Brain Your Health
The single greatest
system ever designed
in the history of the
universe is your brain.
It is responsible for
your every thought,
emotion, and
behavior.
We do not know
much about our
brains
Its time to change
that.
The BRAIN
Weighs 2-4 pounds
Is comprised of 60%
fat and is the fattiest
system in your body
Consumes 25% of
blood from every
heart beat
New Ideas about your BRAIN
The human brain (like
the animal brain) can
generate new brain
cells (neurogenesis)
The human brain is
now thought to have
neural plasticity or
be a system that is
highly dynamic,
constantly
recognizing, and
malleable
It is shaped by
environmental input.
Our brains need
exposure to
environments that are
enriched and
complex. Those that
are not do not help
the health of your
brain.
Examining the Brain
Brain controls every thought, action, and
feeling
Studying for a long periods of time requires more
energy and causes more aches and pain that
jogging..
The Hemisphere
Brain is divided into 2 halves.
Separated by a Fissure- lengthy
depression marking off one are of the
brain from the other
Hemisphere- each half of the brain
Left Hemisphere controls Right side of body
Right Hemisphere controls Left side of body
Corpus Callosum
Corpus Callosum- large bundle of nerve fibers
that transfer info from one half of brain to the
other
The Lobes
4 major sections
called Lobes
Frontal
Parietal
Occipital
Temporal
Frontal Lobe
Front-most area that
contains the motor
strip and frontal
association area
The frontal lobe has a
major role in the
planning and
execution of
movements.
Parietal
Area behind the frontal
lobe and above the
temporal lobe.
Contains the Sensory
strip
The parietal lobe contains
the Sensory Strip through
which sensations, such as
touch and pressure, are
felt. In addition, it has a
key role in spatial
orientation and information
processing.
Occipital
The occipital lobe is
located posterior to
(behind) the temporal
lobe and is the visual
center of the brain.
Very back of brain
that is devoted to
visual info from the
eyes
Temporal
The temporal lobe is
located inferior to
(below) the frontal
and parietal lobes. It
is primarily involved
with auditory
processing and
memory.
Responsible for
hearing and some
speech functions
Wernicke and Broca
Brocas area- area of
the left of the frontal
lobe that directs the
muscle movements in
speech
Wernickes area of
the left temporal lobe
involved language
comprehension
Frontal Association Area
Forward portion of the brain that engages
in elaborate association or mental
connections
Plays an important part in integrating
personality and in forming complex
thoughts
Interprets what is going on and tells us
what to do, how to feel
Phineas Gage
1840s railroad worker
4 ft iron rod enter his
brain
Friendly and normal
to someone who
swore, undressed
whenever, went to the
bathroom in public
places
Social control
Starter Question
Name the part of the brain that is probably
most active during the following activities?
Watching a movie
Running
Listening
Deciding whether or not to yell at someone
who has knocked you over
Faces Activity
Which face looks happier? 1 or 2
Most people choose Face 1 as happier.
Right hemisphere- objects in space, art,
music, mathematical reasoning, emotional
material.
Left- verbal or speech
SO- more Right hemisphere used SO left
side of each face gets special attention
and seems more prominent.
Why does the right hemisphere tend to
be dominant in this task??
Right hemisphere seems to specialize in patter
recognition
Simple faces can be considered patterns
Hemispheres and Handedness
10% people in population are left handed
How did this happen?
Left hemisphere controls the Right side of
body and visa versa..
But when it comes to small, fine
movements, one hemisphere has
dominance
Not necessarily genetic- twin studies
Tasks of the Hemispheres
Right hemisphere- non-linguistic functions including
recognition of faces, places, and sounds (music)
objects in space, art, music, mathematical reasoning, emotional
material.
studies of
Damage to one hemisphere (I.e. Brocas area)
Split-brain subjects
Left- verbal or speech, language, logic, and complex
motor behavior.
Helps with reading the directions and understanding the task
The hemispheres work together in everything we do!
RAP # 3
What is the frontal association are
responsible for?
If it was damaged, what are some of the
effects?
