Commack Schools
IB PSYCHOLOGY
Unit 2 Resource Packet:
Biological Level of Analysis
Name:_____________________________________________ Period:__________
IB Psychology SL Commack High School Mr. Stone
Please Note:
You are responsible for all information in this packet, supplemental handouts provided in class as well as your homework, and class discussions.
Name: _________________________________ Date: __________ Period: ___________
IB Psychology SL Unit 2: Biological L.O.A.
Introduction to the Parts of the Brian
Video: “The Brain”
Directions: Using the information gained from the video “The Brain” and your knowledge of
psychology answer the questions below.
1. How much does the human brain weigh?
2. What is the function of the brain stem?
3. What is the function of the limbic system?
4. What part of your brain responds to fear?
5. What are some biological responses to fear?
6. What is the function of the amygdala?
7. Explain/describe (in depth) how Navy Seals are trained for “high risk” situations.
8. What is the role of the frontal lobe?
9. What is a primal or “super fear” that many believe is programed into our heads? How must Navy Seals face this fear during training? Why do they do this?
10. How do reactions reach the brain and how fast do they get there?
11. Name two of the “Big Four”.
12. How does “goal setting” work?
13. Why should individuals practice and rehearse things in their minds?
14. What is “self-talk” and why is it important?
15. Is it possible to train your brain? Cite examples from the video.
16. What is dopamine? What role does it play in motivating us to do things?
18. What is the role of the striatum?
19. Why do some people “risk” more than others?
20. Is there such a thing as an “evil mind” (ex: think serial killers)?
21. In the study discussed, what differences are there in a psychopaths mind vs. a “regular” mind?
22. What is a “white collar” psychopath and how are their brains different?
23. What is nemonism and how does it work?
24. What is an autistic savant and how are their brains different?
25. Describe Clive’s life living with amnesia and explain why he is such a unique case.
26. What is the function of the hippocampus?
27. What is the difference between short term and long term memory?
28. What part of the brain deals with language?
29. What is brain plasticity?
30. How is sports performance related to brain function?
31. What is the function of the cerebellum?
32. Why does “practice make perfect?”
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Personal Reflections:
33. After learning about the different functions of the brain, which part do you believe to be the
most significant and why?
34. After learning about the different functions of the brain, which part do you believe to be the
least significant and why?
Name:_____________________________________ Date:_______________ Period: __________
IB Psychology SL Unit 2: Biological LOA
STRUCTURES AND FUNCTIONS
OF THE BRAIN
Directions:
With a partner, using your textbook, the internet and your knowledge of psychology you will create a detailed handout or Powerpoint in which you:
A. Define / Describe the words below and the role that each part of the brain plays.
B. Provide pictures, drawings and diagrams for better understanding.
a. If completing in a word document you can right click on the image and change the image layout so that the pictures will be embedded in the document and save space.
* Two useful site with a 3D image of the brain you may wish to use are:
TERMS:
1. Frontal Lobe
2. Temporal Lobe
3. Parietal Lobe
4. Occipital Lobe
5. Pons
6. Broca’s Area
7. Wernicke’s Area
8. Superior Temporal Gyrus
9. Spinal Cord
10. Medulla
11. Cerebellum
12. Corpus Callousm
13. Pineal Gland
14. Pituitary Gland
15. Hypothalamus
16. Thalmus
17. Neuron
18. Primary Motor Cotex
19. Primary Somatosensory Cortex
20. Limbic System
21. Hindbrain
22. Neural Plasticity
23. Dopamine & Serotonin
24. Hippocampus
25. Amygdala
Name:_____________________________________ Date:_______________ Period: __________
IB Psychology SL Unit 2: Biological LOA
The Biological Level of Analysis
Aim:
What are the main ideas and assumptions surrounding the biological level of analysis?
Do Now:
In what ways do you believe your behavior is connected to your biological makeup?
Introduction:
Ideas behind the biological approach:
o _______________________________________
▪ Brain processes, neurotransmitters, hormones and genes
o _______________________________________
▪ “Environment brings out what genetics lay down”
o _______________________________________
o _______________________________________
▪ The idea that behavior is bi-directional
Main Assumptions or Principles:
These assumptions cannot be proven true, but are believed to underline theory and
research in biological psychology.
All that is psychological is first physiological; therefore behavior can be biologically explained (neurotransmitters, hormones, genes…etc.)
a. Psychologists today reject the idea the mind exists ____________________ of the physical ______________. When you are thinking, the brain is doing something important in the background that becomes fundamental to_________________.
Behavior can be innate because it’s genetically based (evolution may play a key role in behavior
a. __________________ are important but not the whole story. The expression of genes depends on the interaction between ____________________________ and other genes.
b. In this way behavior is “bidirectional” and psychologists emphasize inherited factors (evolution).
Animal Research can provide insight into human behavior.
a. The use of animals is easily criticized but because of modern __________________________ they allow
us to carry out research and imply correlations between other species and ourselves.
Historical Context of the Behavioral Perspective - Ancient Cultures:
I. Egyptians: thought that the ________________ and ______________, and not the brain were the vital organs.
II. Hippocrates :(400BC) emphasized that the brain was organ of intellect, controlled senses & movement and that lesions produced a contralateral effect.
III. PLATO: philosophized “__________________,” a belief that certain skills and abilities are hard-wired to humans at birth.
IV. Galen: (2nd century BC) was the first experimental physiologist and concluded that the _________________________ were the ‘seat of soul.’
Modern Influences:
I. Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
← Proposed the concept of “_______________ – that the mind and body, formally thought of separate entities, as linked via the pineal gland
▪ Famous Quote: “___________________________”
← Believed that through scientific experimentation and observation one can gain insight
← Thought that human action is simply a mechanical reflex to environmental stimuli
← Believed that sense organs transmit excitation to the brain in the form of ______________, followed by an excitation response back to particular muscles.
II. Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828)
← “_______________________”- the idea that one can discern the characteristics of an individual's behavior from measuring the contours of one's head.
← Gall believed the bumps on the skull represented specific personality characteristics.
← Suggested that the brain was divided into ______________________________.
← Each organ supposedly corresponded to a discrete human faculty
← Promoted the concept of _________________________________ within the brain.
III. Sir Charles Sherrington (1857-1952)
← Discovered that reflexes are composed of direct connections between _________________ and _______________ nerve fibers at the level of the spinal cord.
← Developed the idea that the nervous system is both ______________ and _______________
← Also famous for his work on ___________________________a term which he coined)
← He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1932
IV. Santiago Ramon y Cajal (1852-1934)
← Considered to be one of the founders of neuroscience.
← Suggested that neurons communicate with each other via specialized junctions called _________________(Charles Sherrington, 1897).
← This hypothesis became the basis of the neurondoctrine, which states that the individual unit of the nervous system is a single neuron.
← He shared the Nobel Prize in 1906 with Camillo Golgi
VI. Jean-Pierre Flourens (1794-1867)
← First experimental studies on ______________________ and their effect on the brain
← Worked mostly on cats, rabbits and pigeons
← No specific areas found, but noted that different lesions caused different negative effects.
← His intention ______________________________________________ originally proposed by Franz Joseph Gall.
VII. The Case Study of Phineas Gage (1823-1860)
← Infamous case study in which an injury to the _________________________ caused a massive shift in the emotions of Gage.
Notes from Video Clip(s):
Name:_____________________________________ Date:_______________ Period: __________
IB Psychology SL Unit 2: Biological LOA
Localization of Function In The Brain
Aim:
In what ways has research proved localization of function in the brain?
Do Now:
In what ways do you believe parts of your brain can act independently
of one another?
Localization of Function In The Brain:
← ________________________________ suggests that different areas in the brain are specialized for different functions.
