INTRODUCTION TO BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE EXAM #1 UNIVERSITY OF IOWA QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS|GUARANTEED SUCCESS

Behavioral Neuroscience - The application of the principles of biology to the study of physiological, genetic, and developmental mechanisms of behavior in human and non-human animals. - Also examines how experience, or environment, modifies brain and behavior.` Neuroscience Scientific study of the nervous system 6 Ways to Show Appreciation for Your Child's Teacher 0:01 / 0:54 Biological Psychology Same as behavior neuroscience; although more passé (outdated, obsolete). Also referred to as biopsychology/psychobiology. Neurobiology Same as neuroscience, although has more tradition in biology. Neurology Branch of medicine that studies the brain, the nervous system, and especially diseases therein. Neuropsychology Similar to biopsychology; BUT is concerned more with the use of psychological tests and/or brain imaging to diagnose specific cognitive and behavioral deficits, and to make inferences about function based upon damage. Psychophysics Not neuroscience at all; quantitatively investigates the relationship between physical stimuli and the sensations and perceptions that they affect. Perspectives of Analysis in Behavioral Neuroscience - Biological explanations of behavior fall into four categories: Descriptive, Evolutionary, Developmental, Mechanistic - Deep understanding of a particular behavior is tied to being able to explain it from each of these perspectives. Descriptive - What does a behavior look like? - Example of Learning: What are the features of learning? (type - spatial, object; amount of information that can be stored, etc.) Evolutionary - How a behavior/function diversified from earlier, or less complex species? - Example of Learning: How do different species compare in kinds and speed of learning? Developmental - Of behavior and its biological characteristics over the life span? - Example of Learning: When does a certain type of learning first appear during life? How does this change across the life span? Mechanistic - Relates a behavior to the activity of the brain, circuits, cells, molecules, or genes - Example of Learning: What are the anatomical & chemical changes in the brain hold memory? Neurons Part #1 Also referred to as "Brain Cells", these are the basic elements for connectivity in the brain; their spatial relationships are critically important. Levels of Brain Function 1. Mind & Behavior 2. Brain (1 m) 3. Neural Systems (10 cm) 4. Subsystems (1 cm) 5. Local Networks (1 mm) 6. Neurons (100 μm) 7. Synapses (1 μm) 8. Molecules Reductionism - An approach to understanding based upon reducing the nature of complex things to their interactions or more fundamental parts. - A related idea is that a complex system is nothing more than the sum of its parts and that it can be reduced to these constituents. Emergentism - A different idea that a property of a system is more than the sum of properties of its individual parts. - Is still dependent on these more basic properties, so it is not separate. Ex: "Pen & Pencil" They are both used for writing and that is their purpose, but they are still two different things. Mind-Brain Problem - Concerned with reconciling/understanding the relationship between mental processes and bodily states/processes. - This was a quandary for philosophers for most of recorded history. Dualism - The belief that there are different kinds of substance that exist independently; one for consciousness/feelings, and another for behavior and bodily functioning. - The body is subject to physical interactions, the mind is subject to spiritual interactions. The mind is distinct from all other physical properties. - "The human mind and body are two distinct entities that interact with each other to make a person." -- René Descartes -- Monism The belief that the universe is only comprised of one type of substance. Forms of this include: Materialism, Mentalism, Identity Position Materialism Everything that exist is physical by nature. Mentalism (Since) physical and psychological phenomena are mentally constructed, and therefore only explicable in terms of the mind. Identity Position Mental processes and brain processes are the same but described in different terms. The Mind-Brain Relationship Brain functioning can be explained at a more fundamental level in terms of neuron and glial cell activity. Localization Theory - Different parts of the brain serve different functions (relates to reductionism). - "Structures which look different should have different functions." Holism - Holism refers to any approach that emphasizes the "whole" rather than its' "constituent parts." - In other words: "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts." - Brain function is not localized; instead function is distributed more homogeneously throughout. Dorsal Surface/Side Ex: Top/uppermost surface of the brain. Contains axons with incoming sensory information. Ventral Surface/Side Ex: Bottom/belly surface of the brain. Contains outgoing motor axons (a la Bell-Magendie) Brief History of Brain Research - Antiquity to Renaissance - BCE: Aristotle, Hippocrates, Plato - heart, liver, not much role for brain. - 200 AD: Galen (great surgeon from Roman times) - brain, but ventricles not gray matter. - 1500s: Da Vinci & Vesalius - great anatomists, but still stuck in "ventricular localization" of function. Ventricular Localization Theory - With Galen's studies in anatomy as a basis, later scientists/scholars came to believe that the mental faculties occurred in the ventricles themselves. 