Identify as either R or L or both
hemispheres
Studying concepts from psychology
Daydreaming about a holiday
Doodling
Cerebral Cortex and the Lower
Brain
Cerebral cortex- units that cover the
lower brain and controls mental processes
such as thought.
Outermost layer (3.2) controls high level of
thought
Takes up 2/3 of the brains nerve cells (100
billion)
Human cannot live without the lower
brain
cortex = bark; bark on a tree.
Remember Phineas Gage- lost higher
order processing and left with only lower
level processes.
Frontal lobes are involved in movement,
attention, planning, memory, and personality.
Cerebral Cortex
Functions of cerebral cortex:
Provides for flexible control of patterns of
movement
Permits subtle discrimination among
complex sensory patterns
Makes possible symbolic thinking
Symbolic thought is the foundation of
human thought and language
Information from the
one visual field is
usually transmitted to
the opposite visual
cortex
The corpus callosum
serves to integrate
the two hemispheres
Cutting the corpus
callosum can result in
information only
reaching one
hemisphere
What happens when there is
damage to certain areas of the
brain?
Frontal Lobe Damage: Phineas Gage
Difficulty reasoning, making decisions
Inability to control emotions
Goal directed behavior impairments
Occipital Lobe Damage
Blindness/visual hallucinations
Temporal Lobe Damage
Wernickes Area
Receptive Aphasia (listening difficulty)
Brocas Area
Expressive Aphasia (talking difficulty)
Thalamus
Acts as relay station for
information in and out of
forebrain
Hypothalamus
Controls hunger, thirst, and
body temperature; involved
in emotions; helps control
the endocrine system
Amygdala
A role in emotional
responses to unpleasant or
punishing stimuli
Hippocampus
Memory storage,
navigation, and response
to new or unexpected
stimuli
Thalamus
pair of ovoid structures- mass of nerve
cells
incoming sensory information relays in the
thalamus before entering the cerebral
cortex. many sensory, motor, and
cognitive functions
highly organized connections with cortex
connections are mostly reciprocal
Cerebellum
two hemispheres
motor control, particularly
in making postural
adjustments and in finetuning movements.
(balance and accuracy)
higher cognitive
functions, including
language.
Ex: Auto driven and
your automatically there
Catching a ball
Hypothalamus
Basic Needs
hunger, thirst
fight or flight responses,
emotional responses
Pleasure, fear, rage
sexual behavior
Hypo- below thalamus
Rage center- if electrically
stimulated, can cause a
person to smash things
Are you hungry right now?
If yes, you blood sugar and body temp are
probably low
Hypothalamus uses cues to tell us were
hungry
As we eat, our bs level and temp rise and
hypothalamus uses NEW cues to tell us
eventually that were full.
Why some people sweat when they eat
Or why we eat less when were hot
Reticular Activating System
reticular formation- reticular- net that
catches nerve impulse
Sits at the base of the brain inside the
spinal cord.
Alertness control center of the brain that
regulates the activity level of the body.
Regulates how alert or sleepy you may be
Many things going on manyimpulses
arrivealertness
Quietsleep
HittotheheadoverloadoftheRAS
circuitsunconsciousness
Emergencystirsitupfrantic
Frontal Association
Area
Frontal
Temporal
Occipital
Parietal
Motor strip
Sensory strip
Wernikes
Brocas
Thalamus
Hypothalamus
RAS
The Acquired Aphasias
Acquired loss of language as a consequence of
brain damage
What happens when there is
damage to certain areas of the
brain?
Frontal Lobe Damage: Phineas Gage
Difficulty reasoning, making decisions
Inability to control emotions
Goal directed behavior impairments
Occipital Lobe Damage
Blindness/visual hallucinations
Temporal Lobe Damage
Wernickes Area
Receptive Aphasia (listening difficulty)
Brocas Area
Expressive Aphasia (talking difficulty)
Brocas aphasia:
Symptoms:
(a) Agrammatism: tendency to omit
function words (e.g., a/ of/ is)
(b) Slow and effortful speech
(c) Relatively good comprehension
Expressive Aphasia (talking difficulty)
*Left frontal lobe - Speech Muscles via motor
cortex
Wernickes aphasia
Symptoms:
(a) fluent but frequently ungrammatical
speech
(b) word substitution errors
(c) impaired language comprehension
Receptive Aphasia (listening difficulty)
*Left Temporal Lobe
Brain Communication
ALL parts of brain have to
communicate with one
another.
