Biological psychology
- How Changed My Life
- Neurons
- Neural Anatomy
- Neural Impulse
- Synapses
- Neurotransmitters
- Genetics
- Astrocytes
- Peripheral Nervous System
- Central Nervous System
- Spine
- Brain
- Brain Developed
- Blood-Brain Barrier
- Structure
- Occipital Lobe
- Temporal Lobe
- Parietal Lobe
- Frontal Lobe
- Motor Cortex
- Homunculus
- Supplemental Morton Cortex
- Prefrontal Cortex
- Dorsolateral’
- Orbitofrontal
- Ventromedial
- Motor Cortex
- Hippocampus
- Under The Cortex
- Thalamus
- Basal Ganglia
- Amygdala
- Reward System
- Pineal Gland
- How Learning Changes The Brain
Retinotopic mapping
spatial relationships on the retina are preserved in cortex
go to different sub-layers of V1.
Processes
Rods & Cones
When at rest, continuous release of glutamate
neruotransmitter
When $, hyper-polarize
decrease release of glutamate
Drop stimulates horizontal cells
antagonize (opposite)
signal receptors to release more glutamate
Helps
increase contrast
lateral inhibition; finer detail
Drop stimulates bipolar cells
Bipolar cells stimulate
amacrine cells; which stimulate ganglion cell
ganglion cells
Edge detection
Photoreceptor array “copies” incoming light
lens forms an image on the retina
photoreceptors fire at a rate “proportional” to intensity of light
But, absolute intensity is not that useful
changes when light level changes
Better to represent objects via changes of intensity over space: edges
For example:
The pattern of light from an object with a patch of black
If incoming light is twice as strong, twice as much gets reflected…
If incoming light is twice as strong, twice as much gets reflected…
Very efficient compression
100 million axons from photo receptors per eye
1 million axons from ganglion cells per eye
Reduction by a factor of 100!!
Sometimes called physiological psychology, biological psychology or psychobiology, this is the study of how biology and psychology intersect.
- 1. Neurons
- soma
- dendrites
- many dendrites
- dendritic tree
- axon
- one axon but can branch
- axon hillock (in larger neurons there is a build up between soma and the axon)
- initial segment
- voltage threshold
- one way (opens adjacent gates)
- endoplasmic reticulum
- system of tubes
- transport good stuff down to axon ends
- transport waste from ends of axon
- Alzheimer’s
- tau protein breaks down
- neural tangles
- system of tubes
- Insulation
- oligodendrocytes in brain
- myelinating Schwann cells in periphery
- nodes of Ranvier: gaps between Schwann cells
- Neurons are little batteries
- States
- resting potential
- action potential
- Principles
- all or none
- fires at full strength
- Can change firing frequency (up to 1 msec) but not intensity
- Refractory period
- absolute
- relative
- Thresholds
- super-threshold stimulus: enough neurotransmitter to fire neuron
- summation
- temporal
- spatial
- all or none
- Coding
- yes-no
- left-right
- red-green
- 2. Nervous Systems
- A. Central nervous system
- brain
- spine
- B. Peripheral nervous system
- 1. Somatic (voluntary)
- used when you choose to move your muscles
- afferent nerves: to brain
- efferent nerves: away from brain
- 31 pair in spine
- 12 in brain stem (cranial nerves)
- 2. Autonomic
- vegetative nervous system
- run by hypothalamus
- afferent: general visceral nerves
- efferent: control heart, stomach, intestines
- mostly unconscious
- notice when fight or flight (rest & digest)
- Fight or flight
- smooth muscles, glands
- 2 neuron sequence
- pre-ganglion neuron
- target organ neuron
- Motor & sensory neuron fibers follow same path
- lose one, lose other
- Reflex Arc
- A. sympathetic nervous system
- speeds things up
- increase blood pressure
- increase heart rate
- decrease digestion
- acetylcholine as NT (ganglion)
- norepinephrine as NT (target)
- speeds things up
- B. parasympathetic
- slows things down
- decrease heart rate
- decrease blood pressure
- Doesn’t require quick action
- Increase
- Saliva
- Digestion
- CNS to ganglion
- Quite long
- Target neuron
- Very short
- Close to target organ
- Originates in medulla
- Uses ACh for NT
- At both ganglion and organs
- SNA PNS
- ACh ACh
- NorEp ACh
- Speed up Slow down
- Thoraxic Medulla
- Heart rate Saliva
- (c) enteric
- Intrinsic Nervous System
- meshwork of nerve fibers
- Directly controls gastro-intestinal system
- pancreas, gall bladder, etc.
