Course: Foundations of Psychology Instructor: Ms Saba Asif
Chapter# 2 Lecture# 6 – 11
Biological basis of behavior
Contents
Neuron: structure and function
Central nervous system: Brain
Peripheral nervous system
Endocrine system
Neurons
Neurons are nerve cells. They carry electrical messages around your body. Nerve cells
don't look like other cells in your body. They have unusual parts called dendrites and axons.
Learn how neurons use dendrites and axons to send messages.
You have trillions of cells in your body. You would think that all of your cells would
have to be very tiny to fit inside of you! Most of your cells are tiny, but there is one cell that
stretches from your back to your big toe! This long cell is one of the neurons or nerve cells of
your body. Neurons carry electrical messages from one part of your body to another. These
messages contain information about what's happening and help you respond in the right way.
What Do Neurons Look Like?
Neurons are shaped differently than other cells of your body. They have unusual parts
called dendrites and axons. Dendrites and axons act like telephone lines because they are what
allow neurons to communicate messages.
Dendrites are smaller than axons. Each neuron can have many dendrites. They look like roots
growing out of the cell body. Dendrites bring electrical messages into the nerve.
A neuron might have only one axon. An axon looks like a long stem growing off of the cell
body. Axons carry electrical messages away from the nerve cell body. If you remember that axon
and away both start with the letter A, it will make it easier to remember the axon's job. Axons are
covered with a material called myelin. Myelin helps the electrical signal move quickly down the
axon.
How Do Neurons Communicate?
Did you ever whisper a secret in your friends' ear? You shared that secret message using words.
Your nerve cells don't use words to share their messages. Instead, neurons use chemicals and
electrical signals.
Neurons don't touch each other, either. Between two neurons there is a small gap called a
synapse. When one neuron wants to talk to another neuron, it sends chemicals called
neurotransmitters into the synapse. The other neuron picks up the neurotransmitters and changes
them into an electrical signal that can be passed along.
Types of Neurons
Neurons are classified based on the direction that they carry information.
• Sensory neurons carry messages from your senses toward your brain. Your senses
include taste, touch, sight, smell, and hearing. Sensory neurons let you know what's
happening in different parts of your body and the world around you.
• Motor neurons carry messages from your brain to your muscles or glands. Motor
neurons tell your muscles and glands what to do. Do you want to throw a ball? Your
motor neurons will send the message to your arm muscles. Did you just eat lunch? Motor
neurons will carry instructions to your digestive glands to help digest the food.
• Interneurons carry messages between sensory and motor neurons. These neurons are
mostly found in your brain and spinal cord.
•
In short, Neurons or nerve cells carry electrical messages from one part of your body to
another. Neurons have unusual parts called dendrites and axons that are used to communicate
messages. Neurons are classified as sensory neurons, motor neurons or interneurons based on the
direction that they carry information.
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Nervous System
Your nervous system allows you to experience the world around you and react to it. It's a
complex system that's split into two main parts, the central nervous system and the peripheral
nervous system. Read on to learn the parts and functions of the system.
A ball comes toward you and you swing your bat. A big dog jumps out in front of you
and you begin to sweat. You walk past a bakery and the wonderful aroma makes your mouth
water. All of these functions are possible because you have a working nervous system. Your
nervous system is a complex collection of nerves and cells that carry messages and control
actions.
It has three main functions:
• First, it detects change going on inside and outside your body. This is possible thanks to
sensory receptors found throughout your body and concentrated in your sensory organs,
such as your eyes, ears, tongue, nose and skin.
• Your nervous system also interprets the information from the sensory receptors,
• and then effects a response by sending out an order to your muscles or glands. For
example, when the pitcher winds up and throws the baseball toward you, your eyes see
the ball, your brain says swing, and your arms move.
Central Nervous System
Not everything we do is decided by our brains. There are some automatic reactions that don't
involve your brain. I know that seems weird, but think about how your leg involuntarily kicks
when the doctor taps your knee with a rubber mallet. Your spinal cord is responsible for this
knee-jerk reaction, not your brain.
Your spinal cord is made up nerves,
which are in turn made up of bundles of
neurons. You can think of all of these
neurons as baseball players passing balls,
which are chemical signals.
Sometimes sensory neurons carry
messages to the brain. Other times, like
when you accidentally touch a hot burner
on the stove, they only get as far as the
spinal cord before producing a
natural reflex. Your spinal cord sends signals to your motor neurons without any input from your
brain so you can pull your hand back before you get burned. No time is wasted 'thinking' about
what to do. When every moment counts, the nerves in your spinal cord take control!
Your brain gets involved most of the time when you touch something. For example, when you
feel a mosquito land on your arm, your sensory neurons send signals to interneurons in your
brain. Then, your brain sends signals to your motor neurons to swat the mosquito.
Together, your brain and your spinal cord make up your central nervous system. At the core
of your body, they are the center of the control system.
Brain
Your brain weighs about 2-3 pounds, and it may be the most important 2-3 pounds of your body!
