BioPsych

The 12 step recovery approach is used by the vast majority of drug rehab clinics. They may modify the original program created by Alcohol Anonymous but they utilize much of it structure.

I’ve rewritten the 12 steps in a shorter, less religious version. Here’s my take on what’s included:

1. I need help
2. I’m not alone
3. I’ll solve the problems I can
4. I’ll take a fearless inventory of my life
5. I’ll be transparent
6. I have more to work than drugs
7. Rehab won’t make me perfect
8. Make a plan
9. Make amends
10. When I screw up, I’ll admit it
11. I’ll live by a code of conduct
12. Give back

Here is a more expanded version

The steps are widely used but have been criticized as being too negative. They were written by some Christian men in the 1930s, and our more secular culture doesn’t use the same terminology. There is a lot of misunderstanding. I speak Christian, so let me translate them for you.

1. We are powerless and life is unmanageable. This isn’t a “you are bad” condemnation. If it was saying nothing could be done, there would be no need for a step 2. This is a description of a present state. In problem solving terms this is “Where Am I now?”. Short version: I need help.
2. A Power greater than us can restore us. This is a statement of hope. This power needn’t be a specific or even a personalized God. Many people find that the power of AA is the help of their recovering friends. Short version: I’m not alone.
3. We turn our will and lives over to God. This is change of focus from the drug to what you can. You don’t have to control everything or run the universe. Short version: I’ll solve the problems I can.
4. Take a fearless moral inventory of ourselves. No short version needed.
5. We admit to God, ourselves, and to another person the exact nature of our wrongs. Only a short while ago you were lying about how much drugs you took, now you have to start telling the truth. You have to be honest with your moral system, yourself and, just to get you started, one other person. This is start of truthfulness. Short version: I’ll be transparent.
6. We are ready to have God fix our character defects. Christians aren’t as guilt-ridden as they sound. They believe in God’s forgiveness but have a tendency to talk guilt. This is actually a shift in focus from drug to personal development. Short version: I have more to work on than just drugs.
7. Humbly ask God to remove our shortcomings. This isn’t a magical thought. The Christian men didn’t really think that you say some magic words and you become perfect. This is really more about self-forgiveness and humility. This is a very Zen statement. Short version: Rehab won’t make me perfect.
8. Make a list of everyone we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. This is an action-oriented step that pushes you to think about others. You live in an environment and your life is interconnected with other. Short version: Make a plan.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. Short version: Make amends.
10. Take a personal inventory and admit when you are wrong. This is an on-going step, a reiterative process. It involves continued self-assessment and action. Short version: When I screw up, I’ll admit it.
11. Through prayer and meditation seek to improve our conscious contact with God. You’ve come far enough along to turn your focus to the world around you. Connect with the universe and find meaning in life. Discover a new way of living that doesn’t include drugs. Short version: Live by a code of conduct.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. This is a statement of the radical change in thinking you’ve made. At the start, you were centered on the drug. Then you changed your focus on you and your getting better. Then you began thinking about those around you and what you can do for them. This step is the culmination of all you’ve learned. Short version: Give back.

For More Info

For more on the 12 steps here are some links which might be helpful:

Wikipedia: Twelve Step Program.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints has it’s own short translation of 12 Steps. They list honesty, hope, trust in God, truth, confession, change of heart, humility, seeking forgiveness, restitution and reconciliation, daily accountability, personal revelation, service.

Recovery.org: About the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) 12-Step Recovery Program.

Click for more topics.

Brain

[Read more…] about Brain Development

I’ve got my thinking cap on. Will it help me remember?

Thinking and memory aren’t the same thing but highly related. Human memory is composed of several systems. It’s not a single process. Memory involves nearly every part of the brain, both sides.

The two hemispheres are connected by the corpus collosum. This bundle of neurons keeps our two super computers in touch with each other. One side names the object that your other side is reaching for. It’s teamwork.

 

 

