THE MIND
PSY 220: Psychology for Health Sciences
Dr. Clinical Psychologist Seren Saltoğlu
INTERACTION OF NATURE-
NURTURE
❖ Humans share the same biological design, but differ from each other;
genes, hormones, neurons, brain… culture, learning, experiences, environment, mind…
behaviors, thoughts, feelings…
❖ Biological Psychology
❖ Human being as a bio-psycho-social system
❖ Neuroplasticity: Brain is always changing by building new pathways to adjust to new
experiences
Childhood
NEUROPLASTICITY
❖ Ex:Taxi drivers in London, enlarged hippocampus
❖ Ex: damaged brain’s reorganization, blindness
❖ Effect of practice (dancers, musicians…)
Is your brain the same as it was one hour ago?
What may be the function of this steady change?
NEURONS
❖ Nerve cells, building blocks of the nervous system
❖ Generation of new VS. vanishing of unused
❖ Billions of neurons communicate in a densely interconnected web.
Action potential
NEURONS
❖ Excitatory neural signals > inhibitory neural signals – threshold
Refractory period: after firing, neurons give a very short resting pause
Will increasing the intensity of the stimulation above threshold also increase intensity of neural impulse?
Ex: a gentle touch vs. a strong kick
❖ Glial cells: provide nutrition and support,
help in learning, memory, thinking by communicating with neurons.
Ex: Albert Einstein’s postmortem brain analysis
NEURONS
Meeting point between
axon tip of message
sending neuron AND
dendrite of receiving
neuron
-------Synaptic gap
Action potential
Then how do neurons communicate if they do not touch each other?
[Link]
NEUROTRANSMITTERS
❖ Antidepressants
function by blocking reuptake of excess neurotransmitters by sending neuron
Ex: serotonin in SSRIs
neurotransmitters’ effects on appetite, cognitions, mood…
❖ Learning, memory
❖ Muscle action/contraction
Acetylcholine
Blocked (anesthesia, poison) paralysis
❖ Alzheimer’s disease
NEUROTRANSMITTERS
❖ «Endogenous morphine»
❖ Painkiller
Endorphins
❖ Exercise, ex: «runner’s high»
❖ Movement
Dopamine
❖ Learning, attention, motivation
❖ Addictions (pleasure, reward)
❖ Schizophrenia tremor, Parkinson’s disease
NEUROTRANSMITTERS
❖ Hunger, sleep
❖ Mood
Serotonin
❖ Sunlight exposure
❖ Depression
❖ Alertness, arousal
Norepinephrine
❖ Focus, concentration
/Noradrenaline
❖ Depressed mood
❖ ADHD
NEUROTRANSMITTERS
❖ Major inhibitory neurotransmitter
❖ Motor control, mood regulation
GABA
❖ Seizure, tremor
❖ Insomnia
❖ Anxiety
❖ Major excitatory neurotransmitter Glutamate
❖ Memory, learning
❖ Migraine, seizure
DRUG EFFECTS
❖ History of antidepressants:
[Link]
❖ Effect on brain chemistry:
by decreasing neurotransmitter action: Antagonist
by increasing neurotransmitter action: Agonist
block production or release
increase production,
block reuptake,
or mimic
NERVOUS SYSTEM
❖ Electrochemical communication network consisting of nerve cells
❖ Receives information from body and outside, processes information and makes
decisions, sends back signals to body
brain
❖ Information gathering
spinal cord
❖ Information transmission
❖ Connection between
brain and body ❖ Decision-maker
❖ Nerves act as neural
cables carrying messages
in this connection
Ex: optic nerve
NERVOUS SYSTEM
❖ Information is carried through;
Sensory Neurons: from body tissues and sensory receptors inward to the CNS
afferent
Motor Neurons: from the CNS outward to body muscles and glands
efferent
Interneurons: process information between sensory input and motor output
control of internal voluntary control
organs and glands of skeletal muscles
Arousal/Alarm/Action: Conservation/Calming:
Heartbeat, Digestion,
Blood pressure and blood sugar, Relaxation, Homeostasis
Sweating, Resting…
Pupil dilation…
BRAIN STRUCTURES
❖ Brainstem: oldest and innermost region, sustains life without
our awareness
Medulla and Pons
Movement coordination,
Automatic survival functions sleep control
ex: heartbeat, breathing
What if our brains get seriously damaged and in a vegetative state?