1. Lateral Ventricles: Receptacle for sensory information 2. Middle (3rd) Ventricle: Fantasy, ideation, cognition 3. 4th Ventricle: Memory Thomas Willis - Oxford physician, . Published on "Cerebri Anatome", a profoundly-influential book about the history of brain sciences. - Considered as the most important figure in the post-renaissance era to generate interest in looking for functional contributions from individual brain parts. "Cerebri Anatome" - Written in 1664 by Thomas Willis. - Proposed that cerebral hemispheres, controlled memory and the will. - Imagination, long thought to be part of the soul, was also tied to the cerebral hemispheres. - Cerebellum and brain stem were more involved in vital and involuntary systems. René Descartes - Highly-influential philospher of post-renaissance era born in 1596, died 1650. - Well-known proponent of dualism. - His most lasting contribution to the development of scientific thought was the notion of the brain as a "reflexive machine". Legallois - Lived between . - In 1806, isolated the respiratory center to just one small part of the brain stem. Respiratory Centers - The respiratory centers (RCs) are located in the medulla oblongata and pons, which are parts of the brainstem. - The RCs receive controlling signals of neural, chemical, and hormonal nature and control the rate and depth of respiratory movements of the diaphragm and other respiratory muscles. Bell-Magendie Law - Spinal nerves contain only afferent (brings signals in) or sensory fibers and that the ventral roots carry only efferent (sends signals out) or motor ones. - Previously, sensory and motor signals were believed to be mixed, but when they found out that different parts do different things (localization theory!), that changed! - Developed individually by two professors working in different medical fields (1811: Sir Charles Bell, an anatomist. 1822: Francois Magendie, a pathophysiology & physiology professor.) - Bell drew the conclusion that one might have to look at the nervous system in an entirely different way. - Magendie drew similar conclusions (and the battle between France and England raged in science as well!) Afferent Definition: Conducting or conducted inward or toward something (for nerves, the central nervous system; for blood vessels, the organ supplied). Efferent Definition: Conducted or conducting outward or away from something (for nerves, the central nervous system; for blood vessels, the organ supplied). Phrenology - Formulated in 1809 by Franz Joseph Gall (), it put the idea of cortical localization into play by suggesting that skull features were indicative of brain development, such that specific faculties could be detected by surface features. - Although initially popular, Gall's theory was widely debunked by the medical community. Paul Broca - , was the first person to provide definitive proof of cortical localization (not based on skull surface features). - Examined the case of Monsieur Leborgne, who had inability to form speech. - Upon Leborgne's death and subsequent autopsy, the post-mortem analysis revealed specific damage to a relatively discrete portion of the inferior temporal gyrus. - _____ later noted that the language center was typically located on the Left Hemisphere. The Neuron Doctrine (Textbook Definition) The hypothesis that the brain is composed of separate cells that are distinct structurally, metabolically, and functionally. The Neuron Doctrine Part #1 - (Started with development of cell theory and Robert Hooke c. 1655) - Most scientists thought that branches of nerve cells formed a continuous net - sometimes called the "nerve-net theory,"and this view also was used against the idea of cortical localization. The Neuron Doctrine Part #2 - Theodore Schwann () proposed in 1839 that the entire body, including the nervous system, was made up of entire individual cells. - Camillo Golgi () developed a silver staining procedure that allowed for visualizing occasional cells. - Golgi himself, however, never bought into the neuron doctrine. Santiago Ramon y Cajal - , was/is considered as one of the most important neuroscientists in history. - Began to work with silver stains in 1887, and made significant technical improvements to the method. - Amassed an extraordinary archive of anatomical data describing neuron structure. - His studies never revealed any evidence that neurons were interconnected, BUT in fact, that they were autonomous units. - Over time, his discoveries became widely accepted and also provided considerable insight into cell and brain function.