NOTES

• Memory
  • Frontal lobe
    • Prefrontal cortex
      • 3 regions
      • 1. dorsolateral (previously)
      • 2.orbitofrontal (previously)
      • 3. ventralmedial
• 3. Ventralmedia
  • Anterior cingulate cortex
    • Collar around corpus collosum
  • Corpus collosum
    • Two Computers
      • Left and Right Hemispheres
    • Each controls contralateral side
      • Except taste and smell
      • Uncrossed
      • Its own side of the tongue
    • Work together
      • Control trunk & facial muscles
      • Staying Connected
    • Corpus Callosum is a set of axons
      • Interconnect hemispheres
      • Exchange information
      • Wide, flat bundle of neural fibers
      • Under cortex
      • Largest white matter structure
      • 200–250 million axons
      • Fast transmission (myelinated)
    • Parts
      • 1. Genu = anterior (knee)
        • Thin axons
        • Connect prefrontal cortexes
        • Larger in musicians
      • 2. Truncus = middle (body)
        • Thick axons
        • Connect motor cortexes
        • M1, premotor & supp. motor
      • 3. Splenium = posterior portion
        • Soatosensory info
        • Parietal lobes
        • Visual cortexes
    • Size
    • Sexual Dimorphism
      • Different size in men & women? No.
    • R. B. Bean,1906
      • Larger is intelligence
      • Men
      • Race
      • Ultimately refuted
    • Larger in left-handed?
      • 11% bigger
    • Dyslexic children have smaller CC
  • Childhood
    • Gradually thickens as grow
    • Slow growth until about age 10
    • Eventually develop adult patterns
    • Young children behavior similar to split-brain people
    • Fabric identification task
    • Five-year olds
      • Equally well w/ one or two hand
    • Three-year olds
      • 90% more errors w/ two hands
• Lateralization of Function
  • Epilepsy
  • Seizures = excessively synched neural activity
    • Most treated with drugs (90%)
    • More severe, tissue ablation
    • Extreme, severe CC
  • Neural activity rebounds between prolongs seizures
  • Called split-brain people
• Split-brain people
  • Present input of object to L field
    • Info to R hem (noses cross)
    • L hand controlled by R hem
    • Can point to it with L hand
    • Can’t do it with right hand
  • Present input of object to R field
    • Info to L hem (noses cross)
    • Can name or describe what see
    • Language in L hem
      • 95% of R-handed
      • 80% of L-handed
  • Independence
    • Each hem. can process info
    • Multitask
    • Draw circles
      • One with each hand
      • One hand going faster
    • For a few weeks, feels like two people in one body
  • Competition vs Cooperation
    • Take item off grocery self with L
    • Return them with R
    • Eventually
      • Brain uses smaller connection routes to avoid conflicts
      • CC not the only path
      • Just the biggest
  • Cooperation
    • Flash different word to each visual field at same time
    • Report combined concept
• HM
  • Henry Molaison (1926-2008)
  • 1 generalized seizure a week
    • began bilaterally
    • in medial aspects of both temporal lobes
  • Removed both of H.M.’s medial temporal lobes (in 1953)
    • included most of
    • hippocampus
    • amygdala
    • adjacent temporal cortex
  • Post-surgery symptoms
    • Major seizures almost completely eliminated
    • Minor seizures down to 1-2 day
    • IQ increased (104 to 118)
    • Normal short-term memory
    • Moderate retrograde amnesia
      • loss for events shortly before
    • Severe anterograde amnesia
      • memory loss for events after
•  *******************
  • Amnesia
    • Types
    • retrograde amnesia = before
    • anterograde amnesia = after
    • Progression
      • Normal cognition
      • Retrograde amnesia
      • Coma
      • Confusion
      • Anterograde amnesia
      • Normal cognitive function
• *******************
• HM (more)
  • Post-surgery symptoms
    • Can’t transfer anything to LTM
    • Everything is forgotten when attention shifts
    • Impaired ability to form LTM
      • newer words like Jacuzzi and granola regarded as nonsense
    • When distracted
      • underestimate his own age by 10+ years
    • Can’t form episodic memories
      • memories of a single event
      • could describe previously learned facts
      • not recount personal events
    • Retained ability to
      • Weakly retain semantic (factual) memories
      • Difficult to describe the future
• HM’s Implicit Memory
  • Mirror Drawing
    • First to show improvement in HM
    • Spatial –motor learning
    • Implicit learning
  • Rotating Disc
    • Keep pen on target (rotating disk)
    • Improved over 7-day period
    • Each time saw task, claimed he had never seen it before
• Hippocampus
  • Temporal lobe & Dorsalmedial area of frontal lobe
  • Semi-circle
  • If damaged, amnesia
    • Remember before & after accident
    • Not accident or around it
  • If small damage
    • Retrograde amnesia
    • Can’t remember past
    • Just before accident
  • If bilateral damage
    • Anterograde amnesia
    • Can’t form new memories
  • Consolidation memory
    • move from short to long term
    • not necessary to retrieve info
    • must work to put into long term
  • Reproduces patterns during sleep
    • Encodes patterns
    • Sparse representations (non-overlapping)
    • Sparse encoding allows quick learning
    • Componential encoding
      • 9×9 pixel bit map
      • 81 pixels
      • like cortex
      • efficient
      • good for generalization
    • Sparse encoding uses 13 lines
    • Trains cortex
      • Repeats pattern over time
        • Find L in field of Ts
        • Patterns repeated
        • Ss unaware of pattern
      • Improves over time
        • No “thinking” required
        • Priming
• Memory Systems
  • Procedural Memory
    • What you can do
  • Sensory Memory
    • Buffers for vision & audition
  • Prospective Memory
    • Remember what going to do
    • Sensitive to elderly
  • Declarative (things you know)
    • Episodic (life story of events)
      • right hemisphere
    • Semantic (names and facts)
      • left hemisphere
• Neurotransmitters
  • Epinephrine
    • enhances consolidation
    • if blocked, interferes with memory formation
  • Cortisol
    • enhances consolidation
    • increase glucose availability?
  • Ginkgo Biloba may increase blood flow
  • Acetylcholine is necessary to form new declarative memories
• Non-Declarative Memory
  • Doesn’t use hippocampus
  • Non-word learning
  • Acquired slowly
  • Includes
  • conditioned responses
  • skills
  • habits
  • priming
•  Types of Memory
  • Short-term memory
    • Memory of events just occurred
    • About seven items (+-2)
    • Rehearsal to get it in
    • Once gone, lost forever
  • Long-term memory
    • Memory of previous events
    • Long-term memory is vast
    • Difficult to estimate how big
    • Rehearsal not needed
    • May recall with hints
  • STM can be moved to LTM
    • Held in working memory
    • If score changes, throw out old score
  • Consolidation
    • Varies widely between people & material
    • Interesting facts more than boring
    • Emotional items learned quickly
      • Cortisol activates
        • Amygdala
          • storage of emotional events
        • Hippocampus
          • Consolidates emotional event
    • LTM not permanent
      • Change, fade & vary in detail
      • Reconsolidate a memory if:
      • A reminder followed by similar experience
      • New experiences during reconsolidation can modify memory
• Working Memory
  • Temporary storage of tasks
  • Attending to right now
  • Delayed-response task
    • Ss given signal
    • Give response after a delay
    •  Damage to prefrontal cortex
      • Impairs working memory tasks
    • Older people often have impaired working memory
      • Prefrontal cortex may change as age?
• Amnesia
  • Memory loss
    • Better Implicit Memory
    • Nearly all patients with amnesia show better implicit memory
    • Impact of recent experience on behavior
      • even if not realize using memory at all
    • Not good at deliberate recall
    • Good at doing without knowing
• Usually
  • better implicit than explicit
  • normal working memory
  • nearly intact procedural memory
  • some retrograde amnesia
  • severe anterograde amnesia
• Hippocampal damage
  • Impairs performance on
    • Delayed matching-to-sample tasks
      • Task used in animals
      • Animals see an object (sample)
      • After a delay choose between two objects
      • Goal: choose one matches the sample
    • Delayed nonmatching-to-sample tasks
      • Same procedure
      • Except animal must choose the different object
• Spatial Memory
  • Hippocampal neurons
    • spatially tuned
    • to particular spatial locations
  • Cab drivers
    • Larger than normal posterior hippocampus
  • When answering spatial Qs
    • hippocampus activated
  • Need to recall detail & context
  • Recent memories have sig detail
  • Recalling recent memories
    • activates hippocampus
  • Recalling older memories
    • may not require hippocampus
• The Basal Ganglia
  • Needed for implicit learning
  • habit learning
• Other Brain Areas in Memory
  • Almost all brain involved in some aspect of memory
  • Amygdala used in fear learning
• Parietal lobe damage
  • Affects ability to associate one type of info with another
• Temporal lobe damage
  • Anterior & inferior lobes results in
  • Semantic dementia
  • Impaired semantic memories
• Prefrontal lobe damage
  • Impairs ability to learn about rewards and punishments
• Summary
  • Don’t lose all aspects of memory equally
  • Several somewhat independent kinds of memory
  • Each depends on different brain areas

