BIOLOGICAL

BASIS
OF BEHAVIOR
 Neurons
• Nerve cells, the basic elements of the
nervous system
• 1 trillion neurons throughout the body
Glia Cells
•Cells found throughout the nervous system that
provide various types of support for neurons
• 1 trillion neurons throughout the body
•Supply nourishment to the neurons, remove
neuron waste products, and provide insulation
around many axons
•Development of the nervous system in the human
embryo
 Structure of the neurons
PART DESCRIPTION FUNCTION
Soma Cell body Performs
containing the metabolic, or life
nucleus sustaining
functions of the
cell
Axon Long Cable Carries neural
projecting from impulses to the
the Soma terminal buttons
Terminal buttons Swelling at ends Release
of axons chemicals called
neurotransmitter
s
Dendrites Fibers that Receive
project from the messages from
soma neighbouring
neurons
 How Do Neurons Work?

Resting Potential (-70 milivolts)

Action Potential- neurons fire; movement of
ion cause a change in charge from
negative to positive in successive sections
of the axon.
 Synapse
• The specialized junction between one
neuron and another
• A neuron releases a chemical that either
inhibits the next neuron
• Excitatory
• Inhibitory
• Reuptake
 Types of Neurons
• Sensory neurons
• carry information from receptors located
throughout the body to the brain.
Information from both the internal (inside
the body) and external environments, in
the form of light, heat, pressure, taste, and
smell is detected by sensory neurons.
• Motor neurons carry impulses from the
brain to the body. Movement of muscles
and secretion of glands is controlled by
motor neurons.
• Interneurons reside within the brain and
spinal cord and form connections between
motor and sensory neurons. Incoming
sensory information is transmitted via
association neurons to motor neurons
which initiate a response.
 Practice Quiz: Motor and Sensory
Neurons
Which neuron is responsible for the ff?
Motor Sensory Association
Cooking
Drinking Coffee
Playing the piano
Listening to PitBull’s
CD
Dancing
Brushing your teeth
 Neurotransmitters
• Chemicals that transmit information from
one neuron to another
 Acetycholine (ACh)
• Function: muscle movement, cognitive
functioning, memory
Blocked/Low Levels Activated/High Levels

Paralyzed Seizures/Alzheimer’s
disease
 Amino Acids
• The key elements of an amino acid are
carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and
nitrogen, though other elements are found in
the side-chains of certain amino acids. About
500 amino acids are known. In the form of
proteins, amino acids comprise the second-
largest component (water is the largest) of
human. Outside proteins, amino acids perform
critical roles in processes such
as neurotransmitter transport and biosynthesis
 Glutamate
• Effect: Excitatory

• Function: memory

Blocked/Low Levels Activated/High Levels

• a
Insomnia Seizures/Alzheimer’s disease
Mental exhaustion Cell damage/death
Depleted energy
Paralyzed
Gamma-Amino butyric acid (GABA)

• Function: eating, calm anxiety, aggression,

sleeping

Blocked/Low Levels Activated/High

Levels
Increased aggression Calm, depression
 Monoamines
• Derived from aromatic aminoacids. The
function of monoamine is not clear but it is
thought to trigger crucial components such
as emotion, arousal, and cognition.
 Serotonin
• Effect: inhibitory
• Function: sleeping, eating, mood, pain,
depression
Blocked/Low Levels Activated/High Levels
Shivering shivering, diarrhea, headache,
Diarrhea agitation, confusion, rapid heart rate,
Depression, suicide, impulsivity, high blood pressure, dilated pupils,
anxiety, eating disorders, insomnia, loss of coordination, muscle
alcoholism twitching, goose bumps and
perspiring heavily.
high fever, seizures, irregular
heartbeat, unconsciousness and
ultimately, death.
 Dopamine
• Effect: inhibitory
• Function: blood flow through the arteries,
modulates eating habits, contributes to
learning and high cognitive functioning,
Blocked/Low Levels Activated/High Levels
Anxiety
reinforces behavior and regulates
Psychosis
motor
activity
Flat affect Schizophrenia
Cognitive impairment, learning problems, ADHD
inattentiveness impulsivity
Confusion, Depersonalization
Fatigue, sleepiness
Depression
Low libido
Social withdrawal
Weight changes
Balance difficulties, postural changes, tremors
Speech problems
 Endorphins
• Effect: Excitatory

