AP Psychology: Phrenology to Epigenetics

AP Psychology Unit 3 Notes Phrenology: Predicting character traits and mental faculties using the shape of the skull. - Franz Gall: theories on the anatomy and function of the brain - Classmates who excelled at memoization also tended to have large, protruding eyes. 1) Brain is the organ of the mind 2) Mental powers can be defined into falculties Neurons: Nerve cells - Motor neuron - Dendrites: receive messages from other cells - Axon: passes messages away from the cell body to other neurons, muscles, or glands - Cell body: the cell’s life-support center, energy buildup - Neural impulse: action potential and electrical signal traveling down the axon - Terminal branches of axon: form junctions with other cells - Myelin sheath: covers the amazon of some neurons and help speed neural impulses - Speed of a neuron impulse ranges from 2-180 MPH and is measured in milliseconds. - Neural communication - Action potential: The energy going through the axon to terminal branches. - Resting potential: The energy inside with no neural impulses. - Selectively permeable: Certain substances to get in. - Depolarizing: The energy burst through the axon. - Refractory period: Recharge. - Threshold - All or none response - Synapse: Space between two neurons. - Synaptic gap: Cleft going to dendrites. - Reuptake: reupping ions left out of the neuron. (leftovers) - Excitatory vs. inhibitory: Inhibitory means they decrease the likelihood that the neuron will fire an action. - Neurotransmitters - Acetylcholine (ACh): Enables muscle action, learning and memory. - With Alhmeizer’s disease, ACh-producing neurons decelerate. - Dopamine: influences movement, learning, attention, and emotion. - Oversupply linked to schizophrenia. Undersupply linked to tremors and decreased mobility in Parkinson’s disease. - Serotonin: Affects mood, hunger, sleep, and arousal - Undersupply linked to depression. Some antidepressant drugs raise serotonin levels. - Norepinephrine: Helps control alertness and arousal. - Undersupply can depress mood. - GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid): major inhibitory neurotransmitter. - Undersupply linked to seizures, tremors, and insomnia. - Glutenate: Major excitatory neurotransmitter included in memory. - Oversupply can overstimulate the brain, producing migraines or seizures (which is why some people avoid MSG, monosodium glutamate, in food.) How drugs/chemicals impact neural communication - Agonist: opens neurons - Antagonist: closes neurons Nerves - bundled axons that form neural “cables” connecting the central nervous system with muscles, glands, and sense organs Sensory neurons - neurons that carry incoming sensory information from the sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord Motor neurons - neurons that carry sensory information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands Interneurons - neurons within the brain and spinal cord that communicate with internally and intervene between the sensory input and motor output - Act as translators for info coming in and out of the brain Somatic nervous system - enables voluntary movement of our skeletal muscles Autonomic nervous systems - controls our glands and the muscles of our internal organs unconsciously Neural networks Ex - Inputs (lessons, practice, master classes music camps, time spent with musical friends) LEADS TO output (beautiful music) - Neurons in the brain connect with one another to form networks - Brain learns by modifying certain connections in response to feedback (specific skills develop) Reflexes - a response to sensory stimulus (knee-jerk response for example) - Involve the spinal cord - How the body unconsciously responds to something Endocrine system - the “slow” chemical communication system; a set of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream - Hormones - chemical messengers that are made by the endocrine glands travel through the bloodstream and affect other tissues - Affect our interest in sex, food, and aggression) - (ex - help us with pain) Adrenal glands ... Pituitary glands … Hypothalamus - brain region controlling the pituitary gland (the control of the endocrine system) Thyroid gland - affect metabolism Adrenal gland - inner part helps trigger the “fight or flight” response Testis - secretes male sex hormones Module 11 - Lesion Studies - Digging Around the brain - Removal of part of the brain - comparison is made between performance before and after he lesion and consequent deficits are noted - Used to study the brain - CT Scan, MRI, fMRI, EEG, PET Scan - Magnetic resonance imaging - MRI Provide a window through which researchers can study the brain (how healthy they are) - Brain structure imaging (picture) - deals with the structure (form) of the brain and the diagnosis of large scale intracranial (ex - tumor), as well as injury - - MRI - to find out what’s wrong with the brain (tumor, injury) Brain function imaging (video) - used to diagnose metabolic diseases and lesion on a finer scale and also