 

 

 

When I see a bear do I run because I’m afraid or am I afraid because I run?

As it turns out, there are more than two answers to this classic riddle. Emotions are part of our human experience and central to our understanding of how we see ourselves.

But there are multiple theories of emotion and no clear answers. But it appears that thinking is more important to feeling than we thought it was.

 

NOTES

• Limbic System
  • Thalamus
  • Hypothalamus
  • Pituitary
  • Pineal Gland
  • Amygdala
• Amygdala
  • Also called nucleus amygdalæ
    • Almond-shaped groups of nuclei
    • Medial temporal lobes
    • Part of basal ganglia?
    • Processes emotional memories
    • Linked to both fear & pleasure
  • Several structures
    • basolateral complex
    • cortical nucleus
    • medial nucleus
    • central nucleus
  • Output =
    • Hypothalamus
    • Activates sympathetic nerves
    • Thalamic reticular nucleus
    • Increases reflexes
    • Trigeminal & facial nerves
    • Expressions
    • Activates dopamine, epinephrine and norepinephrine
  • Memory formation & storage
    • Memories of emotional events
  • Mediate long-term signal potentiation of neurons?
    • Memories of emotional exper. trigger fear behavior
    • Freeze (immobility)
    • Stress hormone (heart rate…)
  • Damage
    • Impairs classical conditioning
    • Both acquiring and expressing
    • Pavlovian fear conditioning
    • Positive reinforcement
  • Classical conditioning
    • Separate neurons for pos. & neg., not anatomically different
    • No clear wiring plan
  • Memory Consolidation
    • Convert to long-term storage
    • Learning can occur without it
    • Help regulate hippocampus?
    • Strength of emotion impacts strength of memory
    • Add stress hormone after learn, recall better (at least in rats)
  • What amygdala does
    • Evaluate significance of stimuli
    • Generate emotional responses
    • Generate hormonal secretions
    • Generate autonomic reactions come with strong emotions
    • Involved with?
      • Post-traumatic stress disorder
      • Depression
      • Phobias
      • Anxiety
      • Autism
      • Anything Emotional
• Emotions
  • What Is Emotion?
    • Category of stimuli
      • high significance to an individual
      • high arousal (strong feelings)
      • subjective response
      • quick & automatic
    • Sympathetic nervous system
    • Prepares for brief-vigorous action
    • Parasympathetic
      • alters activities to save energy and prepare for long-term
    • Strong emotions increase readiness to act
  • Identifying Emotions
    • Facial Expressions
    • 10,000 expressions
    • 40 muscles
    • Voluntary
      • Making movement doesn’t always cause emotion
    • Involuntary
      • Some are same across cultures
    • Display rules vary
      • Quickly cover up
      • Some are same across species
  • Micro Expressions
    • Less than a second
    • Examples
      • Surprise is shortest expression
      • Who is worried?
      • BBC program: The Human Face
  • Gestures
  • Emblems
    • Differ by culture
      • Yes = nod head up and down
      • No = shake head left-right
    • Egyptian culture
      • Tomorrow = hand loop
      • After tomorrow = two loops
    • Distress = hands on head (one pat other)
  • Not Quite Words
    • Puh
• Basic Emotions
  • Hard-wired
  • Can feel more than one at once
    • Wundt
      • Classified along two dimensions
        • Pleasant or unpleasant
        • Level of activation (arousal)
  • No agreed upon list:
    • Fear
    • Anger
    • Disgust
    • Sad
    • Surprise
    • Happiness
• Fear
  • Decrease in skin temp (cold-feet)
  • blood flow to feet?
  • Includes:
    • Thoughts (worries, etc)
    • Physical sensation (heart, breath)
    • Behaviors (run, escape, avoid)
      • “fight or flight”
    • Heart
      • Increased force & rate
      • “pounding heart”
    • Muscles
      • Increased tension
    • Sweaty-cold palms
    • Nausea & diarrhea
    • Tremors
  • Fear Conditioning
    • Even minor $ can cause fear
    • Un-erasable fear response?
    • PTSD
    • Rat is shocked (electrical)
      • Fears stimulus
      • Fears old cage & new cages
      • Fears new situations
    • Humans
      • Attacked or trauma
      • More fearful in many situations
      • Generalized emotional arousal
      • Stimulus generalization
  • Amygdala
    • Makes associations of events with emotional sensations
    • Mediate long-term signal potentiation of neurons?
• Anger
  • Characteristics
    • Eyebrows together
    • Eyes glare
    • Narrow lips
    • Causes increase in skin temp (hot under the collar)
    • blood flow to arms
  • Display Rules
    • Animals
      • Make loud sounds
      • Try to look larger
      • Bare teeth
      • Stare
    • Humans
      • Display as social manipulation
      • Cultural rules
  • Impacts
    • Less self-monitoring
    • Less objective observations