• Function: released in response to pain or

vigorous exercise
Blocked/Low Levels Activated/High Levels
Lack of tolerance to pain Boosts mood, relieves stress, Increase
Overly sensitive competence, enhance the function of
Anhedonia (inability to experience the immune system, moderating
pleasure normally) appetitite, releases sex hormones,
Crave fat Brain may stop production
 Norepinephrine/Non Adrenaline
Epinephrine/Adrenaline
• Effect: Excitatory
• Function: emergency situations, Helps
control alertness and arousal, Mood,
sleep, learning, increases heart rate and
slows digestion during stress
Blocked/Low Levels Activated/High Levels
Depression Adrenal medullary hyperplasia
Low blood pressure, Pallor (paleness of Elevated blood pressure
skin) Mood disorders-(persisent arousal)
Increased appetite ADHD
Poor concentration Heart palpitations, anxiety, and
Weight gain nervousness
• ACh- acetycholine- curare, botulism, poison from
black widow spider
• Dopamine- phenothiazines
• Norepinephrine- speed, tabacco, cocaine and
amphetamine (persistent arousal, facilitate release
of neurotransmitters and prevent reuptake)
• Serotonine- LSD decreases serotonin and
increases dopamine, sugar, marijuana, ecstacy,
tabacco
• Endorphine- morphine, heroine, marijuana, alcojol,
sugar, tabacco
• GABA- valium. Marijuana, alcohol, tabacco
• What causes neurons to get damaged?
➢Accidents
➢Drugs and Alcohol
➢Disease

• What happens when neurons get

damaged?
Neurodegenerative Diseases
• Multiple Sclerosis- a chronic crippling
disease of the central nervous system that
results in the eventual destruction of the
myelin sheath on the nerve cells
• Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis- affects
neuromuscular control
• Parkinson’s Disease- is a progressive
movement disorder marked by tremors,
rigidity, slow movements (bradykinesia),
and posture instability. It occurs when cells
in one of the movement-control centers of
the brain begin to die for unknown
reasons.
Neurotransmitters
Nervous System
Peripheral Nervous System
• Made up of long axons and dentrites
• Branches out from the spinal cord and
brain and reaches out to the extremities of
the body
Somatic Autonomic
• Voluntary movement • Controls the body parts
• Communication of that keep us alive
information to and from the • Plays a crucial role during
sense organs emergencies
• Enables you to perceive
the world and ensures that
your muscles will contract
in response to an
intentional command or a
stimulus that triggers a
reflex action, regulates
subtle movements that
maintain posture and
balance
 Autonomic Division
Sympathetic Parasympathetic
• mobilizes body • parasympathetic-
resources for conserves bodily
emergencies, sends resources, activates
signals to adrenal processes that allow
glands, triggering the the body to save and
release of hormones store more energy
that ready the body for
exertion
• “fight or flight’ response
Peripheral Nervous System
The Central Nervous System controls all
of the body’s activities.
* The Central is made of two main organs.