- Includes ACh, dopamine, serotonin
- 90% of serotonin in gut
- 50% of dopamine in gut
- A. Central nervous system
- 3. Gall & Flourens
- A. Franz Gall
- Comparative anatomy
- several species
- compared brains & skulls
- Independent variable = skull size
- Dependent variable = musket balls (shot)
- Argued for brain localization
- Each region has own
- skill, ability, mental faculty or personality trait
- “cranioscopy”
- Brain is like a muscle
- bigger more use it
- pushes skull outward
- Comparative anatomy
- B. Pierre Fourens
- Napoleon asks Academy of Science (Paris) to study Gall’s claims
- ablation: killing or remove of cell or tissue portions
- can the bunny still hop
- 4. Blood-Brain Barrier
- Paul Ehrlich (1800’s)
- injected blue dye into animals
- all tissues EXCEPT brain and spinal cord
- Keeps most chemicals out of brain
- Brain has no immune system
- Neurons can’t replicate-replaced
- No way to fix damage
- Viruses that do enter kill you
- rabbies
- Neural disorders last whole life
- chicken pox-shingles
- Not a bag that encircles brain
- Not a membrane
- Blood vessels
- Tighter endothelial walls
- Wrapped in pericytes
- Clamped by astrocytes
- Astrocytes
- may be responsible for transporting ions from brain to blood
- clamp pericytes which around brain blood vessels
- Semi-permeable
- Some things can move between them
- Large molecules NOT easily pass thru
- Molecules with a high electrical charge are slowed down
- Cross passively
- Small uncharged molecules
- Oxygen & carbon dioxide
- Molecules dissolve in fats
- capillary walls are fats
- Small uncharged molecules
- Cross actively
- an active transport system
- protein-mediated process
- uses energy to pump chemicals
- e.g., burn glucose for energy
- Broken by
- Hypertension (high blood pressure)
- Development (not fully formed at birth)
- High concentrations of some substances
- Microwaves & radiation
- Inflammation
- Brain injury
- Infections
- Alzheimer’s disease
- endothelial cells shrink
- makes gaps
- harmful chemicals enter
- Paul Ehrlich (1800’s)
- 5. Brain
- large pizza crust
- Ridges= gyrus
- Crevasses = sulci
- 2/3 of cortex in sulci
- gray matter
- 4 lobes
- occipital
- temporal
- parietal
- frontal
- Plus
- medulla & pons
- reticular formation
- thalamus
- hippocampus
- limbic system
Things To Remember
- How Changed My Life
- Neurons
- Neural Anatomy
- Neural Impulse
- Synapses
- Neurotransmitters
- Genetics
- Astrocytes
- Peripheral Nervous System
- Central Nervous System
- Spine
- Brain
- Brain Developed
- Blood-Brain Barrier
- Structure
- Occipital Lobe
- Temporal Lobe
- Parietal Lobe
- Frontal Lobe
- Motor Cortex
- Homunculus
- Supplemental Morton Cortex
- Prefrontal Cortex
- Dorsolateral’
- Orbitofrontal
- Ventromedial
- Motor Cortex
- Hippocampus
- Under The Cortex
- Thalamus
- Basal Ganglia
- Amygdala
- Reward System
- Pineal Gland
- How Learning Changes The Brain
Things To Explore
- Spine
- Genetics
- Drugs
Notes
- What’s in a name?
