I.

Biological Bases of Behavior

a. Summary: It is important to understand the relationships between
behavior, the mind, and the nervous system (especially the brain) as
structure is related to function. Specialized structures throughout
your body enable regulatory function at all levels of organization from
your neurotransmitter molecules to your nervous and endocrine
systems.
i. Neuropsychologists: explore the relationships between
brain/nervous systems and behavior
1. Also called biological psychologists or biopsychologists,
behavioral geneticists, psychological psychologists, and
behavioral neuroscientists
b. Techniques to learn about structure and Function
i. Phineas Gage: railroad man with metal rod in his head that
severed connections between his limbic system and frontal
cortex making him impulsive and uncontrollable
1. autopsy revealed relationship between frontal lobes
and control of emotional behavior.
ii. Paul Broca performed autopsy on brain of another patient who
had lost capacity to speak though his mouth and vocal chords
were undamaged and he understood language
1. deterioration of frontal lobe and left cerebral
hemisphere connection destruction of left frontal lobe
(Brocas area) to los of ability to speak (expressive
aphasia)
iii. Carl Wernicke similarly found brain area involved in
understanding language in left temporal lobe (Wernickes
area) causing inability to understand written and spoken
language (receptive aphasia)
iv. Lesions: precise destruction of brain tissue enabled ore
systematic study of the loss of function resulting from surgical
removal (ablation), cutting of neural connections, or
destruction by chemical applications
v. Relieving epilepsy: surgery to cut neural connections at the
corpus collosum (between the cerebral hemispheres)
1. Roger Sperry and Michael Gazzaniga studied patients
with these split brains and revealed that the left and
right hemispheres d not perform exactly the same
functions (brain lateralization) that they specialize in
a. left hemisphere: verbal mathematical, analytical
functions
b. right hemisphere: spatial, musical, holistic
functions including identifying faces and
recognizing emotional facial expressions
vi. CAT or CT scan (computerized axial tomography): creates
computerized image using x-rays passed through various angle
of the brain showing two-dimensional slices that can be
arranged to show the extent of a lesion
vii. MRI (magnetic resonance imaging): magnetic field and pulses
of radio waves cause emission of faint radio frequency signals
that depend on the density of the tissue
1. More detailed than CT scans
2. both show structure of the brain but not the brain
functioning
c. Measure Brian Function:
i. EEG(electroencephalogram): amplified tracing of brain activity
produced when electrodes positioned over the scalp transmit
signals about the brains electrical activity to an
electroencephalograph machine
1. evoked potentials: amplified tracings when the
recorded change in voltage results from a response to a
specific stimulus presented to the subject
2. used to study the brain during sleeping dreaming etc to
detect abnormalities and study cognition
ii. PET (positron emission tomography): produces color
computer graphics that depend the amount of metabolic
activity in the imaged brain region
1. Blood flow changes create brain images when tracers
injected into the blood of the subjects emit particles
called positrons which are converted into signals
iii. fMRI (Functional MRI): shows the brain at work at higher
resolution that the Pet scanner
1. changes in oxygen in the blood activate brain areas and
alter magnetic qualities which are recorded by the fMRI
scanner
d. Organization of your Nervous System:
i. 2 parts- Central and Peripheral nervous systems
1. Patterns of your behavior involve masses of neural
tissue
2. nervous system has subdivisions based on location and
function
ii. Central Nervous system: consists of your brain and spinal
chord
iii. Peripheral nervous system:
1. lies outside the midline portion of your nervous system
carrying sensory information to and motor information
away from your central nervous system via spinal and
cranial nerves
2. two subdivisions
a. somatic nervous system
i. has motor neurons that stimulate
skeletal(voluntary) muscles
b. autonomic nervous system
i. has motor neurons that stimulate
smooth(involuntary) and haeart muscle
ii. subdivided into:
1. sympathetic nervous system
a. results in responses that
help your body deal with
stress including dilation of
pupils, release of glucose
from your liver, dilation of
bronchi, inhibition of
digestive functions,
acceleration of heart rate,
secretion of adrenalin from
adrenal glands, acceleration
of breathing rate, inhibition
of secretion of your tear
glands
2. parasympathetic nervous system
a. calms your body following
sympathetic stimulation by
restoring digestive
processes (salivation,
peristalsis, enzyme
secretion), returning pupils
to normal size, stimulating
tear glands, restoring
normal bladder
contractions
iv. Spinal chord
1. protected by membranes (meninges) and spinal column
of vertebrae
2. starts at base of your back and extends to base of your
skull
3. made up of interneurons and glial cells bathed by
cerebrospinal fluid produced by glial cells
v. Brain: portion of central nervous system above the spinal
chord covered by protective meninges inside your skull
1. according to evolutionary model (triune brain): brain as
three sections
a. reptilian brain: maintains homeostasis and
instincts
i. medulla oblongata: regulates heart
rhythm, blood flow, breathing rate,
digestion, vomiting
ii. pons: includes portion of reticular
activating system or reticular formation
critical for arousal, wakefulness; sends
information to and from medulla,
cerebellum, and cerebral cortex
iii. cerebellum: controls posture, equilibrium,
and movement
b. old mammalian brain: controls emotional
behaviors
i. limbic system: concerned with instinct
and mood. It controls the basic emotions
(fear, pleasure, anger) and drives
(hunger, sex, dominance, care of
offspring).
