NERVOUS SYTEM!!!! One of the keys to the biological approach in Psychology.

Brain Anatomy

• Frontal lobe (pink) – Original thought– Decision making– Planning– Problem solving

Phineas Gage

Gage began to have startling changes in personality in mood. He became extravagant and anti-social, a fullmouth and a liar with bad manners, and could no longer hold a job or plan his future.  "Gage was no longer Gage", said his friends of him. He died in 1861, thirtheen years after the accident, penniless and epileptic, and no autopsy was performed on his brain.

Brain Anatomy

• Parietal lobe (yellow)– Senses and movement

Paralysis is a condition of parietal lobe damage

Brain Anatomy

• Occipital lobe (green)– vision

Art piece called “Struck by Blindness”. Why is this a great name for this piece?

Brain Anatomy

• Temporal lobe (blue)– Memory, emotion,

hearing, language

Seizures from epilepsy are a Temporal lobe disorder.

Neurons, the cells of the nervous system

• They send chemical signals to:– Other neurons– Muscles– Organs– glands

                                              

Neurons• The action of a neuron is electrical, yet the

neuron sends a chemical signal called a neurotransmitter.

neurotransmitter

*Break for Video graphic*

250 to 500,000 neurons/minute are made in the fetus!

Neurotransmitters:Chemicals that neurons use to

talk to each other!

Neurotransmitter: Acetylcholine

• Works on the voluntary muscles• Also abundant in the brain.• Nicotine reacts with the receptors

that respond to acetylcholine.• Alzheimer’s patients lose neurons

that release Acetylcholine.

Dopamine• Thought (generally) to control pleasure and

motivation• Controls movement, so Parkinson’s patients

have benefited from dopamine-type medicines• Too much dopamine has been linked to

psychosis… limit the dopamine, limit the psychosis.

• Might regulate hormones through the pituitary gland.

Serotonin

• Linked to sleep, depression, and anxiety.• Prozac is a serotonin reuptake inhibitor.

(Not intuitive, but it is thought that a lack of serotonin is a cause of depression. If you keep it in the synapse longer, it is more active.)– Used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder– Used to treat depression.

Learning• Learning is the

physical growth of connections between neurons.

• Improve connections with ‘linking,’ emotion, repetition and practice

Nervous System!

• Fetal (developing baby) brain cells develop at the (average) rate of 250,000 neurons per minute!

Nervous System Cells are called neurons

• The human brain has about 100 BILLION neurons at birth!

• (This is a sheep’s brain)

Nervous System

• Central Nervous System– Brain and spinal cord– Brain uses 20% of all

oxygen, even though is is 2% of the body’s total mass.

• Peripheral Nervous system– Accessory nerves that

branch off of the CNS.

In pairs or by yourself, 1. Sleep and the brain… how do they affect each

other? -No wrong answers… hypothesize how the brain affects

sleep (think of 3 hypotheses)-Hypothesize how sleep affects the brain (think of 3

hypotheses

2. Behaviors and the brain… how do they affect each other? Come up with 5 hypotheses

3. Memory and retrieval of memories… How do you go about putting things into long-term memory? List 3 strategies

Homework due 9-26-06

1. Draw and label a neuron. 2. Explain in detail an action potential