    • Increased activity in left hem.
    • Particularly frontal & temporal
  • Lateral orbitofrontal cortex
    • Inhibits anger
    • Approach motivation
    • Positive affective processes
    • Underestimate risk
    • Believe ventures will succeed
    • Feel less likely for heart disease
    • Feel more likely get raise
    • More prejudiced against outsiders
    • Less trusting
    • On alert
    • Look for other attacks
    • Anticipate more angry events
    • Not sad events
• Disgust
  • Revulsion
  • Withdraw
  • Contamination
  • Seen is all cultures
    • different cultures find different things disgusting
    • Cross-Cultural
    • Widely recognized
    • Shown by
      • slightly narrowed brows
      • curled upper lip, wrinkling nose
      • stick out tongue
    • Children
      • 5-month olds avoid toy parents make negative faces at
      • Until 10, interpret it as anger
  • Related to sense of taste-smell
    • disgusted by inharmonious
    • Impact
      • Facial expression
      • Moldy milk
      • Eeuu!
    • Triggered if people look ill?
      • Feces, urine, body fluids
      • Blood & gore
  • Gender differences
    • Women more than men
    • Especially sexual disgust
    • Also thinking about dentists
  • Anterior insula
    • Activated by unpleasant tastes, smells and images
    • Active when disgusted
    • Active when nauseated
    • Damage to anterior insula
    • Can’t experience disgust
    • Trouble recognizing facial expressions of disgust
    • Mirror-neuron matching system
    • Triggers in us what we see in others
    • Intensifies moral judgments
    • Those people are more guilty
• Sad
  • Emotional pain
    • Temporary (depression chronic)
    • Loss, despair, helplessness
    • Crying
      • Crying is bad criterion
    • Separation from parent
      • Sad
      • Afraid
    • Pupil size
      • Faces with small pupils rated more sad
      • Your pupil size smaller when sad
  • Depression
    • Sad, anxious, empty, hopeless
    • Aversion to activity
    • Lose of interest
• Surprise
  • Shortest expression
  • Brief emotional state
    • unexpected event
  • Is long-lasting surprise shock?
  • Characteristics
    • Raised eyebrows
      • curved and high
      • most important cue
    • Horizontal wrinkles on forehead
    • Dropped jaw
      • Intensity = how much jaw drops
    • Open eyelids
      • See whites of their eyes
    • Lasts fraction of a second
      • Followed by fear, joy, etc.
  • 1. Hard to fake expression
  • 2. Hard to fake feeling
    • Raising eyebrows won’t give feeling
  • Startle response
    • Reaches pons 3-8 ms
    • Followed by reappraisal
    • shift emotion to joy, etc.
• Happiness
  • Martin Selligman’s PERMA
    • Pleasure (tasty food, warm bath)
    • Engagement (flow) (challenging activity)
    • Relationships
    • Significant others
    • Spending money on others
    • Meaning (quest for something bigger)
    • Accomplishments (completed tangible goals)
  • Damage to brain reduces it
    • Huntington’s disease
    • Parkinson’s disease
    • Multiple sclerosis
    • Epilepsy
    • Stroke
  • No validated way to increase
  • Don’t know how to substantially improve long-term happiness
• Theories of Emotion
  • Components
    • Body sensations (heart rate, etc)
    • Perception of danger
    • Emotion (fear)
    • Behavior (run)
    • Stimulus
  • 1. Common Sense
    • See a bear
    • Feel fear
    • Run
  • 2. James-Lange
    • See the bear, run, feel fear
    • Emotion is interpretation of physiological $
      • I run, therefore I am afraid
    • Action first, think about it later
    • Find ourselves trembling, experience fear
    • But internal organs are relatively insensitive
      • Can’t respond quickly
    • Feedback from them could account for our feelings of emotions?
      • Theory difficult to verify experimentally
      • Emotion is a label
      • ANS and skeletal actions occur before emotion
      • I see bear, run, then feel fear
  • 3. Two Factor Theory
    • Schachter and Singer
      • Ss told given vitamin shot
      • Received either
        • adrenaline or placebo (saline)
      • Put in room with another person (experimenter)
        • Took cues from person with
          • playful
          • angry
      • Need both bio reaction and cognitive cues
    • I see bear
      • I feel sensations
      • I see what other people are doing
      • If they are afraid, I am afraid
    • I see bear
      • I feel sensations
      • Use cues to determine what I think trembling caused by
      • Fear
  • 4. Cognitive Mediation
    • Component process model
    • Brain senses lots of things
    • Make low-level appraisal of rel.
    • Triggers bodily reactions, behaviors & feelings
  • I see the bear
    • I think I’m in trouble
    • I breathe fast, run, and feel fear
  • Cognitive awareness is fast
    • Brain can categorize events as pleasant or unpleasant as quickly as 120 ms