← Previous researchers postulated it (claim it to be true) and tested it without great success.
← Today…research shows that ___________________________ allows the brain to adapt and diminishes the idea of rigid localization of function.
Studies Related to Localization of Function:
I. Paul Broca (1824-1880)
← In 1861 in an insane asylum, Broca demonstrated that the cause of a man’s language deficit was due to a lesion in an area now named _____________________________.
← He arrived at this discovery by studying the brains of aphasic patients.
← _________________________: an impairment of language which occurs when someone suffers injury to the language areas of the brain
← His first patient in the Bicêtre Hospital was, nicknamed "Tan" due to his inability to clearly speak any words other than "tan".
← This research spawned a movement to artificially cause lesions in subjects and observe the effects.
II. Carl Wernicke (1848-1905)
← He found that damage to the left posterior, superior temporal gyrus
← Patients with this could produce speech, but could not understand it (deficits in ___________________________________.
← This deficit later became known as _______________________________.
← Supported that idea of localization of function
** Main Difference: Broca's aphasia results from damage to the front portion of the language dominant side of the brain. Wernicke's aphasia results from damage to the back portion of the language dominant side of the brain. **
← Post-mortem studies of people who suffered strokes continue to illustrate Broca’s
and Wernicke’s hypotheses.
← Together Broca and Wernicke showed that localization of function was indeed
true and demanded further study!
III. Roger Sperry (1913-1994)
← “Split –Brain Experiments” - carried out experiments in which the _________________________ was severed to further support the idea of functional specialization of the hemispheres.
← It was believed to be the only cure for a severe form of epilepsy, yet it was discovered that the brain can still learn.
← Found that images shown to the right hemisphere can be recalled but not the other way around.
← Illustrated the concept of _____________________________.
← Won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1981
IV. Michael Gazzaniga (1939 – Current):
▪ Worked under the guidance of Roger Sperry.
▪ Current research carried out by Mike Gazzaniga suggests that these patients may have had abnormal brains to begin which decreases the ability to generalize results to all.
▪ Also damage to one localized area does not weaken behavior alone, there are other brain regions included in the overall processes.
▪ VIDEO CLIP: “The Man With Two Brains” (See Next Page to take notes…)
“The Man With Two Brains”
Notes from Video Clip:
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Name:_____________________________________ Date:_______________ Period: __________
IB Psychology SL Unit 2: Biological LOA
Localization of Function In The Brain
Aim: In what ways has research proved localization of function in the brain?
Do Now: Why is it important to analyze case studies?
Localization of Function: Intervention & Ethics:
o Much of what was learned early on was done by intentionally causing damage or harm to the patient or subject. However, much was learned.
o Today, current researchers are under much more strict guidelines (Think back to the APA Ethical Guidelines discusses in Unit 1)
What do you think - Did the end justify the means?
Robert Heath:
← In the 1950’s he conducted an experiment in which patients who were depressed were electrically stimulated in an area of the brain called the “_____________________” (pleasure center).
← He let the patients administer the shocks themselves and found that the pleasure was so intense that certain patients (“B-19”) would shock themselves continually (1500 times in 3 hrs.) and had to forcibly be removed from the study.
James Olds (1950s):
← Using rats he set up an experiment in which pressing a lever would shock the “nucleus accumbens” of the rats (pleasurable).
← Rats would press lever over 2000 times/hour
← He found that some rats would even walk across an electrical grid on the floor just to reach the lever.
← This research has given us insight into _____________________________ and why is it so hard to diminish, yet many rats died in the process.
← Ethical? Would you change your response in the above box?
Modern Research on Localization: Bilingualism
← Early research suggests that language development is ____________________________
__________________________.
← Recent research (Hull and Vaid, 2006) shows that those who are bilingual seem to show more activity in both hemispheres (in areas involved w/language) over those who are monolinguistic.
← This difference in brain area is heightened if the 2nd language was learned early on due to the brain’s _____________________________________.
Name:_____________________________________ Date:_______________ Period: __________
IB Psychology SL Unit 2: Biological LOA
HM: A Case Study
Memory is a wonderful and intriguing topic. Often without even noticing memories play a substantial part in our lives and are involved in our everyday lives. The ability to remember information about our work and tasks we need complete, to remember things about our past, where we lived, who we’ve met and experiences we’ve had are just some examples of what we can remember. We make use of memories often. This often occurs on a daily basis, for example, remembering how to drive a car, a family member’s birthday, the time of an important meeting. There are many examples of how we use our memories. This is one of the reasons that memory as a research field is so fascinating. It is a vast area including theories about how we remember, how we recall information, memory for different types of information and events and so on. It is an exciting field to be involved in and studying how we remember information, people, and events can be a highly rewarding experience.
Theories and ideas about how memory works are informed by several lines of inquire including laboratory experiments and case studies. Laboratory experiments provide a wealth of information. However, case studies can be particular insightful, and typically these do not tend to come around very often. One such case study which has played a key role in our understanding of memory, the role of the brain and specific structures in memory and the effect of damage to brain regions is that of H.M. This is perhaps one of the most well known case studies in memory, and psychology in general. It is also well known outside of the field of psychology.
Henry Molaison was known in the literature as H.M. (in order to protect his identity) until his death in December 2008. H.M. was born in 1926, an only child, and from a working class background. Between the ages of 10 and 16 H.M. experienced minor epileptic seizures. However, from the age of 16 these became major epileptic seizures. The seizures impacted upon his life and eventually he was unable to continue working [1]. A number of treatments were tried including anticonvulsant medication in the hope of reducing the number of and the severity of his seizures. These treatments were largely unsuccessful.
As the other treatments had been unsuccessful, in 1953, at the age of 27, H.M. underwent brain surgery. The surgery was performed by Dr. William Beecher Scoville. The decision to undergo brain surgery was not taken lightly and was something of a last resort in terms of his treatment. Extensive consultation took place prior to the surgery being completed [1]. During the surgery a bilaterial, medial temporal lobe section [1] [2] was completed. Specifically, the prepyriform gyrus, uncus, amygdala, hippocampus, and parahippocampal gyrus were removed [1].
In one way the surgery was successful – the seizures were less severe and occurred less often. However there was a significant side effect – H.M.’s memory had been affected, specifically H.M. suffered from anterograde amnesia. Following the surgery, Dr Scoville noticed this and contacted Wilder Penfield and Brenda Milner at the Montreal Neurological Institute. This led to the publication of Scoville and Milner’s paper [3], which has been hugely influential in the field and has been cited widely since then. H.M. then returned home to live with his parents [1]. Dr Scoville noted the severity of the side effects of the surgery and following this suggested that this procedure was no longer used [4] in the hope of ensuring that this type of surgery was not completed again [1]. Following the operation a large amount of research has been conducted with H.M. which has provided invaluable information on memory. Since the surgery H.M. has participated in a number of research projects and worked with several researchers including Brenda Milner and Suzanne Corkin.
In general, H.M. was unable to remember things which had occurred following his surgery. There was also some impact of his memory prior to the surgery. This is a generalization, and there are of course exceptions. For example, he was able to draw an image of the house he had lived in 1958 (5 years after his brain surgery) [5] and knew that astronauts went into space [1].
The above drawing was made by HM in 1966. He also drew the house in 1977, even after he’d moved house in 1974. This suggests that H.M was able to remember something’s which had occurred following the surgery. The impact on his memory however affected his daily life; he often lived with a family member or in a home, and often needed help with certain aspects of daily life for example having to be reminded to shave [1].
