Biological Bases of Behavior

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• Biological Bases of Behavior
• The Nervous System The Hindbrain
• Neurons The
  Midbrain
• 2 Categories The
  Forebrain
• 3 Kinds
  Right/Left Hemisphere
• Anatomy of a neuron Plasticity in the
  brain
• Communication The Endocrine
  system
• Neurotransmitters Heredity and
  behavior
• CNS/PNS
  Agonist/Antagonist
• The Brain The
  Limbic system

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• GABA is a major inhibitory neurotransmitter in
  the brain. A lack of GABA can lead to involuntary
  motor actions, including tremors and seizures.
  Alcohol stimulates the release of GABA. Low
  levels of GABA produce anxiety, and GABA agonists
  (tranquilizers) are used to reduce anxiety.
• Glutamate is the most common neurotransmitter,
  its released in more than 90 of the brains
  synapses. Glutamate is found in the food additive
  MSGexcessive glutamate can cause
  overstimulation, migraines and seizures.

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The Central and Peripheral Nervous Systems

• What components make up the CNS?
• The brain and spinal cord
• What are the two systems that comprise the PNS?
• The somatic and the autonomic
• What are the two components that comprise the
  autonomic?
• The sympathetic and the parasympathetic

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The Nervous System
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The Brain, The Hindbrain

• The hindbrain is located at the skulls rear
• The hindbrain is the lowest portion of the brain
• There are three parts of the hindbrain
• The medulla
• Helps controls life sustaining behaviors
• The cerebellum
• Plays pivotal roles in motor coordination
• The pons
• A bridge in the hindbrain involved in sleep and
  arousal and also plays a role in movements of the
  body such as walking and balance.

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The Brain, The Midbrain

• The midbrain is located between the hindbrain and
  forebrain
• Nerve fibers ascend and descend to connect the
  higher and lower portions of the brain and
  contains areas that are concerned with
  integrating sensory processes
• The midbrain contains the reticular formation
• The reticular formation is a collection of
  neurons involved in behaviors such as walking,
  sleeping, sex, and reacting. The reticular
  formation is also responsible for filtering out
  stimuli that are coming into the brain from the
  spinal cord and to relay the remainder of the
  signals to other areas of the brain.
• When electrical stimulation is applied to the
  reticular formation of an animal, the animal
  becomes fully awake, when severed, the animal
  falls into a deep coma
• The midbrain also consists of small groups of
  neurons that use the neurotransmitters serotonin,
  dopamine, and norepinephrine
• They send signals to a variety of brain regions
  and are why they are involved in higher level and
  integrative functions

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The Brain, The Forebrain

• The forebrain is the largest and most complex
  region of the brain
• What are the components that make up the
  forebrain?
• The thalamus, the hypothalamus, the limbic
  system, and the cerebrum
• The thalamus is referred to as the relay station
  and is involved in integrating and filtering
  information and relaying some of the remaining
  signals to higher brain levels
• The hypothalamus is involved in the regulation of
  basic biological needs
• The limbic system regulates emotion, especially
  pleasure centers and includes the thalamus, the
  hypothalamus, the hippocampus, and the amygdala
• The cerebrum is the largest and most complex
  part of the human brain divided into 2 parts the
  left and right hemispheres

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The Brain
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The Cerebral hemisphere

• The cerebral hemisphere is
• divided by lobes
• The occipital lobe is at the back of the head and
  is responsible for visual signals
• The parietal lobe registers the sense of touch
• The temporal lobe contains areas responsible for
  auditory processing and when damaged, people
  experience the inability to comprehend speech and
  language, or aphasia

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• Brocas aphasiapeople find it difficult or
  impossible to produce speech, but can comprehend
  speech (verbal/spoken)
• Wernickes aphasiapeople can speak, but they
  have difficulty finding the correct words and
  have difficulty comprehending written or spoken
  communication
• Mirror neurons are neurons that are activated by
  performing an action or by seeing another or
  person perform the same action

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Front Part Of The brain
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Plasticity in the Brain

• What is plasticity?
• Plasticity is descriptive of the brain because of
  its ability to change and adapt can be functional
  plasticity or structural
• Structural plasticity-when presented with new
  learning opportunities, the brains structure
  will change in an effort to adapt to the new
  processes the hippocampus of New York cab
  drivers
• Functional plasticity-when areas of the brain
  have sustained damage that affects incoming
  sensory pathways, the brain will reorganize the
  neural pathways, in blind people, areas in the
  occipital lobe will assist in verbal processing
• Plasticity is limited and declines with ageuse
  it or lose it

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Right/Left Brain

• The left hemisphere of the brain controls the
  right side of the body and contains areas
  dedicated to logic, reasoning, analysis, and
  language
• The right hemisphere controls the left side of
  the body and contains brain areas dedicated to
  emotional and creative impulses
• Lateralization allows for information to be
  shared between the hemispheres
• In split-brain surgery, the corpus callosum is
  cut to reduce the severity of epileptic seizures
  only done in cases in which the patient doesnt
  respond to other treatmentsplit brain study

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The Endocrine System

• The endocrine system consist of glands that
  secrete chemical messengers into the bloodstream
  to help control bodily functions
• The messengers are called hormones
• What are hormones?
• Hormones are the chemical substances released by
  the endocrine glands
• The endocrine system is controlled by the nervous
  system through the hypothalamus
• The hypothalamus works in concert with the
  pituitary gland
• The pituitary gland (master gland) releases a
  great variety of hormones that extend throughout
  the body, stimulating actions in other endocrine
  glands
• The endocrine system is involved in the
  fight-or-flight response
• Too much stress may also suppress the process of
  neurogenesis in the hippocampus
• In times of stress, the hypothalamus sends
  signals along two pathways
• the autonomic and through the pituitary
  gland----?adrenal glands
• Then the adrenal glands secrete hormones
  throughout the body in preparation for the
  emergency
• Too much stress can suppress the immune response
  system, making the person vulnerable to diseases
• Testosterone is a male sex hormone produced by
  the testes
• Women secrete small amounts of testosterone from
  the adrenal cortex
• There are positive correlations between
  testosterone levels and aggression in both men
  and women
• Testosterone levels-?aggression???
  Aggression-?testosterone levels???
• There are correlations between testosterone and
  cognitive abilities

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The Evolutionary Bases of Behavior

• Darwin and natural selection
• Adaption is an inherited characteristic, because
  of natural selection...it occurs slowly, gradual,
  lingering in a populationhumans show a taste for
  fatty foods, but we no longer need to intake lots
  of calories