 

QUIZ

• 1. Which are characteristic of surprise:
  • a.           horizontal wrinkles on forehead

 

 

UU

 

Hhhh

General Info

Neural clusters in peripheral nervous system are ganglia. In the central nervous system, they are called nuclei. Should be called Basal Nuclei but usually called Basal Ganglia.

Works on disinhibition principle

It’s the brain’s brake

If no input = steady fire at high rates

Neurotransmitters

Inputs use glutamate

Outputs use  GABA

Internal connections use dopamine or ACh

Group of nuclei

Distinct masses of gray matter

Left-right sides mirror each other

Work together as functional unit

Interact with cortex, thalamus, etc

 

FOUR PARTS

Striatum

Dorsal

caudate & putamen

Ventral

nucleus accumbens & olfactory

Pallidum

globus pallidus (dorsal)

ventral pallidum

Substantia nigra (pons)

Subthalamic nucleus (below thalamus)

 

Two large parts

Striatum & Pallidum

Two smaller parts (& farther back)

Substantia Nigra & Subthalamic

 

Disorders

Huntington’s disease

Major loss of medium spiny neurons in striatum

Inability to prevent parts of the body from moving unintentionally

 

1. Striatum

Largest

Looks striped

Looks like two blobs of gray separated by large white stripe

input from many brain areas

only outputs to other parts of basal ganglia

Complex internal organization

Direct pathway (D1)

Indirect (D2)

Organized in 3D

Cortex is layered; organized 2D

Coordinates multiple aspects of cognition

action planning

decision making

motivation

reinforcement

reward

 

Interneurons

Release acetylcholine

Many types of interneurons

include fast-spiking interneurons

Continuously produce new neurons in striatum

 

Striatum is activated by stimuli associated with reward

aversive

novel & unexpected

intense stimuli

 

Ventral striatum composed of olfactory tubercle & nucleus accumbens

As a whole, major role in cognitive processing of

aversion & pleasure

motivation

reward & reinforcement

addiction

As a whole, minor role

cognitive processing of:

fear (type of aversion)

impulsivity

placebo effect

Also involved in

encoding of new motor skills

Nucleus accumbens

Two, one in each hemisphere

Each has two structures:

Nucleus accumbens core

Increased density of dendritic spines

Increased branch segments

Increased terminal segments

Processes

motor function related to reward

encodes new motor programs that help get future rewards

Nucleus accumbens shell

Lower density of dendritic spines

Less terminal segments

Less branch segments

Processes

want (motivational salience)

reward perception

positive reinforcement

drugs & naturally rewarding stimuli

addictive drugs affect dopamine in shell more than core

Function

Reward

Subset of VTA neurons

Dopamine (D1) medium spiny neurons in shell

Drugs

Increase dopamine in shell & core; more pronounced in shell

morphine

cocaine

amphetamines

at high levels, increase dopamine level to similar levels in both shell & core

Drug rewards

has abnormal strengthening effect on stimulus

drug associations

increases drug-reward stimuli’s resistance to extinction

effect was more pronounced in shell than core

Addiction

Links to addictions to

alcohol, cannabinoids, cocaine

nicotine, opioids & amphetamines

Links to

Depression

OCD

Placebo effect

 

 

 

 

2. Pallidum

Input from striatum

Sends inhibitory output to a number of motor-related areas

Globus Pallidus

Latin for “pale globe“

AKA,  paleostriatum or dorsal pallidum

Output to substantia nigra

Very large neurons

Very large dendritic arbors

3-dimensional shape of flat discs

Involved in plan & inhibit move

regulation of voluntary movement

regulate subconscious movements

If damaged, can cause movement disorders

Balances excitatory action of cerebellum

allow people to move smoothly

even & controlled movements

 