The loss of the ability to remember information has a large impact of every aspect of our lives. Research with H.M. clearly demonstrates how important our memories are. The study of H.M. has furthered our understanding of memory. Researching case studies is one way of examining memory and is beneficial both in terms of learning more about memory disorders and memory in general. Following his death in December 2008 at the age of 82 H.M.’s brain was taken to the ‘Brain Observatory’ (University of California, San Diego) [6]. Currently researchers at the ‘Brain Observatory’ including the founder Jacopo Annese are examining H.M.’s brain. The brain will be examined in great detail. Even following his death H.M. continues to play a role in our understanding of memory.
Suzanne Corkin notes that “neuroscientists of present and future generation are indebted to H.M. for his ongoing contributions to knowledge” (Corkin, 1984, p. 258). Findings from research with H.M. have played a role for students and researchers since then. H.M. has made a valuable and exceptional contribution to memory research and psychology. For over 40 years H.M. took part in research, and helped develop our understanding of memory. Even following his death he continues to do so. We now understand much more about the roles of brain, specific structures in the brain which are involved in memory, the impact of such surgery or trauma on memory. These are all things which H.M. played a part in. It is doubtful that H.M. knew the full extent to the impact he had, but none the less the case study of H.M. has aided our understanding of memory in a very significant way.
References
1. Corkin, S. (1984). Lasting Consequences of Bilaterial Medial Temporal Lobectomy: Clinical Course and Experimental Findings in H.M., Seminars in Neurology, 4 (2), 249-259.
2. Scoville, W.B. et al. (1953). Observations of Medial Temporal Lobotmy and Uncotomy in the Treatment of Psychotic States, Proc Assoc Res Nerv Ment Dis, 31, 347-369.
3. Scoville, W.B., & Milner, B. (1957). Loss of Recent Memory after Bilateral Hippocampal Lesions, J. Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry, 20, 11-21.
4. Scoville, W.B. (1968). Amnesia after Bilateral Mesial Temporal-Lobe Excision: Introduction to Case H.M., Neuropsychologia, 6, 211-213.
5. Corkin., S. (2002). What’s New with the Amnesic Patient HM?, Nature Reviwes, Neuroscience, 3, 153-160.
6. Brain Observatory, available from [accessed 23/2/2012].
Name: ____________________________________ Date: _______________ Period: ________________
IB Psychology SL Mr. Stone Unit 2: Biological LOA
Case Study of H.M.
Overview: Henry Molaison (1926 -2008), known by thousands of psychology students as "HM," [until after his death in 2008] lost his memory on an operating table in a hospital in Hartford, in August 1953. He was 27 years old and had suffered from epileptic seizures for many years.
William Beecher Scoville, a Hartford neurosurgeon, stood above an awake Henry and skilfully suctioned out the seahorse-shaped brain structure called the hippocampus that lay within each temporal lobe. Henry would have been drowsy and probably didn't notice his memory vanishing as the operation proceeded. The operation was successful in that it significantly reduced Henry's seizures, but it left him with a dense memory loss. When Scoville realized his patient had become amnesic, he referred him to the eminent neurosurgeon, Dr. Wilder Penfield and neuropsychologist Dr. Brenda Milner of Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) who assessed him in detail. Up until then it had not been known that the hippocampus was essential for making memories, and that if we lose both of them we will suffer a global amnesia. Once this was realized, the findings were widely publicized so that this operation to remove both hippocampi would never be done again.
Penfield and Milner had already been conducting memory experiments on other patients and they quickly realized that Henry's dense amnesia, his intact intelligence, and the precise neurosurgical lesions made him the perfect experimental subject. For 55 years Henry participated in numerous experiments, primarily at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where Professor Suzanne Corkin and her team of neuropsychologists assessed him. Access to Henry was carefully restricted to less than 100 researchers but the MNI and MIT studies on HM taught us much of what we know about memory.
Source:
We are able to get a unique look into the case study of H.M. by analyzing the transcripts from some of the interviews H.M. took part in. Please note this NPR report was released in 2007, PRIOR to Henry Molaison’s death, which is why he is just referred to as H.M. – his name was not released until after his death in December 2008. As presented through NPR. On the next few pages you will be able to get to know more about this historic case study.
H.M.'s Brain and the History of Memory
In 1953, radical brain surgery was used on a patient with severe epilepsy. The operation on "H.M." worked, but left him with almost no long-term memory. H.M. is now in his 80s. His case has helped scientists understand much more about the brain.
Source (with audio):
Copyright © 2007 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
SCOTT SIMON, host:
Fifty years ago this month, the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry published the findings of a remarkable case. A young man who had undergone an experimental brain operation had lost his ability to retain new memories. He could remember things from his life before the operation but any new face or fact, he completely forgot within minutes. Researchers at that time studied him. And it turns out their discoveries opened the modern era of memory research, what's involved every time we say I remember. That young man is now in his 80s. And as Brian Newhouse reports, scientists are still learning from him.
(Soundbite of crickets)
BRIAN NEWHOUSE: If you close your eyes and just listen for a moment, you may find yourself going somewhere, back in memory. Back maybe to a farm or a park or a lake. Other sounds may make those memories sharpen or change. Add still more and you may start to see particular faces or even smell wood smoke. Remember?
(Soundbite of laughter)
NEWHOUSE: This is the power of memory, the system that captures pictures, smells, sounds, events, directions - endless amounts of information every day and then seconds or decades later calls it up for us. Memories - what we've learned and what we've done - in a large sense make us who we are. To appreciate this, think if your ability to form any new memories were suddenly cut off.
Who would you be? By studying people who've lost their memories, scientists have learned enormous amounts about how learning and memory work in healthy brains. And what they used to think was relatively straightforward they've since found it's fascinatingly complex, thanks in large part to one man.
He's the most famous patient in the study of the human brain today. He's written up in textbooks and dozens of scientific papers. The modern era of memory research essentially began with him, yet very few people know his name or have ever seen him, despite the efforts of journalists, filmmakers and TV networks, all of whom have asked to photograph, film or interview him. Outside the circle of his family and caregivers, he's known only by his initials, H.M. His guardians recently agreed to release audio recordings made of him in the early 1990s talking to scientists. This is the first time a wide audience has been able to hear his voice.
Dr. BRENDA MILNER (McGill University) : When you're not at MIT, what do you do during a typical day?
H.M. (Patient): See, that's what I don't - I don't remember things.
Dr. MILNER: Uh-huh.
H.M. was a very pleasant normal young man, but he had suffered from very severe epilepsy all his life, really. It made him unable to hold down his job as an assembly worker. It made him very late in finishing high school, although he was quite intelligent.
NEWHOUSE: Brenda Milner is a British-born neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal who first met H.M. in the mid-1950s.
Dr. MILNER: He had huge major and minor seizures, you know, huge convulsions, and also many, many lapses of consciousness every few minutes. He was in a very, very hopeless condition with his epilepsy.
NEWHOUSE: Dr. Milner came to know H.M. after Connecticut neurosurgeon William Beecher Scoville performed an experimental operation to help relieve H.M.'s seizures. Dr. Scoville thought if he could remove the part of H.M.'s brain where the seizures originated, it might stop them.
Dr. MILNER: And this operation was carried out when - in '53, 1953, September - when H.M. was 27. The operation did have an enormously beneficial effect on the epilepsy so that H.M. has maybe now one big seizure a year, and so the clinical hunch about the epilepsy was justified. But at obviously a horrendous price.
(Soundbite of piano)
Dr. MILNER: Who is the president of the United States now?
H.M.: That I don't - I couldn't tell you. I don't remember exactly at all.
Dr. MILNER: Is it a man or a woman?
H.M.: I think it's a man.
Dr. MILNER: His initials are G.B. Does that help?
H.M.: No, it doesn't help.
