HMB200H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Pair Bond, Arginine, Pituitary Gland
Document Summary
We have innate reflexes such as the fear response. These are prewired but can be triggered by other stimuli through learning. We know there are shortcuts to these types of reflexes like going through the thalamus. The amygdala can trigger a lot of mechanisms through the fear response: freezing, stress hormones released particularly the hypothalamus (which has a very important connection hormonally and straight through axons which activate the sympathetic nervous system). Putting these together, we get the fight and flight response and others. (the 4 fs). The hypothalamus can be triggered through many other brain regions mostly responsible for patterned behaviours (species specific). These are adaptive for survival eating, drinking, fear response, reproductive behavior. If you were to place an electrode within the hypothalamus, we stumble upon the median forebrain bundle stimulating this, we get species specific behavior. A mouse under this stimulation continuously digs for food vigourously.