- Behavioral Neuroscience
- Physiological psych
- Biological psych
- Psychobiology
- Behavior people of neuroscience
- The brain people of psychology
- Study of behavior & experience
- How produced physically
- Where did it come from
- How develops
- Combine biology & psychology
- Neuroscience but with
- Less chemistry
- Less anatomy
- Research Goals
- Generalization – find laws
- Lots of little observations
- Reduction – find simple explanation
- Start with general issue (intelligence)
- Find component
- Structures
- Processes
- Generalization – find laws
- Approaches
- Physiological explanations
- machinery of the body
- Ontogenetic explanations
- influence of genes
- Evolutionary explanations
- Ancestors to present
- Functional explanations
- Benefit-advantage of behaviors
- Physiological explanations
- Mind-Body Problem
- Matter & energy out of nothing?
- Consciousness
- Out of matter & energy
- Mental experience and physical
- Two BIG questions
- Which part of body?
- Which methods?
- Top 10 approaches to solving it
- 1. Comparative-Evolutionary
- Aristotle
- Heart is the center of sensation, intelligence and the cause of behavior
- Center of vitality
- Origin of nerves
- Brain & lungs keep it cool
- 3 chambers
- Conclusion based on
- which part of chicken embryo develops first
- Continuity of Behavior
- Same processes in dif. species
- Nature is conservative; e.g.. nerve impulse, heart
- Nature can be adventurous
- Species-Specific Behavior
- No one does it quite this way, e.g.. language, eye, frontal lobe
- Comparing
- All of the animals
- All vertebrates
- All mammals
- All primates
- All humans
- Some folk
- Individual
- Aristotle
- 2. Dissection
- Galen
- Heart is the right organ
- Aristotle use wrong method
- Dissect human hearts (taboo)
- Intelligent heart
- Expands & contracts
- Gets larger when wants to attract
- Clings to what it captures
- Heart is important
- Hard flesh, not easily damaged
- Best fibers in body
- Continuous hard work
- Source of internal heat-energy
- Soul
- Liver more important
- Where humors come from
- In good humor = balanced
- Heart is the right organ
- Description
- Inference
- Heart expands and contracts
- Inference
- Intelligence
- KT: Always trust data; question conclusions
- Inference
- Galen
- 3. Correlational
- Franz Gall (1758-1828)
- Compared brains & skulls
- Several species
- Independent variable = skull size
- Dependent variable = # shot
- Musket balls
- ********
- Brain size & intell corr.
- Larger-brain = more complex-varied tasks
- Average brain weights
- Human 3-165 1.8% 1/55
- Dolphin 3-350 .85 1/17
- Cat 1/100
- Dog 1/125
- hippo 1/2800
- Most mammals are 90% of adult brain size at birth
- Chimp 54%
- Bottlenose dolphin 43%
- Elephants 35%
- humans 28%
- *******
- Gall (con’t)
- Compared brains & skulls
- Argued for brain localization
- Each region of the brain is reserved for its own skill, ability, mental faculty or personality trait
- Phrenology
- Founder of “cranioscopy”
- Skull shape reveals internal skills
- “Brain is like a muscle” theory
- Skull gets bigger the more you use it
- Gets bigger pushes skull outward
- Examine topography of skull
- Discover underlying brain areas
- Franz Gall (1758-1828)
- 1. Comparative-Evolutionary
- ***********************************************
- What is a correlation
- Compare 2 things, same people
- Pair of operations
- Height & age
- Schiz & age
- Bumps and abilities
- Shows relationships, not causation
- A can cause B
- B can cause A
- C can cause A & B
- ***********************************************
- 4. Ablation
- Pierre Flourens (1794-1867)
- French physiologist
- brain surgery & anesthesia
- Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte
- Academy of Sciences of Paris
- study Franz Gall’s claims
- asked Flourens to investigate
- rabbits and pigeons