(Soundbite of piano)
NEWHOUSE: The horrendous price that H.M. paid was a severe case of amnesia. Not the amnesia of Hollywood, where a person forgets everything about his past, but in H.M. it's his ability to acquire new memories, to commit to memory even the simplest events of his day or the world around him, and then to effectively retrieve those memories. Put a finger above your ear. If you were able to push that finger into your head about two inches, you'd be in the area called the medial temporal lobe. There's one on each side of the brain. In the 1950s, Dr. Scoville theorized that these were the general areas involved in H.M.'s epilepsy. But in trying to alleviate H.M.'s seizures, Dr. Scoville removed most of the medial temporal lobes, including much of the hippocampus. This unintentional experiment showed that the hippocampus and medial temporal lobes are where the brain converts short term memory into long term memory.
Dr. MILNER: Do you know what you did yesterday?
H.M.: No, I don't.
Dr. MILNER: How about this morning?
H.M.: I don't even remember that.
Dr. MILNER: Could you tell me what you had for lunch today?
H.M.: I don't know, to tell you the truth.
NEWHOUSE: H.M.'s condition has also helped scientists understand how and where the brain processes different types of memory. Scientists now know that some brain structures are involved in things like phone numbers we keep only for a few seconds, while others deal with the day's appointments. And still others determine which childhood experiences will stay with us until we die. Now, when you can't remember what you did yesterday or had for lunch today, how do you build a life? Unfortunately, there's been no silver bullet for H.M. Holding a job or even having friends, normal things for most of us with working memories, have been beyond him. H.M. is now in his early 80s and living in a Connecticut nursing home. And he is still what doctor's call profoundly amnesic.
Dr. Brenda Milner studied and tested H.M.'s memory for years after his surgery. In the early 1960's she asked Suzanne Corkin, a young American neuroscientist working in her lab, to help. Dr. Corkin, now at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has interview H.M. many times since then.
Dr. SUZANNE CORKIN (MIT): He is in my PhD thesis and I have followed his progress for the last 43 years. And he still doesn't know who I am.
NEWHOUSE: Despite H.M.'s difficulties with creating new memories, his old ones from his childhood are intact, especially about major world events.
Dr. MILNER: What happened in 1929?
H.M.: The stock market crashed.
Dr. MILNER: It sure did.
NEWHOUSE: H.M.'s clear memory of events before his surgery showed that although the hippocampus was necessary to make new long term memories, it wasn't needed to retrieve old ones. In the mid-1950's the surgeon Dr. Scoville was mortified to discover that his operation had ruined so much of H.M.'s memory, even though it did relieve H.M.'s epilepsy and probably saved his life. Afterward, Dr. Scoville campaigned widely against the procedure. So H.M. is what scientists call an N(ph) of one. He is the only patient whose had this operation. That makes H.M. unique in science today. But that's not the only thing, or even the most important. Again, Dr. Corkin.
Dr. CORKIN: One thing that still fascinates us today is the fact that in real life, in spite of his profound amnesia, he is able to learn a meager amount of semantic information, knowledge about public figures, people who became famous after his operation. The fact that he can remember anything at all is just enough to make the experimenter fall right off her chair.
(Soundbite of piano)
Dr. MILNER: How about 1963? Someone was assassinated.
H.M.: He'd been a president.
Dr. MILNER: That's right.
H.M.: And he was assassinated.
Dr. MILNER: What was his name?
H.M.: He had been, like you said, he had been a president.
Dr. MILNER: His initials are JFK.
H.M.: Kennedy.
Dr. MILNER: That's right. What was his first name?
H.M.: John.
Dr. CORKIN: The other day, I was talking to a nurse in his nursing home, just asking her a few questions about him. And after we talked, she went into his room and she said, Oh, I was just talking to a friend of yours from Boston, Dr. Corkin. And H.M. said, Suzanne?
(Soundbite of laughter)
Dr. CORKIN: Now, this is really astonishing. Now, he doesn't know who I am. He doesn't know what I do or what my connection is with him. But he has learned to associate my first name and my last name. And that was another surprise for all of us.
NEWHOUSE: Somehow the man who couldn't form new memories had found a way to learn new things. It was a remarkable discovery that radically altered our understanding of how learning and memory work. Before H.M., doctors believed there was a single memory store through which all information moved and was processed, and that it all resided in one spot in the brain, what you might call a single address.
Now, based on what they've learned from H.M., doctors understand memory to be much more dynamic than that. They found that the brain has several different memory systems. We use what's called declarative memory any time we say I remember, and then recall that we had cereal for breakfast, or that the capital of Illinois is Springfield, or that these two notes on the piano are C and D.
(Soundbite of piano)
NEWHOUSE: The other kind of memory is non-declarative. It's what we use to tie our shoes, ride a bike, or how to play the C-scale smoothly without thinking of the individual notes.
Again, Dr. Corkin.
Dr. CORKIN: We believe that when you remember something it's really an active process. You're not tuning into a few cells in your brain where a particular memory is stored. What you're really doing is creating a memory based on information that you have stored in many parts of your brain. Now, since H.M.'s operation, we know that there are multiple long term memory systems in the brain that have different addresses. I think his case inspired clinicians and scientists all over the world to find their H.M. and to make amazing discoveries. So it's sort of an ongoing adventure of the human mind and the human brain.
NEWHOUSE: Despite those discoveries, scientists admit they still don't know how it all works, how memories are culled from different parts of the brain and fused together. What they have learned, though, is that the brain's processes are far more intricate than they ever thought. And much of the credit for that goes to patient H.M. Even though H.M. can't look back over a lifetime of rich memories, his spirit seems untouched by that deficit in his brain.
Dr. CORKIN: What do you think you'll do tomorrow?
H.M.: Whatever is beneficial.
Dr. CORKIN: Good answer. Are you happy?
H.M.: Yes. Well, the way I figure it is, what they find out about me helps them to help other people.
NEWHOUSE: For NPR News, this is Brian Newhouse.
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Put in LeVay Article
Name:_____________________________________ Date:_______________ Period: __________
IB Psychology SL Mr. Stone Unit 2: Biological LOA
Sexual Orientation: The Biological Basis
Directions: After reading the journal article “A Difference in Hypothalamic Structure between Heterosexual and Homosexual Men” by Simon LeVay answer the following questions. This article outlines LeVay’s controversial study trying to explain the origin of sexual orientation and give insight to the nature vs. nurture debate.
1. Who is the author of this study? _______________________________________
2. When was this article written? ________________________________________
a. Do you think that since this article was written new evidence supports or refutes the author’s results.
___________________________________________________________________
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3. What part of the brain is being investigated in trying to determine whether or not there is a
biological basis for sexual orientation?
___________________________________________________________________
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4. Was there any flaw in determining which sample was chosen to investigate the hypothalamic
differences in heterosexuals vs. homosexuals?
___________________________________________________________________
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___________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________
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5. What are INAH 2 & INAH 3? According to this study how are they associated with sexual
orientation?
___________________________________________________________________
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6. How does this article help support the biological perspective of psychology?
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Name:_____________________________________ Date:_______________ Period: __________
IB Psychology SL Mr. Stone Unit 2: Biological LOA
The Nervous System
Aim: What is the nature and basic function of the nervous system?
Do Now: Describe what you observed during the class experiment.
I. Neurotransmission and Behavior:
← Nerve cells, or “neurons” are the building blocks of behavior.
← There are more than 10,000,000,000 neurons in the brain, which make up the
“Nervous System.”
← Divided into two parts:
1. ______________________________________
- brain and spinal cord)
2. ______________________________________
- all other neurons or “peripheral” nerves – includes all the nerves outside the Brain and Spinal Cord aka everything but the Central Nervous System) Connections to muscles and organs of the body. *Think all other nerves (foot, hands, stomach, etc)*
II. Neurons that carry information towards the CNS are called “________________________” and those that carry info away from CNS to other parts of the body are called “__________________________” neurons
III. The Breakdown:
← Neurons send electrochemical messages to the brain so that people can respond to “_________________”
← An electrical impulse travels down an “_______________” and transmits the signal to the next neuron by “_______________________” across the “_____________”
← Neurotransmitters can be either _________________ or _______________:
← Effect mood, memory, sexual arousal and mental illnesses.
