Jennifer Pisczak

Physiological and Comparative Psychology

Scientific Literary:

• What is Science?
• How is it done…?
○ Scientific method
• Where is it done and by whom
○ Research universities
○ Graduate students and professors
• Who pays for it?
○ The government in the form of competitive contracts
• The product of science…
○ Documents, information
○ Peer-reviewed journal articles
• Distinction between science and technology
○ Technology – things that are made from scientific findings
○ Science – the information used to create new technology
• Distinction between science pseudo-science
○ Pseudo-science – (e.g.: intelligent design) trying to put a biblical sense
in the classroom. Try to get rid of evolutional theory
• Distinction between expert opinions and scientific facts
○ Expert opinions – the do not really matter. Focus more on scientific
facts for valid information
• Role of ulterior motives (financial, religious, political) and bias (statistical and
methodological).

Defining science: critical terms and concepts

• Essential definition
○ The empirical study of Natural phenomena using systematic methods
(i.e. – scientific method)
○ Scientific Method
 Systematic observation
 Hypothesis formulation
 Experimentation
 Review and critique
 Publication
 Replication
• Hypothesis – a proposal or proposition about a natural
phenomenon that can be observed or tested empirically
 • Fact – upon accepting a hypothesis, the hypothesis can be
called a fact
• Law – a formal description of generalization of a collection
of facts, usually mathematical
• Theory – a central idea or principle that explains facts and
guides further inquiry
• Inductive reasoning – arriving at a conclusion after gathering and considering
the relationship between many facts; “bottom up” thinking; the “inductive
leap”
• Deductive reasoning – starting with an idea (hypothesis or theory) and
determining whether the facts fit that idea; “top down” thinking; “theory
driven research”

Scientific Publication: The product of science

• The repository for scientific facts is the scientific journal

• NOT newspaper, magazine, TV, etc.
• NOT even text books, scientific books, or scientific review articles
• Any reinterpretation of findings could be wrong

Anatomy of an original research report from a scientific journal

• Original research report of review?

• Peer-reviewed journal (proper data base)?
• Sections:
○ Title, Author, institution, support
○ Abstract
○ Intro
○ Methods
○ Results
○ Discussion
○ References

Targets of anti-science propaganda

• Evolution
• Global warming
• Age of planet
• Heath effects of tobacco smoke
• AIDS
• Heliocentric solar system
○ Characteristics of anti-science propaganda
 Denial
 Ulterior motives
 • Religion
• Financial
• Political
• Notoriety (getting attention)
 Deception
• Dover, PA school board ruling is excellent case study
 Sowing doubt
• Theory is controversial, focus on gaps in knowledge;
discredit scientists/teachers (if they don’t know
everything then they must know nothing).
 Obfuscations
• Aren’t all mutations bad? where are missing links?; what
about the Cambrian explosion?; is global warming
necessarily bad?
 The pseudo-science critique, or sham skepticism
• Offering critique without any alternative explanation
• Sham skepticism vs. scientific skepticism
○ Science is conservative and skeptical
○ Major aspect of science involves critique of other science research
• What is SCIENCE?
○ THE STUDY OF NATURE
• Dualism – the mind and the brain are separate
○ Associated with Descartes
○ He thought the soul resided in the pineal gland
 Mind comes out of the brain = current prospective for
neuroscience
• Called MONISM
• Psychology – study of nature and determinants of behavior
○ A scientific discipline (basic science)
• Physiological psychology – study of the physical and biological aspects of
behavior
○ To neuroscientists, psychology is a biological science
• Comparative psychology – studied animal species and compared across the
species
○ 95% of neuroscience is done in rodents
○ Difference between rat brain and human brain is that it is quantitative
not qualitative
• Neuroscience
○ Lowest level to highest level
 Cellular or molecular neuroscience
 Systems neuroscience: study a group of neurons with one
particular function
  Behavioral neuroscience: studying the whole organism
 Cognitive neuroscience: goal is to study cognition; study
complex thinking

Neuroanatomy

• Pet scan – tells us about general metabolic activity

• Phrenology – idea from early 20th century very specific brain functions can be
mapped onto specific parts of the brain
○ Distributed across the brain and happening in parallel
• KNOW FEATURES OF INDIVIDUAL NEURONS