for neurological and cognitive - psych research - Functional Magnetic resonance imaging - fMRI - measures the blood flow in the brain - Electroencephalography (electrical activity) (EEG) - used to show brain activity in certain psychological states (ex - alertness and drowsiness) - Useful for diagnosing seizures and other medical problems that involve an overabundance of lack of activity in parts of the brain - PET Scans - measures levels of the sugar glucose in the brain to illustrate where neural firing is taking place. This works because active neurons use glucose as fuel - Highlighted blood rush Limbic system - Brain Stem - helps with heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure (restoration system) (involuntary) - The brain stem refers to the area of the brain between the thalamus (directs everything) and spinal cord. Structures of the brainstem include the pons, medulla oblongata, tectum, reticular formation and tegmentum. - The brain stem is important for maintaining basic functions such as breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure - - Thalamus - involved in several functions of the body including - Motor control - Receives auditory somatosensory, and visual sensory signals - Relays sensory signals to the cerebral cortex - Memory formation and emotional expression - Pain perception - Controls sleep and awake states Reticular formation - located inside of the pons - in the brainstem, at the center of an area of the brainstem known as the tegmentum - - - Functions - Modulation of sensations - Modulation of pain - sleep/alertness - Blood flow Medulla - (most important part of the brain) involuntary - Located at the base of the brainstem - Performs heart beat, blood pressure, and breathing Cerebellum (called the “little brain”) (voluntary) - Located at the back of brain, below the pons - Is responsible for balance and coordination of muscles and the body (muscular movement) - Hippocampus (memory) - Located at the part of the Limbic system, in each temporal lobe - Is responsible for processing of long term memory and emotional responses - Is responsible for the memory of location of objects or people - (ex - seeing a hippo at a school campus will cause you to remember that event for a long time) - - When hippocampus is not working, leads to Alzheimer's Amygdala - emotions - Located in the limbic system, at the end of the hippocampus - Is responsible for the response and memory of emotions (ex - fear) Hypothalamus (reward system) - Located above the pituitary gland and below the thalamus - Is responsible for behaviors such hunger and thirst, along with maintaining body temperature. - Helps connect endocrine system with the nervous system Pons (works during in the sleep to regain energy) - Located at the hindbrain that sits directly above the medulla - Connects the upper and lower parts of the brain Directions of the brain - Ventral - forward - Dorsal - backward - rostral Towards the nose - Caudal - toward the tail - Superior - toward the top of head/body - Lateral - toward the top of the head/body - Medial - towards the middle - Bilateral - on both sides - Ipsilateral - on the same side - Contralateral - on the opposite side Parts of the brain - Cerebrum - the largest part of brain - Conducts more complex mental activities - Surface has many convolutions that increase the surface area of the brain and give a means of mapping regions - Gyri - rolls - Form the foliding out portion of the cortex - Sulci are valleys in the convolutions - Fissures are deeper than sulci - Lobes of the cerebrum - Frontal lobes - (what makes you you) - Broca’s area - reception of language - Considered our emotional control center and helps our personality - Involve motor function, problem solving, spontaneity, memory, language, initiation judgement, impulse control, and social and sexual behavior - Motor cortex - located in the back of the frontal lobes - Focuses with the integration of activities performed by skeletal muscles and initiates movements - Divided by the central sulcus - Parietal lobes - located at the top and back of the brain - Somatosensory region (body) - the anterior part of the parietal lobes where info regarding stimulation of parts of the body is received - Occipital lobes - helps with visional info (seeing) - - Auditory cortex - involved in hearing and smelling/taste - - - Located in the back and bottom of the brain Buried within the lateral sulcus in the temporal lobes Temporal lobe - involved understanding speech/language - The left frontal cortex is important for language comprehension - Wernicke’s area - delivering the languages Brain = contralateral (left controls right, and right controls left) Module 12 - Lateralization of function of the Human brain - Electrical stimulation (EBS) - stocking your brain - Is done by sending a weak electrical current to a specific part of the brain to activate it. Most of this research is done with animals - Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) - allows scientists to depress or enhance