Acetylcholine (ACh)

• Released by motor neurons

• Regulation of attention, arousal, and memory

• Enables muscle action, memory and learning

• Lack of Ach creating neurons = Alzheimer’s

Dopamine (DA)

• Control of voluntary movement

• Cocaine and amphetamines elevate activity at DA synapses

• “reward pathway”

• Too little = Parkinson’s

• Too much = Schizophrenic disorders, addictive disorders

Norepinephrine (NE)

• Mood and arousal

• Cocaine and amphetamines elevate activity at NE synapses

• Too little = depression

Serotonin

• Regulation of sleep and wakefulness, aggression

• Prozac and antidepressant drugs affect serotonin circuits

• Too little = depressive disorders

GABA or gamma-aminobutryic acid

• Inhibitory transmitter

• Regulates anxiety, sleep/arousal

• Too little = insomnia, anxiety disorders

Glutamate

• Widely distributed excitatory transmitter

• Learning and memory

• Too much = migraines or seizures– Why do people avoid MSG?

Endorphins

• Resembles opiates in structure and effects

• Roles in pain relief and response to stress

• Regulation of eating behavior

• “Runner’s High”

Monoamines

• 3 neurotransmitters– Dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin

GABA and Glutumate

• Consist of amino acids– GABA - produces only inhibitory postsynaptic

potentials (PSP)– Glutamate – widely distributed in the brain,

only has excitatory effects

MAOI’s

• Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitor

• Antidepressants used to treat depression, anxiety, etc

SSRI Antidepressants

• Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitor

• Anti depressant drugs (and some other illegal drugs like cocaine) – block the reuptake of neurotransmitters,

keeping in the synapse longer,– intensifying their activity. – For some depressed people that elevates their

mood.

Nerves

• Are long bundles of neurons that send and return messages to and from the body from the spinal column.

Neural Transmissions• After firing neurons go into refractory period when

it cannot fire. – But a neuron can fire 100s of times a second, repeating

the chemical/electrical process.– Action potentials travel at 200 mph.

• Remember though: A neuron either fires or it

doesn’t. It is an all or nothing response. • Intense feelings are combinations of neurons and the

rate in which they fire, not a single intense firing.

Neural Networks

• Neurons can communicate with hundred or thousands of other neurons simultaneously.

• Neural networks can be built of visual, sensory, cognitive, emotional information drawn from throughout the brain and body.

Nervous System

• Central Nervous System--the brain and spinal chord, that’s it.

Peripheral Nervous System

• If it’s not the brain or spinal chord, it is this.

• Contains nerves that take messages to and from the body to the brain.

• It has two parts: the skeletal nervous system and the autonomic system.

Peripheral Nervous SystemSkeletal or voluntary N.S.

• This is the part of the nervous system that tells your muscles to move. You can choose to do that.

Peripheral Nervous System:The Autonomic System

• This is the part of the system that you don’t have to think about brain messages to and from: heart, glands, organs, lungs etc., pain messages, tickles, strokes...

Peripheral System:Autonomic:

Sympathetic Nervous System

• We feel sympathy for Bill Clinton because he is always aroused.

Peripheral System:Autonomic:

Parasympathetic Nervous System

• This system calms you down. The body goes back to homeostasis, or balance.

• Parachutes slow you down.

The Brain is divided into three principle divisions

• The Brain Stem (reptilian brain) keeps you alive and awake.

• The Mid brain: Limbic system (mammalian brain: ): controls hunger, thirst, sex, flight and fight, emotional systems (limbic system).

• The Cerebral Cortex (human brain): controls higher order thinking, learning, planning and personality.

The Brain Stem from the bottom up.

• The medulla oblongata: controls heartbeat and respiration.

• The Reticular activity system (RAS); Reticular formation controls alertness or drowsiness.

• The Thalamus: the post office of the brain. All sensory messages except smell are funneled through the thalamus to appropriate brain areas.

The Brain Stem

• Thalamus: the brains post office, sending information from sensory organs to proper brain region. (except smell).

The Brain Stem from the bottom up.

• Cerebellum or little brain-located in back base of brain.

• Influences learning and memory. Coordinates voluntary movement. Unconscious movements,

muscle memories.• Bike ride, swimming, playing the piano, hitting a ball,

jumping on one foot.

