Lecture One

Definition: the study of the biological foundations of behavior, emotions, and mental
processes
➔ Synonyms: physiological, psychology, biological psychology

Learning in different courses

- B-level
- Remember, understand
- C-level
- Apply, analyze, and evaluate
- D-level
- Evaluate, create

Chapter one

➔ Neuroscience is the scientific study of the brain and nervous system, in health
and in disease
◆ Neuroscientists strive to understand the functions of the brain and
nervous system across a number of levels of analysis, using molecular,
cellular, synaptic, network, computational, and behavioral approaches
◆ Analogous to google earth; we can zoom in and out
● There are different levels at which we can conduct analyses

Building blocks of analyses

1. Molecular neuroscience
a. Most microscopic level
b. Explores the nervous system
c. DNA
d. RNA
2. Cellular neuroscience
a. Figuring out the structure, physiological properties, and functions of
single cells
3. Synaptic neuroscience
a. Examines strength and flexibility of neural connections
4. Network neuroscience
a. Interconnected neurons with pathways and networks
5. Behavioral neuroscience (biological psychology)
a. The reciprocal relationship between biology and behavior
b. Behavior can impact biology and biology impacts behavior

Other types of neuroscience

- Cognitive
- Computational
Disease

- Neurological illnesses impacts ⅙ people

- Cost more than 500 billion dollars annually

Historical highlights

● 7,000 years ago, people tried to cure others by drilling holes in their skulls
(trephining/trepanation)
○ Release demons
● Edwin Smith's surgical papyrus reveals the oldest forms of medical writing
● Cases of nervous system malfunctions were classified as an ailment not to be
treated
● Greeks listened to Egyptians and thought of the brain as an organ of sensation

How does the nervous system communicate?

➔ Luigi Galvani and Emil du Bois-Reymond established electricity as the mode

of communication used by the nervous system

The dawn of scientific reasoning

- Rene Descartes; mind-body dualism: A philosophical perspective put forward by René

Descartes in which the body is mechanistic, whereas the mind is separate and nonphysical.
- Monoism: the view that the mind is seen as the product of activity in the brain

Modern neuroscience begins

● Camillo Golgi believed the nervous system was a network of continuous fibers
● Spanish anatomist santiago ramon y Cajal argued the nervous system was
composed of the independent array of cells; neuron doctrine

Franz Josef Gall

- Localization of function
- Phrenoology
- Structure of peoples skulls can be correlated with their individual
personality and strengths and abilities
 Timeline

Historical period Significant highlights and contributions

Ca. 3000 BCE ● Egyptians studied brain during mummification process;

however, published case studies show accurate analysis of
neurological disorders

Ca. 400 BCE-200 CE ● Hippocrates realizes that epilepsy is a brain disease

● Galen makes observations from dissection and believes that
fluids transmit messages

1600-1800 ● Descartes mind-body dualism

● Leeuwenhoek invents light microscope
● Galvani and du Bois-Reymond realize that electricity
transmits messages in nervous system

1800-1900 ● Bell and Magendie determine that neurons communicate in

one direction and that sensation and movement are
controlled by separate pathways. ● Gall and Spurzheim
make inaccurate claims about phrenology, but their notion
of localization of function in the nervous system is accurate.
● Paul Broca discovers localization of speech production. ●
Fritsch and Hitzig identify localization of motor function in
the cerebral cortex.

1900-present ● Ramón y Cajal declares that the nervous system is

composed of separate cells; he shares the 1906 Nobel Prize
with Camillo Golgi. ● John Hughlings Jackson explains
brain functions as a hierarchy, with more complicated
functions carried out by higher levels of the brain. ● Otto
Loewi demonstrates chemical signaling at the synapse. ●
Charles Sherrington coins the term synapse; he wins the
Nobel Prize in 1932. ● Sir John Eccles, Andrew Huxley, and
Alan Hodgkin share the 1963 Nobel Prize for their work in
advancing our understanding of the way neurons
communicate. ● Bernard Katz receives the 1970 Nobel Prize
for his work on chemical transmission at the synapse. ●
Society for Neuroscience counts about 38,000 members in
2016.
Lecture 2
Behavioral Neuro Research methods
Microscopic methods

➔ Microscopic or histological methods let us observe structure, organization anf

connections of individual cells
➔ Histology: the study of cells and tissues at the microscopic
◆ Microtome: a device used to make very thin slices of tissue for
histology
➔ Flurescnt microscopy anf electron isvery strong; much stronger than the
human eye
➔ Golgi Stain - to make detailed structural analysis of a small number of single
cells, golgi stain is preferred (camillo golgi)
➔ Nissl stain- identify clusters of cells
➔ Myelon stain: a stain used to trace neural pathways
➔ Horseradish peroxidase: discover point of origin in the myelin sheath of axons

Optical imaging allow researchers to literally construct a “see through brain”

EEG
- Electrical signals in brain
- How brain works
- Measuring electrical signal on head
- Listen to what the head is doing
- Brain waves
- More electrodes = more recording channels
- Event related potential (average brain wave)
- More trials, better generability
- Improve validity, reliability
- Lots of trials
- Affordable
- Trouble telling where signal us coming from exactly
- A lot of detail
- Very commonly used for sleep research
- Used to diagnose certain sleep disorders
- Bad spatial resolution
● CT
○ Cannot distinguish living and dead brain
○ Good structural imaging
○ An imaging technology in which computers are used to enhance X-ray
images
● PET
○ Brain activity is monitored excellently
○ Not good info about structure of the brain
○ LOCALIZATION OF BRAIN ACTIVITY
● MRI (fMRI)
○ Very high resolution structural imaging compared to a CT scan
 ○ Uses radio frequency which is much safer than CT
○ Powerful magnets that align hydrogen atoms within the magnetic field
○ Fmri
■ Bold signals
■ Used to track activity in the brain
■ Hemoglobin has different magnetic properties if there is oxygen
or not
● DTI
○ Interested structure of brain (white matter connections)
○ Mylenated axons
○ Water does not diffuse as readily amongst the axons
○ Neural highways
● MEG: RECORDS MAGNETIC OUTPUT OF THE BRAIN
○ DIFFERENT FROM MRI BECAUSE IT IS VISUALIZED AS BRAIN
WAVES AND NOT AS THE STRUCTURE
○ superconducting quantum interference devices, or SQUIDs, that
convert magnetic energy into electrical impulses that can be recorded
and analyzed
● Single cell
○ Surgically implanted electrodes that measure

Brain stimulation:

- Abilaiton: surgically remove part of brain

- Lesion: purposefully hurt/damage part of a brain
1. Biochemical methods
a. Microdialysis
2. Genetic methods
a. Twin studies
- Monozygotic and dyzygotic twins
- Concordance rate
- Probability of a twin also possessing a trait
3. Adoption studies
a. Heredity vs environment; which one is stronger?
b. Heritability
4. Genetic screens
a. Genetic screen

Chapter Two
Anatomical directions and planes of section

● Anterior: towards the front

● Posterior: towards the rear
● Superior: the top
● Interior: the bottom
● Midline: imaginary line diving the brain up into two equal halves
● Ipsilateral: referring to the structures on the same side of the midline
● Contralateral: referring to the structures on opposite sides of the brain
 ● Medial: towards the midline
● Lateral: meaning away from the midline
● Proximal: closer to the center, usually applied to limbs
● Distal: farther away from another structure
● Coronal/frontal section: dividing the brain front to back parallel to the face
● Sagittal: parallel to the midlkilne
● Midsagittal section: saggital section that divides brain up into two equal halves
● Axial: divides brain top to bottom

Protecting and supplying the nervous system

- Meninges: three layers of membrane
- Dura matter (hard mother): the outermost of the three layers; found in
CNS and PNS
- Arachnoid: middle layer in CNS; looks like spider web
- Subarachnoid space: cerebrospinal fluid in the CNS between A and P
layers
- Pia: innermost layer found in CNS and in PNS

Cerebrospinal fluid: Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is secreted within hollow spaces in the
brain known as ventricles
- Choroid plexus: lining of the ventricles, which secretes the CSF
- Central canal: the small midline channel in the spinal cord that contains
cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)

The brain’s blood supply

- 2% of body weight is the brain but 20% of blood
- Neurons are more vulnerable to oxygen deprivation as opposed to other types
of cells
- Brain is served by carotid ( travel up the sides of the neck to supply the brain.)
- Middle and anterior arteries
- and vertebral arteries (enters from back of the skull)
- Basilar artery

The nervous system

1. CNS
a. Brain and spinal cord
b. CSF (cerebrospinalfluid) circulates in CNS, not PNS
i. The main role of plasma is to take nutrients, hormones, and
proteins to the parts of the body that need them. Cells also put
their waste products into the plasma.
c. Damage to CNS is permanent but not to PNS
2. Spinal cord: information super highway
a. Long cylinder of nerve tissue
b. Vertebral column = bones of the spinal column that protect and enclose
the spinal cord
i. 31 segments
ii. 8 cervical nerves
c. Nerves
 i. Cervical
1. 8 nerves
2. Serve area of head, neck and arms
ii. Thoracic
1. 12 nerves
2. Torso
iii. Lumbar
1. 5 nerves
2. Lower back and legs
iv. Sacral
1. 5 nerves
2. Back of legs and genitals
v. Coccygeal
1. 1 nerve
3. PNS
a. Contains all nerves that exit the brain and spinal cord serving sensory
and motor functions
4. Somatic
5. Autonomic
a. Sympathetic
b. Parasympathetic
White matter: bundles of mylenated axons
Gray matter: consists of areas primarily made up of cell bodies

Axons from sensory neurons that carry information about touch, position, pain, and
temperature travel up the dorsal parts of the spinal cord. Axons from motor neurons,
responsible for movement, travel in the ventral parts of the cord.

