Axia College Material

Appendix C Brain Response of Behavior

Part I
Note: Parts II and III follow below, complete all three. Run Multimedias 2.3 and 2.4

o Go to the Web site www.prenhall.com/morris. o Click text: Psychology: An Introduction (12th ed.)
o Click 2 on the select a chapter tool bar.

o Click Live!Psych on the left hand menu. o Select 2.3 and 2.4.
Write a 350- to 700-word response to the following: Explain the communication process of neurons in the brain. List some common neurotransmitters and describe their effect on behavior. <Insert Response Here

Neurons produce an electrochemical; they use this process to communicate. Neurons use dendrites to receive this communication from their neighbors, when enough of an electro chemical is received it produces n rapid charge in the neuron. This change is called an action potential or nerve impulse, the charge causes a release of neurotransmitters which in turn pass a message to the next neuron. The synapse is the location where the nerve impulse is transmitted, the neurons do not naturally touch there is a small divide called the synaptic cleft. The neuron sending the messages is pre synaptic while they are receiving is post synaptic. In the pre synaptic terminal buttons are sacs called synaptic vesicles, these sacs house the neurotransmitters which communicate with other neurons. When they are released they travel across the synaptic cleft to the dendrite of the receiving neuron. The Nero transmitters then bind with

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receptive shapes that fit their shape if there is an irregularity in the shape messages will not be transmitted.

Nero transmitters generally can be excitatory, cause nerve impulses or inhibitory hinder nerve impulses, some examples are dopamine and acetylcholine both of these affects motor neurons. Acetylcholine is and excitatory helping the transmission of neuron impulses while dopamine inhibits them, without a proper balance fine motor control would not be possible.

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Part II
Refer to Ch. 2 (pp. 58-78) In Psychology: An Introduction. Write a 350- to 700-word response identifying the major regions of the brain and what functions of behavior the systems of each region control.

The brain is divided into 3 major regions, for the purpose of determining behavior the brain stem, limbic system and the cerebral cortex.

The limbic system can be found deep in the brain surrounding the brain stem; It is made up of several different structures. The thalamus, the amygdala, the hippocampus and the hypothalamus are all examples of these structures, the limbic system deals with fear hunger and sexual and aggressive arousal.

The cerebral cortex is the largest area of the brain; the cerebral cortex is the outer most part of the brain that is covered in wrinkles of convulsions to fit in the skull. The cerebral cortex is responsible for controlling the light mental processes. Such as learning memory thought and language. The cerebral cortex also includes the frontal lobe which is involved with many aspects of a persons personality, Such as motivation and moral judgments. It is not an uncommon for a person with frontal lobe damage to undergo personality changes.

The brain stem is located just above the spinal column and is responsible for many of the automatic function of the body necessary for survival. It is

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comprised of the medulla, Pons and the reticular activity system; they are responsible for attention sleep arousal and dreaming.

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Part III
Consider the following chain of events. Describe in 350-700 words the sensory process that takes place as the scenario unfolds.

Vibrations from the bat hitting the ball are sent to Bobs ears. They enter the ear and travel to the eardrum causing it to vibrate. This in turn causes the bones in the middle ear to vibrate sending the vibrations to the fluid in the inner ear canal. This vibrating fluid causes the basilar membrane to move as well as the corti. Inside the corti there are bundles of hair like fibers that bend and move, this sends messages to nerve endings. The auditory nerve then sends this signal to the brain where the temporal lobe un-codes it and recognizes it as sound.

Both eyes have a different field of vision once they both focus on the ball using the lens, the retina filled with rods and cones takes in information. The rods take into account light but not color while cones take into account color but not light, this information is gathered from each eye as they both have a different angle which helps the perception of depth. This information is then sent via the optic nerve to different parts of the brain but primarily the cerebral cortex which is then made into the image that Bob can see.

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Kinesthetic senses tell us the speed and direction of our movement in space, in this case bob moving his hand to the ball. Without these senses bob would have to visibly focus on every movement if he stopped he would lose motor control. This information travels to the cortex of the parietal lobes the same area which perceives the sense of touch. The skin the largest sensory organ in our body is a receptor for our sense of touch it can detect the slightest changes in pressure applied to it.

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