test #1

a field of study that relates behaviour to bodily processes, especially for the brain - Based on the fact that our brain mechanisms influence what we think and how we act, and we evolved as such because ancient animals built this way survived and reporduced • primary focus on nervous system • main goal of study is to understand behaviour and experience in terms of their biological substrates BIOLOGICAL SUBSTRATE: can be brain itself, neural pathways within the brain, neurons themselves, neuron chemicals - a specific chemical process in a living organism

1) PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY: study of the neural mechanisms of behaviour by manipulating the nervous systems of nonhuman animals in controlled experiments - E.g. studied contributions of the hippocampus to memory by surgically removing the hippocampus in rats and assessing their ability to perform various memory tasks 2) PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY: study of the effects of drugs on the brain and behaviour - E.g. tried to improve the memory of Alzheimer’s patients by adminstering drugs that increase the levels of neurotransmitter acetylcholine 3) NEUROPSYCHOLOGY: study of the psychological effects of brain damage in human patients - E.g. have shown that patients with alcohol-produced brain damage have particular difficulty in remembering recent events 4) PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY: study of the relation between physiological activity and physiological processes in human subjects by noninvasive physiological recording - E.g. have shown familiar faces elicit the usual changes in autonomic nervous system activity even when patients with brain damage report that they do not recognize a face 5) COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY: study of the behaviour, genetics, and adaptiveness of behaviour in animals to undertsand humans (largely through the use of comparative method) - E.g. have shown that species of birds that cache their seeds tend ot have big hippocampi, thus confirming that the hippocampus is involved in memory for location 6) COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE: study of the neural mechanisms of human cognition, largely through the use of functional brain imaging - E.g. have used brain-imaging technology to observe the changes in autonomic nervous system activity even when patients with brain damage report that they do not recognize a face

1) PHYSIOLOGICAL EXPLANATION: relates a behaviour to the activity of the brain and other organs - E.g. parkinsons disease (biological substrates involved) - E.g. chemical reactions that enable hormones ot influence brain activity, routes by which brain activity controls muscle contractions 2) ONTOGENETIC EXPLANATION: describes HOW a behaviour/something develops - describes the origin and development of an individual organism from its beginning to its adult stage, covering all developmental stages - E.g. memory development comparison between different aged groups with memory tasks (at a certain age and then again a few years later) - E.g. explain why females and males differ on average in some regard by examining behaviour at different ages and relate it to changes in the nervous system 3) EVOLUTIONARY EXPLANATION: reconstructs the evolutionary history of a structure/behaviour - States what evolved from what - How things change to support evolution - E.g. bat wings are modified arms, porcupine quills are like hairs, monkeys using tools - E.g. humans have a tiny tailbone because our ancient monkey-like ancestors had a tail 4) FUNCTIONAL EXPLANATION: describes why a structure/behaviour evolved as it did - Survival techniques - E.g. describes the advantage of genetic drift, of camouflage,moth identifying a sound as danger for survival EXAMPLE: Language in humans vs chimps biological explanations: - Physiological- Left hemisphere vs right - Ontogenetic- Similar language building blocks from youth - Evolutionary- Lost something to develop these great language skills - Functional- For survival? Can incorporate all other perspectives in this one

What he was like prior to his injury: - Well- balanced, reliable, intelligent, - Good leader - Made good decisions What two main areas were damaged: a) Frontal cortex b) Limbic system - Disconnected - sliced right through with the bow (there Symptoms as a result of the damage: - Impulsive behaviour (no self-control/emotional control, outbursts) - Poor decision making Limbic system was able to create emotional responses without regulation from frontal cortex (executive system- oversees other areas of the brain) - Disconnection between the two caused for the limbic system to ‘go wild’ - Area involved with breathing- brain stem, wasn’t damaged so he didn’t die - If you damage a particular section of your frontal cortex, you could be damaging things like motor, emotion, language, personality, planning, or reasoning