ii. hypothalamus: controls feeding behavior,
drinking behavior, body temp, sexual
behavior, threshold for age behavior,
activation of the sympathetic and
parasympathetic systems, and secretion
of hormones of the pituitary
iii. thalamus: relays visual, auditory, taste,
and somatosensory information to/from
appropriate areas of cerebral cortex
c. new mammalian brain: associated with the
highest functions of judgment decision making,
and abstract thought
i. cerebral cortex : center for high-order
processes such as thinking, planning,
judgment, receives and processes sensory
information and directs movement
d. both Mamilian brain= forebrain, reptilian=
hindbrain
2. gyri: peaks on the surface of your cortex
3. sulci: valleys on the surface of your cortex (deeper ones
called fissures)
4. convolutions: formed by sulci and gyri that increase the
surface are of your cortex
e. Localization and Lateralization of the Brains Function:
i. specialization of certain parts of your brain
1. association areas: regions of the cerebral cortex that do
not have specific sensory or motor functions, but are
involved in higher mental functions (thinking, planning,
remembering, and communicating)
2. contralaterality: control of one side of your body by the
other side of your brain
f. Structure of the Brain:
i. Medulla Oblongata
ii. pons
iii. cerebellum
iv. Basil Ganglia(basil nuclei): links the thalamus with the motor
cortex and other motor areas
v. Thalamus
vi. Hypothalamus
vii. Amygdala: influences aggression and fear; coordinates fight-or-
flight response; important in formation of sensory memory
viii. Hippocampus: enables formation of new long-term memories
ix. Cerebral cortex
g. Regions of the Brain: 8 lobes; four on each side
i. Occipital Lobes: area for processing visual information
ii. parietal lobe: front strip is somatosensory cortex that
processes sensory information including touch, temperature,
and pain from body parts; association areas perceive objects
iii. Frontal Lobes: interpret and control emotional behaviors,
make decisions, carry out plans; motor cortex strip is just in
front of somatosensory cortex which initiates movement and
integrates activities of skeletal muscles; produces speech
(Brocas area)
iv. Temporal Lobes: primary area for hearing, understanding
language (Wernickes area), understanding music/tonality,
processing smell
v. Plasticity: reorganization by the brain to take over the function
of a damaged region
vi. phantom limb syndrome: reorganization of the somatosensory
cortex leads to someone experiencing sensations where a
missing limb used to be
h. Structure and Function of the Neuron: the brain is composed of
trillions of neurons and glial cells
i. glial cells: guide the growth of developing neurons, help
provide nutrition for and get rid of wastes of neurons, and
form an insulating sheath around neurons that speeds
conduction
ii. neuron: basic unit of structure and function of your nervous
system
1. perform three major functions
a. receive information
b. process it
c. transmit it to the rest of your body
2. Three major regions of a neuron enable the cell to
communicate with other cells
a. cell body (cyton, soma): contains cytoplasm and
the nucleus which directs synthesis of such
substances as neurotransmitters
b. dendrites: branching tubular processes capable
of receiving information
c. axon: emerges from cyton as single conducting
fiber which branches and ends in tips called
terminal buttons, axon terminals, or synaptic
knobs which secrete neurotransmitters
i. usually covered by myelin sheath
(insulation formed by glial cells)
3. Neurogenesis: growth of new neurons (happens
throughout life)
4. Neurotransmitters: chemicals stored in structures of
the terminal buttons called synaptic vesicles
a. different ones have different chemical structures
and perform different functions
i. acetocholine(Ach): causes contraction of
skeletal muscles, helps regulate hart
muscles, is involved in memory, transmits
messages between brain and spinal
chord.