← Drugs have been created to mimic or impact the actions of these chemicals!
IV. How the System Works and Interacts:
a. ____________________ – A nerve cell; neurons transmit electrical and chemical information (via neurotransmitters) throughout the body.
i. Sensory, Motor and Interneurons
ii. No two neurons are the same, over 200 billion cells in brain
iii. Main components of the neuron
1. Cell body or ___________ (Greek word for body)
a. Spherical or pyramidal in shape, contains the ___________
b. Synthesizes enzymes for cell function, neurotransmitters and other nutrients
2. ____________________
a. Parts of neuron that _____________ information from the axons of other neurons.
b. Receive this signal from other neurons or the environment
3. ___________________
a. Part of the neuron that carries messages ___________ from the cell to the dendrites on another neuron.
b. Longer and thinner than dendrites
c. Covered with ________________: this increases neuron efficiency and provides insulation.
|Neurotransmittes |Effect |
|Acetylcholine |Muscle contraction, and a role in the development of memory in the hippocampus |
|Dopamine |Voluntary movement, learning and feelings of pleasure (nucleus accumbens); often associated with |
| |schizophrenia |
|Norepinephrine (noradrenaline) |Arousal, alertness and stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system |
|Serotonin |Sleep, arousal levels and emotion; often associated with depression |
|GABA |Main NT of the brain |
Food and Mood: “You are what you eat”:
← Food impacts how Neurotransmitters function in the brain which in turn affects behavior.
← Incorrect amounts of Neurotransmitters leads to neuron miscommunication which risks increased mental illnesses such as depression.
← Case in point: Serotonin
← serotonin is linked to depression, antisocial behavior, autism, anxiety, addictions and eating disorders
← found in the brain but made in the gut, it requires the amino acid “__________________________” to be produced.
← Diets should be balanced because a lack of nutrients can lead to over active or under active Neurotransmitters.
← SSRI’s: (Selective Serotonin Re-Uptake Inhibitors) the most commonly prescribed drugs in America (almost 1 in 10 adults) SSRI’s have shown great progress in mood disorders like depression. However, some patients have shown side effects like increased aggression, Serotonin Syndrome and even brought to suicide (Lambrou, 2012).
Name:_____________________________________ Date:_______________ Period: __________
IB Psychology SL Mr. Stone Unit 2: Biological LOA
Technology in Brain Research
Aim:
To what extent has the advancements in technology allowed researchers to
better understand the brain?
Do Now:
What reasons would a brain scan be done? Have you, or do you know
of anyone who has had one done?
Brain Technology:
← Extensively used because it allows us to study the ‘active’ brain, allowing us to determine ___________________________ to very specific brain parts.
← Brain imaging only allows us to make correlations between brain activity and ____________________.
← Early experiments, which was mostly done on animals used “invasive techniques”:
▪ ________________ – removing brain areas “lobotomy”
▪ ________________ – scarring brain tissue
Interesting Study:
In 1942, Hetherington & Ranson lesioned a part of the brain in rats called the ventromedial hypothalamus. They found that the rats would continuously eat until their weight doubled, illustrating the hypothalamus acts as a brake to binge eating.
Advantages of Ablation/Lesion in Animal Research:
← Allows us to understand how the brain functions without having to wait for naturally occurring damages.
← Under anaesthetic, an animal’s head can be held in a fixed position in what is termed a ___________________________ to insert an electrode into a particular location in the brain so that you can investigate an exact correlate of behavior .
← Compares behavior before the brain damage and afterwards.
← The researcher passes an electrical current through the electrode, which produces heat that destroys a small portion of the brain around the tip of the electrode.
← After a few days, the animal recovers from the operation, and the researchers can assess its behavior.
Disadvantages of Ablation/Lesion in Animal Research:
← Perhaps limited what such studies can tell about the human brain
← You cannot be absolute sure that behavioral changes are only due only to __________________________
← There may be ethical issues in using this technique – what do you think?
Modern Technology:
“Exploring the brain without removing it from it’s owner!”
1. EEG (Electroencephalogram)
1. Record _____________________ on the surface of
the brain “brainwaves” (sleep, emotions, epilepsy)
2. However, does not give insight to deeper brian
regions, nor can it illustrate actual functioning
2. PET (Positron Emission Topography)
1. Monitors ___________________________ in the brain. Patient is injected with radioactive glucose and scanner detects it, creating colored images of the brain.
2. Useful in many aspects of diagnosis: mental illnesses, the effects of drugs, normal vs. abnormal brains, sex differences.
3. fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging)
1. Most widely accepted and used by psychologists fMRI provides ____________________________ structures using ______________ and _____________________________.
2. Shows actual brain activity when engaged in behavior by using BOLD (blood-oxygen-level-dependent). Blood releases oxygen to active neurons faster than to inactive neurons, so that is how can observe which part is active or “lighting up”.
3. Psychologists make strong claims about memory, emotion, and consumer preferences based on fMRI scans.
Studies that challenge the accuracy of fMRI scanning…
← Researchers claimed to have located the physical markers for _____________ out of group of 30 studies…., but did not control the fact that many of the participants were on Ritalin which in and of itself can cause certain physical markers in the brains (Dobbs, 2005).
Criticisms:
← There has been criticism of explaining behavior this way because it is so “reductionist”
← Many Question - Can a complex behavior like love be explained by the interactions of dopamine, norepinephrine and oxytocin?
← Most psychologists know they play a role but do not attribute behavior solely to them.
Daily Technology – “Techno Brain Burnout?”
← Some claim that increased technology leads to greater stress in our lives which has been linked to higher incidences of depression (Jamison, 2009).
Interesting STUDY:
Small & Vorgan (2008) measured brain activity patterns using fMRI in computer naïve vs. savvy users. In the first test the computer savvy individuals showed greater activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex region when doing an Internet search. After instructing all participants to carry out Internet searches once in the next five days, the computer naïve individuals began to show the exact the same brain pattern. However, they go further in stating that too much technology has led us to increased stress because no longer do we focus on one thing, we are always on high alert looking for the next new bit of info or data.
What do you think?
Name:_____________________________________ Date:___________ Period: __________
IB Psychology SL Mr. Stone Unit 2: Biological LOA
“Reading Your Mind”:
Modern Brain Technology
Directions: As you watch the 60 minutes segment annotate any ideas that reflect the way in which technology has improved brain research. **Please Note: You will be referring to these notes in a reaction paper so be sure to include details! **
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Name:_____________________________________ Date:___________ Period: __________
IB Psychology SL Mr. Stone Unit 2: Biological LOA
Digital Brain: Reading This Will Change Your Brain
A leading neuroscientist says processing digital information can rewire your circuits. But is it evolution? Jeneen Interlandi: NEWSWEEK - October 14, 2008
Is technology changing our brains? A new study by UCLA neuroscientist Gary Small adds to a growing body of research that says it is. And according to Small's new book, "iBRAIN: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind," a dramatic shift in how we gather information and communicate with one another has touched off an era of rapid evolution that may ultimately change the human brain as we know it. "Perhaps not since early man first discovered how to use a tool has the human brain been affected so quickly and so dramatically," he writes. "As the brain evolves and shifts its focus towards new technological skills, it drifts away from fundamental social skills."
