Neuroscience and The Brain

Neuroscience and Brain Structure * two main parts Foretrain Midbrain - brain stem and forebrain three main divisions. - hindbrain (part of brainstem). - midbrain (part of brainstem) Hindbrain - forebrain Neuroscience and the Divisions of the Brain • hind brain - regulates automatic activities such as breathing, heart beat, digestion mid brain Coordinates movement with sensory input related to arousal and tension Forebrain Cerebral cortex, more than 80% of neurons in CNS right hemisphere - Creativity, perceptual skills left hemisphere verbal and cognitive processes • limbic system located at base of forebrain - helps regulate emotional experiences, expressions, and our ability to learn and control impulses - involved with basic drives of sex, aggression, hunger thirst • related to psychopathology Limbic System • lobes of cerebral cortex frontal: thinking and reasoning abilities, memory, relating information from wond allowing us to engage in socially appropriate behaviors parietal: touch recognition Occipital integrates visual input - temporal: recognition of sights and Sounds, long-term memory Storage Implications of Neuroscience for Psychopathology. • localized brain lesions do not typically "cause" psychological disorders - Combination of other factors (eg., emotional, behavioral, environmental, etc.) Studies link increased brain activity in specific areas of brain to certain disorders - OCD: Frontal lobe psychotherapy is a less "aggressive" alternative to surgery or drug tx plasticity of central nervous system helps us adapt more readily to environment important for treatment psychological intervention CBT found to change (normauize) brain Structure and function in OCD prs measured by brain imaging Study has been replicated-supported psychosocial factors Interact with brain Structure and Function - NTs may affect one differently based on individual psychosocial factors Structure of NT's can be changed through learning and experience The Contributions of Behavioral and Cognitive Science Cognitive Science: how we acquire, process, store, and retrieve information Conditioning and cognitive processes - learning involves Complex cognitive and emotional processes Facilitates the learning of relationships among events in the environment ↳ we make predictions based on previous behavior and our emotional reaction to that experience time no need to relearn it every Learned Helplessness learning that occurs when we encounter Conditions or Situations that we have no control over my behavior has no effect in the environment, then I give up" - Stop trying to cope with situation Gne "decides" or "thinks" that they have little control over life Situations/stressors may or may not be true Can lead to depression. Social learning - modeling and observational learning learning through observation and imitation of the behavior of Other individuals and the consequences of that behavior Integration of others' experiences and Judgments of now this will affect oneself • prepared learning learning some associations more readily than others; adaptive for evolution "one trial learning": quickly learn to stay away Cognitive Science and the unconscious - implicit memory person cannot recall past events despite acting in response to them. ex: repression Studied through Stroop rest Shown words printed in different color ask to name Color that word is printed on vs. actual meaning of word Thoughts (Cognition). negative, self-referent thoughts can have a strong etiological impact: examples: "Im a failure" (depression-related) -"the world is dangerous and unpredictaude" (anxiety-related) The Role of Emotion in Psychopathology" • the nature of emotion is to elicit an action tendency to benave in a certain way (freeze), elicited by an external event (threat) and a feeling (terror), accompanied by a physiological response fight or flight response: physical rush of adrenacine that allows you to withstand (fight) or escape danger (flight) Emotions contribute to development or maintenance of psychopathology Terms to know • emotions: Short-lived, temporary State in reaction to an event • affect: momentary emotional tone that accompanies what you say or do laughing/happy when telling a joke (appropriate) Sad/mad after winning an oscar (inappropriate) - also used to describe general patterns of emotions positive vs. negative affect • mood: more persistent and lasting period of affect or emotionally. Chronic, may lead to a psychological disorder The Role of Emotion in Psychopathology • Components of emotion -behavior: communicates - physiology: emotional processing Cognition: appraisal and attribution example: fear B. Communicates danger P: fight or flight - C: "this is dangerous" Emotion and Its Contribution to Psychopathology Suppressing emotional responses increases sympathetic NS activity contributing to psychopathology Some may occur excessively or at the wrong time panic attacks, mania affect cognitive processes - hout empry us. hout full perspective if mood is positive, then your associations, interpretations, and impressions also tend to be positive Social Effects on Health and Behavior greater tt and frequency of social relationships is related to longer life expectancy reverse related to Shorter life expectancy • also protect against health and psychological disorders such as high blood pressure, depression, alcoholism, arthritis, low birth rate in newborns • life partners may die around same time Common and Physiology of Enotice Ap