PSYC 3100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Encephalization, Heterotroph, Orbitofrontal Cortex

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 3100
• Professor: Don Dedrick

Document Summary

Built away from tight stimulus-response models (more room for cognitive activity) . Why have a brain in the first place. Van de braak discussed three adaptive systems: the genome, nervous system, and culture. Genome: sufficient to build a body, fine for things that stay in one place. Nervous system: built in responses to typical adaptive problems (such as perceptual system biases) and flexible responses to variable environments useful when you"re trying to solve problems in a constantly changing environment. Culture: useful for environments that change very fast; allows for shared knowledge; as with the genome and the nervous system, it"s a knowledge storehouse that exceeds the capacity of the brain. We can think of these as systems which store information relevant to solving adaptive problems. Brains matter when you have to move around to find food and mates, only animals that move have brains rudimentary nervous system, at which point it eats it brain.