1. lack = Alzheimers disease
ii. dopamine: stimulates the hypothalamus
to synthesize hormones and affects
alertness and movement
1. lack = Parkinsons disease
2. too much = schizophrenia
iii. Glutamate: major excitatory
neurotransmitter involved in information
processing throughout the cortex and
especially memory formation in the
hippocampus
1. involves both Alzheimers and
schizophrenia
iv. serotonin: associated with sexual activity,
concentration and attention, moods, and
emotions
1. lack = depression
v. endorphins: brains own pain killers
vi. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA):
neurotransmitter that inhibits firing of
postsynaptic neurons
1. malfunction= Huntingtons disease
and seizures
b. Drugs can also interfere with action of
neurotransmitters
i. agonists: may mimic a neurotransmitter
and bind it to its receptor site to produce
the effect of the neurotransmitter
ii. antagonists block a receptor site
inhibiting the effect of the
neurotransmitter or agonist
i. Neuron Functions
i. all behavior begins with actions in your neurons
1. incoming info from receptors spread throughout
dendrites which is then sent to its cell body where it is
combined with other incoming information
2. neural impulses are electrical along the neuron
ii. action potential (impulse): the firing of a neuron; a net flow of
sodium ions into the cell that causes a rapid change n potential
across the membrane when stimulation reaches threshold
iii. all-or-none principal: the law that the neurons either generates
an action potential when the stimulation reach threshold or
doesnt fire when stimulation is below threshold. the strength
of the action potential is constant whenever it occurs
iv. salutatory conduction: rapid conduction of impulses when the
axon is myelinated since deplorizations jump from mode (of
Ranvier) to node
v. Nodes of ranvier: spaces between segments of myelin on the
axons of neurons
vi. synapse: where chemical neurotransmitters are released and
attach to specific receptor sites on the membranes of
dendrites of your postsynaptic neurons like a key fitting into a
lock (lock and key concept)
vii. excitatory: neurotransmitters cause the neuron on the other
hand of the synapse to generate an action potential (to fire)
viii. inhibitory: reducing or preventing neural impulses
ix. constant flow of neurological impuleses reglates metabolism,
temperature, and respiration and enables you to learn,
remember, and decide
j. Reflex Action: involves impulse conduction over a few neurons
i. reflex arc: path that the reflex travels typically including:
1. sensory receptor: cell typically in sense organs that
initiates action potentials, which then travel along
sensory/afferent neurons to the CNS
2. afferent neuron: also called sensory neuron; nerve cell
in your PNS that transmits impulses from receptors to
the brain or spinal chord
3. interneuron: nerve cell in the CNS that transmits
impulses between sensory and motor neurons. Neural
impulses travel one way along the neuron from
dendrites to axons to terminal buttons, and among
neurons from the receptor to the effector
4. efferent neuron: also called motor neuron; nerve cell in
your PNS that transmits impulses from sensory or
interneurons to muscle cells that contract or gland cells
that secrete
5. effector: muscle cell that contracts or gland cell that
secretes
k. Endocrine System: ductless glands that typically secrete hormones
into the blood which help regulate body and behavioral processes
(chemical messengers)
i. Endocrine Glands:
1. Pineal gland: gland in the brain that produces melatonin
that helps regulate circadian rhythms and is associated
with seasonal affective disorder
2. Hypothalamus: portion of brain part that acts as
endocrine gland and produces hormones that stimulate
or inhibit secretion of hormones by the pituitary
3. Pituitary gland: master gland in the brain that
produces stimulating hormones, which promote
secretion by other glands including
a. TSH-thyroid stimulating hormone
b. ACTH-adrenocorticotropic hormone: stimulates
the adrenal glands
c. FSH:which stimulates egg or sperm production
and it produces ADH-antidiuretic hormone) to help
retain water in your body and HGH (human growth
hormone)
4. Thyroid Gland: gland in the neck that produces
thyroxine, which stimulates and maintains metabolic
activities
5. Parathyroids: glands in the neck that produce
parathyroid hormone which helps maintain calcium ion
level in blood necessary for normal functioning neurons
6. Adrenal glands: gland atop the kidneys
a. adrenal cortex: the outer layer that produces
steroid hormones such as cortisol which is a
stress hormone
b. adrenal medulla: the core secretes adrenaline
(epinephrine) and nonadrenaline
(nonrepinephrine) which prepare the body for
flight-or-fight like the sympathetic nervous
system
7. Pancreas: gland near stomach that secretes insulin and
glucagon which regulate blood sugar that fuels all
behavioral processes. Imbalances result in diabetes and
hypoglycemia.
8. Ovaries and testes: gonads in females and males that
produce hormones necessary for reproduction and
development of secondary sex characteristics