Most common form is dementia Emerges early Is progressive - Starts with memory change/memory loss (displacing things) and then symptoms gradually excel Symptoms: - Poor/decreased judgement - Problems with language - Disorientation to time and place - Problems with abstract thinking - Change in mood and behaviour - Change in personality - Loss of initiative Areas in brain tissue are damaged which disrupts the transmission of message between neurons, causing symptoms to occur - Experiencing tissue loss = experiencing functioning loss BRAIN ATROPHY (shrinkage) occurs with loss of neurons, and ventricles seem bigger because there’s more space without the neurons

fiction • people use all of their brain all the time • imaging techniques show activity across large areas of the brain for various tasks, even while resting or sleeping

Fact

Fiction NEUROGENESIS: the development of new cells

fact Without stimulation, you’ll lose things (you need) - E.g. Danielle’s case of extreme child neglect

Emotion or mental process take place in the central part of the body– the heart CARDIOCENTRIC VIEW– the heart is the most important organ of the body Speculative observation “Broken heart”

“CEPHALOCENTRISM” The brain was the origin of nerves The watery interior of the brain (fluid) or, as Galen called them, “animal spirits” was the repository of the mind - These days we call it ‘cerebral spinal fluid’ - He claimed these ‘spirits’ enable us to do things Relationship between physical state and illness– 4 body humours that are related to a person’s temperament - Speech, sensation, emotions, etc.

THE FOUR HUMOURS THEORY: the body contains 4 main fluids, and health depended on their balance – theory of both Hipocrates and Galen Hippocrates thought it was important for a person to live a healthy life Hippocrates assumed that if the fluids/humours in the body aren’t aligned/cosnsitent with each other (too much or too little), illness/changes in temperament can arise 1) BLOOD- spring, air, heart, warm/moist, courageous/hopeful/carefree 2) YELLOW BILE- summer, fire, liver, warm/dry, ambitious/leader-like/easily angered/restless 3) BLACK BILE- autumn, earth, spleen, cold/dry, quiet/analytical/serious 4) PHLEGM- winter, water, brain, cold/moist, calm/peaceful/thoughtful

HYLAURONIC MODEL Nerves are hollow tubes that carry “animal spirits”/pressured fluid that flow from the brain and affected muscles to produce movement This pressurized fluid enables us to do things PINEAL GLAND is at the heart of this pressurized fluid which enables us to do things Pineal gland bends back and forth which direct sthe flow of the animal spirits throughout the brain Mental functions were reproduced as animal spirits flowed through pores in the brain Animal spirits were pumped through the brain by the pineal gland (pineal gland was seen as powerful) The work at this time was speculative – no scientific method yet

Showed that he could make a frog’s leg twitch by stimulating the attached nerve with electricity, even after the nerve and muscle had been removed from the frog’s body Suggests that the ability of the muscle to contract and the ability of the nerve to send a message to the muscle were characteristics of these tissues themselves His work was novel Other scientists supported the work that he was doing – they got the same results with animals

THEORY OF EVOLUTION: explains the means by which the species acquired their adaptive characteristics, and is based on the principle of natural selection NATURAL SELECTOIN: organisms with favorable traits for a particular environment survive, reproduce, and pass these traits on to the next generation (those with less favorable traits are less likely to survive) - E.g. long neck in giraffes is adaptive, so this is gonna get passed on for generations (those with a short neck will die off cause they cant reach food) 1) CONTINUITY OF BEHAVIOUR - there are particular behaviours that are consistent among different species - e.g. grooming, foraging for food 2) SPECIES-SPECIFIC DIFFERENCES/BEHAVIOURS/behaviours - different species may have a unique way of getting on in their environments - e.g. bats have acute hearing– specific to that bat breed, night owls have incredible vision at night)

PHRENOLOGY : Examine bumps in the brain Thought mental functions divided into different faculties The bigger the bump, the bigger the used area Different faulties related to specific brain areas (localization) – localize function to different parts of the brain Greater ability relates to that area being larger