1. The brain

2. The spinal cord

• Connects the brain to the rest of the body
through the peripheral nervous system
• Sends messages to the brain
The brain controls everything in
the body.
*The brain is made of more than
10 billion nerves!
* The brain is divided into three parts and is protected by the skull.
 Parts of the Brain
•Divisions
•Lobes of the brain
•Hemispheres
CENTRAL CORE CEREBRAL CORTEX
• Old brain • New brain
• Primitive structure • Responsible for the
• Controls basic most sophisticated
functions such as information
eating and sleeping processing in our
and is common to all brain and contains the
vertebrates four lobes
Divisions of the Brain
 Forebrain
Limbic System- part of the brain which
controls eating, aggression, and
reproduction
• Amygdala- processing emotions, vigilance
• Hippocampus- memory storage
• Cerebrum- largest part of the brain as a
whole. It is here that things like
perception, imagination, thought,
judgment, and decision occur
• Thalamus- relay station
• Hypothalamus- pleasurable activities
• Basal ganglia- works with cerebral cortex
and cerebellum to coordinate movement
• Cerebral cortex- most recently developed;
high level processing
 Midbrain
• Reticular Formation/Activating System
- alertness; stereotypical patterns of
behavior such as walking, sleeping, and
other reflexes
 Hindbrain
• Medulla- breathing, regulating reflexes,
and maintaining an upright posture of the
body.
• Cerebullum- coordinating motor activity
(movements of the body)
• Pons- monitoring sleep and arousal by
coordinating with the autonomic nervous
system.
Lobes of the Brain
 Frontal Lobe
• involved in speaking, muscle movements,
and in making plans and judgements
• Broca’s Area- speech production
• Wernicke’s Area- comprehension

Parietal Lobe
• Sensory information
 Temporal Lobe
• Auditory information

Occipital Lobe
• Visual information
Hemispheres of the Brain
Practice Quiz: Left Brain or Right Brain
Arrange the following activities in
the proper hemisphere
1. Face recognition 2. name recall
3. critical thinking
4. Oral communication 5. Visual
 Corpus Callosum
• This bundle of neural tissue features over
200 million axons by rough estimate.
However, this number is only a
conservative estimation. Also, this neural
tissue facilitates communication between
the two sides of the brain.
Motor and Sensory Cortex
 Motor Cortex
• encode complex patterns of motor output
and that select appropriate motor plans to
achieve desired end results.