Horns
- Dorsal: Gray matter in the spinal cord that contains sensory neurons. Receive sensory input
- Afferent
- Ventral: gray matter in the spinal cord that contains motor neurons passing
motor information
- Efferent

Reflex
- WITHDRAWAL: pulls body away from source of pain
- Sensory
- Motor
- Interneuron
- PATELLAR: knee-jerk reflex, spinal type of reflex
- Central pattern generators

Damage to the spinal cord results in loss of sensation (of both the skin and internal
organs) and loss of voluntary movement in parts of the body served by nerves
located below the damaged area
Embryological divisions of brain
1. Hindbrain (rhombencephalon)
a. Caudal division of the brain
b. Medulla, pons, and cerebellum
i. Pons: participatws in management of states of consciousness,
bridge between medulla and other structures
1. Cochlear nucleus
a. Info about sound from inner ear
2. Vestibular nucleus
a. Group of cell bodies that receives info about
location and movement of the head
ii. Cerebellum: balance, muscle tone, muscle coordination,
learning, higher cognitive functions
1. Little brain
2. Contains more neurons than the rest of the brain
combined
3. Emotional processing
4. Executive processing
iii. medulla : white matter, info passes through the medulla, nuclei,
reticular formation runs up medulla to the midbrain
1. Raphe nuclei: Nuclei located in the pons that participate in the
regulation of sleep, arousal, mood, appetite, and aggression.
2. Locus coeruleus: sleep, arousal and mood in pons
c. Metencephalon and mylencephalon (subdivision)
2. Midbrain (mesencephalon)
a. Brainstem
b. Tectum = roof/dorsal
c. Tegmentum = bottom half
d. Cerebral aqueduct = small channel running along the midline of the
midbrain that connects the third and fourth ventricles
e. Lying between hindbrain and forebrain
f. Superior and inferior colliculi
i. Receive input from optic nerves, visually guided movements
ii. Hearing and audition
g. Periaqueductal gray
i. Autonomic, motor, and pain responses to environmental stimuli
and perception of pain, regulation of sleep
h. red nucleus, substantial nigra
i. Communicates motor info from spinal cord to cerebellum,
rubrospinal tract for voluntary movement
ii. Basal ganglia, movement and reward-seeking behavior
1. Problems with the basal ganglia seem to play a role in
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
2. Motor control
a. The caudate nucleus
b. Putamen
c. Globus pallidus
d. Subthalamic nucleus
 e. Nucleus accumbens
i. Reward and addiction also known as ventral
striatum
i. Mesencephalon (subdivision)
3. Forebrain (prosencephalon)
a. Diencephalon and telencephalon
b. Thalamus and hypothalamus
i. Sensory and regulatory input
ii. Hunger, thirst sex, biological rhythms, aggression
c. Limbic system
i. emotion, motivation, and learning
ii. The parahippocampal gyrus is a fold of tissue near the
hippocampus. The fornix is a fiber pathway connecting the
hippocampus with the mammillary bodies of the diencephalon
4. Brainstem
a. Hindbrain and midbrain

Chapter 3: Neurophysiology
➔ Glia
◆ Cells in the nervous system that support the activities of the neurons
● Macroglia: large varieties of glial cells; originate in ectoderm
layer
○ Astrocytes: provide a variety of support functions to
neurons
◆ Most common
◆ Protoplasmic: many fine branches found in gray
matter
◆ Fibrous: long; fiber-like branches and found in
white matter
◆ Astrocytes form close connections with the
capillary cells of the brain, making what are known
as neurovascular units
● Transfer glucose and other nutrients to
neurons
● Blood brain barrier: prevents most toxins
circulating in the blood from entering the
brain
● Can excite or suppress neuron and
astrocytes
● Astrocyte cancer: astrocytoma
● Cilia helps circulate CSF
○ Ependymal: line ventricles of the brain and central canal
of the spinal cord
◆ Fine hair like cilia
● Purple cilia
● Purple cilia: ependymal cell
◆ Circulate CSF
 ◆ Line the ventricles and the central canal of the
spinal cord
◆ Malfunction may result in helencaphalous
○ Oligodendrocytes: supply myelin in CNS
◆ Oligodendrocytes form myelin in the CNS, and
Schwann cells supply the myelin for the peripheral
nervous system (PNS)
◆ Exosome = Tiny vesicle that removes debris and
transports material. exosomes released by the
oligodendrocytes support transport within
neurons and protect neurons from damage
◆ Mylinate axons
○ Schwann: supply myelin in PNS
◆ One Schwann cell provides a single myelin
segment on a peripheral axon
◆ exosome = Tiny vesicle that removes debris and
transports material used to communicate by
Schwann and oligodendrocyte cells. exosomes
released by Schwann cells appear to aid in the
regeneration of damaged axons
● Microglia: relatively small; originate in mesoderm layer
○ Brains clean up crew
➔ Neuron
◆ A cell of the nervous system that is specialized for information
processing and communication

Participants Ethical principles

Human participants ● No coercion

● Informed consent
● Confidentiality

Animal subjects ● Necessity

● Excellent food, housing, vet care
● Avoidance of pain and distress
● Should not be exposed to unnecessary levels of pain

Phrenology
- Franz Joseph Gall
- Measures bumps on a skull
- Phrenology wasn’t completely wrong; there were some parts of it that were
accurate

Challenges in Nomenclature of the nervous system

● Multiple terms used for the same structure
○ Nucleus accumbens = ventral striatum
○ Jangle
 ● The same term used for different structures
○ Medial frontal cortex = BA 10, 32, 24
○ Jingle

Functional neuroanatomy
● Anatomical directions and planes of section
● Major divisions of the nervous system
○ Central nervous system (CNS)
■ Brain
■ Spinal cord
○ Peripheral nervous system (PNS)
■ Somatic: sensory information to the CNS; motor commands
from the CNS
● Crnial nerves
● Spinal nerves
■ In the peripheral nervous system (PNS), only the dura mater and
pia mater layers cover the nerves
■ Autonomic: controls glands, organs, smooth muscles
● Sympathetic
● Parasympathetic
● Enteric
○ Endocrine system
■ Pineal gland
■ Pituitary gland
■ Thyroid gland
■ Adrenal gland

Directions
➔ Rostral or anterior
◆ Front
➔ Caudal or posterior
◆ back

➔ Ventral or inferior
➔ Dorsal or superior
Meninges/Diseases
1. Meningitis
2. Meningioma

Cerebrospinal fluid circulates through…

- Two lateral ventricles
- Third ventricle
- Cerebral aqueduct
- Fourth ventricle
- Central canal
- Subarachnoid space
If there's a problem, it's called hydrocephalus: excess of CSF - baby brain swelling,
can be treated
It is solved by
- Ventriculoperitoneal shunt (to the peritoneal cavity)
- VP Shunt
- Ventriculo-atrial shunt (to the right atrium of the heart)
- VA Shunt

The brain’s blood supply

- The brain is a very blood hungry organ (vampire brain!)
- The brain dies after 3 minutes of the CNS not receiving any new blood supply
Artery: move blood towards organs
- Two main arteries to the brain
- Caraodid artery
- Vertebral artery
- Circle of Willis
- The vertebral arteries give rise to a basilar artery, which joins the
carotid arteries at the base of the brain to form the circle of
Willis. The posterior cerebral arteries originate at this junction
Veins: move blood towards the heart

Embryological division of the brain

● Encephalon or head
● Prosencephalon or forebrain
○ Telencephalon
■ Lateral ventricles
● Cerebral cortex
 ●
Basal ganglia
○ Problems with the basal ganglia seem to play a role
in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
● Hippocampus
● Amygdala
○ Diencephalon
■ Third ventricle
● Thalamus
● Hypothalamus
● Mesencephalon or midbrain
○ Cerebral aqueduct (ventricle)
■ Tectum
■ Teqmentum
● Rhombencephalon or hindbrain
○ Fourth ventricle
■ Cerebellum pons
■ Medulla

Brain structures

Hindbrain ● Cerebellum
○ Cognition
○ Balance of coordination
● Reticular formation
○ Exdtends from medulla through pons into midrain
○ Levels of awareness
● Medulla
○ Breathing
○ Heart rate
○ Blood pressure
● Pons
○ Bridge between cerebellum and brainstem and between
medulla and higher levels of the brain
○ States of arousal
○ Raphe nuclei
○ Locus coeruleus

Midbrain ● Substantia nigra

○ Movement, reward seeking; Parkinson’s disease
● Superior colliculi
○ Visual reflexes
● Inferior colliculi
○ Auditory reflexes
● Red nucleus
○ Movement
● Periaqueductal gray
○ Pain, sleep, homeostasis

Forebrain ● Telenphalon
(prosencephalon) ○ Basal ganglia: voluntary movement
 ○ Limbic system: emotions and learning
○ Cerebral cortex: higher cognition
● Diencephalon
○ Thalamus
■ Processes sensory information; “relay center”
■ Waste station
○ Hypothalamus (under the thalamus)
■ Motivated behavior

The Limbic System - Hippocampus

- Formation of long term memories
- Amygdala
- fear
- Cingulate cortex
- Anterior
- Posterior
- Septal area
- Reward processing

Four cortices
1. Hetero-modal association cortex
a. Integrates multiple sensory or motor molecules
2. Unimodal association cortex
a. Higher order processing for a single motor or sensory area
3. Motor cortex
a. Processing movement
4. Sensory cortex
a. Processing of sensory information