- Ablation
- Destroyed small parts with brain lesions
- Observed effects: Hop or not hop
- 1st proof main divisions of brain had different functions
- Pierre Flourens (1794-1867)
- 5. Developmental
- Longitudinal
- Same people over time
- Life span over years
- Cross-sectional
- Dif people (diff. ages)
- Same time
- Identifying emotions
- Changes over time
- Teens & Adults differ
- Teens use amygdala
- Adults use frontal lobe
- Longitudinal
- 6. Stereotaxic Surgery
- 3-D frame
- Orthogonal coordinates
- Ablation
- Biopsy
- Injections
- Stimulation
- Implantation
- Radiation
- 7. Histological Methods
- 8. Recording Brain Activity
- EEG of brain
- 9. Neuro-Chemical
- Identify neurotransmitters
- How receptors work
- 10. Genetics
- 4. Ablation
NOTES
- Prenatal
- 18 days after conception
- Primitive streak
- Outer layer of embryo thickens
- Ectoderm forms a plate
- Edges curl up
- Make a neural tube
- Cells inside tube become neurons & glial cells
- Closed tube
- Tube with 3 bulges
- Quick Preview
- 1. Forebrain
- Cerebral cortex
- Basal ganglia
- Limbic system
- Thalamus
- Hypothalamus
- 2. Midbrain
- Superior colliculi = vision
- Inferior collicui = hearing
- Homeostasis & reflexes
- 3. Hindbrain
- Medulla oblongata
- Cerebellum
- Pons
- 1. Forebrain
- Phases
- 1st Phase
- Symmetrical Division
- 2 identical founder cells
- Radial Glial Cells
- Spread out like tree
- Neurons climb tree to their proper position
- 2nd Phase
- Asymmetrical Division
- About 3 months
- Divide into neuron & founder cells
- End of cortical development
- founder cells receive signal (cell death)
- Connections
- When neurons reach home
- Connect with each other
- Grow dendrites & axons
- Synapse formation
- Synapse elimination
- 5 Steps of Neurons
- 1. Proliferation
- Production of new cells
- Cells along the ventricles divide to become neurons and glia.
- 2. Migration
- Primitive neurons find their spots
- Chemicals guide cells
- 3. Differentiation
- Neurons get axon & dendrites
- Makes them different
- Axon grow before dendrites
- During migration
- 4. Myelination
- Glia cells produce myelin sheaths
- first in spinal cord
- Then in brain
- Lasts til about 30
- 5. Synaptogenesis
- Continues throughout life
- Forming synapses
- 1. Proliferation
- Age & Neurons
- Neurons go from
- undifferentiated
- differentiated
- dead
- Stem cells
- Nose cells always undifferentiated
- Periodically divide & make new olfactory cells
- Neurons go from
- Pathfinding
- Getting axons to their spots
- Chemical Pathfinding (Weiss, 1924)
- Grafted extra leg to a salamander
- Axons grew, moved in sync with other legs
- Nerves attach to muscles randomly
- Variety of messages are sent
- Each one tuned to a dif. muscle
- Chemical Gradients (Sperry, 1943)
- Severed optic nerve axons
- Rotated them 180°
- Grow back to their original target locations in midbrain
- Axons attracted by some chemicals, repelled by others
- TOPDV protein is 30x more concentrated in dorsal retina than ventral retina axons
- Highest connect to highest
- Lowest concentration axons connect to lowest
- Neural Darwinism
- During development
- Synapses form randomly
- Selection process keeps some and rejects others
- Chemical guidance
- Neurotrophic factors
- Muscles & synapse survival
- produce & release NGF (nerve growth factor)
- Not enough NGF, axons degenerate and cell bodies die
- Neurons automatically die
- don’t make synaptic connection
- Apoptosis = cell death
- Similar to NGF
- Neurotrophin
- promotes survival & activity
- BDNF
- brain-derived neurotrophic factor
- most abundant neurotrophin in cortex
- Neurotrophin
- Make more than enough
- Neurotrophins are also used in adult brains
- More axon & dendrite branching
- Deficiencies of neurotrophins lead to cortical shrinking and brain diseases
- During development
- Developing brain vulnerable
