Psychology 150

Unit 1 Learning Objectives

Chapter 3: Biological Psychology

For Quiz 2 you will need to learn the bold-faced parts of objectives 1-3, 5-6, 8-9, 11-14, and 19-20.

Chapter Objective: You should be able to describe the structure and function of the nervous system,
and how both influence behavior.

Module 3.1

1. Know what reduction is (the attempt to explain complex phenomena in terms of simpler
components). What are neurons *(individual nerve cells that are all separate) (nerve cells) and
know their basic structure *(cell body –contains nucleus of cell; dendrites – widely branching
structures that receive input from neurons; axon – single, long, thin, straight fiber with
branches near its tip; terminal buttons – presynaptic ending or little bulge at end of each axon
branch) (cell body, dendrites, axon, and terminal buttons) and function. What is the rule about
how axons transmit information?

2. Regarding the function of neurons, especially the axon, know what an action potential is *(an
excitation that travels along an axon at a constant stretch, no matter how far it travels) (what is
the all-or-none law—either a neuron fires or it doesn’t?) (how it happens) and what a resting
potential is, *(an electrical polarization across the membrane or covering of an axon) and how
they are related. How does this information relate to psychology?

3. Know what a synapse *(specialized junction or space between two neuron where one neuron
releases a neurotransmitter which inhibits or excites the other neuron) and terminal button are
*(terminal buttons – presynaptic ending or little bulge at end of each axon branch), and what
are neurotransmitters *(a chemical that activates receptors on other neurons) (including,
especially, serotonin *(modifies many types of motivated and emotional behavior, most often
used in antidepressant drugs) and dopamine*(important in movement as in Parkinson’s and
the other is for memory and cognition, can be used to help address Parkinson’s, dopamine also
reduced in antipsychotic drugs) and what kinds of effect can they have? What are the three fates of
a receptor molecule? Be able to say what is reuptake is *(process where neurotransmitter is
reabsorbed back to the neuron that released it from the postsynaptic cleft) ?

4. What are the points in 65, 1 and 66, 2 about the relation between complex behavior and
neurotransmitter ? What is the hypothesis and how does the examples of Parkinson’s disease support
or refute it?

Module 3.2

5. Know what psychoactive drugs do *(increase or decrease the release of neurotransmitters or

decrease uptake) and the ways drugs can affect receptors *(increase or decrease the release of
neurotransmitters or decrease reuptake), and what agonists *(drug that causes activity in synapse)
and antagonists are *(drug that reduces activity in a synapse)?

6. Know the major classes of drugs (stimulants *(increase energy, alertness, and activity such
as meth – block reuptake of dopamine or serotonin), depressants *(reduce arousal, such as
alcohol – reduces activity at inhibitory synapses), narcotics *(drugs that produce drowsiness,
insensitivity to pain, and decreased responsiveness such as opiates – affects endorphins to be
created) , hallucinogens *(drugs that induce sensory distortions such as mushrooms – attaches
to serotonin receptors), including specific drugs in each class and the general effects each produces
and how (i.e., what they do to receptors and what neurotransmitters are involved). What is the
Paradox mentioned with respect to nicotine and what explains it.

Module 3.3

7. What are the two points that are important to remember?

8. Be able to distinguish between the central *(brain and spinal cord) and peripheral *(nerves
connecting the spinal cord to the rest of the body) (including the somatic *(connects skin to
muscles) and autonomic *(heart, stomach, and other organs)) nervous systems (and what sensory
*(Sensory nerves bring information from other body areas to the spinal cord), and motor nerves do
*(motor nerves take information from the spinal cord to the muscles, where they cause contractions.).