6 layers of cortex
● Molecular layer
○ Contains dendrites and axons from deeper layers
● Small pyramidal layer
○ Cortical-cortical connections
● Medium pyramidal layer
○ Contains cortical-cortical connections
● Granular layer
○ Receives input from the thalamus
● Large pyramidal layer
○ Projects to subcortical structures
● Polymorphic layer
○ Projects to the thalamus

Corpus callosum
- Allows two hemispheres to communicate
- Corpus callosum and anterior commissure a band of fibers that crosses the
midline. A large portion of the anterior commissure is responsible for interconnecting
the middle and inferior temporal gyri
Cortical convolution: The cerebral cortex of the human brain is highly convoluted,
meaning it has many folds and creases. These convolutions allow a large surface
area of the brain to fit inside our skulls

Motor Homunculus
- The primary motor cortex designates most of its space to face, lips, jaw and
tongue whereas relatively little space is given to torso and arms and legs

Cortical convolution
● Relative degree of cortical convolution is positively correlated with the
cognitive abilities of species
● Brain is convoluted because the brain can only be a certain size

Neuroimaging techniques
➔ CT Scan
◆ X-ray technology
◆ Measure density of the tissue being studied
◆ ​Dense materials appear white (hyperdense); less dense materials
appear black (hypodense)

Lecture 3

Two types of cells

- Neurons
- Basic unit of info processing in the nervous system
- Glia
- From the greek glue
- Support functions for neurons
- Microglia; digest debris, can cause neurodegenerative diseases
- Macroglia; astrocytes, schwann cells
Rats and Aplysia
- Compared with invertebrates, such as the Aplysia californica (a type of sea
slug) on the right, chordates have actual brains as opposed to ganglia. The
chordate nervous system runs near the dorsal rather than the ventral surface
of the animal’s body

When did the first nervous system appear?

- The earth is about 5 billion years old. The first nervous system appeared
roughly 1 billion years ago.

Histology
- The study of microscopic structures and tissues
- Provides a means for observing the structure, organization, and connections
of individual cells
Three steps
1. Fixing
a. freezing tissues or treating with formalin (formaldehyde)
2. Slicing
a. microtome machine
3. Staining
a. Golgi stain to observe single neurons
b. Nissl stain to observe populations of cell bodies
c. Horseradish peroxidase to observe neural pathways
i. Horseradish Peroxidase Provides a Means for Identifying Neural
Pathways

Gliomas Are Primary Brain Tumors

● Primary brain tumors originate in the brain
● Secondary brain tumors are cancerous tumors originating outside the brain
○ Astrocytomas, oligodendrogliomas, and ependymomas are all examples
of primary brain tumors
● GILOMA
○ Cancer grade 1-4
○ Grade 4 astrocytoma (GBM)
■ glioblastoma multiforme
● Causes = exposure to radiation
● Aggressive
● Incurable
● Treatment = chemo

Functional Classification of a Neuron

Sensory ➔ Specialized to receive information from the outside world

Motor ➔ Transmit commands from the CNS directly to muscles and

glands

Interneurons ➔ Act as bridges between sensory and motor systems

Types of neurons
1. Unipolar
a. One branch
2. Pyrymidial
a. Bipolar, two branches extend from the cell body
3. Multipolar neuron
a. Many branches extend from the cell body
Architecture of a neuron
- Nucleus (king)
- Nucleolos (queen)
- Ribosomes and endoplasmic reticulum (trades people)
- Golgi apparatus (packagers)
- Mitochondria (energy industry, power plants)

Cytoskeleton
- Microtubules (road lanes)
- Responsible for the transport of neurochemicals and other products
- 25 nm in diameter
- Slow (8 mm per day) and fast (400 mm per day)
- Pathogens (“terrorists”) can attack the soma through retrograde
transport
- Neurofilaments
- Structural support
- 10nm in diameter
- Microfilaments
- 3 to 5 nm
- Participate in learning and development by changing the length and
shape of the axon and dendrites

Chemistry of the neurons

● Potassium - loses an electron (positive charge)
○ High concentration in intracellular fluid
● Sodium - loses an electron (positive charge)
○ High concentration outside the fluid
● Chloride - gains an electron (negative charge)
○ High concentration outside the cell

Volt meter: measures the charge in neurons

- Tracellular fluid is more negative

WHY DOES THE NEURON GENERATE AN ACTION POTENTIAL?

● Action potential = concentration of K in equilibrium
● Sodium-potassium pump
● Na+/K+ pump continually pushes Na+ out and pulls K+ in, maintaining
the resting potential

Action potential
- Voltage-gated ion channels
- Allow ions to diffuse down the concentration gradient
- Selective permeability to certain ions
- Don’t require additional energy for operation
- Sodium rushes in
- Potassium leaves the cell
- Sodium channels close when neuron reaches its threshold
Synapse: can take 2 forms
1. Gap junction
a. 3.5nm (width)
b. Speed = nearly instantaneueos
c. Direct movement of ions from one cell to another
d. Large presynaptic neuron and small postsynaptic neuron
2. Chemical
a. 20nm (width)
b. Speed = up to several milliseconds
c. Release of neurochemical; excititory and inhibitory
d. Small presynaptic neuron and large postsynaptic neuron

Postsynaptic potentials

Neurochemical; what are they?

- Substance released by one cell that produces a reaction in a target cell
- Has to be present with a presynaptic cell
- Released in response to presynaptic depolarization
- Interacts with specific receptors on postsynaptic cell

1. Neuropeptides
a. Synthesis: in the cell body and requires transport
b. Recycling of vesicles: no
c. Activation
d. Deactivation
2. Small molecules
a. Synthesis: in axon terminal
b. Recycling of vesicles: yes
c. Activation
d. Deactivation

Lecture 5:
1. Neurotransmitters
a. are chemical messengers that communicate across a synapse
2. Neuromodulators
a. diffuse away from the point of release to communicate with distant
targets
3. Neurohormones
a. are secreted into the blood supply, through which they travel to their
final targets
Catecholamines

WHAT IS A NEUROCHEMICAL?
- Substances released by one cell that produces a reaction in a target cell

1. SMALL Molecules and Neuropeptides

a. Small molecules
i. In axon terminal
ii. Yes, vesicles
iii. reuptake
b. Neuropeptides
i. In cell body
ii. No vesicle
iii. Diffusion
The substance:
- Must be present within a presynaptic cell
- Is released in response to presynaptic depolarization
- Interacts with specific receptors on a postsynaptic cell 46

Cholinergic system in the brain

- Important systems originate in the basal forebrain and brainstem and form
projections to the limbic system and cerebral cortex. These systems
participate in learning and memory and deteriorate in patients diagnosed with
Alzheimer’s disease
Dopamine: These Locations
systems appear to ● Substantia nigra and basal ganglia
participate in motor ● Ventral tegmentum projections to hippocampus, amygdala, and
control, reward, and the nucleus accumbens
planning of behavior ● Ventral tegmentum projections to frontal lobe of the cortex
Functions
● Movement
● Reinforcement
● Planning

Serotonin: Serotonin Location:

released by these - Pons
neurons affects the spinal
cord, cerebellum, limbic Functions
system, and cerebral - Sleep
cortex. These systems - Appetite
participate in the control - Mood
of mood, sleep, social - Aggression
status, aggression, and - Social rank
appetite.

Norepinephrine: Location
Released norepinephrine - Pons (especially locus coeruleus, which projects widely to the
goes to nearly every spinal cord and brain)
major part of the brain - Medulla
and spinal cord, - Hypothalamus
producing arousal and - Postganglionic sympathetic synapses
vigilance
Functions
- Arousal
- Mood
- Vigilance

Histamine: Histamine is Location

released by the cells - The tuberomamillary nucleus (TMN) of the hypothalamus,
located in the projecting widely to the brain
tuberomammillary
nucleus of the Functions
hypothalamus. These - Wakefulness
cells project widely to the - Movement
brainstem, limbic system,
and cerebral cortex. The
main effect of the
neuromodulation
provided by this system
is to increase alertness.

Glutamate ● Major excitatory neurochemical in the CNS

● Receptor subtypes include NMDA, AMPA, and kainate
● Functions
○ Excitation
○ Long-term memory
Adenosine: Because Locations
adenosine activity is - CNS
correlated with - Autonomic nervous system
drowsiness, caffeine’s - In cells containing catecholamines
ability to block adenosine
at the receptor Functions
contributes to alertness. - Pain modulation
Because of their similar - Inhibition
structures, caffeine and
adenosine compete at
binding sites of
postsynaptic receptors
for adenosine

Lecture 6: The Origins of the nervous system and Genetics

Evolution
- Simple and complex nervou systems
- Natural and sexual selection
- Evolutionary analogy and homology

Genetics
- Behavioral genetics

Life on Earth
● The entire universe is 13-15 billion years old
● The earth is 5 billion years old

Nervous system
- 700,000,000 million years ago, the first nervous system appeared
- They are a very new development

Animals without neurons

Sea sponges
- Look like bags and they don't move
- These animals are remarkable because they do not have a nervous system
- They're capable of eating, extracting nutrient from their environments

Independent effectors (myocytes)

- Cells that produce a motor response when stimulated (without neurons)
- Contractility (shorten and do work)
- Arranged around the pores on the sponges surface
 - Myocytes can work to effectively take in more water when chemicals come
into contact with the outer surface sponge
- Can be hit anywhere by a stimulus for an effect
- They are slow at moving compared to sensorimotor neurons

Sensorimotor neurons
- Sensitivity
- Speed
- Connectivity

Hydra
- Two layer nervous system
- Sensory neurons
- Motor neurons

The first nervous systems: Hydr’s body and behavior

- Jellyfish, coral, sea anemones and hydra
- One of the simplest animals
- Hydra has tentacles with sensorimotor neurons which act like nutriesnt
detectors like detecting food and bringing food to the hydra, it can also move
- Human nervous system: 3 layers

Interneurons
- Lie between sensory and motor neurons
- Interneurons lie between sensory and motor neurons. In this example, the
axon of a sensory neuron provides excitatory (+) input to a motor neuron and
an inhibitory (-) interneuron. Because both motor neurons provide excitatory
(+) input to an effector, a stimulus swill lead to a contraction in Effector 1 and
relaxation in Effector 2
- No nervous system
- Independent effectors
- One layer
- Sensorimotor neuron
- Independent effectors
- Two layer

Centralization: efficiency
● Material
○ Efficiency of biological material in the construction of neural networls
● Distance
○ Shorter distance traversed by neuron extension
● Time
○ Faster conduction

Why did the human brain evolve so quickly?

