Notesale: Turn your study into money

Document Preview

Extracts from the notes are below, to see the PDF you'll receive please use the links above

---

● Consciousness: involves human awareness and ability to communicate this awareness
● Ability to Communicate: enables us to send and receive our own messages inside our
own heads
● Generalized Epileptic Seizure: Both sides of the brain engage in wild activity and
stimulate each other
● Corpus Callosum: this is a large bundle of nerve fibers that connect corresponding parts
of the brain with those of the other side
Modern History of Behavioral Neuroscience
In behavioral neuroscience, psychologist combine experimental methods of psychology and
physiology
● Psychology: the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially
those affecting behavior in a given context; study of the mind
...

-These experimental methods were applied to issues that concerned all psychologist
-In recent years, study ass physiology of pathological conditions, such as addictions and mental
disorders, has begun
...
Rene Descartes
● 17th century French philosopher and mathematician; considered the father of modern
philosophy
● First to suggest that a link exists between the human mind and its purely physical
housing, the brain
...
He held that the will, an
aspect of the mind, can move the pineal gland and cause the transmission of what he
called animal spirits, which produce mechanical changes in the body; and, similarly, that
changes in the body are transmitted to the pineal gland and can there affect the mind
...
Luigi Galvari
● Found electrical stimulation in frog's nerves caused contraction of attached muscle
3
...

● Set the stage for performing experiments directly on the brain
3
...
Paula Broca
● Applied experimental ablation to the human brain
● Observed the behavior of people whose brains had been damaged by strokes
-stroke: It occurs when blood flow to an area of brain is cut off
...
When brain cells die
during a stroke, abilities controlled by that area of the brain such as memory and
muscle control are lost
● Concluded that
portion of the cerebral
cortex performs
functions necessary for
speech
★ Broca's
Area

5
...
Charles Darwin
● Formulated the principles of natural selection and evolution and revolutionized biology
● Emphasized that all of organism's characteristics -its structure, its coloration, its
behavior- have functional significance
Functionalism and the Inheritance of Traits
1
...
Blest (1957)
● Functional adaptiveness
● Certain species of moths and butterflies have spots on their wings that resemble
eyes, particularly the eyes of predators such as owls
...
As a result characteristics will become more prevalent in
that species
...
8% of their DNA
● After birth, the brain continues to grow
● Production of new neurons almost ceases, but those that are already present grow and
establish connections with each other
● Other types of brain cells begin to proliferate (grow)
● Not until late adolescence does the human brain reach its adult size of approximately
1400 grams (~3 lbs) about 4x weight of a newborn's brain
Ethical Issues in Research with Animals
● Most of research described involves experimentation on living animals
● Most industrially developed societies have very strict regulations about the care of
animals and require approval of the experimental procedures used on them
Careers in Neuroscience
Behavioral Neuroscientist
● Study all behavioral phenomena that can be observed in nonhuman animals
● Attempt to understand the physiology of behavior
● Study such topics as sensory processes, sleep, emotional behavior, ingestive behavior,
aggressive behavior, parental behavior, learning and memory
● Study animal models and disorders that afflict humans such as anxiety, depression,
obsessions, compulsions, phobias, psychosis, schizophrenia



---