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The Brain. Biology and Behavior. Your CPU: or, “I Sing the Body Electric”. Control center for entire body…..one way to describe lower brain - basic functions (secretary) Upper brain - complex functions (manager) (Cerebral Cortex)
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The Brain Biology and Behavior
Your CPU:or, “I Sing the Body Electric” • Control center for entire body…..one way to describe • lower brain - basic functions (secretary) • Upper brain - complex functions (manager) • (Cerebral Cortex) • Electric & chemical impulses in brain and nervous system explain all behaviors
Cerebral Cortex • Outermost ½” • Learning, info storage, process memories and sensory data • Limbic System • Emotion, memory & learning, smell, autonomic nervous system (includes part of the upper brain)
Divisions of the Brain • 4 Lobes – upper brain • Frontal - complex associations • Parietal – sensory strip • Occipital - eye sight • Temporal - hearing & sentencing • koko • 2 Hemispheres • Left and Right • Connected by Corpus Collosum • Central relay station
Parts of the Lower Brain • Hindbrain - • Reticular Activation System -control tower, awareness regulator • Cerebellum - balance and coordination • Medula – respiration, reflexes • Pons – relay sensory information • Amygdala – survival, emotions, memory
Midbrain - • RAS - continues up the brain stem….regulates messages to the brain (control tower) • Think marrow • Forebrain • RAS continues • Thalamus - relay station and sensory information (except smell) -- “Traffic Cop” • Hypothalamus - motivation and emotion (hunger, thirst, sex), body temperature • Corpus Collosum • See notes 3 slides back
Nervous System • Central - brain and spinal cord • Peripheral - sends messages to and from the body • Somatic - sensory messages • Autonomic - reflex & organs • Sympathetic - fight or flight • Parasympathetic - calming
On a Smaller Scale • Nervous system works through nerve cells called NEURONS • contain cell body, AXON (sender), and DENDRITE(receiver) • MYELIN SHEATH– insulator / protective cover • space between cells=SYNAPSE - highly sensitive to chemicals • The messages = NEUROTRANSMITTERS and hormones • Chemicals moving electrically • “Damage is permanent” controversy
Endocrine System:The Glands of Time • These are hormones that excrete chemicals with specific jobs • Pituitary gland - regulates growth • Pineal body – circadian rhythm and sleep cycle • Thyroid – metabolism / energy • Adrenal gland - adrenaline (sypathetic nervous system) • Testes and Ovaries - reproduction, gender changes/ differences
Neurotransmitters • Acetycholine (memory, movement) • Norepinephrine (memory, learning) • Serotonin (sleep, appetite) • Endorphins (inhibits pain) • Dopamine (learning, emotions, movement)
HeredityNature or Nurture???? • Nature - - -genetics • Nurture - - -the environment. • Genie – wiki • Feral child - - wiki • Little girl in the window - video
Imaging technologies • Ways to study the brain: • Accidents • Electrical stimulation and reaction • EEG - electrodes record brain activity • Cat scan - X-rays produce image • MRI - magnetic field transmitted in myriad directions to create detailed picture • PET scan - radioactive sugar, then scanned • technologies explained
Sensation and Perception Understanding our World
Sensation - the process of receiving info from the environment • Perception - the process of assembling and organizing the information to make it meaningful • Five Senses • visual • tactile (touch) • audio (hearing) • olfaction (smell) • taste
The basics • Absolute threshold - the weakest amount o stimulus that can be sensed. • Difference threshold - the minimum amount of difference that can be detected between two stimuli. • Signal-detection theory -what you notice • Cell phone distraction • Sensory adaptation- A change in response to severely contrasting stimuli
Vision - In the back of the eye is the Optic nerve which decodes the light and sends a message to the brain. • pupil – opening • Iris – ‘shutter’ • lens - adjusts reflections • retina - neurons that act like film • Rods (brightness) and cones (color) • photoreceptors on the retina • blind spot - at optic nerve
White light - light as it originates from the sun or a light bulb before it is broken down into different frequencies. • ROY G BIV • apple
Vision continued • color vision - reflections and chemicals • cones and color vision - certain cones sensitive to certain ‘color’ frequencies • color blindness - absence or malfunction of the cones • afterimages- photoreceptors continue to fire after severely contrasting stimuli in a complimentary color • explained
Structure of the ear • eardrum, cochlea, cilia, auditory nerve • The drum softens the sound, protecting the inner ear. Hammer, anvil, and stirrup shake against the cochlea causing the cilia to vibrate a pattern that is sent to the auditory nerve, which then decodes the pattern as it is sent to the brain. • pitch depends on frequency, loudness is determined by sound wave height • Deafness • conductive - soft sounds • sensorineural - certain frequencies
Types of receptors • hot, cold, cuts, burns, movement……. • Under our skin are millions of nerve cells that are stimulated and then the message is sent to the brain. • Gate theory - limit to amount of info processed by the nervous system at one time.
Structure of smell • Pheromones, cilia, olfactory bulb, olfactory nerve • odor chemicals (pheromones) are breathed into nasal passages where they reach the cilia (receptor cells) and are decoded by the olfactory bulb and sent to the brain by the olfactory nerve.
Taste The 5th area is UNAMI -- savory
Structure - taste buds, nerves • On the tongue surface are several different areas that sense FIVE types of taste; salt, sour, bitter, sweet, and savory (UNAMI). The taste buds in those areas are attached to nerves that send the message to the brain. • When we crave a particular food, it is that area of the tongue that triggers it.
Perception is how we make sense of the world. • Experience • Interpretation • expectation • Perceptual constancies are based mostly on expectations • “Constancies” • tendency to see familiar objects as having standard shape, size, color, or location regardless of changes in the angle of perspective, distance, or lighting.
Rules of Perceptual Organization • Closure – fill in gaps to ‘complete’ - -cloud shapes • Figure –ground - tendency to separate visual images by contrast - - black / white • Proximity - - associating according to placement • Similarity - - similar objects belong together • Continuity - - smooth v. abrupt pattern tendency • Common Fate - - similarity but in ‘story’ form • Examples • Examples2 • examples 3
Perception of movement • Movement is relative to surrounding objects • Stroboscopic Motion • Rapidly moving objects produce the illusion of movement -- cartoons • Depth Perception • Monocular cues - -need only one eye • Binocular cues - - retinal disparity & convergence give us ‘depth’ - - “Magic Eye”
What is Consciousness? • Construct • 3 types of Awareness (Consciousness) • Sensory • Direct Inner • Sense of Self
Levels of Consciousness • Standard (Biological) • Conscious • Preconscious • Unconscious aka (subconscious) • Nonconscious • Freud’s (Psychoanalytical) • Conscious • Preconscious • Unconscious
Sleep and Dreams • Circadian Rhythms • Sleep waves – Bio Rhythms • Beta - AWAKE • Alpha - Relaxation • Theta – “Sleep” • Delta – Deepest sleep • REM - Dreams
Dreams • Bio-psychological Approach • Freudian Approach • http://www.dreammoods.com/dreamdictionary/ • modern explanations