Behaviour is anything an animal does to respond to changes in its surroundings and is important for its survival e.g. woodlice move away from light to stop them from dehydrating.

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B6 Brain and Mind Summary Sheet (1)
A. What is behaviour?
B. Simple reflexes in humans
Behaviour is anything an animal does to respond
to changes in its surroundings and is important
for its survival e.g. woodlice move away from
light to stop them from dehydrating.
Babies have newborn ______________ ( e.g.
grasping, sucking, startle, swimming) that are
only present for a short period of time after
birth and are replaced by ______________ learned
from _________________ . If a newborn reflex is
missing at birth, it may mean that the babys
_______________ system is not developing
properly. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) or
cot death may be because a babys _____________
reflexes have not _____________ properly.
Everything an organism does its response to all
the stimuli around it.
response
Action that is caused by a stimulus
involuntary
An automatic response made by the body without
conscious thought.
behaviour
An automatic response made by an animal to a
stimulus
stimulus
A change in the environment that causes a
response.
simple reflex
Word bank behaviours matured nervous
simple experiences reflexes
C. Your nervous system coordinates your
behaviour and reflexes.
Nerve impulses are passed along the nervous
system in a pathway called the reflex arc.
Nerves are bundles of specialised cells called
neurons.
Brain
2.
Spinal cord
1.
(detect external stimuli)
Nerves branch off the central nervous system to
all parts of the body
3.
4.
The peripheral nervous system links the brain and
spinal cord with the rest of the body.
5.
(muscles or glands)
Motor Neuron
Word bank synapse, motor neuron, sensory neuron,
receptor, effector
Word bank cell body, axon, fatty sheath,
branched ends
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B6 Brain and Mind Summary Sheet (2)
D. Synapses neurons do not touch each other, so
nerve impulses must be passed across tiny gaps
called synapses. Impulses cannot jump across
synapses, so natural chemicals are used to pass
an impulse from one neuron to the next. Some
drugs interfere with nerve impulses.
E. The Brain Complex behaviours need to be
controlled by larger brains, which allow you to
learn from ____________ . Scientists who study
the brain are called _________________ . They
have discovered that different _________ of the
brain are responsible for different functions
e.g. speech, taste, smell, movement. The brain is
made of billions of ___________ . When you are
awake you are aware of yourself, this is called
___________________ . The part of your brain
where this happens is called the _________
_____________ .
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2












3
6
The gap is 20 nanometres (nm) wide
5
cerebral cortex initiates actions
4
cerebellum fine tunes muscle control
brainstem co-ordinates reflexes
1. A small unit of measurement (nm) (10) 2. The
chemical released by brain synapses, giving you
feelings of pleasure (9) 3. The common name for
the drug MDMA a drug that may cause feelings of
pleasure, but can have harmful effects (7). 4.
Released from sensory neurons (9) 5. Gaps between
sensory neurons motor neurons (8) 6. The name
of an antidepressant drug (6)
Word bank cerebral cortex, regions,
neuroscientists, neurons, consciousness,
experience
G. Human Learning
F. Learned behaviour learning to link a new
stimulus with a reflex action allows animals to
change their behaviour. This is called a
conditioned reflex.
1. How are the neurons in your brain connected?
.....
. 2. How can you make new neuron pathways? (clue
babies develop new neuron pathways very quickly)
.
3. How can you strengthen new neuron pathways?
(clue what do you do to get better at
something?)

The stimulus of hearing the bell becomes linked
with food.
5.
Ring a bell whilst the dog is eating
Keywords new experiences, neurons, pathways,
repetition
H. What is memory? your ability to store
retrieve information.
After a while the dog will salivate when it hears
a bell, even if there is no food around.
2. ________________________
Word bank rehearsal long-term short-term
1.
The dog salivates when it is given food
1. _____________________
3. ____________________
The food is the stimulus salivation is the
response