The impact of technology on our circuitry should not come as a surprise. The brain's plasticity—it's ability to change in response to different stimuli—is well known. Professional musicians have more gray matter in brain regions responsible for planning finger movements. And athletes' brains are bulkier in areas that control hand-eye coordination. That's because the more time you devote to a specific activity, the stronger the neural pathways responsible for executing that activity become. So it makes sense that people who process a constant stream of digital information would have more neurons dedicated to filtering that information. Still, that's not the same thing as evolution.
To see how the Internet might be rewiring us, Small and colleagues monitored the brains of 24 adults as they performed a simulated Web search, and again as they read a page of text. During the Web search, those who reported using the Internet regularly in their everyday lives showed twice as much signaling in brain regions responsible for decision-making and complex reasoning, compared with those who had limited Internet exposure. The findings, to be published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, suggest that Internet use enhances the brain's capacity to be stimulated, and that Internet reading activates more brain regions than printed words. The research adds to previous studies that have shown that the tech-savvy among us possess greater working memory (meaning they can store and retrieve more bits of information in the short term), are more adept at perceptual learning (that is, adjusting their perception of the world in response to changing information), and have better motor skills.
Small says these differences are likely to be even more profound across generations, because younger people are exposed to more technology from an earlier age than older people. He refers to this as the brain gap. On one side, what he calls digital natives—those who have never known a world without e-mail and text messaging—use their superior cognitive abilities to make snap decisions and juggle multiple sources of sensory input. On the other side, digital immigrants—those who witnessed the advent of modern technology long after their brains had been hardwired—are better at reading facial expressions than they are at navigating cyberspace. "The typical immigrant's brain was trained in completely different ways of socializing and learning, taking things step-by-step and addressing one task at a time," he says. "Immigrants learn more methodically and tend to execute tasks more precisely."
But whether natural selection will favor one skill set over the other remains to be seen. For starters, there's no reason to believe the two behaviors are mutually exclusive. In fact, a 2005 Kaiser study found that young people who spent the most time engaged with high-technology also spent the most time interacting face-to-face, with friends and family. And as Small himself points out, digital natives and digital immigrants can direct their own neural circuitry—reaping the cognitive benefits of modern technology while preserving traditional social skills—simply by making time for both.
In the meantime, modern technology, and the skills it fosters, is evolving even faster than we are. There's no telling whether future iterations of computer games, online communities and the like will require more or less of the traditional social skills and learning strategies that we've spent so many eons cultivating. "Too many people write about this as if kids are in one country and adults are in another," says James Gee, a linguistics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. What the future brain will look like is still anybody's guess.
[pic]URL:
Assignment:
Write a 2-3 page paper in APA formatting addressing the following questions or ideas:
Questions to be addressed in your paper:
1. What is this article trying to state about the human brain, and how today’s brain is arranged? Is learning today different than how “immigrants’ brains” learned?
2. Find one article or source that supports or refutes the idea that those who are digital or technologically savy – those who are able to “juggle multiple sources of sensory input” are better than those who are not technologically savy.
3. Is there a gap being created between those who spend time on computers or involved in technology and the development of social skills?
4. Relate this article to the 60 minutes video “Reading Your Mind” we watched in class on Modern Brain Technology by citing specific information from the video as it related to thins article. (Look back to your notes from the video).
5. How does this article support the biological perspective of psychology?
Name:_____________________________________ Date:___________ Period: __________
IB Psychology SL Mr. Stone Unit 2: Biological LOA
Video games are good for you
Critics say video games can make you angry, unresponsive and soft in the brain. But that's not the whole story. Some cognitive scientists argue they can also be good for you.
By Maryke Steffens
Video games have been blamed for everything from causing aggression to giving you square eyes and a soft brain.
But what if video games are good for you?
Physio and occupational therapists started using simple video games in the late 1980s to treat people with a whole range of conditions from physical, learning or emotional disorders to cognitive problems following stroke and brain injury.
Today, a growing area of brain research suggests modern fast-paced action video games — in particular first-person shooter games — may sharpen your vision, improve your attention and working memory, and develop your fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.
What's more, these skills aren't just virtual: they can help you do better in real-life situations, like driving your car or juggling more than one task at a time.
So what is it about blasting away your virtual enemies that's so good for your head?
Video games and plastic brains
Daphne Bavelier, professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester in the United States, has every teenage boy's dream job.
She and her team study fast-paced action video games like Medal of Honor, Unreal Tournament and Call of Duty.
They're looking for ways of training people's brains for use in rehabilitation programs, and to slow or even reverse the visual and cognitive decline that comes with ageing.
The problem they face is that most training is 'specific' — it helps you get better at the task at hand, but doesn't necessarily translate to general improvement in other areas of your life.
"When the environment changes a little bit, when the task changes a little bit, all your knowledge goes away. It's as if you were never trained," says Bavelier.
So Bavelier's team are looking for types of training that leads to more general learning.
These methods tend to tap into something called brain 'plasticity', the capacity of your brain to learn and change by increasing the number of connections between neurons and reorganising neural pathways.
Plasticity is essential to improving your cognitive abilities and maintaining mental fitness — and surprisingly, playing action video games seems to unlock this capacity.
"It seems that there is a lot more plasticity you can induce by playing video games than by training people with more classical methods," says Bavelier.
Gamers versus non-gamers
Specifically, video games seem to induce plasticity in the visual cortex — an area of the brain which influences how well you see and pay attention to objects in your visual field.
Bavelier and her colleagues have found that gamers are faster and more effective at filtering out irrelevant information and spotting targets in a cluttered scene. The size of their field of vision and their ability to track different moving objects in it is greater.
"This also links into working memory, so how many objects you can keep in your mind and work on at the same time, and how fast your attention works," says Bavelier.
Gamers beat non-gamers hands down when it comes to everyday eyesight — specifically, the ability to distinguish between different shades of grey, called contrast sensitivity. Gamers are also quicker at shifting between different visual and attention tasks.
The big question is, do gamers have naturally superior skills in these areas, and are drawn to playing video games as a result? Or are their skills a result of their playing? In other words, if non-gamers picked up a console, would they benefit too?
Bavelier's studies show that if you put non-gamers on a diet of regular video game playing (50 hours over nine weeks for the vision experiment, and 10 hours over 10 days for the visual attention experiment) their attention and visual skills will improve. What's more, she says, these skills seem to last months, if not years.
Other researchers trying to replicate Bavelier's results found that 20 hours of game playing was not enough to see improvements, so it remains to be seen how long you need to play before you improve.
Gaming in the real world
While being able to spot an enemy in your peripheral vision is useful when you're playing Call of Duty, these skills also come in handy in the real world.
"When you drive, you need to monitor a very large visual field, so you can see the dog that's about to cross on the right, and the kid on the left who is running after a ball," says Bavelier.
Contrast sensitivity affects everyday activities like reading the newspaper and is essential in low light conditions, for example seeing at night or in fog.
Both your contrast sensitivity and the size of your useful field of view degrade with age and lack of use. But playing action video games could potentially counteract this.
"You could train your brain to make better use of the info it receives from the retina," says Bavelier. "[By playing video games] you are correcting how well your brain computes in general."
What about Tetris?
Despite its poplarity over the last 25 years playing Tetris may not improve your abilities in other areas of your life, say researchers (Source: iStockphoto)
"Not all video games are created equal," says Bavelier. "It's probably only the worst type of video games you can think of, the fast-paced action games that give you benefits in term of vision, attention, and so on."
The secret to action video games seems to be in complexity of the task — you have pay attention to many different moving objects, use your memory to recall what weapons you have or the way into your enemy's lair, and use your eyes and hands to aim and shoot, all at the same time.
In Bavelier's opinion, you can't just take just one of these elements and use it as a brain training exercise. That's why she believes that the more simple video games — like Tetris, or even the new 'brain fitness' games on the market — don't lead to general learning. It's the way these cognitive tasks are combined in an action video game that's key.
