
• Thinking
• Language
• Future Awareness (including death)
• Learning passed to future generations

63
Appearance

• 2 pounds (/-)
• Pinkish gray color
• Convoluted surface - ridges and valleys

64
Size

• Actually a pretty large organ, unfolded it would
  be about 2 feet by 2 feet by 1/4 inch.
• Folding does two things
• fits inside the skull for protection
• increases surface area for size

65
Gyri and Sulci

• Folding produces ridges, called Gyri and valleys,
  called Sulci
• Major valleys serve as boundaries for different
  divisions of the cerebral cortex

66
Major Fissures

• Longitudinal fissure divides the brain into
  left and right hemispheres
• Lateral fissure diagonal from bottom from to
  center rear
• Central fissure top to bottom about 1/2 back

67
Lobes identified

• Frontal
• Temporal
• Parietal
• Occipital

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History of identified areas of specialization

• Broca
• Wernicke
• Fritz, Hissing, and Corporal Schmidt
• Penfield

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Brocas Area

• 1850 -- Broca, while researching treatment of
  stroke patients identifies the area responsible
  for the motor control of speech

70
Wernickes Area

• 1881-- area that gives meaning to perceptions,
  especially auditory perceptions
• damage usually related to alcoholism and B
  vitamin deficiencies

71
Fritz and Hissing

• The Franco-Prussian war and the story of Corporal
  Schmidt (1870)
• Findings
• brain hemispheres control opposite sides of the
  body
• identification of the sensory and motor areas of
  the cortex

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Penfields mapping

• late 1940s pencil electrode mapping of sensory
  and motor cortex
• Motor Cortex the back edge (next to the central
  fissure) of the frontal lobe
• Sensory Cortex the front edge (next to the
  central fissure) of the parietal lobe
• Specific function of each area of both identified

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The Sensory and Motor Cortex
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Motor Cortex

• relatively very large areas devoted to
• face, tongue, lips -- language and communication
• hands -- tool making/using
• feet -- balance and mobility
• relatively small areas devoted to
• major muscles of trunk, legs, arms

75
Sensory Cortex

• relatively large areas devoted to
• tongue, lips, face -- feedback for the same
  motor areas
• fingers -- sensitivity for the manipulation of
  little things
• genitals -- enhance sexual pleasure
• relatively small areas for
• the trunk, legs

76
Witches and student experiments

• 17th century tests to identify witches
• Interesting things to do with needles

77
Implications of findings

• The amount of cerebral area devoted to sensation
  or motor control is more-or-less directly related
  to the complexity of a function or the importance
  of a function for survival.

78
Lobes

• Occipital
• Parietal
• Temporal
• Frontal

79
Occipital Lobe

• lower back part of the brain
• Primary Function process of visual information
• The Visual Cortex
• separate cells that see horizontal, vertical and
  diagonal lines
• separate cells that see different colors
• processing cells that put it together

80
Parietal Lobe

• Top rear of the brain
• A silent area, unresponsive, except on the
  sensory cortex, to direct stimulation
• Involved in association, e.g., relating an object
  to its use
• Important for computational and space
  relationships

81
Temporal Lobe

• The sides of the brain, above and behind the
  temples and the ears
• Site of the Auditory Cortex, processing sounds
  (Note relationship to Wernickes Area
• Also involved in
• memory -- language comprehension
• emotions -- perception

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Frontal Lobe

• The front of the brain, behind the forehead
• The story of Phineas Gage

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Frontal Lobe functions

• Planning
• Thinking
• Time sense
• Future Awareness
• Personality
• Social Judgment

84
Pre-frontal lobotomies

• Surgical procedures
• Francis Farmer
• Jack at the VA

85
Split Brain Studies

• Examine the effects of surgical separation of the
  left and right hemispheres
• Impact generally less than expected

86
Vision, Language and Split Brains

• Each eye is split into a left and right half
  which report to different hemispheres
• Masking procedures necessary to test routing

87
Left Brain specialties

• logic
• language
• sequencing
• calculation
• rhythm

88
Right Brain specialties

• spatial skills
• perception
• intuition
• visualization
• pattern recognition

89
The Unified Brain

• Left Brain / Right Brain contrasts are better
  metaphors than science
• Both sides work together, all the time, to
  generate adaptive behavior

90
Behavioral Genetics

• The influence of genetics on behavior and mental
  processes
• Another way to sort out the Nature vs. Nurture
  conflict

91
Darwins three rules

• There is genetic variation in a species
• Some variations aid adaptation more than others
• Adaptive variations survive through Natural
  Selection

92
Explaining Universal Behaviors

• physical and behavioral characteristics that
  improve the odds for survival are selected
• sexual attractiveness
• altruism

93
Individual Differences

• how much from genetics, how much from learning?
• Heritability The proportion of variation among
  individuals we can attribute to genes
• 50 hereitatility of a trait doesnt mean 50
  from genes and 50 from learning, but that 50 of
  the difference between any two of you is genetic.