1. The Limbic System (AKA “inner brain”)
LOCATION: Deep within brain, next to thalamus, at top of brain stem
FUNCTION?
The 4 F’s : fight, flight, food, fornication!
memory!!

2. Hypothalamus: “body’s regulator”
In charge of endocrine system
Regulates
hunger & thirst
if ventromedial hypothalamus is stimulated, rats STOP eating
if lateral hypothalamus is stimulated, rats eat
if lateral hypothalamus is lesioned, rats will not eat
response to pain
levels of pleasure
sexual satisfaction
anger and aggressive behavior
Regulates the autonomic nervous system pulse, blood pressure, breathing, and arousal in response to emotional circumstances.

3. Pituitary Gland --master gland of endocrine system
Regulates body temperature
Creates and releases:
Growth hormone
prolactin (tells woman’s breasts to produce milk after giving birth)
hormone to signal sperm production and releases of eggs
Creates hormones messages and directs body’s other glands to produce hormones for:
stress
cortisol released by adrenal glands

4. Amygdala: Emotions, fear, memories
Location: Within temporal lobe
Function:
Directs aggressive and fearful responses
Lesion=less aggression, more mild, meek demeanor
stimulation=extreme aggression!
Plays role in formation of emotionally charged memories
Interesting facts:
Size positively correlates with levels of aggression
Shrinks by 30% in castrated males!!
video on flight or fight response

5. Hippocampus Converts short-term explicit memories to long-term
Video clip: John Forbes story 9:55 go to end of part 2)

6. How do we know what we know about the brain?
start at 5 min. video clip brain surgery
Technology that allows us to see brain at work
EEG –charts brain’s electrical brain waves E for electricity! Output is a graph of lines registering different brain wave patterns
PET—shows where brain activity is occurring by showing where glucose is being consumed after person given radioactive glucose Mnemonic: Give your “pet” some “sugar” and watch how it responds!
MRI—shows soft tissue areas of brain using magnetic pulses (good for finding tumors or enlarged/smaller than usual areas) m for magnetic
fMRI—measures second-by-second images of blood flow to show which part of brain is active during certain mental functions f for function
CAT (CT) --x-ray of brain, similar to MRI think of your cat having x-ray vision
Research, clinical observation, and case studies (HM anterograde amnesia)
Split-brain patients (Sperry, Gazzaniga)
Lesions and stimulation experiments (rats, cats)

7. A look at scans and how they are done3. 2.
PET scan
CAT scan
MRI
MRI or PET machine
fMRI
EEG
EEG output 1. 4. 5. 6. 7.
video clip MEG start at 4 min

8. Quick quiz
Label your brain in the lecture packet

9. Answer Key: How’d you do at labeling your brain?