3. Substantia Nigra

Located in pons

Important role in reward, addiction &  movement

Latin for black substance

due to high levels of neuromelanin found in dopaminergic neurons

Discovered in 1784

Largest nucleus in midbrain

Two substantiae nigrae; one on each side

Function

eye movement

motor planning

reward-seeking

learning

addiction

Mediated thru striatum

Co-dependence between striatum & substantia nigra

Looks like a continuous band

Two parts with very different connections and functions:

1. Pars Compacta

Supplies striatum with dopamine

Heavily involved in learned responses to stimuli

Activity increases when new $ is presented

Partial dopamine deficits do not affect motor control

Can lead to disturbances in the sleep-wake cycle

Especially in hippocampus
Parkinson’s

Neurodegenerative disease

tremor, stiffness, akinesia

bradykinesia, fatigue, depression

Death of dopaminergic neurons in pars compacta

Impacts motivation

Hunger fails to initiate movements

“Paralysis of will”

kinesia paradoxica

Moves easily in emergency

Immobile after issue passed

Animal with severe basal ganglia damage won’t move toward food

Even if placed within inches

Chew & swallow if put in mouth

Why neurons die is unknown

unique susceptibility?

abnormalities in mitochondrial?

result in abnormal protein handling and neuron death

Dopaminergic neurons in pars compacta contain less calbindin

protein involved in calcium ion transport within cells

excess calcium in cells is toxic

Plasticity of pars compacta is robust

no symptoms until 50-80% of pars compacta dopaminergic neurons have died

2. Pars Reticulata

output to rest of brain

spontaneously fire action potentials

inhibits targets of basal ganglia

decreases in inhibition are associated with movement

Parkinson’s and epilepsy

Altered patterns of firing

single-spike

burst firing

   Schizophrenia

Patients have increased levels of dopamine

dopamine antagonists remain a standard and successful treatment for schizophrenia

Substantia nigra’s pars compacta

reduction in synaptic terminal size

more active NMDA receptors

reduced dysbindin expression

 

   Wooden Chest Syndrome

aka, fentanyl chest wall rigidity syndrome

rare side effect of synthetic opioids (ie Fentanyl)

generalized increase in skeletal muscle tone

increased dopamine release and decreased GABA release in substatia nigra/striatum

most pronounced on chest wall muscles

leads to impaired ventilation

most common in anesthesia where rapid and high doses given intravenously

 

   Cocaine

inhibition of dopamine reuptake

cocaine is more active in VTA than substantia nigra

increases metabolism in substantia nigra

altered motor function

also inhibits spontaneous firing by the pars compacta

inactivation of substantia nigra as treatment for cocaine addiction?

 

4. Subthalamic nucleus (also called Luys’ Body)

Input from striatum & cerebral cortex

Output to the globus pallidus

Small lens-shaped nucleus; major part of subthalamus

Functionally part of basal ganglia

Location

ventral to thalamus

dorsal to  substantia nigra

medial to internal capsule

Discovered 1865, by Jules Luys

Structure

long sparsely-spiny dendrites

elliptical dendritic arbors

Spontaneously firing cells

Pace-maker of the brain?

Oscillatory and synchronous activity

Stimulated to treat Parkinson’s

causes nearby astrocytes to release ATP

precursor to adenosine

catabolic process

Damage

small vessel stroke in patients with diabetes, hypertension, or a history of smoking

produces hemibaliismus

uncontrollable flinging movements of arms and legs

Functions

impulse control

OCD cause?

action selection?

 

Basal ganglia all work together

Impacts

Eye movements

Action selection

Voluntary motor control

Inhibits motor systems

Procedural learning

Eye movements

Habits

Lots of brain regions work

 

 

Basal ganglia impacts implicit learning

Action selection?

Which behavior to do when?

Parkinson’s

Cerebral palsy

Damage to basal ganglia during 2^nd and 3^rd trimester

Foreign accent syndrome

Some combination of problems in cerebellum, Broca’s area & basal ganglion

Caused by stroke or injury

Mispronunciation of words

Listener’s hear it as accent

Not new vocabulary

Sufferer’s may imitate other aspects to normalize syndrome

 

Ghhh

A limbic limmerick?

• There once was a system called limbic
• it’s where fears and emoting are quick
• buried deep in the head
• and hardly well bred
• it forced me to write this dumb limerick

 

HhhThe limbic system is a combination of the thalamus, hypothalamus, pituitary and basal ganglia or nuclei. Not well understood but highly interconnected, these structures indirectly regulate a lot of