- Toxic chemicals
- Malnutrition
- Infections
- Toxic chemicals
- Teratogens
- Environmental factor
- Interfere with development
- Medication, drug, alcohol or substance
- Disease
- Critical Periods
- Implantation = common blood supply
- Whatever’s in mother’s blood crosses
- 10 to14 days after conception
- 3.5 to 4.5 weeks
- closure of the neural tube
- Central nervous system vulnerable throughout pregnancy
- Implantation = common blood supply
- 3 Major Substances
- Alcohol
- Phenytoin
- Chickenpox
- 1. Fetal alcohol syndrome
- Best known non-genetic cause of mental retardation
- (3 in 1,000)
- Infant brains are especially sensitive to alcohol
- Suppress release of glutamate
- brain’s main excitatory
- neurons receive less excitation and undergo apoptosis
- Alcohol broken down more slowly
- immature liver
- Alcohol levels remain high longer
- Worse when born to alcoholic mothers
- drink more than four to five drinks/day
- No amount of alcohol is safe
- Best known non-genetic cause of mental retardation
- 2. Phenytoin (or Dilantin)
- Anti-convulsive
- used to treat epilepsy (seizure disorder)
- 10% chance of birth defects
- Fetal Hydantoin Syndrome
- If taken in the first trimester
- Anti-convulsive
- 3. Varicella (chickenpox)
- Highly infectious disease
- 95% of Americans have had it
- 90% of pregnant women are immune
- 1 out of 2,000 develop during pregnancy
- A. If in pregnancy (week 1-20)
- 2% chance of defects
- “congenital varicella syndrome“
- Scars
- Malformed and paralyzed limbs
- B. Newborn period
- 5 days before to 2 after birth
- About 25 % newborns become infected
- About 30% of infected babies will die if not treated
- Parental use of:
- Cocaine or cigarettes
- ADHD
- Antidepressant drugs
- Heart problems
- Birth Defects
- 3-5% of newborns
- Leading cause of infant mortality
- Majority have no known cause
- Cortex Differentiation
- Different parts of cortex, different shapes
- Shape and functions depend on input received
- Transplant immature neurons
- Become like neighbors
- Transplant later
- Some new, some old attributes
- Experience fine tunes
- Redesign our brain to fit
- (within limits)
- Enriched environments
- Thicker cortex
- More dendritic branching
- Best enrichment = activity
- Redesign our brain to fit
- Transfer
- Far transfer = do well in one, do well in other tasks
- Near transfer = practice task, do better on that task only
- Train the brain – doesn’t work
- Blind from birth
- Better at discriminating objects by touch
- Increased activation in occipital lobe (vision) doing touch tasks
- Use occipital cortex for Braille; sighted people don’t
- Concept of straight
- Learning to read
- Learn to read as adults
- More gray matter in cortex
- Thicker corpus callosum
- Music Training
- Pro musicians
- Bigger temporal lobe (30%)
- 2x greater response to pure tones (in auditory cortex)
- Violin players
- larger area devoted to left fingers in the postcentral gyrus
- Writer’s Cramp
- Spend all day writing
- Fingers get jerky, clumsy & tired
- Musician’s Cramp
- Practice too much
- Fingers get jerky, clumsy & tired
- Expanded representation of each finger overlaps neighbor
- Pro musicians
- Overruling reflexes
- Antisaccade task
- Object appears in periphery
- Must look in opposite direction
- Top-down processing overruling reflex
- Improves with age unless
- Very young
- hard to look away from attention getter
- ADHD
- Very young
- Antisaccade task
- Age & Neurons
- At 30
- Frontal cortex begins to thin
- Much individual variation
- 60+
- Synapses alter more slowly (learn)
- Hippocampus gradually shrinks
- Compensate by using more brain areas
- At 30
- Blood-Brain Barrier
- (Paul Ehrlich, 1800’s)
- Injected blue dye into animals
- All tissues turned blue EXCEPT brain and spinal cord
- Keeps most chemicals out of brain
- Why need BBB?