Mid Brain: Limbic system (the olympics are very emotional

The Lower (Mammalian)BrainThe Limbic System

• Controls basic functions

• Hypothalamus: hunger, thirst, sexual desire and body temperature. (connected to and sends messages to pituitary (master) gland. – Four F’s

• Amygdala: flight or fight, anger. (emotional memory)

• I never date Amy because she’s too emotional

Lower Brain-Cont.The Limbic System

• Hippocampus: processes short-term memory. All long-term memories must go through short-term first. Brain then decides whether or not to store, depending on perceived importance

The Hippocampus

• Remember Hippos Never Forget.

Cerebral Cortex: the human brain; Cereal court.

• Thin cap of neurons on top of lower brain where higher functioning takes place--thicker in humans than other animals.

Association areas

• Can be found in different lobes.

• This part of the brain connects the dots, allows for our high level thinking.

• May draw verbal, emotional, visual information, memories together to work with .

Cerebral Cortex-Lobes

• The cerebral cortex is further divided into four regions called lobes, divided by fissures, each with different functional parts.

• Frontal lobe

• Personality center.

• Planning and judgements, • Speaking (Broca’s area).

• Associative: combines info from all over brain.

• Motor Strip is here.

Cerebral Cortex-Lobes

• Parietal lobe Between the frontal and occipital, holds the sensory strip receiving touching messages. (Also contains part of angular gyrus and Wernicke’s area used in language processing.

Cerebral Cortex-Lobes

• Occipital lobe or visual cortex, located in back of brain.

• Processes all visual imagery whether sensed through the eyes or created by the brain (dreams, imagination)

Cerebral Cortex-Lobes• Temporal lobe: involved in

language processing, auditory reception and reasoning.

• Words are comprehended here, sentences formed, language stored.

Additional Temporal Cortex

• Angular gyrus Transforms visual reprentations into an auditory code. Fishing for words.

• Wernicke’s Area: Interprets and comprehends auditory signals (internal sentences) - W doesn’t understand much.

• Broca’s Area: takes language from Wernicke’s area and forms speech, attached to motor strip.

• Aphasia is a disruption of language, often caused by strokes.

Cerebral Cortex: the human brain

• Divided into two halves called hemispheres: Brain Lateralization

• The two sides are connected by the Corpus callosum, bundles of nerves that transports info from side to side. Women’s are thicker (so are lefties).

• .

Cerebral Cortex: Brain Lateralization continued.

• Left Side: logical, reasoning, language center, word processing, speech, arithmetic.

• Right side: spatial reasoning, intuition, face recognition, expressing emotions, perceiving differences, hunches and nonverbal relationships.

Cerebral Cortex: the human brain

• In general, people are slightly dominant on one side or the other. Particularly noticeable in motor dominance or handedness.

Split Brain

• To treat severe epilepsy, they sometimes cut the corpus collossum. The result is the two parts of the brain operate independently.

• Split brain people are used to study hemispheric differences.

Split Brain People.

Split brain People.

Types of Brain Scans

• fMRI: MRI’s give you the best, three dimensional look at brain.

• PET scans, look at where glucose is burning to find spot that is working.

• CAT scans are x-rays, looking for masses or abnormalities.

• EEGs are measures of electrical activity, has the little lie detector type machine hooked to electrodes.

Lesions are cuts in the Brain

Endocrine System: Glands

• Relatively slow-acting, uses chemicals called hormones.

• Acts in feedback system, produces something that is sensed by brain which ceases production of the hormone. (homeostasis again)

Endocrine System: Glands

• Pituitary: master gland. Sends hormones to control other glands. Controlled by hypothalamus.

• Also controls growth.

Endocrine System: Glands

• Thyroid: located in throat. Controls metabolism (speed in which body processes). Extremes can create sluggishness and obesity, or intense anxiety and weight loss.

Endocrine System: Glands

• Adrenal: produces epinephrine (adrenaline) to create fight or flight response. Cause increased body responses, blood clotting.

Endocrine System: Glands

• Pancreas: controls blood sugar by producing insulin that burns glucose, the real name of blood sugar.

Endocrine System: Glands

• Ovaries./Testes: Sex glands.

• Controls secondary sex characteristics.

• Testes: androgen (testosterone).

• Ovaries: Estrogen.

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