Chapter Two Biology of Mind Phrenology Biopsychosocial model behaviors Neural Communication body o Individual psychology o Social influences how has the social context come to influence your Neurons nerve cells that are found throughout the nervous system in your o All neurons have three main components Cell body soma the cell s life support center Dendrites receives information from other cells neurons Axon tail that comes off of neuron carries info away from the cell body to other neurons muscles or glands o Types of Neurons Sensory neurons input neurons the neurons that are connected to your sense organs they pick up on sensory information from the outside world Motor neurons output neurons neurons that are connected to our muscles and glands where the end result is some kind of behavior Interneurons they carry info from one part of brain body to another part if its not motor or sensory then its interneurons Action potential the electrical signal that exists within the o Transmitting info How Neurons Communicate neuron o Refractory period a time when the neuron can not fire axon is reabsorbing neurotransmitters Agonist similar to both bind to the receptor site and take over the function of the neurotransmitter different types of drugs are agonists Antagonist similar enough to bind to the receptor site but not similar enough to activate the neuron Nervous System Central NS exclusively the brain spinal chord o Unlike the stuff in the peripheral nervous system the stuff in the central nervous system can t be repaired once its damaged Peripheral NS everything else Autonomic NS self controlled us as beings do not have control over it they are automatic functions Somatic NS voluntary movements Sympathetic NS responsible for involuntary arousal Parasympathetic responsible for voluntary calming Endocrine System Adrenal glands produces epinephrine and norepinephrine The Brain Older Brain Structures smell o Thalamus sight hearing touch taste all go here everything except o Reticular formation Reticular Activating System your alertness o Pons responsible for our sense of balance o Medulla controls heart rate breathing and blood pressure o Limbic System Hypothalamus responsible for monitoring and maintaining homeostasis equilibrium throughout your body Pituitary gland monitored controlled by the hypothalamus o Interconnected neural cells that are responsible for communicating and relaying information between each other Cerebral Cortex o Structure 20 23 billion nerve cells 300 trillion synaptic connections Glial cells support nourish protect the neurons Fissures prominent folds that you see in the brain folds separate the different lobes o Function Association area areas involved in higher mental functioning Plasticity the brain s ability to change o Experience based Ex Think about when we begin to learn a new instrument sport etc We knew almost nothing about that thing in the beginning but later on we gain more skills in it o Constraint induced therapy force somebody that has an impairment to use their bad limb Divided Brain o Corpus callosum the bundle of fibers that is responsible for carrying messages back and forth between our two hemispheres o Lateralization hemispheric specialization of the brain Right vs Left when intact speech calculation o Left side verbal language information deliberation reasoning o Right side visual spatial information artistic ability speech prosody tone the way that you say something the inflection in your voice intonation perceiving portraying emotion inference making being able to take evidence and draw some conclusion on it spatial manipulation