- Our brains are much bigger than than the past
Selection
● Artificial selection: selective breeding by humans of other species
○ Domestication
● Natural selection: changes in the gene pool of a species due to differences in
the ability of individuals TO SURVIVE AND REPRODUCE
● Sexual selection: Evolutionary change due to heritable differences in the
ability to attract sexual partners, repel sexual rivals, or do anything else that
promotes reproduction

The social brain hypothesis

➢ We live in social groups
➢ Our brains are large relative to the rest of our bodies
➢ The cognitive demands of living in complexly bonded social groups selected
for increases in executive brain
➢ Mammals share main brain structures

The mating mind

- Demands of attracting and evaluating sexual mates drove the evolution of
higher brain abilities
- Our ancestors' cognitive abilities, such as creativity, humor, and musical
talent, were not only useful for problem-solving and survival but also served
as signals of genetic quality and mate attractiveness
- Early humans developed a preference for these traits in their sexual partners,
which led to the evolution of more intelligent and creative individuals over
time

1. Homology: a structure that we observe in two species that shares a common

genetic origin
a. Arms of a human and wings of a bird (genes that control forelimb
development)
2. Analogy: similarity, do not share common genetic inheritance
a. Convergent evolution
b. Evolving independently in different species

Genetics
- The nucleus of almost every cell of your body contains all of your genes
- Most basic unit of heredity
- Turned on and off
- Only 10-20% are active
- Gene expression in any one cell is what tells that cell to become a
neuron or a muscle cell or skin cell
- Chromosome: 23 matched pairs of chromosomes. One chromosome in each
pair comes from your mother (via her egg) and the other from your father (via
his sperm)
- Genes are segments of deoxyribonucleic acid: DNA
- THEY ARE VERY SMALL
 - James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA in
1953
- Alleles: different versions of the same genes
- At most, people have 2 versions of the same gene

From gene to protein

● Transcribe
○ DNA transcribes itself onto a complementary chain of RNA
● Translate
○ A codon instructs a ribosome to make a particular amino acid, which
then link together to form a protein

Genetic variability
● Meiosis: The Creation of Sperm and Egg Cells
● Crossing over: exchange of DNA information

Sex linked characteristics

● 23rd chromosome is the sex chromosome
● X = female, 2000 genes
● Y = male, 100 genes
● Daughters will not be as affected, will just be carriers
○ Males only have one x chromosome

SNPs
- Snips of single nucleotide polymorphisms
- Particular type of an allele
- This occurs when alleles differ by a single nucleotide

Epigenetics
- Histone modification: A type of protein found in chromosomes. Histones
bind to DNA, help give chromosomes their shape, and help control the activity
of genes. DNA can be wrapped around really tightly or loosely
- DNA methylation

Lecture 5
Genetics
● The nucleus of every cell in your body contains all of your genes

Information of genetics
➔ Genes are the most basic units of heredity and evolution
➔ Genes can be turned on or off
➔ Only 10-20% of genes of any cell type will be active

GENETIC EXPRESSION
➔ Genotype: the genetic composition of an individual organism
➔ Phenotype: observable appearance of an individual organism
Nucleotides
1. G and C
a. Guanine and cytosine
2. T and A
a. Thymine and adenine

Epigenetics: Changes in phenotypes produced by changes in genetic expression,

NOT the genotype itself
- Helps us understand how different environments may influence our
understanding of development

GENETIC MODIFICATION
DNA Methylation
● DNA methylation is an epigenetic mechanism that occurs by the addition of a
methyl (CH3) group to DNA, thereby often modifying the function of the genes
and affecting gene expression
HISTONE MODIFICATION
● DNA is wrapped around proteins either loosely or tightly

Heritablity: The contribution of genetics to the variation of a trait observed in a

population
- It concerns populations\need to consider environemnt

When we talk about behavioral genetics and heritibality the root question is: How are
individual differences explained by genetic differences

Thinking about the role of the environment…

● Egalitarian societies
○ Only genes are different
○ The more similar an environment, the heritablility is higher
○ No role of the environment
● Unequal societies
○ More environmental differences between people
○ Greater role of environment

Personality traits
● Openness
● Cconscientiousness
● Extraversion
● Agreeableness
● Neuroticism
Two approaches
- Behavioral disposition
- Traits are tendencies to act and interact with external influences
- Neurophysiological substrates
- Traits are biological patternings in the CNS

Methylanation
- DNA methylation essentially silences a gene, so sites that are normally
“low-methylated” are associated with genes that are expressed while sites that
are normally “high-methylated” are not
- Maltreated children showed increased methylation of sites that are
normally less likely to be methylated and also showed reduced
methylation at sites that are normally very likely to be methylated

Behavioral Genetics and Heritability

- Behavioral genetics = the study of genetic and environmental influences on
behavior
- Heritability = the contribution of genetics to the variation of a trait observed in
a population
- Always refers to a population not to the individuals
Twin studies and heritability quotients
➔ Monozygotic: develop from the same fertilized egg
➔ Dizygotic: develop from two different fertilized eggs
◆ Heritability quotient = 2(rMZ-rDZ)

Environment
1. Shared
a. Environmental factors that are common to siblings and may contribute
to similarities
2. Non-shared
a. Environmental factors that are unique to each individual and may
contribute to differences in traits between siblings
3. Shared environment, wrror

Components of variation in personality traits

● Evocative influences: people elicit responses from their environments that
reinforce pre-existing traits
● Passive influences: people imposing their environments and us being affected
by that
● Active influences: People search for and select environments that fit their
genotype

Genes shape the environment

● Evocative influence: the association between an individual's genetically
influenced behavior and others' reactions to that behavior.
● Passive influence: select and shape environments in ways that are similar to
their own genetic endowments
 ● Active influence: people search for and select environments that fir their
genotype

Lecture 8 Week:

Development: a special type of change

Differentiation: The process by which something becomes increasingly distinct and
specialized in its structure
Environment
1. Shared environment
a. Environmental factors that are common to siblings and may contribute
to similarities in traits between them
2. Non-shared environment
a. Environmental factors that are unique to each individual and may
contribute to differences in traits between siblings

The three stages of prenatal development

➢ Zygote
○ The cell formed by two mergers of sperm and egg
○ Moment of conception to week 2
➢ Embryo
○ Weeks 2-8
➢ Fetus
○ 8-until birth

One week after conception

- Zygote arrives at the uterus
- Three layers of cells called the: trilaminar embryonic disc
- Ectoderm: outer layer becomes
- Mesoderm: the middle layer that develops into connective tissues,
muscles, blood vessels, bone, and urogenital systems
- Endoderm: internal organs

Weeks 3 and 4
- Ectodermal cells differentiate and the neural plate is visible in week 3
- Non-neural ectoderm will form skin
- ​By day 26, the differentiations of the neural plate cause it to fold and form the
neural tube
- The interior of the neural tube will be retained as the ventricles and central
canal. The surrounding neural tissue will form the CNS

Week 4 and 5
- Three bulges are apparent before the neural tube closure is finished
- Prosencephalon
- Telencephalon and diencephalon
- Mesencephalon
- Rhombencephalon
 - Myelencephalon and metencephalon
- Week 5
- Prosencephalon divides into the telencephalon and diencephalon
- Rhombencephalon divides into the myelencephalon and
metencephalon

Zooming in…
Prenatal development at the neuronal level
● Stage 1: neurogenesis
○ Brith of new neurons and glia
○ Location: ventricular zone
○ Up until about seven weeks postconception, daughter cells in the
ventricular zone divide along lines that are perpendicular to the zone,
producing additional progenitor cells
○ Subsequently, some daughter cells divide along lines that are parallel to
the ventricular zone, forming cells that will migrate away from the
zone. These cells stop dividing
● Stage 2: cell migration
○ Movement of cells to mature location
○ Migration allows cells to aggregate into specific structures.
○ Radial glia grow out from the ventricular layer to the outer margins of
the nervous system. Serve as a pathway for migrating neurons.
● Stage 3: differentiation
○ Development of stem cells into more specific types of cells
○ stem cells can develop into different types of cells
○ Example
■ Neurons in the ventral half of the neural tube develop into motor
neurons
■ Neurons in the dorsal half of the neural tube develop into
sensory neurons
● Stage 4: growth of axons and dendrites and synapse formation
○ Neuronal connections
○ Axons and dendrites arise from neurites
○ Developing axons and dendrites end in growth cones
■ FILOPODIA: are the spiky extensions from the growth cone
■ LAMELLIPODIA: appear as webbing or veils between the
filapodia
○ GROWTH CONES RESPOND TO A VARIETY OF CUES
■ To reach their eventual targets, growth cones respond to
extracellular environment by
● sticking to the surfaces of other cells
● sticking to other neurites traveling in the same direction
● growing toward chemical attractants
● Being repulsed by chemicals
○ Synaptogenesis: new synapse formation
■ Hard to measure in the developing brain
■ It can be indirectly measured
 ■ Correlates with glucose consumption