Info transfers from lobes,
body part to the motor
strip to cerebellum to
muscle and so on
Electricity in nerve cells.
What do you think of
when you think of the
color red???
A nerve connects red to the idea of a rose etc..
We need MANY nerve cells that are separate, yet
are able to alternate signals from one circuit to
another.
The Neuron
Neuron: nerve cell,
transmits electrical
and chemical info (via
neurotransmitters)
throughout the body
Anatomy of a Neuron
cell body (or soma)
Dendrites- part of the
nerve cell that
receives info from the
axons of other nerve
cells
Axon- part of the
neuron that carries
messages away from
the nerve cell to the
dendrites on another
nerve cell
Anatomy of a neuron
Each nerve cell is
separate from one
another
Neuron structure
varies
Info comes to a receptor
on a dendrite
Dendrites
Cell body
Axon
Axon Terminals
Axon Terminals sit
opposite a receptor
for another neuron
There is a space
between axon
terminals and
receptors of another
neuron
Synapse
Typical Neuron:
1,000 10,000
Synapse- Junction
point of two or more
neurons; connection
made by
neurotransmitters
Chemical
transmission across
the synapse
Neurotransmitters
are released into
synaptic cleft
Neurotransmitter
binds to receptor on
the receiving
neurons membrane
When enough
neurotransmitter is
released, it prompts
chemical changes
that occur faster than
the blink of an eye
Neurotransmitters
diffuse across the
synapse and binds to
receptors on the
membrane of the next
neuron
Depolarization
Repolarization
Each neuron both receives signals and sends signals to other neurons, it carries
on conversations with many different neurons at the same time
You cut your finger
An electrical impulse goes up to the brain
How does the brain know its a pain
message and not message to kick your
foot??
Drugs and Neurotransmitters
Chemicals in the endings of nerve cells
that send info from axon the across the
synapse
Enhancement- speed up
Impediment- obstruct
Info comes to a receptor
on a dendrite
Dendrites
Cell body
Axon
Axon Terminals
Synapse
Neurotransmitter
Receptor of another neuron
Vesicle- bubblelike
Containers of neurotransmitters, located at
the end of an axon
Three classes of neurons:
Sensory: Transmit information from sensory
receptors to the brain (afferent)
Body to the brain
Motor: Transmit commands from the brain to the
muscles and glands of the body (efferent)
Brain to the body
Interneurons: Interconnect neurons
Connect sensory and motor
The All-or-None Law
A neuron either fires or it
doesnt. The action potential
does not vary in size depending
on stimulus intensity
Conduction
Within Neuron
Conduction
Action potentials
All-or-none
Between Neuron
Conduction
Neurotransmitter
accumulation
Each
Basically, each
Neurotransmitters has
receptor is designed
a specific molecule
to only accept a
for a specific activity
specific type of
chemical molecule
Pain, movement,
pleasure, etc.
Electrical impulse for
movement axon
terminal.
Stops at synapse
Vesicles with
movement molecules
neurotransmitters go
towards synapse
Binds and lock to
terminal
Channels open up
releasing movement
neurotransmitters into
open space.
In open space, chemicals float to specific dendritic
receptors (movement)
Once movement receptors accept, excites the dendrites
of another neuron and begins again UNTIL ends at
MUSCLE receptors and causes movement! (pain)
Dendrite axon neurotransmitter synapse
Acetylcholine (Ach)
Neurotransmitter that regulates basic
bodily processes such as movement.
Botulism- food poisoning- shut off release
of Ach
Without Ach- paralysis
Dopamine
Neurotransmitter
involved in the control
of bodily movements
Lack of DopamineParkinsons
Given drugs that help
produce dopamine
addiction
Dopamine is similar to adrenaline.
