PSYCO105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Temporal Lobe, Nucleus Accumbens, Frontal Lobe
1 May 2018
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The Biological Approach
1. The Brain and Personality
a. Brain Region and Personality → Most brain regions can be related to some aspect of
personality.
i. Hippocampus is involved in forming and retrieving memories. Damage to the
hippocampus prevents long-term memory formations.
1. Experience will affect the size of hippocampus → people will develop
different sizes based on their personal experiences.
ii. Nucleus Accumben → Important to rewards and motivations. Individuals who
have strongly activated nucleus accumbens could be more addicted to drugs or
alcohol.
1. Responds to Reputation → are individuals who have more active nucleus
accumbens because they respond to reputations and are more sensitive.
iii. The Amygdala → Organizes emotion response and patterns, and involves the
interpretation of emotional threats and rewards.
1. Extraversion (Enthusiasm) → Gets something from social situations
(positive affect) → Extraversions who see a happy face will have
amygdala activation because they care about the emotions of the people
around them.
iv. The Frontal Cortex → important to higher order cognitive functions. It is involved
in emotion displays, reward, attention, short-term memory, planning and
motivation.
1. Damages to frontal cortex will demonstrate changes to personality.
2. Case Study: J.Z. → Common for people with lesions to show dramatic
changes (Similar to J.Z.) → Underwent surgery on part of frontal lobe
due to a tumor.
a. J.Z. passed cognitive tests (IQ tests) but his personality
drastically changed.
3. Frontal lobe damage leads to variety of symptoms related to personality;
a. Disinhibition → Swearing
b. Too Emotional or no emotion → DEpression, anxiety
c. Poor Planning
d. Social Difficulties.
e.
b. The big five and the brain → Scan structural MRI images of the brain and measure
personality scores (Correlate with brain volume)
i. Why Measure the Brain Volume? → More gray matter meaning that there is
possibly more neurons. Similarly more white matter means possibly having more
axon connectivity.
ii. Extraversion → Medial orbital frontal cortez; serves in reward function.
iii. Conscientiousness → Middle Frontal Gyrus; Working memory/executing planned
action
iv. Neuroticism → Dorso-medial prefrontal cortex; self-evaluation and emotion
regulation. Medial Temporal Lobe (hippocampus); goal conflicts, rumination and
anxiety increased stress and depression.
2. Genes and Personality → Beyond personality having high heritability we see that more specific
genes also influence individual differences → often related to Brain function.
Document Summary
The biological approach: the brain and personality a. Brain region and personality most brain regions can be related to some aspect of personality. i. ii. iii. iv. Hippocampus is involved in forming and retrieving memories. Damage to the hippocampus prevents long-term memory formations: experience will affect the size of hippocampus people will develop different sizes based on their personal experiences. Nucleus accumben important to rewards and motivations. Individuals who have strongly activated nucleus accumbens could be more addicted to drugs or alcohol: responds to reputation are individuals who have more active nucleus accumbens because they respond to reputations and are more sensitive. The frontal cortex important to higher order cognitive functions. It is involved in emotion displays, reward, attention, short-term memory, planning and motivation: damages to frontal cortex will demonstrate changes to personality, case study: j. z. Common for people with lesions to show dramatic changes (similar to j. z. )