Example of neuron dysregulation

- Schizophrenia: Compared to healthy controls, individuals with schizophrenia
show fewer dendritic spines and presynaptic terminals
- ASD: In individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), dendritic spine
density is in increased and immature synapses are common
- Control
● Stage 5: apoptosis
○ Cell death
○ • Cell death genes activate “caspases” enzymes, which destroy cells
○ • The function can be turned off by neurotrophins
● Stage 6: rearrangement of neural connections and synaptic pruning
○ Synaptic pruning and myelination
■ In the human visual cortex, the number of synapses peaks at
about the age of about four to eight months and decreases until
about the age of four years
■ The number of synapses in the prefrontal cortex peaks around
the age of one year, drops until about age 20, and then remains
stable over the remainder of the life span
○ Functional synapses are maintained, non-functional synapses
degenerate
■ Astrocytes help tag synapses for elimination through chemical
signaling
■ Microglia digest tagged synapses
- Myelination starts in the spinal cord and moves up
- First observed in the cranial and spinal nerves (23 weeks after
conception)
- Peak rate of myelinatin occurs around 3 years of age
- Prefrontal cortex is myelinated around 25 years of age (fully)

The adult brain

➔ The brain is fully mature at age 25
➔ Weight of brain decreases at age 45 and gray matter volume decreases
➔ Neurogenesis continues to occur in the ventricular zone and the hippocampus
at a slower rate
◆ Plays a role in adult learning
◆ Decline of neurogenesis in the hippocampus may be associated with
cognitive decline
Healthy brain aging
1) Educational attainment and mental activity are negatively associated with
Alzheimer’s risk
2) Brain health is attainted by
a) • general health and physical fitness
b) • being married
c) • social support
d) • religion
e) • depression (negative association)
3) Multiple reserve hypothesis
a) Quality of life in later adulthood depends on the resources that people
have to offset age-related declines.

Homeostasis
Set points
- Set points for many of our physiological systems work much like the setting
on the thermostat of your home
- Deviations from the set point initiate behaviors (turning the heat or air
conditioning on) that return the system to homeostasis or equilibrium

Cybernetic control
The Negative Feedback Loop
Composed of four elements

1. A set point that the system tries to maintain.

2. An input function, that reads to the current status of the system
3. A comparator that detects discrepancies between set points and input values
4. An output function that affects the environment to reduce the discrepancy
 Regulating body temperature

All animals must maintain an internal temperature suitable for normal cellular
activity
● If too cold, ice crystals form within cells and damage cell membranes
● If too hot, proteins break down

Two solutions for maintaining internal temperature among animals

➔ • Ectotherms “ektos” is Greek for “outside”
◆ Rely on external methods for maintaining temperature, like moving
into the sun or shades
◆ Amphibians, reptiles, and fish
◆ “cold-blooded”

➔ • Endotherms “endon” is Greek for “within”

◆ Can use internal methods for maintaining temperature, like shivering
and perspiration
◆ Mammals and birds
◆ “Warm-blooded”

Surface to volume ratio and temperature regulation

● The amount of heat loss is a function of the body surface area, and body
volume determines the amount of heat generated by metabolic activity.
Because smaller animals have larger surface-to-volume ratios, maintaining
core temperature is harder for them than for larger animals such as humans.
● Rats have to work harder than elephants to maintain temperature
homeostasis.

Adaptation within species and climate

- Animals in warm climates disperse heat by having slim bodies (minimizing
body volume) and long appendages (maximizing surface area).
- Animals in cold climates conserve heat by having stocky bodies (maximizing
body volume) and short legs, tails, and ears (minimizing surface area).

Endothermic response to cold

- Human internal temperature is 37 degrees
- Shiver muscle activity produces heat
- Blood vessels constrict keeps blood away from the surface of the skin
- Thyroid gland increases the release of thyroid hormone increases metabolic
activity
- Newborn animals increase metabolic activity of brown fat cells (around the
torso)
Raynauds disease - exdtreme reaction to the cold
● Constriction becomes extreme
● Lack of circulation of blood, hands become whire

Deviations in Human Core Temperature

➔ Small deviations in core body temperature can be drastic and have serious
consequences
◆ Menopause
● 80% of menopausal women get hot flashes
○ Episodes of sweating, flushing, heart palpitations, and
feeling very warm
○ Last seconds to minutes
○ Can lower quality of life
● Humans defend an internal temperature of 37 degrees celsius
○ Perspiration cools the skin
○ Blood vessels near the surface of the skin dilate allow
more heat loss
◆ Fever: occur when the body’s thermal set point is increased
● Very high fevers (greater than 41⁰C) can cause brain damage (e.g.,
sepsis)
● Occur when chemical by-products of bacteria (pyrogens) and
viruses enter the brain, causing the brain to increase core
temperature set point from 37⁰C to 39⁰C to help fight the
infection
◆ Hyperthermia: heat stroke
● If core temperature rises above 40⁰C, a person can become
confrontational, faint, and confused

EXTREME COLD
1. Hypothermia: below 31 degrees
a. • Uncontrolled and intense shivering
b. • Slurred speech
c. • Pain and discomfort
d. • Pupils dilate
e. • Behavior resembles alcohol intoxication
f. • Consciousness is gradually lost

2. Deliberately producing hypothermia in a (medically controlled way) is a

common way of reducing brain damage following cardiac arrest, stroke, or
heart surgery
a. Slows down metabolic rate and oxygen demand
b. May counteract the typical negative reactions that occur with the
interruption of blood supply to the brain
Brain mechanisms for temperature regulation
Hypothalamus controls the temperature within the body (is the highest in the
hierarchy)
● Very sensitive: initiates compensation whenever core temperature
deviates as little as .01⁰C from ideal set point
● PROPTIC AREA
○ ​triggers responses to higher core temperatures
○ Three different types of neurons in the POA
■ Temperature insensitive
● About 60% of the POA
● Provide baseline activity inputs to cold-sensitive
neurons
■ Warm sunsitive
● About 30% of the POA
● Receive inputs from thermoreceptors in the skin
and spinal cord
● Can also respond directly to nearby temperature
changes in the brain and blood
● Maintain steady firing until core > 37⁰C
● Output from these neurons initiate
parasympathetic activity via the PVN and lateral
hypothalamus to dissipate heat (e.g., sweating)
■ Cold sensitive
● About 5% of the POA
● Receive inputs from thermoreceptors in the skin
and spinal cord
● Receive steady inhibitory input from
warm-sensitive neurons
● When core temperature < 37⁰C, warm-sensitive
inhibition is reduced • I.e., these neurons are
“allowed”to fire more frequently (“disinhibition”)
● Posterior hypothalamus
○ triggers responses to cooler core temperatures
● Output from these neurons initiatesympathetic activation
○ Raising metabolism and vasoconstrictionvia the PVN and the
posterior hypothalamus
Hunger: Regulating the bodys supply of nutrients
● Eat for pleasure
● We also eat for the nutrients
● Complex cultural and psychological factors can overwhelm the body’s natural
regulatory mechanisms, leading to different patterns of disordered eating

Cultural Differences in Food Intake Can Have Roots in Biology

- Inuit
- most eat meat ... can’t grow vegetables in the Artic
- Asians
- have a tendency for lactose intolerance
- Scandinavians and northern europereans
- lactose tolerant

Lactose Tolerance Correlates with Historical Use of Dairy

Products
● Some people no longer produce the enzymes (lactase) necessary to process
fresh milk products after infancy
● People who became relatively dependent on milk products as a source of
protein, such as Scandinavians and Northern Europeans, are more likely to be
tolerant of lactose. “Lactase persistence”
● Keeping dairy herds was not historically prevalent in Asia. Larger numbers of
Asians show lactose intolerance (genes for lactase production rare)

Digestion
- During digestion, fats, proteins, and carbohydrates are metabolized and
circulated in the blood supply
- ​Fats are either used for immediate energy or stored by adipose tissue (fat
cells)
- Cholecystokinin (CCK) is a hormone that is released by the gut when
large quantities of fats are consumed. It acts as a neurochemical that
signals satiety.