• KNOW TABLE 2.1 IN NOTES ON WEBCT

Cell types

• Neuron or glial cells

○ Glial means glue
 Function is to glue neurons together
• With some exceptions, neurons DO NOT replicate during a
life span
• NOT TRUE of glial cells
○ The WILL grow throughout a lifetime
• Neurons and glial cells are PLASIC or unchangeable
○ Ex-sprouting new dendrites or axons
• Neurons are found in hippocampus when they regenerate
 ○ Hippocampus is most vulnerable for damage
• Neurons throughout the olfactory system (smell)
regenerate
○ Everything is in twos because it is bilateral
• Glial cells
○ Astrocyte – job is to anchor a neuron to a blood vessel and other
neurons
 Can draw blood and deliver it to other neurons
○ Oligodendrocyte – provide an insulating material that wraps around
axons
 Found in the brain
○ Peripheral nerve – found in peripheral
○ Microglia – part of the brains immune system
• Synaptic bouton
○ Now referred to as synapse
• Axon
○ Job is to detect nerve impulses and to transport substances from the
cell body to the terminal (antograde transport)
○ Cytoskeleton is important in axon for transportation
 Retrograde transport – transports from terminals to the cell body
 Anterograde transport – transports from cell body to terminals
• Grey matter – (pink areas) cell bodies
• White matter – (white areas) axons, more specifically myelin
○ Bundle of white matter is called a nerve
 In the brain a bundle of white matter or axon is called a tract or
projection
 Cell bodies in the brain are clustered and called a nucleus

Central Nervous System

• Brain and spinal cord

• Orientation
 ○ sagital plane (most common) – cut in half from rostral to cadal
○ coronal plane – cut in half from side to side in sections
 guros – ridges in the brain
 syclus – the grooves in the brain
○ corpus callosum – connects both sides of the brain (white matter)
• Parts of the brain
○ Human brain is quantitative compared to a rat brain not qualitative
 Isocortex (neocortex) – what you see when you look at the
lateral view of the brain
• Sheet of tissue about a meter squared and one centimeter
thick
• This is why the human brain looks so scrunched
○ Can separate functionally into lobes
 Frontal lobe – involved in consciousness
• Executive functions – execute
something/planning
• Part of the frontal lobe (primary motor
cortex) conducts motor actions
 Parietal lobe – somatosensory function or
sensation from the body (touch, temp, pain)
• Processing inputs to the body
• Primary somatosensory cortex
• Consciousness
 Occipital lobe – visual processing/conscious
visual processing
 Temperal lobe – most lateral of the lobes
• Critical of conscious auditory functions

BE ABLE TO LOOK AT HUMAN BRAIN AND LABEL EACH LOBE FROM EVERY VIEW

• Feature of Isocortex is 6 cell layers

○ Most important = pyramidal neuron directing appropriate output
• Basil Ganglia
○ Caudate nucleus (striatum)
 2 parts: dorsal striatum and ventral striatum
• Dorsal striatum – take the motor plan coming from the frontal
lobe and actually initiate the plan
○ Brain stem innervates the striatum
○ Substantia nigra
 Neuro transmitter is dopamine
 Parkinson’s disease – from this area
 Huntington’s disease leads to death in dorsal
striatum (Huntington’s chorea)
 • Chorea = dance (uncontrolled
movements)
• Ventral striatum – emotional motivation/affective motivation
that is involved in reward
○ NOT pleasure center
○ Ventral tegmental area – uses neurotransmitter
dopamine
○ Hedonic phase – part of reward
• Limbic system
○ Involves components from other parts of the brain
○ Gets its name from the loop it forms
 Amygdala
 Hippocampus
 Allocortex = less developed cortex
○ Amygdala – critical for emotional expression, mostly in the expression of
fear
 Major inputs come from olfactory system or our sense of smell
• First response is to freeze (immobility)
 Leads to other responses
 Auditory goes through thalamus to the amygdala
• Taste aversion learning – small has a lot to do with this.
Eating something bad and remembering.
○ Hippocampus – learning and memory
 Special or context memory
• Special – processing stimuli and how it changes over time
• Episodic – learning a story, how things change over time
• NEURONS IN THE HIPPOCAMPUS DO REGENERATE
○ PLACTICITY
○ Alzheimer’s is related to hippocampus

Diencephalon

• Thalamus – major relay center in the brain

○ Relaying sensory functions
• Hypothalamus – regulate basic behaviors that are critical for survival of an
organism
○ Feeding, flight, and reproductive behavior
○ Fight or flight is being projected by initial response in amygdala

Mesencephlon = midbrain

• Very small segment of the brain stem

○ Tectum = roof
 Superior and inferior colliculus (Hills)
 • Superior – visual orientation (moving body/eyes)
○ This happens unconsciously
• Inferior – auditory orientation
○ This happens unconsciously
○ Tegmentum = covering (carpeting; bottom; ventral)
 Reticular – states of arousal

