PSYCH 101 1st Edition Lecture 6 Outline of Last Lecture I The Central Nervous System and the Peripheral Nervous System II Types of Neurons A Sensory Motor and Interneurons B The Nerves III More Parts of the Nervous System A Peripheral Nervous System consists of IV The Autonomic Nervous System A Sympathetic and Parasympathetic V The Central Nervous System A Interneurons in the spine VI The Endocrine System A Hypothalamus Thyroid Gland Parathyroids Adrenal Glands Pancreas and Pituitary Glands B The body s Endocrine message system Outline of Current Lecture I Monitoring Activity in the Brain A EEG electroencephalogram B PET positron emission tomography C MRI magnetic resonance imaging D fMRI functional MRI II Areas of the Brain and their functions A The brainstem Medulla Pons Thalamus Reticular Formation Cerebellum B Limbic System Hippocampus Amygdala Hypothalamus III What the Cerebral Cortex lobes consist of A Lobes of the Cerebral Cortex Frontal Parietal Occipital Temporal IV The Motor and Sensory Strips A Sensory functions of the cortex V Plasticity The Brain is flexible VI Our two hemispheres A Left Hemisphere B Right Hemisphere These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute C Split Brain Studies Corpus Callosum D Split Visual Field Current Lecture I II III Monitoring Activity in the Brain A EEG An EEG is a recording of the electrical waves sweeping across the brain s surface It is useful when studying seizures and sleep B PET The PET scan allows us to see what part of the brain is active by tracing where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a given task C MRI An MRI makes images from signals produced by brain tissue after magnets align the spin of atoms Uses bloodflow D fMRI An fMRI reveals brain activity and function rather than structures Function MRI compares successive MRI images taken a split second apart and shows changes in the level of oxygen in bloodflow in the brain Spatial not temporal Areas of the Brain and their Functions A At the base of the brainstem is the medulla the medulla controls the most basic functions such as heartbeat and breathing Above the medulla is the pons The pons helps coordinate automatic and unconscious movements like swallowing The thalamus is the sensory switchboard or router All sensory messages except smell are routed through the thalamus on the way to the cortex The thalamus also sends messages from the cortex to the medulla and cerebellum The Reticular Formation is a nerve network in the brainstem It enables alertness arousal from coma to wide awake It also filters incoming sensory information The cerebellum helps coordinate voluntary movement such as playing a sport The cerebellum has many other functions including enabling nonverbal learning and memory B The Limbic System coordinates emotions like fear and aggression basic drives like sex and hunger and the formation of episodic memories The Hippocampus processes conscious episodic memories and works with the amygdala to form emotionally charged memories The Amygdala consists of two lime bean sized neural clusters that help process emotions especially fear and aggression The Hypothalamus is below the thalamus and regulates body temperature and ensures adequate food and water intake homeostasis and is involved in sex drive It also directs the endocrine system via messages to the pituitary gland Cerebral Cortex the lobes consist of Outer grey bark structure that is wrinkled in order to create more surface area for 20 billion neurons Also contains inner white stuff axons linking parts of the brain and 180 billion glial cells which feed and protect neurons and assist neural transmission IV V VI A The Lobes of the Cerebral Cortex Frontal Lobes involved in speaking and muscle movements and in making plans and judgements Parietal Lobes include the sensory cortex Occipital Lobes include the visual areas They receive visual information from the opposite visual field Temporal Lobes include the auditory processing areas Functions of the Brain The Motor and Sensory Strips Output Motor Cortex left hemisphere section controls the right side of the body Input Sensory Cortex left hemisphere section receives input from the body s right side A Sensory functions of the cortex The sensory strip deals with information from touch stimuli The occipital lobe deals with visual information and auditory information is sent to the temporal lobe Plasticity The Brain is Flexible If the brain is damaged especially in the general association areas of the cortex the brain does not repair damaged neurons but it can restore some functions It can also form new connections reassign existing networks and insert new neurons some grown from stem cells Our Two Hemispheres The two hemispheres serve different functions How do we know about these differences though Brain damage studies revealed many functions of the left hemisphere Brain scans and split brain studies show more about the functions of the two hemispheres and how they coordinate with eachother A Left Hemisphere deals with thoughts abd logic details Language words and definitions Linear and literal Calculation and Pieces and details B Right Hemisphere deals with Feelings and intuition Big picture such as forest rather than tree Language tone inflection and context Inferences and associations Perception and Wholes including self C Split Brain Studies To end severe whole brain seizures some people have had surgery to cut their corpus callosum a band of axons connectiong the hemispheres Factors to keep in mind about separating the hemispheres Each hemisphere controls the opposite side of the body and is aware of the visual field on that opposite side Without the corpus callosum the halves of the body and the halves of the visual field do not work together Only the left half of the brain has enough verbal ability to express its thoughts out loud D Split Visual Field Each hemisphere does NOT perceive what each eye sees Instead it perceives the half of the view in front of you that goes with the half of the body that is controlled by that hemisphere