NOTES

• Thalamus
  • Sits on top of brainstem
  • Near center of brain
  • Nerve fibers project in all directions
  • Difficult to map connections
  • Organized in 3D
    • Cortex is organized in 2D
  • Surrounds 3rd ventricle
  • Each half is shape & size of walnut
  • Relays sensory & motor signals
    • Regulation of consciousness
    • Sleep, and alertness
  • Lots of information from cortex
    • Lots of info to other brain parts
    • Multi-function switchboard
    • Every sense but smell
  • Vision
    • Lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN)
      • Pre-process and relay
  • Audition
    • Medial geniculate nucleus (MGN)
      • Auditory connection
      • From inferior colliculus to primary auditory cortex
  • Impacts sleep & wake
    • Reciprocal connections w/ cortex
    • Thalamo-corticl-talamic circuits
  • Provides channels
    • From basal ganglia & cerebellum
    • To cortical motor areas
    • Impacts antisaccade eye-movement
  • Damage
    • Korsakoff’s Syndrome
      • Can be caused by damage to thalamus
    • Fatal Familial Insomnia
      • Hereditary disease
        • degeneration of thalamus
        • gradual loss of ability to sleep
      • Leads to total insomnia & death
    • Thalamic Syndrome
      • Caused by stoke
      • One-sided burning sensation
      • Mood swings
  • Four parts
    • Ventral thalamus
    • Dorsal thalamus
    • Epithalamus
    • Hypothalamus
• 1. Ventral thalamus
  • reticular nucleus
  • GABAergic cells
  • inhibit relay cells
  • flush against lateral surface of dorsal thalamus
• 2. Dorsal thalamus
  • Bundle of 15 relay nuclei
  • Send signals to cortex
• 3. Epithalamus
  • Interconnecting fibers to pineal gland and limbic system
  • Secretion of melatonin (pineal)
  • Emotion (basil ganglia)
• 4. Hypothalamus
  • In action
    • Large dog barks at you, body reacts
    • Neural response
    • Hormonal response
  • Impacts
    • Triggers adrenal glands to release adrenaline and cortisol
    • Adrenaline (epinephrine)
      • Increase heart rate
      • Elevates blood pressure
    • Cortisol
      • Primary stress hormone
      • Increases blood glucose
      • Improves brain’s use of glucose
      • Increases availability of tissue repair substances
      • Shut down nonessential functions
        • Anything not needed in fight-flight
        • Alters immune system
        • Suppresses digestive system
      • Once Perceived Threat Is Gone
        • Resets
        • Unless it’s consistent threat
      • Depressed immune system, more likely:
        • Digestive problems
        • Sleep problems
        • Heart disease
        • Obesity
  • Located below thalamus
    • About the size of an almond
  • Contains small nuclei
    • Each with different functions
    • Links nervous & endocrine sys
  • Secretes hormones
    • stimulate or inhibit secretion by pituitary
  • Controls
    • body temp, hunger, thirst, sleep, circadian rhythm and fatigue
  • Three parts
    • Anterior
    • Tuberal
    • Posterior
  • 1. Anterior
    • Medial
      • Medial preoptic nucleus
        • Regulates release of gonadotropic hormones
      • Sexually dimorphic nucleus
        • releases GnRH
        • differential development of sexes
        • in-utero testosterone levels
      • Anterior Hypothalamic Nucleus
        • panting, sweating
      • Suprachiasmatic Nucleus
        • Circadian rhythms
    • Lateral
      • Thirst & hunger
  • 2. Tuberal
    • Medial
      • Dorsomedial Hypothalamic Nucleus
      • Blood pressure & heart rate
      • Growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH)
    • Lateral
      • Thirst & hunger
  • 3. Posterior
    • Medial
      • Memory
      • Blood pressure, pupil dilation, shivering
    • Lateral
      • Hunger
        • Damage to this area
          • reduced food intake
        • Stimulating
          • Causes a desire to eat
      • Blood sugar level drops
        • Receptors in blood signal lateral hypothalamus
        • Brain areas fire in unison
          • creating the sensation of hunger
      • Blood sugar level increases
        • Signals ventro-medial hypothalamus
      • Two structures
        • lateral hypothalamic area
          • Hunger
        • Lateral preoptic nucleus
          • Non-REM sleep
      • Damage
        • Frolich’s Syndrome
          • decreased levels in GnRH
          • defects of feeding centers of hypothalamus
          • increase food and calorie intake
          • It is characterized by:
            • Affects males mostly
            • No endocrine problems
            • Mature normally after puberty
            • Growth retardation
            • Atrophy of gonads
            • Altered secondary sexual characteristics
        • Other names
          • Babinski-Fröhlich syndrome
          • Hypothalamic Infantilism-Obesity
          • Launois-Cleret Syndrome
          • Sexual Infantilism
  • Hypothalamus & Sex
    • Differences to brain structure
    • No cause-effect summary
    • Differences in gender
    • Difference in sexual orientation
• Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN)
  • Internal clock
  • Largest in heterosexual men
  • Smaller in homosexual men
  • Smallest in women
• Sexually Dimorphic Nucleus (SDN)
  • In anterior hypothalamus
  • Twice as large in heterosexual men and homosexual women, in terms of volume but not number of neurons.
  • Responds to smelling common odors
    • scent of testosterone found in male sweat
      • homosexual men and heterosexual women
    • scent of estrogen found in female urine