Dopamine affects brain processes that
control movement, emotional response,
and ability to experience pleasure and
pain.
Drugs such as cocaine and amphetamines
produce their effects by changing the flow
of neurotransmitters
The Brain
Marijuana, Cocaine, Opiates
Reward: Drug Self-Administration
Rats will press a bar to get an injection
of cocaine or heroin (selfadministration). The rat keeps pressing
to get more cocaine or heroin because
the drugs make the rat feel so good.
This is called positive reinforcement,
or reward. Natural rewards include
food, water and sex - each is required
to maintain survival of our species.
Animals and people will continue to
exhibit a behavior that is rewarding and they will cease that behavior when
the reward is no longer present.
There is a part of the brain that is
activated by natural rewards and by
artificial rewards such as addictive
drugs.
This part of the brain is called the
reward system. Neuroscientists have
been able to pinpoint the exact parts of
the brain involved, with the help of the
rats.
Rats will also self-administer addictive
drugs directly into their brains, but only
into a specific area of the reward
system.
If the injection needle is moved less
than a millimeter away from this crucial
area, the rat won't press the lever for
more drug.
So based on information from working
with the rats, scientists have drawn a
map of the brain, and located the
structures and pathways that are
activated when an addictive drug is
taken voluntarily.
Endorphins
Neurotransmitters that relieve pain and
increase our sense of well being
Naturally made by the body itself (endo)
Acts as natural form of morphine
Endorphins act by locking into receptors in the
nervous system for chemicals that transmit pain
messages to the brain.
Once the endorphin, or the "key", is in the
"lock," pain causing chemicals are prevented
from transmitting their messages.
Endorphins interact with the opiate receptors in
the brain to reduce our perception of pain,
similar to the drugs morphine and codeine.
The body's release of endorphins, however,
does not lead to addiction like morphine and
codeine might.
Key Concepts
Evolution has fundamentally shaped psychological
processes because it favors genetic variations that
produce adaptive behaviors
The brain coordinates the bodys two
communications systems: the nervous system and
endocrine system
Uses chemical processes to communicate with
targets throughout the body
The brain is composed of many specialized modules
that work together to create mind and behavior
Depression can result
from a shortage of the
neurotransmitter
serotonin.
The antidepressant
drug Prozac works by
blocking reabsorption
of serotonin in the
synapse, making up
for the shortage.
Alcohol and neurotransmitters
RAS has to slow
down before you
sleep, so needs to
turn off cells.
Neurotransmitter
arrives, cells turn off.
ALCOHOL
Cells begin to shut
down turns RAS off
Sleepy
Vision problems
Slurred speech
Unsteady gait
Increases Dopamine
Alters Serotonin
Serotonin
Neurotransmitter that
is synthesized,
stored, and released
by specific neurons in
this pathway.
It is involved in the
regulation of mood,
emotions, aggression,
sleep, appetite,
anxiety, memory, and
perceptions.
Ecstasy
Increases serotonin in different brain regions that causes
psychological effects. These include elevated mood and feelings of
empathy.
The ecstasy reinforcing, which means that its pleasurable properties
increase the likelihood that the person will take it again.
In a research setting, monkeys will administer ecstasy to
themselves (they actually press a lever to obtain an injection), just
as they do for other addictive drugs.
In fact, all addictive drugs act in some way within the "reward
pathway".
Many of the psychological effects of ecstasy are due to its actions
within the limbic system (the amygdala, and hippocampus). The
ability of ecstasy to produce mild stimulation is due to its actions in
another part of the limbic system -- the basal ganglia.
It is here where ecstasy's effects on the dopamine system may be
important. The heightened perceptions involve the actions of
ecstasy in the neocotex. Ecstasy can also reduce the appetite,
because it acts in the hypothalamus which controls feeding
behavior.