activity in one area of the brain. This allows them to learn more about the different brain functions. - Split-brain patients (patients who have undergone a commissurotomy, a procedure when a surgeon surgically severs the corpus callosum, which is the bundle of nerve fibers which join the two hemispheres of the brain) can be studied. This is done in some ppl to control epilepsy - Drugs are administered so they affect activity of half the brain - Dichotic listening is used to investigate selective attention in the auditory system and the ability to accurately identify the sounds - Left hemisphere (logical reasoning) - Involves speech, reading and writing (verbal processing) - Wernicke’s area (controls language comprehension) is located in the left temporal lobe - Damage to this area can result in problems language comprehension - Werknicke’s aphasia results from damage to this and related areas of the brain. Ppl with it can experience speech problems - Contralateral representation (opposite sides of the brain) - Left somatosensory cortex registers tactile (touch) sensations from the right side of the body, while the right somatosensory cortex registers tactile sensations from the left side of the brain - Right hemisphere (emotion) - empathic reasoning - Specialized for important roles in nonverbal communication such as spatial tasks and musical and visual recognition (configuration and pattern) - Use to perceptions of others’ emotion - Lateralization of experience and expression of emotions are more complex. Negative emotions seem to activate the right hemisphere, while positive emotions are associated with great activity in the left hemisphere - Corpus callosum and split-brain subjects - Routes info from one hemisphere to the other. Each hemisphere controls connections to ad communicates with the opposite side of the body - When the corpus callosum is severed, the functional specialization of each hemisphere is evident Module 13 - Evolutionary psychology - the shaping by natural selection as genetic variations increasing the odds of survival/reproduction - Charles Darwin - made theory of natural selection - Mutations - (new genetics lineup/combination) random error in gene replication - Evolutionary explanation of human sexuality - Heterosexual males - more likely to show interest in women - Males often go for older women (mature in reproducing) - Women attracted to men who appear successful/strong (ex - height) - Social Scripts - help us guide to how people should act in certain situations (influenced by watching and imitating others in your culture AP Psychology Module 13 - Behavioral genetics - transmission of hereditary characteristics is achieved by biological processes (including gametogenesis, fertilization, embryonic development, and protein synthesis) - Chromosomes carry info stored in genes to new cells during cell division (reproduction) Humans normally have 46 chromosomes - Females - xx chromosomes (23) - Males - xy chromosomes (23) - If a person gets on uneven am puberty - DNA - a complex molecule consisting of the genetic information that makes up the chromosomes - Genes - the biochemical units of heredity that that make up the chromosomes; segments of DNA capable of synthesizing proteins - Genome - (the overall structure) (how the dna will come together with the amino acids) - blueprint - The complete instructions for making an organism, consisting of all the genetic material in that organism’s chromosomes - Sexual development disorders - - - - Turner syndrome - females have only one X sex chromosome (shown in puberty) - will give the female of webbed neck, lacking of ovaries and failing to develop secondary sex characteristics at puberty - Klinefelter syndrome - males arise from a XXY zygote. (also shown in puberty) reproduction doesn’t work, development of breast tissue Twin Studies - Identical twins - have identical DNA since they formed from a single zygote (fertilized egg) - Identical twins reported similar personalities - Identical twins are much more alike in extraversion (outgoingness) and neuroticism (emotional instability) - Twins could be different if they produce different amounts of proteins - Fraternal twins - siblings formed from two different eggs - Compared with rates for fraternal twins, drinking and driving convictions are 12 times greater among those who have an identical twin with such a conviction - Genomes - different for each twin (height, personality, etc)\ Molecular behavior genetics - to find some of the many genes that together orchestrate complex traits such as body weight, sexual orientation, and impulsivity Epigenetics - genes reacting to our environment - studies the molecular mechanisms by which environments can trigger or block genetic expression - Genes as (ex - hot water activating a tea bag) active or inactive - Environmental factors (diet, drugs, living environment,and stress) can affect the epigenetic molecules that regulate gene expression - Ex - trauma , poverty, or malnutrition during a childhood could affect epigenetics