PSYC 273 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Cortisol, Comparative Psychology, Schizophrenia
Document Summary
Neuroplasticity: the ability of the brain to change during the entire lifespan through interaction with the environment. Your behavior/experiences change your brain, which then changes your behavior . London taxi drivers have larger hippocampi than london bus drivers. Neuron strengthening: making connections you use a lot stronger. Neuron pruning: getting rid of connections you don"t use. Inhibited by old age, depression, stress, sleep disruption, etc. Loss of neurons in normal, but if there is more than normal there is another problem. Schizophrenia and alzheimer"s patients lose a lot more. Rats are social and rely on olfaction for many regions. Isolated rats had less brain tissue that allowed them to have higher olfaction senses, and the ones raised socially had more. Our genes predispose us toward an outcome; influence the way we experience the world- genome. Our ongoing experiences can alter which of our genes are active/expressed- epigenome. Experiences rewire the brain and trigger epigenetic changes.