Spinal Cord
Part of the body that
functions as an
automatic brain in its
own right and is a
relay station for
impulses to and from
the higher brain
Three basic functions of the
nervous system
Reception input through the senses
via receptors
Reaction response through the
muscles and/or glands
Transmission & Integration
Spinal Cord
Reflex
Emergency- Spinal cord
reacts BEFORE brain
Driving, touching
something hot.
Spinal neurons are
short, direct, and
powerful
Few synapses
Spinal cord could
operate by itself
Three classes of neurons:
Sensory: Transmit information from sensory
receptors to the brain (afferent)
Body to the brain
Motor: Transmit commands from the brain to the
muscles and glands of the body (efferent)
Brain to the body
Interneurons: Interconnect neurons
Connect sensory and motor
Glandular System
Nervous system
reacts
instantaneously.
Endocrine system
takes time to affect
the body.
Hormones- chemical
regulators that control
bodily processes such
as emotional
responses, growth,
sexuality
Released directly into
blood stream so may
take awhile.
Glands- units of body
that contain
hormones
Endocrine systemsystem of all the
glands and their
chemical messages
taken together
Endocrine
Hormones
Directly into the bloodstream
Hormones work like
neurotransmitters
Special molecular
structure that must
match the structure of
the receptor.
Women giving birth
Pituitary Gland
Master gland of the body that
1.activates other glands and
2. controls the growth hormone
Growth hormone- controlled by the
pituitary that regulates the growth process
Requires normal environment
Diet affects pituitary
Thyroid Gland
Controls and regulates the speed of bodily
processes called metabolism
Hyperthyroid v. Hypothyroid
Hypothyroid- Notably, women are far more
likely than men to be afflicted with thyroid
problems. Leads to fatigue, weight gain,
depression, high cholesterol and other
symptoms
Adrenal Glands
Cause excitement in order to prepare the
body for an emergency or for some
important activity
Adrenaline- chemical that prepares the
body for emergency activity by increasing
blood pressure, breathing rate, and energy
level.
Near accident- spinal cord reflex
RAS cerebralcortex
You think about could have happened.
Hypothalamus pituitaryreleaseshormones
totheadrenalglands.
Adrenalglandsreleaseadrenaline
Adrenalinepreparesusforan
emergency
Rapidbreathing,exited,sweating,nervous
Bloodclotsfasterjustincasewegetcut
Gonads
Sex glands
Androgen- male sex hormone
Starts sex drive for both males and females
Not activated until puberty
Estrogen- female sex hormone
Neuter a dog- loses it desire to reproduce
Humans- if you remove the source of
hormones, sex drive will still remain.
So starts off with hormones, but is taken over
by cerebral cortex (mental processes,
thought)
Cortex controls sex- so it is learned by
humans
Cortex allows feelings of love, hope,
respect, care AND fear, anxiety,
psychological pain
Without the cortex dogs
Starter Question
What part of the brain did the procedure in
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind have an
effect on?
Think of the characters symptoms and
characteristics
Would you want this procedure done to you if
you had a bad memory you wanted to erase
Do you know someone that could benefit from
this procedure considering the experiment was
flawless?
Essay Question
Mary, a smart and sharp woman, cuts her finger
while chopping vegetables. He initially says,
Ouch, but smiles when it brings back fond
memories of her father cooking.
Analyze this situation by describing, step- by
step, the possible internal reaction that Mary
has. Your analysis should be divided into 4
parts. (More than one answer can apply to each
part. Be sure to justify your answer)
1.
2.
3.
4.
First, describe how neurons in Marys body are
activated using the terms synapses, axons,
dendrites, and neurotransmitter.
Second, assume these neurons send the
message to different parts of the lower brain.
Choose any two parts and describe how those two
parts would react to the message it has received.
Third, assume that the lower brain sends the
message to the cerebral cortex. Choose any two
parts of the cerebral cortex and describe how
those parts might respond.
Finally, assume that the cerebral cortex sends the
message to some glands. Choose any one gland
and describe how this gland might respond. How
would the glands reaction affect the body
Midline View of Human Brain
Medulla: Controls heart rate, respiration
Cerebellum: Coordinates smooth movements, balance,
and posture
Pons: Involved in the control of sleep