- Proteins are broken down into amino acids and used by muscles and other
tissues for growth and protein synthesis.
- Carbohydrates are broken down into simple sugars, including glucose
- Excess glucose is stored as fat in adipose tissue or as glycogen in the
liver

The process of digestion

● Glucose is the exclusive source of energy for the brain
● The rest of the body can uses glucose and fat
During fasting (low circulating glucose) or food scarcity, the liver will convert
glycogen into glucose. If this glucose runs out the body will start to use fatty acids
from adipose tissue (ketones).
- The brain can also use ketones for energy during prolonged fasting or very
low-carbohydrate diets, the brain can derive up to 70% of its energy from
ketones
- Fasting also causes muscles to break down; the liver converts the amino acids
into glucose
- About 25% of weight loss from dieting (calorie restriction) is muscle and bone

Pancreatic hormones
1. Glucagon
a. Glucagon converts stored glycogen back into glucose
2. Insulin
a. helps store glucose as glycogen and assists in moving glucose from the
blood supply into body cells
i. Levels spike after a meal
ii. Lowest during times of fasting
Type 1 Diabetes ● Disorder of insulin production
- 5-10%

Type 2 Diabetes ● Disorder of insulin production and utilization –

- 90-95% “insulin resistance”
● the person with type 2 diabetes will not be able to
move glucose out of the blood into cells requiring
nutrients

Feeding initiation
➔ Triggered by low glucose levels and low fat levels (input function)
➔ Glucoreceptors in the medulla assess glucose levels (comparator mechanism)
and communicate with other areas of the brain that initiate feeding behavior
(output functions)
➔ Lateral hypothalamus (LH) participates in the initiation of feeding

Satiety: Ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) functions like a “satiety center”

➔ Stomach and intestine fullness (input function)
➔ When glucoreceptors in the duodenum [doo-uh-dee-nuhm] detect sugars,
eating usually stops (comparator mechanism)
➔ Fat and protein in the duodenum signals for the release of CCK, which
promotes the release of insulin by the pancreas and contracts the gallbladder
to release bile to break down fats
◆ CCK antagonists increase eating (input functions)
Lecture 6: Sexual Development
The biology of sex interacts with complex environmental influences to produce a
male or female phenotype

Biological sex
- Female
- Male

Gender
- Socially constructed and learned/personal aspects of sex

David Reimer
- nature/nurture of sex and gender

The genetics of sex

An individual’s genetic sex begins with sex chromosomes inherited from two parents

- Mother provides an X chromosome

- Father provides an X or Y

Turner syndrome
● Child receives a single x chromosome (45, x)
● Normal female external genitalia, but ovaries develop abnormally
● Short stature
● Webbed neck deformity
● Normal intelligence
○ Deficits in spatial relationships and memory
○ Higher educational and occupational achievement in one large sample

Klinefelter syndrome
➔ Phenotypic male with 47 chromosomes
➔ Xxy
➔ Reduced fertility
◆ Require hormone treatments during fertility
➔ Normal intelligence but social awkwardness
◆ Delayed and reduced verbal skills
◆ Left handed

47, XYY, Jacob Syndrome

➔ Tall, lean, more acne

Why does looking at sexual chromosome abnormality have positive benefits?

❖ Opportunity to observe the ability of sex hormones to shape the brain and
cognition
❖ Dose-dependent effects
➢ 45 = least amount of protein
 ➢ 46 = moderate amount of protein in the brain
➢ >47 = the most protein in the brain

Three stages of prenatal development

Development of gonads
- SRY gene on Y chromosome expressed at 6 weeks gestation produces
testis-determining factor

Differentiation of internal organs

● Wolffian
○
● Mullerian
○ Uterus
○ Upper vagina
○ Fallopian tube
● Testes secrete anti-mullerian hormone

Androgen insensitivity syndrome

➔ XY genotype with abnormal androgen receptors
◆ Normal, undescended testes; undeveloped Wolffian system
◆ Normal anti- Müllerian hormone produces shallow vagina with no
ovaries, fallopian tubes, or uterus
➔ Female external appearance and gender identity
➔ Possible advantages in sports

External genitalia
● Male external genitalia include penis and scrotum
○ Need hormones for development
○ Requires 5 alpha dihydrotestosterone
● Female external genetilia: labia, clitoris and outer part of the vagina
○ Masculinized by prenatal exposure to excess androgens
○ CAH
■ Heritable condition
■ Ambiguous external genitalia
■ Make interest play
■ Report lesbiab and bisexual behavior
The Prader Scale

Development of mini-puberty
- Males experience a second surge of androgen exposure between the ages of
one and three months, diminishing by about the age of six months
- Length of penis increases
- Testosterone concentrations in males’ urine between 1 and 6 months predicts
gender-typical play at 14 months
- Anogential distance (AGD) at birth and penile growth during mini-puberty
both predict gender-typical play at ages three to four years

Development at puberty
- Typical age has dropped over 150 years (12-16; drop in an age in puberty)
- Increased weight
- Exposure to hormones or endocrine disruptors

Hormone changes at puberty

- Gonadotropin-releasing hormon (GnRH) released by hypothalamus
- Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) have
different effects in males and females
- 5-alpha-reductase deficiency and maturation of male external genitalia

Sex differences
- – Continued expression of genes on both X and Y chromosomes, especially in
the brain – Hormone effects – Epigenetics

Role of sex hormones

• Organization means that sex hormones shape brain circuits differently in males and
females
- Often believed to produce permanent structural differences
- Epigenetic influences might make these differences less permanent than
previously believed
- Especially important between gestational weeks 6 and 24, during
mini-puberty, and during puberty
- The brain contains receptors for androgens and estrogens, producing sexually
dimorphic structures
• Activation by sex hormones produces reversible effects on structures and functions

Biomarkers of prenatal hormone environments

• Ethical constraints do not allow artificial manipulation of the prenatal hormonal
environment in humans
• Markers correlated with prenatal exposure to hormones
- Length of fingers
- 2D:4D ratio
- Anogenital distance
- Otoacoustic emissions

Organizing Role of Sex Chromosome Genes

• Genes on the sex chromosomes produce proteins that influence neural structure
and function
- Important to understand sex differences in diseases and disorders
- Autism spectrum disorder affects many more males than females
- Multiple sclerosis is more common in females
• Sex chromosome effects can compensate for hormone effects or produce even
greater differences through synergistic effects

Sexual dismorphism in the brain

• Exposure to prenatal androgens masculinizes the brain as well as the internal and
external reproductive systems
• Sexually dimorphic brain structures
- Sexually dimorphic nucleus of the preoptic area (SDN- POA) (rats)
- Spinal nucleus of the bulbocavernosus (rats)
- Interstitial nuclei of the anterior hypothalamus
- Thalamus
- White matter of the cerebral hemispheres
- Synaptic density is also sexually dimorphic

Sex differences in behavior and cognition (¼)

Play behavior

○ Children begin to prefer sex-typed toys between the ages of 12 and 18

months
○ Girls with CAH prefer masculine toys and activities compared to
typically developing girls, in spite of strong parental socialization
efforts
○ Young monkeys make similar sex-typed toy choices as young humans

Sex differences in behavior and cognition (2/4)

Gender identity

● Person’s self-concept as male or female

 ● Transsexuality: An individual's gender identity is inconsistent with his or her
biological sex
○ INAH-3 and BSTc in transsexual individuals conformed to the
preferred, not birth gender
○ Youth with gender dysphoria (GD) show subtle differences in sexually
dimorphic structures

Sex differences in behavior and cognition (3/4)

Personality

● Females show higher empathy than males

● Males show more physical aggression
● Many personality traits do not correlate with prenatal hormone exposure

Sex differences in behavior and cognition (4/4)

• Adult hormone levels and cognition
– Males have a slight advantage in visuospatial tasks
– Females have a slight advantage in verbal tasks §
- Linked to current, not prenatal levels of testosterone and estrogen

Research with male-to-female and female-male transsexual individuals before and

after hormonal treatment
- Testosterone levels correlated with activation during spatial tasks
- Estradiol levels correlated with activation in language centers • Many
psychological disorders affect males and females at different rates

Sexual orientation
● What is it?
○ A stable pattern of attraction to members of a particular sex
■ Approximately 1.8 percent of adult males and 1.5 percent of adult
females identify themselves as gay or lesbian, respectively
■ Approximately 0.4 percent of adult males and 0.9 percent of
adult females describe themselves as bisexual

Sexual orientation is not synonymous with sexual behavior and sexual fantasy
•Early exposure to sex hormones influences adult sexual behavior in animals and
humans
• Possible biomarkers:
- Otoacoustic emissions of lesbian and bisexual women
- 2D:4D ratio
• Birth order
- Males with older brothers are more likely to be homosexual – Mother’s
immune response to Y chromosome proteins may strengthen with
subsequent pregnancies

Brain structure
Sexually dimorphic structures also differ according to sexual orientation in males

Simon LeVay and INAH-3

- Lesions in monkeys’ INAH-3 impairs heterosexual behavior but not
masturbation
- INAH-3 was two to three times larger in heterosexual males than in
homosexual males
- Anterior commissure

How do genetics play a role in sexual orientation?

➔ Regions on Chromosome 8 and the X chromosome predict sexual orientation

Homosexulaity in male twins

● 20-25% in fraternal twins
● 50% in identical twins

Sexual orientation and cognition part 1

- Males perform better than females on visuospatial tasks, regardless of sexual
orientation
- Heterosexual males outperform homosexual males, with bisexual
males scoring between these groups
- Homosexual and bisexual females scored about equally, outperforming
heterosexual females

Results on verbal fluency tasks

- Homosexual males outperformed heterosexual females
- Homosexual males and heterosexual females outperformed heterosexual
males and homosexual females
Sex hormones
• The hypothalamus manages the release of sex hormones through its secretion of
gonadotropin- releasing hormone (GnRH)
● GnRH stimulates release of luteinizing hormone (LH) and follical stimulating
hormone (FSH) by the pituitary gland
● LH signals the testes to produce testosterone
○ Testosterone and FSH are required for the maturation of sperm
○ LH and FSH control the menstrual cycle in females

Hormones and adult sexual behavior part one

● Sexual interest in human females
○ Estrus and nonestrus cycles
○ Slightly more interest reported around ovulation
○ Estrogens linked to female sexual desire
● Sexual interest in human males
○ Can vary by culture
○ Age-dependent
 ○ Young men’s testosterone is Not strongly correlated with sexual
frequency
○ Older men closely correlated with testosterone levels

Hormones and adult sexual behavior part two

• Testosterone and relationship status
- Men in stable, long-term marriages have lower testosterone levels than single
or newly divorced men
- Men’s testosterone levels drop after birth of a child
- Testosterone drops following reproductive success

Testosterone and competition

- Testosterone levels appear to increase in anticipation of a competition
- Following a competition, winners experience an increase in testosterone,
while losers experience a decrease
- Observing a competition can influence testosterone

