PSYB65H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Central Nervous System, Peripheral Nervous System, Sensory Deprivation
Chapter 1: What are the Origins of Brain and Behaviour?
1.2 Neuroscience in the Twenty-First Century
Why Study Brain and Behaviour?
• Brain (physical, living tissue, organ)
• Behaviour (Action, momentarily observable but fleeting)
• Brain and behaviour are responsible for one another
• There are three reasons for linking the study of brain to the study of behaviour:
1. How the brain produces behaviour is a major unanswered scientific question
2. The brain is the most complex living organ on Earth and is found in many different groups of animals
3. A growing list of behavioural disorders can be explained and cured by understanding the brain
What is the Brain?
• Brain is the Anglo-Saxon word for the tissue found within the skull
• The human brain comprises two major sets of structures:
1. Cerebrum (forebrain): comprised of left and right hemispheres
Responsible for most of our conscious behaviours
Enfolds the brainstem (responsible for most unconscious behaviours)
2. Cerebellum: specialized for learning and coordinating skilled movements
Gross Anatomy of the Nervous System
• Composed of neurons (most directly control behaviour)
• Neurons in the brain communicate with one another, with sensory receptors in the skin, with muscles, and with
internal body organs
• Most connections between the brain and the rest of the body are made through the spinal cord (descends from the
brainstem through a canal in the backbone)
• Central nervous system (CNS): composed of the brain (encased by skull) and the spinal cord (encased by vertebrae)
• CNS is ‘central’: physically located to be the core of the nervous system and it’s the core structure mediating
behaviour
• Peripheral nervous system (PNS): all processes beyond the brain and spinal cord as well as all the neurons outside the
brain and spinal cord
• Edmond Jacobson (1920): what would happen if our muscles completely stopped moving?
-Even when we think we are entirely motionless, we still make subliminal movements related to our thoughts
-During his experiment, people practiced “total” relaxation. They reported a condition of “mental emptiness”.
• Woodburn Heron (1957): how would the brain cope without sensory input?
-He examined the effects of sensory deprivation: subjects reported an unpleasant experience; some reported
hallucinations (such that the brain was trying to create the sensory experiences that they suddenly lacked)
• Embodied language: a line of research and philosophical argument which proposes that the movements we make and
the movements we perceive in others are central to communication with others; findings from these lines of research
suggests:
1. The CNS needs ongoing sensory stimulation from the world and from its own body’s movement
2. The brain communicates by producing movement and observing the movements of others
What is Behaviour?
• Behaviour consists of patterns in time: these patterns can be made up of movements, vocalizations, or changes in
appearance
• Monitoring changes in the brain’s electrical and biochemical activity that may be associated with thought
• The behavioural patterns of animals vary enormously: animals produce behaviours that are inherited or learned (most
behaviours consists of a mix of both)
1.2 Perspectives on Brain and Behaviour
• Three classic theories about the cause of behaviour: mentalism, dualism, and materialism
Aristotle and Mentalism
• The theory that the mind/soul/psyche is responsible for behaviour can be traced back 2000+ years to ancient Greece
-Psyche was a mortal that became the wife of the young god Cupid. His mother, Venus, opposed his marriage to a
mortal. She harassed Psyche with almost impossible tasks. Through dedication intelligence, and compassion, Psyche
was made immortal. Venus’ objection to her was removed.
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