"Each of these factors contributes, and each time you remove one, you [respond] a little bit less… You really need to put them together, and video games are very good at doing that."
But this is a contentious area, according to Nick Burns, associate professor in the school of psychology at the University of Adelaide.
He says some research claims fairly simple, computerised cognitive tasks help people improve in more general areas such as driving a car, or sharpen their brain's visual system and working memory.
Several small studies have shown that simple computer games may help improve your performance on the trained task, but more independent research is needed to decisively demonstrate that the benefits of these tasks translate to other everyday activities, he says.
Use it or lose it
But what's important to remember, says Burns, is that anything that gets people to use their brains is going to be good for them.
"If you don't exercise your brain, it's likely to be at your disadvantage. So in that sense, I think that those games have a useful function."
So does this mean we should all be plugging into the nearest action video console? Not necessarily, says Burns.
"I think it's entirely plausible that you can improve cognitive function by playing complex computer games, but I think that any form of complex cognitive exercise is going to be good for you."
Other researchers have found that musical and athletic training — both complex activities, like playing action video games — can also lead to benefits that translate to other parts of your life.
And according to Burns, your very willingness to accept new challenges — be it learning to play action video games or learn a language — is important to maintaining and even improving your cognitive functioning throughout life.
"Whether you're prepared to do new things is going to predict whether you age successfully."
Questions:
1. What do they mean by brain plasticity? Explain how this idea relates to the article.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
2. What implications does this article have on the relationship between aging, video games and visual
acuity or maturation? Provide examples.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
3. How does this article support the biological perspective of psychology?
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Name:_____________________________________ Date:_______________ Period: __________
IB Psychology SL Mr. Stone Unit 2: Biological LOA
The Brain:
Environment, Hormones, Drugs
Aim:
In what ways can the environment, hormones and drugs shape your brain?
Do Now:
Which do you believe you are most impacted by – your environment or your hormones?
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
Environment & The Brain:
← Before the 1960s it was believed that the brain was sculpted and influenced only by ____________________.
← However, the brain does in a way become sculpted by the environment, especially the ______________________________ (the area of higher cognitive functioning) this is called “________________________”
Interesting Study:
Rosenzweig and Bennett (1972) & (Kolb, 1999) placed rats into one of two environments to measure the effect of enrichment or deprivation on the development of “dendritic branching” or neuronal growth. They found that rats who spent 30 to 60 days in an area with toys or other rats vs. those that did not, had thicker cerebral cortices and their frontal lobes (area of thinking, planning, decision making) were heavier. Illustrated that the brain has “plasticity” or the ability to rearrange connections between its neurons. (MOZART EFFECT?)
“Mirror Neurons”
← A “______________________” is a neuron that fires when an animal or person performs an action or when the animal observes somebody else performing the same action.
← Discovered by Gallese et al (1996) in rats, Marco Iacoboni (2004) found that humans contain them too.
← It is a clear example of ______________________________________________________.
← It is believed to be an evolutionary adaptation that allows us to understand and interact with fellow human beings etc.
Interesting Study:
Iacoboni (2004) asked participants to look at human faces while undergoing an fMRI, hoping to show that simply observing an emotion expressed on someone’s face would cause the brain of the observer to be stimulated.
← First, the participants had to imitate the faces they were shown and then they had to simply watch as they were shown the faces again.
← It was found that certain areas, now called “mirror neurons” lit up in addition to the limbic system when shown happy expressions.
According to Iacoboni this allows us to feel empathy towards others, almost as if we are living their life events alongside them too (2009).
NOVA VIDEO: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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Hormones in Human Behavior:
← Hormones, which are _______________ secreted from glands have an effect on behavior.
|Hormone |Glands | Function |
| Adrenaline |Adrenals |Flight or Fight Response |
| Cortisol |Adrenals |Arousal, Stress, memory |
| Melatonin |Pineal |Regulation of sleep |
| |Pituitary and Hypothalamus |Mother-Child attachment |
|Oxytocin | | |
| Testosterone /Estrogen |Gonads |Development, emotion |
← Since they enter directly into the ___________________ they take longer to act, yet often they have long-lasting effects.
← Some chemicals are both neurotransmitters and hormones; Ex: Oxytocin (released with hugs and touches and appears to change the brain signals related to social recognition via facial expression.)
← _______________________: this hormone is associated with our daily sleep patterns. Darkness stimulates it is release from the ____________________________ and inhibited by light. As the days get shorter and winter approaches, the earlier onset of darkness means that we can become tired earlier.
← Higher levels of melatonin have been associated with _____________________________ (a subcategory of depression characterized by sleepiness and lethargy). Phototherapy is the main treatment for this.
Interesting Study:
← Rosenthal et al (1988) gave 19 patients diagnosed with seasonal affective disorder, a drug called atenolol (a melatonin suppressive drug). This drug acts to suppress the production of melatonin.
← In three of the patients atenolol provided repeated, marked, and sustained relief of symptoms, suggesting that it may be useful in treating the winter depressive symptoms of some patients with seasonal affective disorder.
Interaction Between Mind and Body:
Psychoactive Drugs:
* Drug: chemical substances that are foreign to the body, either totally or in the form introduced.
* Drugs operate on __________________________, yet the behavioral changes are primarily
mental (Perception, memory etc.)
* Not all have drugs have effects on behavior (i.e. penicillin)
← The study of psychoactive (mind-affecting) drugs has given rise to the field “_________________________”
← Methods used by psychopharmacology are: experimental use of animals to assess toxicity, strength, and basic effects
← Followed by human assessments.
How Drugs Operate in the Body:
← Essentially, all psychoactive drugs operate by _____________________________________.
← Communication across the ____________________ is dependent on neurotransmitters. By __________________ the receptor site, a chemical may prevent the proper neurotransmitter from reaching its target receptor.
← Alternatively, chemicals can attack neurotransmitters in the synapse, destroying them before they can reach the receptors.
How Drugs Alter Behavior:
Reaction to psychoactive drugs involves:
♦ Drug’s chemical properties, person’s condition (body eight, initial state of arousal, tolerance, gender, and culture – e.g. women and Asian cultures can drink less alcohol);
♦ Environmental setting (party-home);
♦ Mental set (expectations, reasons for taking it, etc.
– e.g. “think-drink” effect: men behaved more aggressively when misinformed they had drunk alcohol).
← Psychoactive drugs are divided into categories, according to the general nature of their effect on behavior.
Stimulates (e.g. amphetamines, caffeine, nicotine, cocaine):
♦ They increase the activity of __________________________________.
Ex: Amphetamine reduces hunger – “diet pill”, also: giving up smoking syndrome;
Methamphetamine (“speed”)- greater effects, i.e. 8 hours or so of heightened energy and euphoria
♦ They tend to decrease fatigue, increase _____________________________, diminish hunger and produce a temporary elevation of mood.
♦ For unclear reasons, amphetamines calm down hyperactive children;
♦ With prolonged use, the nervous system tends to adapt to the presence of the stimulants, which can result in tolerance and, in extreme cases, to addiction, determined by the occurrence of symptoms of physical withdrawal;
Depressants (e.g. alcohol, barbiturates and tranquilizers):
♦ They reduce CNS activity, general anesthetic, they _____________________________, which is probably the most significant inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain.
♦ Alcohol diminishes the effectiveness of _____________, and thereby an impairment of motor abilities and attention.
♦ Often prescribed in small doses to reduce anxiety and in relatively high doses to combat insomnia.
♦ In large doses, they can cause coma or even death.
♦ Abuse of alcohol may well be endemic in our culture – but is alcoholism based more on physical malfunction or learning drinking patterns?