Elements of physical attractiveness, love, sexual desire

● Cultures have their own definitions of physical beauty
● Symmetry is perceived as beautiful
● Preferred features for males and females
○ Youthful female features preferred by males
○ Female responses to male features are inconsistent
■ Masculine features more sexually desirable
■ Less masculine features preferred for long-term relationships
● Viewing beautiful people activates reward circuits in the brain
● A preference for beauty is evident at a very early age, before the media and
other cultural factors have had a chance to influence perceptions

Lecture 11: Sleep and waking

Biorhythyms: behaviors that occur at regular intervals in response to biological

clocks
- Sleep and waking cycles follow circadian rhythms
- Women on a monthly basis have their menstrual cycle
- Birds in the seasonal changes go through migration
- Eating; hunger

Zeitgebers: stimuli that help establish and maintain biological rhythyms

- The sun

Individual variations in sleep patterns: these result from different versions of genes
responsible for our internal clocks

➔ Larks are morning people

➔ Night owls are night people
Why are many adolescents night owls?
● Teens sleep patterns reflect changes in melatonin
● Following adolescence, many people stop being night owls

Shift maladaptation syndrome

● Night shift (11 pm -7 am) conflicts with people's natural circadian rhythm and
results in health problems
○ Symptoms
■ Excessive sleepiness at work
■ Impaired sleep at home
■ Mood dysregulations
■ Interpersonal relationship s
■ Other health issues
● Affects 5-10% OF NIGHT TIME WORKERS
● Middle-aged workers and older workers are at greater
risk

Jetlag
- Worse when traveling to the east
- This is because you sleep late because you feel like you’re sleeping earlier and
vice versa for waking up

Daylight saving
- When the clock moves back or forwards an hour
- In the fall, you move the clock backward
- Similar to westward (North American) travel and produces little
disruption
- In the spring, you move the clock forwards
- Similar to eastward (North American) travel and jet lag 11

The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)

- The SCN is located above the optic chasm and is known as the master internal
clock
- The SCN receives special input from special cells in the retina called
intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGC)
- DO NOT PROCESS VISUAL IMAGES
- Contain photopigment called melanopsin
- Provide light information to the SCN
- Only active during the day and helps animals distinguish between day and
night
- Activity in the SCN produces responses in the sympathetic nervous system,
which in turn communicates with the pineal gland
- When the sun sets, SCN activity decreases and that decreases less
sympathetic activity, pineal gland produces melatonin
- Helps initiate sleep through the modulation of brainstem structures
SCN… is an independent strucure
- SCN is not dependent on other systems and structures of the brain, it is fairly
independent
- The SCN receives information about the day and night from the retina
- It also has its own intrinsic timekeeping mechanisms
- Cells in the SCN express genes that produce proteins that interact to create a
self-sustaining feedback loop

SCN… Adapts very quickly

- Peripheral clocks exist in most of the body’s cells
- SCN adjusts to phase shifts faster than peripheral clicks
- Influences by daily feeding cycles

The cellular basis of circadian rhythms

- The 24 hours of cyclical production and degradation of specific proteins
enables the SCN to tell time
- The genes that produce these proteins in fruit flies are
- Per
- Tim
- Clock
 Melatonin Cortisol

➔ SCN regulates the release of melatonin ➔ Cortisol levels also fluctuate with patterns of
from the pineal gland via the sympathetic sleeping and waking
nervous system ➔

➔ The SCN is only active during the day; at
night, reduced SCN activity causes the
pineal gland to produce and release
melatonin
➔ Therefore, melatonin levels
◆ are suppressed by light and very low
during the day
◆ begin to rise in the hours before
sleep
◆ peak around 4 am
◆ blindness, pineal gland tumors, and
certain medications can interfere
with sleep by affecting melatonin
➔ Cortisol is a hormone released by the adrenal
glands that promotes arousal
➔ Cortisol levels are normally highest during
the early morning and lowest at night
➔ Higher levels of cortisol are associated with
◆ Higher blood pressure
◆ Higher heart rate
◆ Energy levels
◆ Mental alertness 26

Dangers of melatonin
● Daytime drowsiness and grogginess
● Hormonal imbalances
○ Estrogen
○ Testosterone
● Interaction with medications

Body Temperature and Hormone Secretions Follow Circadian Rhythm

1. Growth hormone
a. Promotes bone and muscle growth and is released primarily during
stages 3 and 4 of non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep
2. Cortisol
a. levels are highest first thing in the morning and decrease during day
3. Body temperature
a. drops as metabolic activity decreases. Melatonin also has a cooling
effect on the body causing the hypothalamus to lower the set point &
dilation of skin blood vessels

Major depressive diorder with seasonal patterns (DSM-5)

Seasonal affective disorder

➔ Reduction in daylight hours during winter months at higher latitudes

interferes with circadian rhythms
 ◆ Can be treated by anti-depressants as well as light therapy
➔ Serotonin levels drop in the fall and in the winter
➔ Disruptions of melatonin release by uneven patterns of daily light

Light therapy
- Can be administered with/without melatonin supplementation
- Apparent in certain airports like in France
- Can raise serotonin levels

The Neural Correlates of waking and sleeping

- Sleep is not the absence of activity
- Both processes are active processes
- Involve reciprocal circuits of excitation and inhibition
- Waking involves the active inhibition of sleep 34

Electroencephalogram

Synchronus Desynchronous

● Neurons firing in unison; correlated ● Independent action of many neurons;

with sleep correlated with waking
● Low EEG Frequencies show large ● High frequencies show small
synchrnozied amplitudes amplitudes due to high degree of
○ Delta and theta desynchronization
○ Deep stages of sleep ○ Beta and gamma
○ Independent action of many
neurons
○ Alertness

EEG During Waking

➔ Alternates between alpha (8-13 Hz) and beta (13-30 Hz) patterns of activity
- Every 90 to 120 mins or so
➔ Gamma band activity (36-44 Hz) observed during sensory input
 ➔ In children and young adults, might also include brief moments of theta waves
(4-8 Hz) 38 Legend Delta (1-4 Hz) Theta (4-8 Hz) Alpha (8-13 Hz) Beta (13-30 Hz)
Gamma (36-44 Hz)

Alpha ● Is associated with mind wandering and unfocused

thought

Beta ● activity is associated with focused thought

Gamma ● band activity is usually seen in response to stimuli

EEG During NREM sleep: Four Stages

● Altenrating periods of REM and NREM sleep

● NREM
○ Stages 1-4
○ Theta and delta waves, though at the onset of sleep EEGs are difficult to
distinguish from drowsy awake states
● Stage 2: accounts for 50% of sleep
○ Sleep spindles, shorts bursts of EEG activity between 12- 14 Hz
○ K-complexes, isolated delta waves
● Stages 3 and 4: Parasympathetic activity body temperature, breathing, blood
pressure, and heart rate are lowered
○ Energy consumption of the brain drops between 11% and 40%
○ Delta waves
○ Growth hormone is released by the pituitary 40 Legend Delta (1-4 Hz)
Theta (4-8 Hz)

Myoclonus
➔ During the early stages of sleep, the body undergoes a series of changes,
including a decrease in muscle tone and a slowing of brain waves
➔ Myoclonia are muscle jerks that typically occur during the early stages of
sleep

EEG During REM Sleep

● After roughly 90 mins of NREM sleep, the first period REM occurs
○ Muscle paralysis
○ Eye movements
○ Dreaming
○ Beta waves
● Subsequent periods of REM continue the 90 to 120 min cycle observed during
waking (alpha/beta cycle), but do so as REM/NREM sleep
○ 5 periods of REM in 8 hrs of sleep
 ● Sympathetic activity body temperature, breathing, blood pressure, and heart
rate are increased; Males get erections, females experience blood flow around
the vagina

Brain networks managing waking

- Ventral pathway
- From the medulla to the posterior hypothalamus on onto the basal
forebrain
- Dorsal pathway
- A “group of cells in the midbrain reticular formation” project to the
thalamus, which in turn influences the cerebral cortex
- Cholinergic mesopontine nuclei: modulates the amou nt of
sensory input the cortex receives
- Locus coeruleus
- Norepinephrine
- Most active when people are vigilant and alert, less active when people
are relaxed
- Raphe Nuclei
- Serotonergic connections with the POA, SCN, and cerebral cortex
- Most active when people are active during wakefulness, less active in
NREM sleep, and completely inactive during REM

Default mode network

- Activity of the DMN corresponds to “mind wandering” and thinking about the
self

Lecture 12: Learning and Memory

Learning
Three categories of behavior
● Reflexes
○ Survival advantage
■ Frog and fly
○ Reflexes are fast and elicited by particular stimuli
○ Reflexes are inflexible
■ Theres a circuit governing the reflex
■ They can be damaged
● Fixed action patterns (instinct)
○ Yawning
■ Contagious
○ Born with it, you dont learn it
 ○ Ritual agonistic behaviors
● Learning
○ Relatively permanent change in behavior
○ Non-associateive learning
■ Habituation: getting “used to” a stimulus
■ Sensitization: occurs when the experience of one stimulus
heightens an organism’s response to subsequent stimuli
○ Associative learning
■ Organisms learn that stimuli act as signals that predict the
occurrence of other important events
■ Classical conditioning
● Ivan pavlov and his dogs
■ Operant conditioning
● Organisms form connections between a behavior
and its consequences that impact the subsequent
frequency of that behavior
● Reinforcing and punishing consequences
respectively increase and decrease likelihood of
repeating the behavior
● Dopamine plays a critical role: dopamanergic firing
in the VTA
○ Normal state: steady pace
○ Reward state: increase frequency of fire
○ Aversive stimulus: temporarily suppress firing
rate
■ Olds and milner (1954)
● Electrodes in rat subjects
● Intracranial self-stimulation
○ Map brain networks responding to reward and
pleasure
■ Intrinsic motivation
● Seek out novelty and challenges to extend and
exercise ones capacity to explore and learn
○ Interest
○ Curiosity
○ Feeling pleasure while doing something

