AP Psych: Brain

1. Biology & Behavior:
Ways to Study the Brain, Parts
of the Brain, Split Brains
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2. Section 4: Observing the Brain
• Learning Goals:
– Students should be able to answer the following:
1. How do neuroscientists study the brain’s
connections to behavior and the mind?
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3. How We Observe the Brain
• Phrenology
– Created by Franz Gall
(1796)
– Bumps on head
determine personality
• Dramatic Brain Injury
– Phineas Gage Case
Study (1848)
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4. How We Observe the Brain
• Electroencephalogram (EEG) An amplified recording of the electrical
waves sweeping across the brain’s surface, measured by electrodes
placed on the scalp.
• PET (positron emission tomography) Scan is a visual display of brain
activity that detects a radioactive form of glucose while the brain
performs a given task.
• MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) uses magnetic fields and radio
waves to produce computer-generated images that distinguish among
different types of brain tissue. Images show ventricular enlargement
in a schizophrenic patient.
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5. How We Observe the Brain
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EEG
PET Scan
MRI
f-MRI

6. Section 4: Observing the Brain
• Reflection of Learning Goals:
– Students should be able to answer the following:
1. How do neuroscientists study the brain’s
connections to behavior and the mind?
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Good
Understanding
Little
Understanding
Fair
Understanding

7. Section 4: Test Your Knowledge
(#1) 1. People, like Phineas Gage, who have experienced severe
damage to the frontal lobe of the brain seldom regain their ability
to:
A. Make and carry out plans
B. Recognize visual patterns
C. Process auditory information
D. Process olfactory information
E. Integrate their multiple personalities
2. An EEG records:
A. Direct electrical stimulation of the brain
B. The number of neurons in the brain
C. Electrical impulses from the brain
D. Chemical activity in specific areas of the brain
E. Stimulation of the frontal lobe
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8. Section 4: Test Your Knowledge
(#2)
1. Identify this type of imaging and
hypothesis what it is showing:
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9. Section 5A: Brain Structure & Functions
• Learning Goals:
– Students should be able to answer the following:
1. What specific brain areas control certain
functions?
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10. The Old Brain (Brainstem)
• Medulla
– Heartbeat and Breathing
• Pons “bridge”
– Coordinates Movement and Sleep
• Reticular Formation
– Net of Nerves Inside the Brainstem
– Controls Arousal & Alertness
– Example: When you name is called
• Locus Coeruleus
– Center of Reticular Formation
– Alertness and Panic
• Thalamus
– Signal Switchboard
– Relays information to your pleasure areas
– Relays senses (not smell) information to cortex areas
• Ex: Information from eyes to visual cortex
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11. The Cerebellum “little brain”
• MAIN FUNCTION:
– Coordinates balance &
movement
• (ex. Walking, playing guitar hero)
• OTHER FUNCTIONS:
– Judges time
– Stores muscle memory
– Discriminates sounds
and texture
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12. The Limbic System (Emotional)
• Amygdala
– Aggression and Fear
• Hypothalamus
– Hunger, Thirst, Sex, & Body Temp.
– reward center & dopamine pathways
• Hippocampus
– Memory
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13. The Cerebral Cortex
• Frontal Lobes
– Thoughts & Decision Making
– Contains Motor Cortex
– Contains Prefrontal Cortex
• In charge of logic, step-by-step
decision making, morals, and
emotional control
• Parietal Lobes
– Sensation/Touch
– Contains Sensory Cortex
• Occipital Lobes
– Vision Processing
– Contains Visual Cortex
• Temporal Lobes
– Hearing & Memory
– Contains auditory cortex
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14. Section 5A: Brain Structure & Functions
• Reflection of Learning Goals:
– Students should be able to answer the following:
1. What specific brain areas control certain
functions?
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Good
Understanding
Little
Understanding
Fair
Understanding

15. Section 5B: Brain Structure & Functions
• Learning Goals:
– Students should be able to answer the following:
1. What specific brain areas control certain
functions?
2. To what extent can a damaged brain reorganize
itself?
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16. The Cerebral Cortex
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17. The Cerebral Cortex
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18. Association Areas
Association areas deal with high level thinking such as
directions and location
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19. Language & The Brain
• Aphasia is an impairment of a
language area in the brain,
usually caused by left
hemisphere damage.
• Broca’s area helps us use muscle
movements for speaking and
pronunciation (Aphasia here is
indicated by speaking slowly
with missing words)
• Wernicke’s area interrupts
understanding of words.
(aphasia of this area is indicated
by garbled sentences or use of
words that don’t make sense)
Example Aphasia: What do you do
with a cigarette?
Broca Aphasia: Uh…(long
pause)…cigarette…uh…smoke it.
Wernicke Aphasia: This is a
segment of pegment, soap a
cigarette.
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20. Brain Plasticity
• The ability for the brain to
modify itself after damage
• Amputation leads to phantom
sensations
• People can generate new brain
cells (Neurogenesis)
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21. Section 5B: Brain Structure & Functions
• Reflection of Learning Goals:
– Students should be able to answer the following:
1. What specific brain areas control certain functions?
2. To what extent can a damaged brain reorganize itself?
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Good
Understanding
Little
Understanding
Fair
Understanding

22. Section 5: Test Your Knowledge
1. Homework: Study parts of the brain!!!
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23. Section 6: Split-Brain & Consciousness
• Learning Goals:
– Students should be able to answer the following:
1. What do split brain reveal about the functions of
our two brain hemispheres?
2. What is the “dual processing” being revealed by
today’s cognitive neuroscience?
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24. The Two Hemispheres
 Our brain is divided into two
hemispheres.
 The left hemisphere processes
reading, writing, speaking,
mathematics, and comprehension
skills. In the 1960s, it was termed as
the dominant brain.
• Right Brain
– Creativity
– Facial Expressions
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25. Which face is happier?
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26. The Two Hemispheres
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No Such Thing
as Left-Brain
or Right-Brain
Dominance.
You are NOT
primarily left
or right
brained!

27. Split Brain Experiment (Sperry
& Gazzagnia)
• With the corpus callosum
severed, objects (apple)
presented in the right visual
field can be named. Objects
(pencil) in the left visual field
cannot. We cut the corpus
callosum for seizures.
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28. Split Brain Experiment (Sperry)
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29. Split Brain Experiment (Sperry)
Try drawing one shape with your left hand and one with your
right hand, simultaneously.
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30. Dual Processing: Who is really in control?
• Consciousness takes place in two forms:
– High Road: Conscious ideas that we think
about and readily recall
– Low Road: Unconscious feelings, ides and
experiences that influence our behavior and
thought.
About 1/3 of a second
before you think of raising
your hand, your brain has
already started to process
the movement
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31. Section 6: Split-Brain & Consciousness
• Reflection of Learning Goals:
– Students should be able to answer the following:
1. What do split brain reveal about the functions of our two
brain hemispheres?
2. What is the “dual processing” being revealed by today’s
cognitive neuroscience?
Mr. Burnes 31
Good
Understanding
Little
Understanding
Fair
Understanding

32. Section 6: Test Your Knowledge
1. In people whose corpus callosums’ have
not been severed, verbal stimuli are
identified more quickly and more
accurately:
A. When sent to the right hemisphere first
B. When sent to the left hemisphere first
C. When presented to the left visual field.
D. When presented auditorally, rather than
visually.
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