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!!

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.

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

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

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

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)

A look at scans and how they are done 3. 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

Quick quiz Label your brain in the lecture packet

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