UNIT TWO PSYCHOLOGY SECOND EXAM BRAIN STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION Historical note 1 Phrenology Franz Gall believed underneath scull was where your decision making was believed brain to be multi dimensional messed up that you could physically label them within the skull such as honesty right that the brain isn t one thing but a number of things Myth 37 traits 37 areas on skull Reality Brain is multidimensional in structure and function METHODS OF BRAIN RESEARCH 1 CLINICAL STUDIES OF INDIVIGUALS WITH LOCALIZED BRAIN DAMAGE Pipe in head Case of serendipity discovery of reward centers in the brain olds and minler 1954 Stimulated different parts of brain on animals using food and drink 2 Brain stimulation Rat presses lever to self stimulate their reward center Rat ignores food water and even the presence of other rats in the cage 3 Brain lesions Burn or scar part of brain and see what animal can and cannot do if they cannot do it after the burning or scarring then it s clear that that was the part of the brain that controlled that 4 Brain ablations CUT deactivate area of brain 5 Methods of brain research Activity EEG Electro E Graph used to record electricity in brain Betta waves Labeling Techniques Patient consumes radioactive glucose sugar 6 Machine tracks areas using most glucose More glucose more equal parts of the brain EXAMPLE CAT or PET SCANS 7 High Definition Images of the brain MRI FUNCTIONAL MRI captures brain in motion Magnetic fields no radioactive substance MAJOR REGIONS OF THE BRAIN 1 The human being Weight 3 pounds EVOLUTION SEE DIAGRAM FOR RELATING NUMBERS THREE top 2 3 million years higher thoughts and plans TWO Mid 150 million yrs emotions and drives ONE Lower 250 million yrs Basic survival functions LOWER REGION OF THE BRAIN 1 Hindbrain 2 Brain stem pons medulla reticular formation Cerebellum Balance equilibrium and coordination 1 PONS relays motor info to cerebellum MOTOR RELAY INPUTS spinal cord pons cerebellum spinal cord 2 3 OUTPUTS higher brain centers pons cerebellum spinal cord 4 MEDULLA circulation breathing chewing 5 RETICULAR FORMATION fibers in brain stem travel to thalamus activating and alerting system Arousal and sleep Sustained attention Screening out irrelevant noise traffic in city MIDDLE REGIONS OF THE BRAIN 1 MIDBRAIN integrates auditory and visual input with body movements Allows physical reaction to a noise or visual stimulus startle response car come at you and you jump out of the way 2 THALAMUS Integrates sensory input with higher forebrain centers allows you to have an experience visual auditory SENSORY RELAY 3 HYPOTHALAMUS Appetite thirst sex temp regulation controversial research about 30 years ago when AIDS was first identified as health problem found that the hypothalamus of men who died of AIDS was smaller than the average person cannot say that because AIDS effects people who are not GAY and you cannot change the hypothalamus LIMBIC SYSTEM 1 SEPTAL AREA FOR SEPTUM pleasure or reward system 2 HIPPOCAMPUS memory processing and learning 4 3 AMYGDALA Rage emotional memories YOUTUBE EXCERPT ON CHARLES WHITMAN THAT KILLED HIS WIFE AND SON MOTHER AND BROTHER HE WAS PREPARED FOR KILLING CARRYING WATER LOAF OF BREAD ETC 1966 BRAIN HIGHER REGIONS SEE DIAGRAM ON POWR POINT Cerebral Hemisphere means a half of circle if you look at brain from top it is a half circle CORTEX is divided into specialized sections convoluted surface higher executive functions 1 OCCIPITAL LOBES visual information processing 2 PARIETAL LOBES Somatosensory skin body position 3 TEMPORAL LOBES Auditory info processing NEAR EARS AUDIT 4 FRONTAL LOBES though reasoning movement some argue this is what makes us most human lobotomy takes this away from person BRAIN LATERALIZATION 1 LEFT BRAIN Analytic Speech LD lang based IQ vocab test EXAMPLE if someone is over estimating their intelligence to you through their speech big words than they have a smarter LEFT SIDE OF BRAIN 2 RIGHT BRAIN global spatial LD designs maps emotions IQ block design task DISSIBILITIES often called silent disabilities children often get diagnosed with these later in life because people don t realize them IQ TEST get a RIGHT SIDE SCORE and a LEFT SIDE SCORE EXAMPLE being good at puzzles engineering architecture etc makes someone s RIGHT SIDE OF BRAIN smarter PEOPLE WHO ARE WEAK ON BOTH SIDES mentally challenged mentally retarded etc THE SPLIT BRAIN PHENOMENON 1 SPLIT BRAIN when left and right sides of brain are not connected 2 VERY RARE 3 CORPUS CALLOSUM connect left and right side of brain 4 GENETIC DEFECT 5 SURGERY FOR EPILEPSY years ago they would cut the CORPUS CALLOSUM for EPLIETICS so the seizure wouldn t move from left and right side of brain SPLIT BRAIN EXPERIMENTS 1 PEOPLE WHO DON T HAVE A CORPUS COLLOSUM THEY WILL Shine a spoon so it lands on one side of their eye but not the other left side of left side or right side of right side EXTREME ANGLE Fibers on that side of eye are going to go to the opposite side of the brain Left side of left eye FIBERS cross into right side of brain and visa versa WHAT WILL THE PERSON SAY THAT THEY SAW Left side of brain SPOON 1 2 Right side of brain NOTHING WHY DOES THAT HAPPEN Speech center is in the LEFT side of the brain LEFT SIDE OF LEFT EYE TO RIGHT BRAIN TO SPLIT BRAIN PERSON left talks back to you and the left never got the message it never saw it RIGHT SIDE OF BRAIN CANT TALK BECAUSE THE SPEECH CENTER IS ON THE LEFT SO THEY SAY THEY SAW NOTHING ONLY THE LEFT SIDE OF BRAIN CAN SEE IT BECAUSE THEY HAVE A SPLIT BRAIN LEFT SIDE OF BRAIN IS THE ONLY ONE THAT CAN TALK GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY 1 Film The Lobotomist Three Questions SENSATION AND PERCEPTION 1 General concepts SENSATION VS PERCEPTION Sensation Stimulation of Receptor cells goes from eye ear etc to thalamus THEN you have an experience a perception Perception processing of stimulus by higher brain centers an experience Part of brain that is major sensory relay Thalamus STIMULI AND ABSOLUTE THRESHOLD Stimuli any form of energy detectable by an animal Threshold intensity of a stimulus energy that is detectable Absolute Threshold minimum intensity detectable 50 of time WHY 50 Detection stimulus environment ten trials at x brightness good days bad days 5 hits half the time someone will be in a good mood half the time in a bad mood so you figure those things even out hence the usage of 50 What is the least amount of light and or smallest amount of sound that an average person can see hear Whatever amount of sound or