HD 3700 1st Edition Lecture 12 Outline of Last Lecture I Hamlet meets his father II Approaching the brain III Thinking about the brain a Mind body duality b How not to think about brain scans Outline of Current Lecture I Brain Imaging II Ophelia s Dilemma III How the brain is organized IV Neurons V Neurotransmission Current Lecture I Brain imaging Ways to misuse brain imagery o 1 dualism if it shows up in the brain it s biological not psychological o 2 simplistic mapping of complex traits o 3 not knowing how much the brain constructs itself from experience Why do 16 year olds drive like they re missing part of their brain because they are the cerebral cortex is not mature yet The brains of homosexuals and heterosexuals look different in brain scans but it s not because they re genetically different but because they have different experiences and the brain constructs itself from experience Ways to use brain imaging well o First Professor Finlay suggests we think of the brain as a collection of verbs that is its parts derive meaning from experience and contribute to our awareness which is how the brain constructs itself o Some important diagrams brain parts as verbs Loops around a basic environmental layout motor option motivation core Cortex Slow associative extraction of sensory information concepts structure Hippocampus Rapid associative extraction of layout episodes Motor cortex basal ganglia Reinforcement learning evaluating weighting and nesting of behavioral plans Cerebellum Differencer compares intention to actual corrects Extended amygdala social circuitry Links social and physiological state to external choices o All of this works together associating to the past operating in the present and influencing future Examples of a process oriented verb brain description o Hippocampus take sensory and motor information from all sources bind together over a very short period of time even for just one instance That is place or event have I been here before o Basal ganglia from possible action plans select the one with the best chance of success in the present environment If my mother is playing poker with me and my friends should I bluff Then she suggests that imaging be used to explore how the brain constructs itself to investigate the processes of mental illness among other goals as long as we avoid her three errors o An example from a current research area Post traumatic stress disorder memory reconsolidation pharmacology convergence with psychotherapy o Compares many syndromes and locations looks for patterns and compares different types of anxiety o Integrate brain scans with experimental work fear conditioning in the amygdala integrated with clinical knowledge leads to the finding that Extinction during reconsolidation prevents spontaneous recovery of extinguished fear From Mind to Brain o Social Psychology Clinical Psychology Personality Psychology Focuses on the Mind feelings thoughts fantasies judgments fears defenses How we know how we avoid knowing o Cognitive Psychology Focuses on mental processes perception linguistic processing object recognition reaction times learning memory o Computation models Assuming that neural networks are responsible for processing information for generating feelings thoughts fantasies dreams can we create algorithmic models that simulate what groups of neurons are doing o Neuroscience biological psychiatry psychopharmacology Neurotransmitter action allosteric modulation genetic factors learning about how the brain functions in a sense trying to find ways into the complexity of brain functioning and how it generates the mind Onto the brain o 1 What we can tell from observed behavior A R Luria and functioning systems o 2 Perceiving our environment Not exactly we are the environment We are only perceiving what our sensory organs are conveying to our brain It is a very limited construction from our sensory organ data o 3 What we share with the lower mammals not our foreheads What is a functioning system o You learn a complex action by first learning the separate actions which compose it For example driving o Once you ve mastered pressing the gas petal looking in the rear view mirror turning the steering wheel your brain writes a macro for the whole action o Storing it in a different part of the brain which we know is true because of what happens to stroke victims II Ophelia s Dilemma Act II Scene I Colonius has forbidden Hamlet and Ophelia from being together o Difficulty of father letting his daughter go long term issue for Shakespeare Ophelia obeyed her father and rejected Hamlet In the scene Hamlet and Ophelia are speaking and Ophelia is so tuned into Hamlet that her metaphor relates to Hamlet s experience of seeing a ghost Ophelia already rejected him What is the point of this scene o To show that Hamlet is using her setting into motion the notion that he s crazy and crazy with love for Ophelia knowing that she ll run to her father and spread the news he is almost manic o Hamlet knows that when he kills the king he will be killed also possible that Hamlet is saying goodbye to her o Maybe it is both maybe he is both saying bye to her and using her to send through the court the news that he is crazy III How the brain is organized 1 The hind brain takes information fed to the spinal column from the nervous system and sensory organs and gives it to the mid brain o Where the information is processed refined affecting physical psychological experience and shared with the cortex o Through clusters of neurons which project from the midbrain into the lobes of the brain bringing information experienced as thought anxiety and mood No surprise that these pathways of neurons respond to dopamine seratonin norepinephrine IV Neurons and how they work o How they re built Fluid inside cytoplasm and out extracelluar fluid Generating energy with adosine triphosphate ATP Myelin coating made by glial cells the thicker the coating the faster the conduction of electrical signals Glial cells are worker cells around the neuron Chromosomes inside long strands of DNA o Firing and Changing Neurons either change the polarity of other neurons by flooding them with ions until they fire or They send neurotransmitters into the synapses between the neurons These neurotransmitters switch on genes in the other neurons causing them to produce proteins which essentially change them conveying information to adjoining neurons These changes can include generating new receptors