9. What are hemispheres and know what the cerebral cortex is*(outer covering of forebrain)
(and does), including the four lobes (occipital *(rear of head, specialized for vision), temporal
*(left and right sides of head, main area for hearing and certain aspects of vision), parietal
*(forward from occipital lobe and is specialized for body senses), and frontal
*(anterior/forward pole of the brain and responsible for controlling fine movements)) and the
sensory (primary visual *(primary location of where vision comes from),
somatosensory*(primary site for touch sensations, touch also activates other areas that are
responsible for emotional responses) and auditory cortexes *(in temporal location and have
difficulty interpreting sounds)) and motor (prefrontal *(anterior sections of frontal lobe,
important for memory and what comes next) and primary motor cortex *(precentral gyrus))
functions housed in each (including the amygdala*(structure in temporal lobe, responds
strongly to emotional situations)).

10. About mirror neurons, what are the important issues that need to be addressed about cause and
effect? *(In particular, were you born with mirror neurons that helped you learn to copy other people? Or did you learn to
copy other people, and in the process develop mirror neurons? That is, perhaps after you have learned the parallels between
what you see and what you can do, seeing someone do something reminds you of your own ability to do the same thing and
therefore activates neurons responsible for those actions.)

11. What is the corpus callosum *(a set of axons which connect the left and right hemispheres
of the cerebral cortex), what role does it play in epilepsy (*cutting it removes epilepsy and it’s
effects) and what is the split-brain phenomenon *(feeling in one side goes only to other part of brain
and they must feel something with their opposite hand to understand it i.e. right hand to left
hemisphere and right hand to left hemisphere).

12. Be able to recognize the techniques (EEG*(putting electrodes on scalp to record rapid
changes in brain’s electrical activity), PET *(records radioactivity of various brain areas
emitted from injected chemicals) and fMRI*(uses magnetic detectors outside the head to
compare the amounts of hemoglobin with and without oxygen in different brain areas)) used to
measure brain activity.

13. Be able to say what the thalamus*(sensory and motor function), hypothalamus *(important
for hunger, thirst, temperature regulation, sex, and other motivated behaviors), and spinal cord
do *(controls muscles from the neck down as well as reflexes). Also, what is a reflex *(a rapid,
automatic response to a stimulus)?

14. What is the autonomic nervous system *(affects the endocrine system – which releases
hormones) (including its two components, the sympathetic*(inhibits digestion and sexual
arousal which can wait until emergency is done) and parasympathetic *(decreases heart rate,
increases digestive activities, and promotes vegetative activities which take place during rest
and relaxation)) and the endocrine systems *(glands that produce hormones and release them
into the blood) (and hormones*(chemicals that are released by glands and conveyed by the
blood to alter activity in various organs)) (and know why the pituitary gland is called the master
gland **controls the release of hormones to other glands).

15. Know what brain plasticity is *(change as a result of experience), that is, what changes the brain.

16. What is the binding problem (**The question of how separate brain areas combine forces to produce a unified
perception of a single object) and the naïve explanation (the little person is called a homunculus).

Module 3.4

17. How many genes do humans have? **tens of thousands**

18. Know what chromosomes and genes are and the relation between the two, and the difference
between sex-linked and sex-limited genes **(occurs in both but effects mainly in one or either – i.e.
facial hair – both men and women have it).

19. Know *(because there can be many genes that affect certain outcomes so it isn’t fair to
assign it to one thing) why it is misleading to talk about “a gene for” something and what
epigenetics is *(changes in gene expression without altering DNA sequence).

20. Know what the concept of heritability *(an estimate of the variance within a population
that is due to heredity) (also, the extent to which differences in a trait are correlated with
differences in genes*(based on a scale of 0-1 where 0 means no it doesn’t correlate and 1 where
it does correlate)) refers to and why it does NOT refer to genetic causation (see 39-41, especially
41, 3 about correlation and causation).

21. What is the point about environmental modification of genetic effects and the example of PKU.
**if a gene isn’t present in a population, then it won’t come up within that population**

22. Know what evolutionary psychology is and what some criticisms are.
**try to infer the benefits that favored certain genes and behaviors**
**Another objection is that even if the evolutionary explanation applies to other animal species, it does not necessarily have the
same force in humans**