      • heterosexual men and homosexual women
• Pituitary gland
  • Protrusion at bottom of hypothalamus
  • Size of a pea
  • Connects to hypothalamus
    • Thin tube called pituitary stalk or infundibular stem
  • “Master” endocrine gland
    • Impacts other glands
    • But controlled by hypothalamus
  • Two parts
  • 1. Anterior
    • adenohypophysis
    • parvocellular neurons (small)
    • Secretes growth hormone (GH or HGH)
      • Also called somatotropin
      • $ by GHRH (from hypothal.)
        • Growth hormone releasing hormone
      • Iinhibited by somatostatin
        • From hypthal.
    • Secretes TSH
      • Thyroid-stimulating hormone
    • Secretes ACTH
      • Adrenocorticotropic hormone
    • Secretes FSH (follicle-$ hormone)
    • Secretes LH (lutropin)
    • Secretes Prolactin (PRL)
    • Secretes Beta-endorphin
    • Secretes LTH (luteotropic)
  • 2. Posterior
    • neurohypophysis
    • magnocellular neurons (large)
    • Secretes Oxytocin
      • Birthing, bonding, wound healing, empathy, anxiety
    • Secretes ADH (antidiuretic hormone)
      • Also called vasopressin
  • Function
    • Secretes hormones to control:
      • Growth & metabolism
      • Pregnancy & sex organs
      • Thyroid gland
      • Water regulation
      • Temperature
      • Endorphin
  • Diseases
    • Acromegaly
      • too much growth hormone
    • Cushing’s
      • Too much adrenocorticotropic hormone
    • Growth hormone deficiency
      • Too little growth hormone
    • Syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone
      • Too much vasopressin
    • Diabetes insipidus (cell diabetes)
      • too little vasopressin
    • Sheehan syndrome
      • Too little of any of the pituitary hormones
    • Pickardt-Fahlbusch syndrome
      • Too little of any of the pituitary hormones
      • Too much prolactin
    • Hyperpituitarism (adenoma)
      • Too much of any of the pituitary hormones
    • Hypopituitarism
      • Too little TSH (thyroid $ hormone)
      • Vasopressin
    • Hyperthyroidism
      • Too much TSH
    • Almost always a pituitary adenoma
• Basal ganglia
  • In PNS = ganglia
  • In CNS = nuclei
  • How they work
    • Disinhibition principle
    • If no input = steady fire at high rates
  • Distinct masses of gray matter
    • deep in brain
    • not far from thalamus
  • Left-right sides mirror each other
  • Group of nuclei
    • Work together as functional unit
    • Interact with cortex, thalamus, etc
  • Neurotransmitters
    • Inputs use Glutamate
    • Outputs use GABA
    • Internal connections use Dopamine or ACh
  • 4 structures
    • Striatum
    • Pallidum (w 2 nuclei)
    • Substantia nigra (2 parts)
    • Subthalamic nucleus
  • Two large parts
    • Striatum & Pallidum
    • Two smaller parts (& farther back)
      • Substantia Nigra & Subthalamic
  • 1. Striatum
    • Largest
    • Looks striped
    • Large & small bundles of fibers
    • White matter
    • Looks like two blobs of gray separated by large white stripe
    • Complex internal organization
    • Vast majority of neurons (96%?)
      • lots of dendritic spines
      • small cell bodies
    • Medium spiny
      • GABAergic
      • Inhibitors
    • Two types of medium spiny
      • Substance P & dopamine D1
        • Direct pathway
      • Enkephalin & dopamine D2
        • Indirect pathway
    • Organized in 3D
      • Cortex is layered; organized 2D
• Basal ganglia impacts
  • Voluntary motor control
  • Inhibits motor systems
  • Procedural learning
  • Eye movements
  • Habits
  • Rewards?
    • Internal connections use dopamine
    • VTA→NA dopamine connection
      • Ventral Tegmentum Area
        • Dopaminergic neurons
        • Start of reward system
      • Nucleus Accumbens
        • Part of striatum
    • Increase effectiveness of signal
      • Cocaine
      • Nicotine
      • Amphetamines
      • Overactive in schizophrenia?
  • Eye movements
    • Lots of brain regions at work
    • Superior Colliculus
      • layered structure
      • 2D retinal maps
      • Gets inhibitory effect from basal ganglia (SNr)
      • Pause their inhibition when eyes
  • Action selection?
    • Which behavior to do when
    • Parkinson’s disease
      • Major loss of dopaminergic cells in the substantia nigra
      • Gradual loss of the ability to initiate movement
      • Motivation
        • Can do components of movement
        • Hunger fails to initiate movements
          • Not switched on: “paralysis of will”
        • kinesia paradoxica
          • Moves easily in emergency
          • Immobile after issue passed
  • Motivation
    • VTA to NA reward system
    • Animals with $ electrodes
      • Bar-pressing
    • Humans show increased action
      • addictive drugs
      • good-tasting food
      • sex
    • Animal with severe basal ganglia damage won’t move toward food
      • Even if placed within inches
      • Chew & swallow if put in mouth
  • Huntington’s disease
    • Major loss of medium spiny neurons in striatum
    • inability to prevent parts of the body from moving unintentionally
  • Hemiballismus
    • Damage to the subthalamic nucleus
    • uncontrollable flinging movements of arms and legs
  • Cerebral palsy
    • Damage to basal ganglia during 2nd and 3rd trimester
  • Foreign accent syndrome
    • Some combination of problems in cerebellum, Broca’s area & basal ganglion
    • Caused by stroke or injury
    • Mispronunciation of words
    • Listener’s hear it as accent
      • speaking native with accent
    • Not new vocabulary
    • Sufferer’s may imitate other aspects of accent to normalize the syndrome