Anti-Depressants (e.g. Prozac, Zoloft):
← Used to treat severe clinical depression, characterized by low mood state, fatigue and feelings of hopelessness,
← SSRI’s (prozac, zoloft) ( act to increase sensitivity or production of serotonin in the brain.
Name:_____________________________________ Date:_______________ Period: __________
IB Psychology SL Mr. Stone Unit 2: Biological LOA
Genetics & Behavior
Aim:
In what ways is our behavior shaped by our genetics?
Do Now:
How would you define your genetic makeup?
Genetics & Behavior:
← This perspective believes that “behavior is innate because it can be genetically based.”
← ___________________________ deals with understanding how both genetics and environment contribute to individual variations to human behavior.
← Genes give rise to the development of specific physiological processes that contribute to specific characteristics and behavior
← However, it is unlikely that a specific gene is responsible for complex behaviors.
← Psychologists argue that an individual may have a genetic predisposition towards a certain behavior.
Genetics Research:
← Most genetic research is carried out using “__________________________________”
a study in which there is a relationship between variables, but no independent variable is manipulated.
← ____________________________________________________________________
← One of the most common ways to study genetic inheritance is through “twin studies”.
Twin Studies/Family Studies/Adoption Studies:
← Identical twins (MZ = _____________________) and
← Fraternal twins (DZ = _____________________) are often used in studies to determine our genetic basis for behavior
Ex: if your twin (MZ) has Alzheimer’s you have a 60% chance of developing it, but
if fraternal (DZ) that risk decreases to 30% (Plomin et al 1997).
Ex2: If your fraternal twin is divorced your odds increase 1.6 times, but if your
identical twin is divorced your odds increase 5.5 times (McGue & Lykken, 1992).
← However, is it due to genetics or environment?
← In a study done by Loehlin (1976) identical twins were found to be more similar in a variety of character traits but moreover, identical twins reported that they were treated similarly.
Separated Twins:
← Often times, twins were separated to determine whether behavior was effected by genes or environment.
← Thomas Bouchard: famous “___________________________________” (1979) showed that often times there are striking similarities in the lives of separated twins.
← He believes that 70% of your personality is genetically determined.
JIM TWIN STUDY VIDEO NOTES:
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Adoption Studies:
← Adoptive studies allow one to research whether or not ______________________ plays a key role in development.
← McGue & Bouchard (1998) found that people who grew up together, whether biologically related or not, _________________ really resemble one another in __________________.
← Adoptee’s traits still seem to bare a greater resemblance to biological parents more than caregiving ones (Plomin et al 1998).
← This also seems to be true in other species i.e. chimpanzees (Weiss et al, 2000). Chimpanzees raised in the same zoo develop vastly differing personalities.
← Often criticized because these children are not representative of the general population!
Application of the B.L.O.A:
I. Aggression:
← Is very difficult to clearly define because the varied interpretations of what aggressive behavior is and whether or not is coincides with violence in general.
← Aggression can be summarized as “___________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________” (Glassman, 2001).
**** Aggression research affirms that ____________________ emerges from the interaction of _________________ and ___________________. ****
Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989)
← He is considered _________________________; used animal behavior in an attempt to demonstrate how human behavior might be understood.
← Believed that aggression was an ___________________ which promoted selected survival and so must be satisfied. (influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution)
← Believed it was an inherited drive similar to the motivation to eat, drink and reproduce _______________________________
← This model states that aggression builds up, like water in a reservoir, the expression of behaviors reduces the drive level, much like draining the reservoir.
← Stated that “sign stimuli” initiate aggression…environmental cues! And some of these stimuli allow for the creation of social hierarchy.
← Studies in primates clearly show aggressive nature towards one another in breeding. In fact most orangutan copulations are considered “rape.”
← Lorenz suggests that humans lack aggression inhibitors
← Suggests that society attempts to _______________________ and since this is impossible it fosters “_____________________” which are behaviors which arise in absence of appropriate environmental stimuli.
← Believes that society should create more acceptable substitute activities, such as sports.
← This allows for aggressive behavior to be exhibited yet in a limited way…this is called “___________”
← However, his theory is often criticized due to the lack of ___________________ and specific sign stimuli that can be generalized for initiated aggression.
The Biological Perspective of Aggression:
A. Hormones & Aggression
▪ Testosterone is an “____________________” (released by the adrenal glands) which has been linked to aggression
▪ It is not an “________________________” rather linked to dominance, and status seeking (Mazur & Booth 1998).
▪ Increased levels of testosterone can be measured in saliva, and is evident when men win competitions of any nature (Cohen, 1998). Seems to have similar effects despite sex (in mice; Carlson 1998).
▪ Research regarding humans is based on questionnaires and interviews, and so there is no human proof about hormone levels and aggressive behavior (Nelson, 1995).
▪ However, ___________________ influences can make one predetermined to make higher levels of testosterone so we must take that into account.
B. Neurotransmitters & Aggression:
* A _______________________ of serotonin is linked to higher irritability and aggression (Bernhardt, 1997).
* Serotonin levels are affected by dominance. Rank studies using vervet monkeys showed that the higher the dominance rank the more serotonin they produce compared to the subordinate monkeys (Raleigh et al, 1984).
* In humans, studies have shown that those lacking the ____________________, which codes for an enzyme(MAOA) that metabolizes certain NT’s like serotonin have lower levels of these NT’s and so exhibit more aggressive behavior. (Caspi et al 2002).
C. The Brain and Aggression
1. ______________________________
a. Bard & Mountcastle (1940’s) found that lesions of the hypothalamus in cats resulted in lack of aggression and attack behavior
b. Flynn (1960’s) found that electrical stimulation of lateral hypothalamus elicits predatory aggression in cats and stimulation of the ventromedial hypoth. Elicited vicious attack behavior.
c. Tumors of the hypothalamus in humans is associated with irritability
2. _______________________________
a. Stimulating a particular area of the amygdala (basomedial nucleus) can inhibit
aggression triggered by stimulating the ____________________________.
b. However, stimulating the lateral nucleus of the amygdala has been found to foster aggressive behavior by stimulating the hypothalamus
3. _________________________________
1. Studies of Vietnam War veterans (279 vs. 57 controls) found that those who experienced lesions in the frontal lobe consistently demonstrated Violence Scale scores significantly higher than the controls.
D. Family Influence ( Adoption
← Bouchard & McGue (1981) found that the closer the kinship is, the higher the correlational for IQ.
← _____________________________ (Bouchard et al, 1990) studied MZ twins who were reared separately vs. those that were reared together.
← Determined that 70% of intelligence can be attributed to genetics, while 30% may be attributed to other factors.
← Criticisms of the study:
- relied on media coverage to recruit participants
- no adequate control to establish the frequency of contact b/w twins prior to the study.
- cannot assume that twins raised together experience the same environment.
Limitations of the B.L.O.A:
← The biological approach explains behavior in a very _________________ or simplistic manner.
▪ This approach breaks down complex human behaviors into its smallest parts. (NT’s, hormones, genes, proteins etc.)
← It is important to have detailed knowledge of the components of ____________________ in order to understand how several factors may interact to cause certain behaviors.
← The key is that there are no easy answers!!!
← Ethical constraints make it difficult to test on __________________________________.
← Difficult to generalize results to the masses since there are always variations in physiology
← Finding volunteers (sample size) is not always easy (i.e. drugs/brain scanning studies).
← Means used to support research , are not always reliable (i.e. surveys)
-----------------------
Image of HM’s brain and a Normal Brain
Interesting Study:
A study following Buddhist monks on a 72 hour pilgrimage in which they were sensory deprived (no food, water, speech and cold weather) found that they experienced hallucinations. Tests showed that their “serotonin” levels were higher in areas of the hypothalamus and frontal cortex, showing that neurotransmitters can have an impact on behavior.
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