Sensory Cortex
Specializes in receiving information from the
skin senses and from the movement of body
parts
 Association Areas
• ¾ of the cerebral cortex
• Neurons in this area communicate mainly
with one another and with the cortical
neurons of the sensory and motor areas
 LAB EXPERIMENTS
• In 1949, Giuseppe Moruzzi and H.W.
Magoun discovered that electrical
stimulation of the reticular system would
almost instantly produce an awake,alert
cat.
• Under the influence of the cortex, the
reticular activating system not only cause
arousal but also attention
• The amygdala of a normally placid
domestic animal was electrically
stimulated
• The amygdala of a cat was severed. It
was placed in a large box. A mouse was
placed in the same box.
Experiment 1:
• Rat electric shock stimulation of
hypothalamus
Experiment 2:
• The hypothalamus of the rat was
electrically stimulated. The rat kept on
eating even of it was full.
• The hypothalamus of the rat was severed.
The rat refused to eat. It starved to death.
• In a strange case, a woman developed "hyper
empathy" after having a part of her brain
called the amygdala removed in an effort to
treat her severe epilepsy, according to a report
of her case.
• The amygdala is involved in recognizing
emotions, and removing it would be expected
to make it harder rather than easier for a
person to read others' emotions, according to
the researchers who reported her case,
published Aug. 14 in the journal Neurocase.
• The woman reported experiencing a new,
spectacular emotional arousal and feeling
physical effects along with her emotions,
such as a "spin at the heart" or an
"esophageal unpleasant feeling" when
experiencing sadness or anger.
• The researchers said that perhaps, even
though the amygdala was gone, other
brain regions and newly organized
connections among them, were
responsible for driving stronger empathy.
 Real cases
• Charles Whitman
• Known as the Texas tower murderer. On
Aug 1, 1966 for unexplained reasons, he
went on a rampage and killed 16 people.
Dr. Chenar conducted an autopsy. It
revealed that there was a tumor near his
amygdala.
• Joe has epilepsy. His seizures were
causing him distress, he couldn’t go about
his normal daily routine. Dr. Gazanigga
suggested a radical procedure. By
severing the corpus callosum, this will cut
communication between the two
hemispheres of the brain, which may end
the seizures he has been experiencing.
 Left Frontal Lobe
• Phineas Gage is a legend the annals of
neurology. He was a foreman and was
working with his team on a railroad. Gage
was preparing for an explosion by
compacting a bore with explosive powder
using a tamping iron. While he was doing
this, a spark from the tamping iron ignited
the powder, causing the iron to be
propelled at high speed straight through
• Gage’s skull. It entered under the left
cheek bone and exited through the top of
the head, and was later recovered some
30 yards from the site of the accident. he
was conscious and able to walk within
minutes of the accident. He miracuclously
recovered from the accident and went
back to work. His family and friends said
he was not the same person (socially)
• A 49-year-old man in Brazil survived a
stroke but underwent a strange personality
change afterward -- he developed
"pathological generosity," according to a
report of his case.
• The man began to give away money, and
bought candies for children he met on the
street, his wife told the doctors. He was
unable to manage his financial life, and
would have gone into debt if it were not for
his wife's attention, the researchers said.
• A CT scan showed low blood flow to
several brain regions, including areas in
the frontal lobe. These regions may not be
directly damaged by the bleeding in the
man's brain during his stroke, but are
connected with that region by neural
pathways. Damage in these pathways
might have had a role in changing
patient’s personality, the researchers said
 Motor Cortex
• 1870, Gustav Fritsch and Eduard Hitzig,
different body parts can be made to move
through a mild stimulation of the cortex
• Jose Delgado, mechanically motor
behavior can be controlled
• Clive Wearing
• Has to most profound case of amnesia. He
was at the height of his career when he
contracted herpes encephalitis. It primarily
damaged his hippocampus. He remembers
little of his life before 1985. He knows he has
children from his forst marriage but cannot
recall their names. His love for his second
wife remains undiminished. He greets her
joyously when he sees her as if he hasn’t
seen her for a long time. Even if she just left
the room to get a glass of water.
• A 17-year-old male presented to Apollo
Speciality Cancer Hospital with complaints
of intractable headache, vomiting and
intermittent episodes of “gelastic
(laughing)” seizures for the past 2 months.
MRI of the brain showed a large mass in
the hypothalamic region with moderate
hydrocephalus.
 Kluver -Bucy Syndrome
A condition resulting from lesions in the
bilateral temporal lobe.
Symptoms:
1. Amnesia
2. Docility/placidity
3. Hyperpagia (or dietary changes)
4. Hyperorality
5. Hypersexuality
6. Visual Agnosia
Parts of the Brain
Endocrine System
 Endocrine System
• Consists of glands that secrete chemicals
into the blood stream that help control
bodily functioning
• Hormones- chemical substances released
by the endocrine glands
 Pituitary Gland
• Master gland- tasks master; controls the
functioning of the rest of the endocrine
system
• Regulated by the hypothalamus
• Secretes growth hormone
• Secretes oxytoxin- social recognition, pair
bonding, anxiety, and maternal behaviors
 Pineal Gland
• Responsible for sleep and wake cycles
• Secretes melatonin

Thyroid Gland
• influence metabolism related to behavior
• Secretes thyroxine
 Pancreas
• Responsible for amount of glucose in the
blood
• Secreted from the insulin

Adrenal Gland
• promote muscle development; stimulates
the liver to release sugar in times of stress
• Secretes cortisol/ACTH
(adrenocorticotrophic)
 Sex Glands
• Secreted from the Gonads
1.Estrogen- secondary feminine
characteristics
2. Progesterone- menstrual cycle (estrogen
also)
3. Androstenedione- Secondary masculine
characteristics
4. Testosterone- increased fat deposit
around the thigh area; aggression
Endocrine System