EXPERIMENTAL ABLATION ABLATION: removal of the structure - The research method in which the function of a part of the brain is inferred by observing the behaviouirs an animal can no longer perform after that part of the brain is removed/damaged He damaged specific parts of the brains in animals to see what they can do - E.g. removal of cerebellum– animal loses coordination/movement - E.g. removal of medulla– animal died He found LOCALIZATION– which function is associated with which parts of the brain Presented the idea that some functions of the brain may be found in different places - E.g. memory can be found in many spots in the brain rather than one area … is this done in human beings?

Broca’s area: part in the left frontal lobe that is concerned with speech BROCA’s APHASIA: A left frontal lobe lesion in the broca’s area that produces expressive aphasia impacts ORGANIZATION of speech, not PRODUCTION of speech - people with BROCA’S APHASIA can produce meaningful language, but it just comes out sparse

BROCA’S AREA: - by Paul Broca - has to do with organization of speech BROCA’s APHASIA: - A left frontal lobe lesion produces expressive aphasia - impaired expression/pronounciation of speech (still meaningful just less gramatical) - omits a lot of punctuation, and detailed grammar - unimpaired comprehension (unless very complex) WERNICKE’S AREA - by Carl Wernicke - in charge of language comprehension & memory of object names WERNICKE’s APHASIA: - damage in part of the left temporal cortex produces a different kind of language impairment - Impaired language comprehension and memory of object names (trouble finding the right word, but grammatical) - Unimpaired expression/pronounciation

SCALES - Organism (behaviour) - Brain regions - Neuronal populations - Single cells HUMANS - Combined EEG/ECG- fMRI (mri machine that detects changes in blood flow) - Lesion studies - Stimulation (tACS, TMS) - Intracranial recordings MONKEYS - fMRI - Reversable lesions - Electrophysiology/microstimulation OBSERVATION COGNITIVE TESTING

Observation Question Hypothesis Experiment Analysis Conclusion

PROS: - Many of the mechanisms of behaviour are similar across species, and sometimes theyre easier to study in a nonhuman species (start with simple cases) (e.g. squid nevres are thicker and then easier) (numebr of neurons are easier to work with) - We are intersted in animals for their own sake (curios of animals) - What we learn about animals sheds light on human evolution (how we resemble animals) - Legal or ethical restrictions prevent certain kinds of research on humans (brain damage, chemicals) CONS: - Deciding where to draw the line in animal testing - RRR– reduction, replacement, refinement - “MINIMALISTS” believe animal research is permissible but should be held to a minimum – little discomfort but much potential value - “ABOLITIONISTS” maintain no roomf or compromise – completely against it, murder for animals like humans, no consent, like slavery– eliminate all of it regardless of how much value research mighr be produced or how theyre treated

Dopamine (reward, motivation, movement) is the prominent neurochemical - there’s an imbalance: decreased amount of dopamine neurons in the substantial nigra (dopamine production area), and less normal amount of acetycholine (and less pigmentation) Symptoms: - Most prominent symptom is loss/inability of movement (i.e. loss of dopamine) 1) RHYTHMIC TREMOR often occurs at first in one hand, where it resembles the motion of rolling a pill between the thumb and forefinger 2) LEANING FORWARD/BACKWARD when upright reflects impairment of balance and coordination– BRADYKINSIA 3) MUSCLE RIGIDITY shows itself int he cogwheel phenomenon– pushing on an arm causes it to move in jerky increments instead of smoothly 4) DIFFICULTY RISING FROM A SITTING POSITION is a common sign of disordered movement– some patients report feelings of weakness and of being consrained by ropes or other forces

Concept of a neuron derives from the work of Santiago Ramon y Cajal’s in the early 20th century Said neurons were discrete cells that communicate via spaces between cells - Cells communicate but don’t touch– there’s a gap between the cells