Is it possible to live without a head?
[Link]
BRAIN STRUCTURES
❖ Sensory control center
❖ Receiving info from all senses except
smell-sending them to higher brain
regions
❖ Receiving higher brain messages-sending
them to medulla and cerebellum ❖ Non-verbal learning, skill
memory
ex: time prediction, texture
recognition, dancing, playing
piano…
❖ A nerve network
❖ Coordination, balance
❖ Sensory input traveling through it-filtering
Reticular ex: effect of alcohol, walking…
important ones
❖ Control of arousal Formation
BRAIN STRUCTURES
❖ Limbic System: located btw. oldest and newest regions,
emotions
Amygdala, Hippocampus and Hypothalamus
❖ Processing emotions of fear and aggression
ex: smaller size-less reaction to threat
ex: damage to amygdala-less fear and more criminal behavior
ex: looking at angry vs. happy faces
Is it desirable to have no fear at all?
[Link]
BRAIN STRUCTURES
❖ Limbic System: located btw. oldest and newest regions,
emotions
Amygdala, Hippocampus and Hypothalamus
❖ Conscious/explicit memory of facts and
events
ex: loss-inability to form new memories
ex: decrease of size and function with age
BRAIN STRUCTURES
❖ Limbic System: located btw. oldest and newest regions,
emotions
Amygdala, Hippocampus and Hypothalamus
❖ Maintenance of body/homeostatic state: body temperature, hunger, thirst,
sex drive
❖ Interacting with endocrine system by making it secrete related
hormones
❖ Some reward/pleasure centers that are both general (dopamine-related)
and specific (survival functions)
ex: increasing dopamine levels-musical pleasure
BRAIN STRUCTURES
❖ Cerebral Cortex: newest region, responsible for perception, thinking,
control, language
Size and interconnectivity is human beings’ most distinctive feature from other
animals
2 hemispheres with 4 lobes;
Frontal: planning, judgment, speech, movement
Parietal: processing sense of touch, perception of body position,
temperature
Occipital: visual perception
Temporal: auditory information processing from opposite ears
BRAIN STRUCTURES
❖ Cerebral Cortex: newest region, responsible for perception, thinking,
control, language
Some examples…
LSD producing vivid hallucinations (occipital)
Inability to see left visual field due to right lobe damage
Stimulation of left motor cortex (frontal) leading to right hand movement
Damage (Phineas Gage) may cause personality change and disrupt inhibition
More sensitive and precise body parts (lips, fingers…) cover more
somatosensory area (parietal)
Schizophrenia patients during auditory hallucinations (temporal)
BRAIN STRUCTURES
❖ Cerebral Cortex: newest region, responsible for perception, thinking,
control, language
Association areas: responsible for higher mental functions,
interpretation and integration of motor and sensory information linking them
with memory
No specific location, rather in all lobes!
Prefrontal cortex: also significant for ethical behavior, control of impulsiveness
Parietal: spatial and mathematical reasoning (ex: Einstein)
Temporal: face recognition
BRAIN STRUCTURES
❖ Complex tasks require many brain regions to work together!
Functional connectivity: helps different brain areas communicate and coordinate
with one another
❖ Left and right hemispheres are interconnected through corpus callosum
If cut, then two hemispheres function separately without awareness of the other!
Can you draw two different shapes with two different hands at the same time?
Left vs. Right Hemisphere
Emotional expression, making inferences, insight, understanding meaning, drawing…
Speaking, calculation, analysis, reading, writing, logic…
