Things That Make You Go Hmmm… Sex is Not a Rat Race

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Could be related to serotonin usage: even though serotonin neurons high the receptors to detect it are low Disrupts the oxygen and temperature centers therefore should wake baby up if they are having difficulty.

EVOLUTION AND DIVERSITY OF NERVOUS SYSTEMS Development of nerve nets  Cephalization and nerve cords Cephalization – concentration of nervous tissue towards one end of the organism Cephalization also developed bilateral symmetry

CEPHALIZATION Control the animals’ directional movements, and complex behavior Some internal parasites have gone the reverse direction and lost it! Mollusks: sessile ones e.g. clams no cephalization, squids and octopus though have more complex movement.

ORGANIZATION OF THE NERVOUS SYSTEM Central and Peripheral Systems

control the digestive tract, pancreas, and gallbladder Slows down activities of the body For flight or fight response External & Internal Environment

Prepares body for stress Returns body to normal resting levels after having adjusted to stress

THE BRAIN Now close your eyes……. How many genes control the development of the CNS? What makes human brain so special? Is your mind separate from your body? Descartes asked in the 15th century.

NATURE VS NURTURE

EXPERIMENTING ON THE BRAIN KBG EXPERIMENTS ON THE BRAIN MODERN USE OF TECHNOLOGY

DIFFERENT BRAIN DEVELOPMENTS Greatest evolutionary changes has occurred with the forebrain.

Cerebrum Cerebrum divided into 4 lobes: -Frontal lobe -Parietal lobe -Occipital lobe -Temporal lobe - Lobes are named after the skull bones that lie over them Folds: Hills: gyri Valleys: sulci White Matter: inside Myelinated axons Grey: Outside (cerebral cortex)

A horizontal slice of the head of an adult man, from the Visible Human project. For this project, a cadaver was frozen and then sliced into thin sections, which were photographed at high resolution. This section shows the cerebral cortex and underlying white matter.

FRONTAL LOBE B. Premotor and C. Motor Areas voluntary muscle movement Three parts: a.Prefrontal cortex reaches maturity in 20s Cognition Planning and reasoning Personality expression Judgement, impulse control Memory motivation Most dopamine-sensitive neurons

LOBOTOMIES LW6ILkhttp:// LW6ILk Frontal lobe is associated with diseases such as: Schizophrenia Alzheimers Parkinson’s

Motor Cortex

PARIETAL LOBE spatial sense and navigation Integrating sensory information from various parts of the body Knowledge of numbers and their relations

OCCIPITAL LOBE What happens when you see “stars”? What role does the occipital lobe have in the blind? Are visual prosthetics in our future?

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TEMPORAL LOBE Auditory processing Speech Memory (contains the hippocampus)

3 functional categories: Can you identify these areas? -Primary sensory area – receiving signals from sensory nerves -Primary motor area – connects to motor neurons in brain stem and spinal cord -Association areas – remainder of cortex - involved with complex processes: perception, thought

LEFT VS RIGHT BRAIN? IS THERE SUCH A THING? NOT REALLY!

CROSS SECTION OF THE BRAIN

Left hemisphere control right side of body and vice versa Relatively symmetrical functions in 2 hemispheres Corpus callosum connects 2 hemispheres by functionally related points

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MALES AND FEMALES male brains 10% larger to accommodate larger muscle mass corpus callosum larger in females females activate both hemispheres when dealing with language and fine motor skills and matures 6 years earlier than boys males math area of the brain matures 4 years earlier than females Males have 6.5 times more grey “thinking” matter while females have 9.5 times white matter that connect different parts of the brain. frontal and temporal lobe is more organized in women and bigger. Animal planet

NAVIGATION Women use cerebral cortex for solving navigational problems, therefore relying on landmarks more Men use left hippocampus which automatically codes where you are in space practice does influence neural connections and functions

Cerebellum Major role in motor control and coordination Damage can lead to tremors, vertigo, loss of balance, coordination and posture

Brainstem Evolutionary older structures are regulate essential automatic and integrative functions 3 parts: a. medulla oblongata b. pons c. midbrain (with reticular formation)

Medulla Oblongata Joins spinal cord to cerebellum Controls involuntary muscle action –Breathing –Heart rate –Blood vessel diameter

Pineal gland In humans, size of a grain of rice Produces melatonin Regulates sleep patterns Pons -Relays information between cerebellum and forebrain

Hypothalamus In humans, size of an almond Connects nervous system to endocrine system via pituitary gland

Thalamus Receives and relays sensory signals to cerebral cortex Motor control Regulate sleep and wakefulness ADHD

Amygdala Formation and storage of memories linked to emotional events

Do you love me or are you IN love with me? The insula and striatum become activated with love. Sexual desire lights up the striatum area that's activated by things that are pleasurable, like sex and food. Love activates an area that's involved in the process of conditioning. This is the effect of having feelings paired with reward or pleasure.

Hippocampus Long-term memory Spatial navigation First region in brain to suffer in Alzheimer’s patients What did professor hippocampus say at his retirement party? Thanks for the memories

WOW! The cerbral cortex of the human brain contains roughly 15–33 billion neurons, perhaps more, depending on gender and age, linked with up to 10,000 synaptic connections each.

Test Yourself! What parts of the brain are stimulated when: You visualize an image Listen to the sounds of the room Silently tap your finger Count backwards Remember a past event Pinch yourself Are shown a picture of a loved one