Unit 2 – Biological Basis for Behavior

Greek philosophers and physicians linked the mind with the brain A. Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.) said that emotions, thought, and mental health arise from the brain (Plato agreed 427-347 B.C.). B. Galen (circa 130-200 A.D.) thought that fluids of the brain in ventricles were responsible for sensations, reasoning, judgment, memory, and movement.

Franz Gall (1758-1828) and Johann Spurzheim (1776-1832) incorrectly related bumps and depressions on the surface of the skull with personality traits and moral character. This study was known as phrenology.

Denis Leary is going to do the same thing in 2007…                                                     

III. Studying patients with brain damage linked loss of structure loss of function. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QXI_BxlY7M

His localized brain injury and subsequent change in behavior helped researchers identify areas of the frontal lobes as being instrumental to the mediation and control of emotional behavior.

Paul Broca (1824-1880) performed an autopsy on the brain of a patient named “Tan” who had lost the capacity for speech with no paralysis of the articulatory tract and no loss of verbal comprehension or intelligence. Tan’s brain showed damage to the left frontal lobe, as did the brains of several similar cases, relating destruction of “Broca’s area”

C. Gunshot wounds, tumors, strokes, Alzheimer’s disease, Korsakoff’s syndrome (amnesia caused by B1 deficiency related to malnutrition or alcoholism), and so on enabled further mapping of the brain.

Ablation is the removal of a structure Ablation is the removal of a structure. The vast majority of lesion studies are with laboratory animals (although occasionally, surgeons must remove some brain structure in humans to remove a tumor).

V. Examination of neural tissue led to the understanding of the neuron as the basic unit of structure and function of the nervous system.

Direct electrical stimulation of the brain provides another way to test the functions of certain brain areas.

Wilder Penfield used an electrode to localize the origin of seizures in patients. Stimulating different cortical areas, such as the back of the frontal cortex, at particular sites caused movement for different body parts, enabling mapping of the motor cortex.

Walter Hess inserted electrodes more deeply into the brain of nonhuman animals that were under anesthesia. After they recovered from the surgery, he related start/stop functions with specific brain structures. Examples are the “start eating and stop eating” functions associated with areas of the hypothalamus.