The brain controls every action and activity. It is responsible for our breathing, our heartbeat, and
even our thoughts and feelings. People have been fascinated by the brain for centuries, but
scientists are just beginning to unravel its mysteries.
The Three Major Parts of the Brain
The brain is made up of three major parts: they are called the brain stem, the cerebellum, and the
cerebrum.
The brain stem connects the base of the brain to the spinal cord. It's the part of the picture below
that looks like a stem. The brain stem is important in keeping you alive. It controls critical
functions like your heart rate, breathing, and sleep/wake cycles.
The brain stem connects to the cerebellum. This part of the brain is responsible for muscle
control, balance, and coordination. It helps you with everything from playing sports to writing
your homework.
Diagram showing some of the main areas of the brain
The largest part is called the cerebrum. The cerebrum is divided into different parts called lobes.
Each lobe has its own job to do, but all of the lobes work together to help us respond to the world
around us.
The Lobes
If you look down on a human brain from overhead, you will notice that it appears to be divided
in half. These sides are the left and right hemispheres of the cerebrum. They are connected in the
middle.
The left and right sides of the cerebrum are joined in the middle
Each lobe has a right side and a left side. The very front of the brain is made up of the frontal
lobe. This lobe helps you plan your day, stay organized in school, and keep your feelings under
control.
The parietal lobe sits just behind the frontal lobe, stretching from the middle to the back of the
skull. It allows you to notice touch, heat, cold, and pain. If you touch a hot stove, it's your
parietal lobe that lets you know.
The cerebrum is made up of parts called lobes
The temporal lobe sits just behind and above the ears. It serves an important role in hearing and
memory. If you've had the same song stuck in your head all day, thank your temporal lobe!
Finally, the occipital lobe is in the back of the skull, just above the neck. It makes sense out of
the things we see, like shapes and colors. Look around the room for a minute - what do you see?
A desk, a rug, or a chair perhaps? You can thank your occipital lobe for identifying those things
for you.
Peripheral Nervous System
Your sensory neurons and your motor neurons make up your peripheral nervous system. Your
central nervous system is like the coach and your peripheral nervous system is like the team. The
coach calls the plays, but the team is on the front line of action, and sometimes players have to
react on their own.
Your peripheral nervous system is made up of sensory neurons (which take in information
about what you see, hear, taste, touch and smell) and motor neurons (which send information to
your muscles and glands so you can react). The sensory neurons are the ones that tell your brain
there's a mosquito biting you, and then your brain tells your motor neurons to swat it with your
hand.
Just as your central nervous system has both conscious and unconscious reflexes (remember the
knee jerk?), your peripheral nervous system has some functions that you're aware of while
they're happening, and others (like digesting food) that you do without thinking. The things
you're conscious of involve your somatic nervous system. When you swat a mosquito, it's your
somatic nervous system kicking in. It controls your external muscles and skin. But, other internal
activities happen more or less automatically, like your mouth watering or sweating. While it is
possible to regulate how fast your heart is beating or how fast you're breathing, these are
primarily the realm of the autonomic nervous system; they happen whether you're paying
attention to them or not. Autonomic responses are automatic.
Okay, so we can break down these automatic responses further,
into sympathetic and parasympathetic responses.
Your sympathetic nervous system gets you ready to fight or flee when you're faced with a crisis,
and your parasympathetic nervous system calms you down and allows you to relax. So, when
you hear the fire alarm go off in your building, your sympathetic nervous system gets your heart
racing to ready you to act. But, when you realize it's a false alarm, your parasympathetic nervous
system slows your heart back down and allows you to relax.
The Endocrine System
The endocrine system is made up of glands that secrete hormones. Think of hormones as
messengers. They are chemicals that carry signals throughout the body. This as all about
communication. Hormones do things like regulate hunger and sleep and are also related to things
like mood. The glands that make up the endocrine system are connected and work together to
regulate a number of functions in the human body. Communication from the brain is sent to the
rest of the body by the endocrine system as well as by the nervous system. The endocrine
system is a series of glands throughout the body that secrete chemicals (hormones) into the
bloodstream; hormones, in turn, affect body functions.
The endocrine system is responsible for many different
functions in the body
Behavior and the Endocrine System
So where does behavior come in? The hypothalamus is key to many areas of human behavior,
including sex drive, hunger, and our emotions. The endocrine system releases hormones, and
hormones impact the systems that cause changes in our behavior, including changes in what we
might call biological motivations (things like hunger and sex drive). For example, issues like
unexplained weight gain can be associated with issues of the thyroid gland. If we're feeling
fatigued all the time and taking several naps a day, this behavior could be caused by an under-
active thyroid gland.
Our hypothalamus is also related to things like depression and appetite control. So if there's an
issue with this gland, we may see compulsive eating or depression as a result. The endocrine
system is also related to mating behaviors and motherhood. For example, during pregnancy,
certain hormones are released that encourage maternal behaviors in mothers.
It's important to note that hormones do not necessarily cause behaviors to happen. Instead, they
influence specific systems that play a role in regulating our behavior.