- Brain has no immune system
- Neurons can’t replicate-replaced
- No way to fix damage
- Viruses that do enter kill you
- Rabbies
- Neural disorders last whole life
- Chicken pox-shingles
- How it works
- Keeps out harmful chemicals
- Keeps out medications
- Cancer med
- Dopamine for Parkinson’s
- Astrocytes form layer around brain blood vessels
- may be responsible for transporting ions from brain to blood
- Semi-permeable
- Endothelial cells line capillaries
- Small spaces between each
- Some things can move between them
- Loosely joined in body, large gaps
- Tightly joined in brain, blocking most molecules
- Large molecules can’t easily pass thru
- Molecules with a high electrical charge are slowed down
- Protects the brain
- What can cross passively
- Small uncharged molecules
- Oxygen & carbon dioxide
- Molecules dissolve in fats
- capillary walls are fats
- What can cross actively
- An active transport system
- protein-mediated process
- uses energy to pump chemicals
- E.g., burn glucose for energy
- Broken by:
- Hypertension (high blood pressure)
- Development (not fully formed at birth)
- High concentrations of some substances
- Microwaves & radiation
- Inflammation
- Brain injury
- Infections
- Alzheimer’s disease
- endothelial cells shrink
- makes gaps
- harmful chemicals enter
- An active transport system
- Nourishing Neurons
- Almost all need glucose
- Practically only nutrient that crosses blood-brain barrier in adults
- Ketones can also cross but are in short supply.
- If you can’t use glucose
- Korsakoff’s syndrome
- thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency
- inability to use glucose
- neuron death
- severe memory impairment
- Head Injury
- Open or Closed
- Open head injury (penetrating)
- Object enters brain
- Closed head injury (skull not broke)
- Concussion
- Most common traumatic injury
- Brain gets rattled
- Open head injury (penetrating)
- Causes
- Car, train, airplane accident
- Fall
- Assault
- Sports
- Symptoms
- Can show immediately or develop slowly
- Unequal pupil size
- Headaches
- Obvious
- Object sticking out of head
- Fluid draining from nose-ears
- Clear or bloody
- Coma or unconscious
- Paralysis
- Seizures
- Sort Of Obvious
- Slurred speech
- Blurred vision
- Lack of coordination
- Memory loss
- Stiff neck
- Vomiting more than once; children often vomit once
- Not So Obvious
- Irritability (especially children)
- Mood or personality changes
- Drowsiness
- Confusion
- Loss of hearing, vision, taste or smell
- Low breathing rate
- Memory loss
- Symptoms improve, then get worse
- Get immediate help if
- Loss consciousness, even briefly
- Severe headache or stiff neck
- Vomits more than once
- Behaves abnormally
- Unusually drowsy
- Do
- Call 911
- Make sure breathing
- Assume spinal cord injury
- If normal breathing but unconscious
- Stabilize head and neck
- Hands on both sides of head
- If bleeding
- Press clean cloth on wound
- If soaks through, don’t remove it
- Put another cloth over it
- DO NOT
- Don’t wash deep head wound
- Don’t move or shake
- Don’t remove helmet
- Don’t pick up child
- Don’t drink alcohol (48 hours)
- If skull fracture
- Don’t apply pressure to bleeding site
- Don’t remove debris from wound
- No aspirin
- Aspirin & ibuprofen can increase risk of bleeding
- If vomiting
- Roll the head, neck & body as one unit
- Sleeping
- Wake every 2 to 3 hours, check alertness
- ask simple questions: “What is your name?”
- Open or Closed