Metencephalon

• Cerebellum
○ A lot of neurons packed into cerebellum
○ Coordinating information from our balance system to our motor system
 Ex – never forget how to ride a bike
• Pons
○ Pressure from cerebellum causes bump in brain stem which is the Pons

Myelencephalon

• Medulla – critical for basic vegetative functions

○ Maintenance of homeostasis
 Cardio
 Respiration
 Physiological functions towards feeding
• Spinal cord
○ Part of central nervous system
○ Carrying signals in and out of the body
 From and to the brain
○ IN THE BACK OUT THE FRONT
 Into the dorsal – sensory
 Out of the ventral – movement

Vascular system

• A lot of blood supply to the brain

○ Brain is the most demanding organ
○ Blood flow to brain is unique
 • Blood brain barrier – a characteristic of the blood vessels themselves
○ In the brain the blood vessels are tight
○ Very restricted kind of blood flow

Ventricular system

○ Involves ventricles that are filled with fluid called cerebro spinal fluid
(csf)
 Fluid filled sacks
 Produced from the blood
 Blood goes to choroid plexus – tissue found around ventricles
• Takes fluid from blood and turning it into CSF and puts it
in ventricles
 Meninges – the covering around CSF
• Meningitis – inflammation of the meninges
 Outer layer = duromater
 Pia mater – hold membrane together and gives it some shape

Peripheral nervous system

• MEMORIZE CRANIAL NERVES AND THEIR BASIC FUNCTION

1. Olfactory – involved in sense of smell (odors)
2. Optic – visual input to the brain
3. Oculomotor – involved in movement of the eye
4. Trochlear - involved in movement of the eye
5. Trigeminal – both sensory and motor
a. Controls jaw muscles
b. Sensory system for head and face
i. Headache
6. Abducen - involved in movement of the eye
7. Facial – motor and sensory of the face
8. Vestibulocochlear – important for hearing
a. Balance is also related
9. Glossopharyngeal – tongue, throat, and mouth
10.Vagus = wonderer
a. Goes everywhere throughout the body
b. Both sensory and motor
c. Efferent = output (motor)
d. Afferent = input (sensory)
11.Spinal excessary – neck muscles
12.Hypoglossal – neck muscles

Autonomic nervous system

• Involved in regulating activity in most organ systems

• Vagus = parasympathetic nervous system
 • Sympathetic nervous system
○ Fight or flight – coined by cannon
 Major function of sympathetic NS
○ Epinephrine – adrenal gland (exclusively a hormone going through the
blood)
• Neurotransmitter system
○ Noradrenergic neurons – norepinepherine – causes acceleration of
heart rate
 Postganglianic
 Transmitter released on target organs
○ Epinephrine promotes blood clots
• Parasympathetic nervous system (opposite)
○ Maintains normal survival behavior
 Finding food and mates
○ Parasympathetic division
 Brady cardia – slowing down heart rate
 Vasovagal syncope – fainting in response to stress
• Due to deceleration of heart rate
 Neurotransmitter = acetylcholine
• Released on target organs

Review of cellular biology

• Fatty acid (phospholipids)

○ Fatty acid chain is fat soluble (NOT WATER SOLUBLE)
 Bind together
 Has a charge that is water soluble
 Phospholipid bilayer
• Helps form cell membrane
• Sugars
○ Glucose =primary source of energy
○ Polysaccharide = chain of sugars
• Amino acid
○ Building block used to make proteins and peptides
○ Used to make cytoskeleton
 Microtubule and neurofilament
 Protein determines structure and function of cell
 More than 50 amino acids = protein
 Less than 50 amino acids = peptide
• Peptides function as neurotransmitters
 Proteins are enzymes that make channels and make up
cytoskeleton
• Nucleotides
 ○ Adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine
• Cell body
○ Nucleus – contain DNA
 Find DNA in chromosome
 Site of gene expression
1. Read DNA and make complementary molecule
a. DNA – RNA – Transcription
2. Translation
a. mRNA is read by ribosomes
b. mRNA to an amino acid sequence
c. Ribosome reads three at a time = codon
• Rough ER
○ Has ribosomes
• Smooth ER
○ Package material into membrane
• Mitochondria
○ Power house of the cell
○ Provides energy to the cell

Electrophysiological

• Review forces
○ Charged particles – ions
 Cation = positive
 Anion = negative
○ Diffusion (the way particles move)
 Move from areas of high concentration to areas of low
concentration
○ Diffusion through semipermiable membrane
 Only allows some molecules through
○ Osmotic force
 Refers to the movement of water
○ Equilibrium when two forces push on one another and balance out
 MOST PRTEINS ARE NEGATIVELY CHARGED
 Axon hillock – spike initiation zone