PSYCH 2010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Twin, Peripheral Nervous System, Axon Terminal
28 Sep 2018
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January 30th, 2018
CHAPTER 3:
Brain and Nervous System
Central Nervous System
Consists of brain and spinal cord
Receives, stores, processes and interprets sensory information
this information comes from the internal and external world
internal — glands and organs
external — things you hear and things you see
Also sends messages —to the glands and other parts of your body
Spinal Cord
can act reflexively without the brain
CNS is surrounded by meninges — enclosing sheaths and protects it
Peripheral Nervous System — Everything that is not in the CNS
Composed of Somatic and Autonomic
Somatic — voluntary skeletal muscles, sensory receptors
afferent and efferent
to CNS
Autonomic — involuntary
sympathetic and parasympathetic
away CNS
Sympathetic — gives the output of energy; fight or flight response
Parasympathetic — conserves resources that are not being used
Nervous System — made up of:
Neurons — basic unit and have 3 main parts:
Dendrites — receive information from other cells
Cell body — keeps the neuron alive and performs maintenance tasks
Axons — take the information away from the cell body
Glia cells — support
Myelin sheaths are made up of glia cells — insulates and helps impulses
not to get lost and to speed them up
How do neurons communicate — electrochemical
Action potential — electrical impulse that travels along the axon; “all or
nothing”; typically go 200 mph; the rate of which it fires — the faster the rate the stronger the
impulse
Synapse consists of 3 main parts:
Axon Terminal button — small knob at the end of an axon and secretes
chemicals — neurotransmitters
Synaptic Cleft — gap between the axon terminal button and the dendrite
Dendrite — uses a lock and key fashion to transmit between neurons
Synaptic Vesicles — tiny sacks that hold chemicals called neurotransmitters
Reuptake of neurotransmitters sponged up by the presynaptic neuron
Drug use/abuse effects
either reuptake is prevented or more is released
Neurotransmitters
Endorphins — pain suppression; brain’s natural opiate
— associated with “runner’s high”
Dopamine — “reward pathway” for most abused drugs
— helps you feel pleasurable
Norepinephrine — mood, depressive disorders
Test hint — looking inside the brain pg.77-78 — know key terms and italicized terms,
plasticity of the brain pg. 84-5
Serotonin — connected with sleep, arousal and appetite
— MDMA - ecstasy and molly — has both long and short term damage
— short term: if you take molly on a Saturday by Tuesday the molly is out
of your system and it leads to depression
—- long term: fries the serotonin receptors
—- hard to overdose on MDMA
— however, it causes dehydration and hyperthermia which can be
fatal
Brain Regions
3 brain regions:
Hindbrain — contains vital functions,
older part of brain,
damage can be life-threatening
Medulla — unconscious — breathing and circulation
Pons — sleep/arousal
Cerebellum — balance and fine muscle movement
Midbrain — sensory processes
Reticular formation — sleep/arousal
Forebrain — largest and most complex region of the brain
Thalamus — relay center for sensory information
Hypothalamus — basic biological processes, “pleasure center”
Hippocampus — learning and memory
Amygdala — emotions and aggression; fear is most common emotion
Cerebrum — largest and most complex structure of the brain; sensing and
thinking and impulse control — what makes us “human”
Cerebral Cortex — outer layer
Cerebral Hemispheres —
Each half controls the other
Connected by corpus callosum — thick band of nerve
fibers
Left hemisphere — verbal processing, language and speech
Right hemisphere — nonverbal processing, spatial, music,
visional recognization
Lobes of Cerebral Cortex —
Occipital — vision, in the back of the brain
Parietal — somatosensory
Temporal — auditory
Frontal
Nature vs. Nurture —
not really versus but rather it is the interaction between them
psychologists still try to pull it apart
Genes — identical twin share 100% of genetic makeup
fraternal twins, siblings share 50% of genetic makeup
grandparents share 25%
1) Family Studies — family members resemble one another; the
more related you are, the more likely to have a common trait
ex. schizophrenia
2) Twin Studies — compare identical vs fraternal
ex. IQ — identical twins’ IQ are closer to one another than
fraternal twins
3) Adoption Studies — comparing adopted children with both their
adoptive parents and their biological parents
ex. with IQ it’s about 50/50, with adoptive and biological
however alcoholism is 75% biological
best study to tease apart nature and nurture
CHAPTER 13:
Stress Response — is it good? its adaptive and it is good
1) physical
Short term
2) psychological
Long term
Maladaptive
100 years ago we were more likely to die from infectious diseases
But now it has more to do with our lifestyle
Biopsychosocial model
Anticipation and appraisal
Ellis came up with the model — Anticipating event —> Believe
—> Consequence (most people these days skip the “B” and go straight to “C”)
teach this in Anger management — that anger is secondary
Illogical Thinking
Catastrophize — making a mountain out of a mole hill — turning a small problem
into a bigger problem
Overgeneralize —taking a small problem and generalizing it into other aspects of
your life
Test hint — personal applications pg.99-101, striking 467-8
Stress — any circumstances that threaten or perceived to threaten one’s well-being,
thereby taxing the system
Acute stress — short-term, clear endpoint
Document Summary
Afferent and efferent to cns sympathetic and parasympathetic away cns this information comes from the internal and external world. Also sends messages to the glands and other parts of your body. Cns is surrounded by meninges enclosing sheaths and protects it internal glands and organs external things you hear and things you see can act reflexively without the brain. Sympathetic gives the output of energy; fight or flight response. Parasympathetic conserves resources that are not being used. Peripheral nervous system everything that is not in the cns. Brain and nervous system not to get lost and to speed them up. Action potential electrical impulse that travels along the axon; all or nothing ; typically go 200 mph; the rate of which it fires the faster the rate the stronger the impulse chemicals neurotransmitters. Synaptic cleft gap between the axon terminal button and the dendrite. Dendrite uses a lock and key fashion to transmit between neurons.