Learning at the synapse

- Invertebrates give a special opportunity to understand the changes
taking places at the level of the synapse
- Their nervous system is better to study (less centralization);
- Synapses and neurons are bigger
- Fruit flies
 - Sea slug (aplysia)
- Short term habituation
- Gill-withdrawal reflex: gill retracted in response to touch
- Gill touched repeatedly: withdrawal reflex diminishes
- Reduced activity in synapse
- Direct result of decreases neurotransmitter depletion

Short term sensitization: After we shock poor little Aplysia’s tail, touching the
siphon results in an enhanced gill-withdrawal response. We want to
understand why

- Influences more than one neural pathway

- Neuromodulation via axo-axonic synapses
- Metabotropic
- ​serotonergic receptors on sensory axons cause K+ channels to
remain closed via secondary messengers
- causes longer-lasting action potential
- more calcium entering axon terminals
- increased neurotransmitter release

Long term habituation and sensitization: Structural modifications to neurons

1. Long-term habituation
a. training decreases the number of presynaptic terminals of
sensory neurons
2. Long-term sensitization
a. training increases the number of presynaptic terminals of
sensory neurons

Long-term potentiation
- Connections between neurons get stronger through experience and it is
a long-lasting effect
- Predicted by Hebb

Information processing models

● Information flows through a series of stages on its way to permanent
storage in memory
● How does memory work
○ Attention is crucial
■ Have to have motivation to pay attention to something
○ Sensory input
■ Sensory: lasts 1-2 seconds
■ Short term: 15-18 seconds
■ Long terms: lasts indefinitely
 ● Declarative memory
● Nondeclarative memory

Lecture 13: neuropsychology

Information flows through a series of stages on its way to permanent storage
in memory

Two types of amnesia

- Retrograde: inability to recall memories
- Anterograde: inability to form new memories

Semantic and episodic memories of self-knowledge

- Retrieving semantic, trait-based information, therefore, may not
typically require accessing the episodic, autobiographical store
Temporal lobe damage
- Poor memory and poor performance on the task

How does a pre-synaptic neuron represent the strength of a stimulus?

● LTP: Observed change in responsiveness of the target neuron
○ Bliss and Lomo found that the responsiveness of target neurons
in the dentate gyrus increased following a rapid series of stimuli
along the perforant pathway
■ The postsynaptic neuron is now more sensitive to input
from this presynaptic neuron
 ○ One weak after rapid stimulation along the perforant pathway, we
can see how neurons in the dentate gyrus show an larger
(“potentiated”) response

What is neuropsychology?
- The branch of psychology focuses on diagnoses, definitions, treatment
- Neuropsychology is a specialty field within clinical psychology that
focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of patients with cognitive
impairments resulting from
- Aging
- Injury
- Disease
- Clinical psych
- a branch of psychology that focuses on the diagnosis and
treatment of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders

Neurology Neuropsychology

● Neurologists graduate from ● Neuropsychologists graduate from a

medical school (MD) clinical program in a psychology
● ​Neurologists assess and treat department (PhD)
the physical consequences of a ○ Often work with
disease or injury neuroseurgeouns, other CNS
doctors and psychiatrists
● Neuropsychologists assess and treat
the psychological consequences of
disease or injury

● Neurologists assess and treat Assesment

the physical consequences of a
disease or injury
○ Concussions
○ Swelling of brain
○ Bleeding in brain
● Goal is to develop an informed
treatment plan
● Choice of methods depends on the
issues involved
● Standardized tests
● Comparisons with a population (i.e.,
test norms)
● Comparisons with abilities
unaffected by condition
● IQ tests
● Comprehensive test battery (e.g.,
Halstead-Reitan battery)
 ● Conditions might affect test
performance (e.g., pain, fatigue,
medications); makes interpretation
more difficult 20

Neurocognitive disorder
- A disorder characterized by a decline in cognitive function following a
challenge to the nervous system
- Blows to the head
- Interruptions in blood supply to the brain
- Tumors
- Infections
- Conditions that cause neurocognitive disorders
- Alzheimers
- Vascular
- TBI
- Substance/medication use or abuse
- Prion diseases
- Brain tumors
- Infections
- Epilepsy
Alzheimers disease
➔ Dementia
➔ Memory loss, episodic memory
➔ Produces structural abnormalities in the neuron
◆ Detachment and poor protein structure
◆ Neuron is not stable
➔ Definitive diagnosis is only possible with autopsy
◆ 5% to 10% in people aged between 60 and 74 years
◆ 25% of people age 74 and up
➔ However, probable Alzheimer’s disease is diagnosed on the basis of:
◆ Genetic testing or family history
● Alzheimer’s disease is inherited as a dominant trait due to
mutations on one of three genes
○ Genes for amyloid precursor protein (APP) on
chromosome 21
○ Genes for presenilin 1 protein (PRESN1) on
chromosome 14
○ Genes for presenilin 2 protein (PRESN2) on
chromosome 1
● Ꜫ4 variant of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene, located on
chromosome 19, is the most reliable genetic risk factor for
Alzheimer’s Disease
○ Different due to SNPs
 ○ Three alleles for APOE; 2,3,4
◆ Having one or two copies of 4 allele gene
increases a persons risk of alzheimers
● Occurs in about 25% to 30% of the
population but is found in as many as
40% to 80% of individuals diagnosed
with Alzheimer’s
● 91% chance if you have two of the same
allele
◆ 2 is least common for APOE allele
◆ ε3 allele is the most common form of APOE
and does not seem to impact risk for
Alzheimer’s disease
◆ Clear evidence of learning or memory impairments
◆ A steady, gradual loss of cognitive function without plateaus
➔ Diagnostic methods for probable Alzheimer's
◆ Biomarkers in the CSF and blood
◆ PET scans (amyloid proteins)
◆ MRI scans (small blood vessel disease) 26
➔ Treatment
◆ Medication can only slow the process
◆ More research is needed
● Clinical trials have shown that an antibody (a protein used
by the immune system) that targets beta amyloid can clear
plaques

Vascular disease (stroke): occurs when the brain’s blood supply is interrupted
1. Cerebral hemorrhage: Bleeding in the brain
a. 20% of strokes
b. Often fatal
c. Hypertension and aneurysms are likely causes
d. CT Scan will be ordered
2. Ischemia: Inadequate blood flow to the brain
a. 80% of strokes
b. Infarcts (dead tissue) can vary in size and location; changes in
consciousness, sensation and movement
c. Causes: atherosclerosis (thickening and hardening of artery
walls) and blood clots
i. Thrombosis: A blockage that doesn’t move from its point of
origin
ii. Embolism: A blood vessel blockage that originates
elsewhere and travels into smaller and smaller blood
vessels until it forms a blockage
 d. TIA - MINI STROKE (Transient ischemic attacks)
i. Brief episodes of stroke symptoms
ii. Do not cause permanent damage
iii. Strong predictors of subsequent stroke
e. FAST: Sudden severe headache, numbness or weakness in an
arm or leg, difficulty seeing, walking, maintaining balance
i. Facial drooping
ii. Arm weakness
iii. Speech difficulty
iv. Time
f. Treatment
i. Clot-busting meds
ii. Rehabilitation
iii. Physical activity

Traumatic brain injury (TBI)

● Physical damage to the brain
● Open head injuries (e.g., gunshot wounds)
● Closed head injuries (concussions)
○ Concussions
■ Brain function at a coup and countercoup sites adversely
impacted
■ Most individuals recover from a concussion within a few
weeks but 11% to 17% of patients experience symptoms
three months or longest individual recover from a
concussion within a few weeks but 11% to 17% of patients
experience symptoms three months or longer
■ Repeated TBIs are especially damaging
● Dementia pugilistica
● Slurred speech, memory impairment, personality
changes, lack of coordination, and Parkinson-like
symptoms
○ Boxers with the Ꜫ4 allele are more likely to
develop dementia pugilistica

Military TBIs
- Open and close injuries
- More severe than civilian TBI

Treatments
● Medical
● Learning about TBI
● Rehab
Brain tumors
- Tumors: Independent growths of new tissue that lack purpose
- Primary
- Originate in the brain
- Rare
- Causes unknown, radiation is a risk
- Secondary
- Originate from metastasized cancer outside the brain
- Benign
- Develop in own membrane
- Unlikely to recur following surgery
- Meningiomas
- Malignant
- Lack boundaries, invade surrounding tissues
- Very likely to recur following surgical removal and other
treatment
- Gliomas
- More than 70% of all brain tumors
- Treatment
- Radiation
- Chemotherapy
- Surgical removal

WHO Classification

Treatment for brain tumors

- Surgery
- Radiation
- Chemotherapy
Neurocysticercosis: Results from infection with the eggs of pork tape worm,
Taenia solium
- Ingested infected fecal matter
- Eggs hatch in the stomach
- Larvae like to live in soft tissues
- Fluid-filled cysts
- Immune system destroys the cysts

Epilepsy and seizures

● A seizure is an uncontrolled electrical disturbance in the brain
correlated with changes in consciousness
○ Have many possible causes: brain tumors, neurocysticercosis,
brain injury, etc.

● Epilepsy is a disorder characterized by repeated unprovoked seizures

○ Seizures are diagnosed with EEG