How did behavior evolve? How are functions assigned to parts of the brain?
How did behavior evolve? How are functions assigned to parts of the brain?
The evolution of behavior makes it hard to tie cause to effect. When the same behavior appears not only throughout a species but in some form in related species, we look for an evolutionary path to its development. The discovery of a genetic influence on the behavior and evidence that it is adaptive tends to confirm our suspicions. Yet genes do not directly cause behavior. As you read, think about how genes are connected to behavior.
Consider, too, that neurons acquire their function in behavior through their connections with other neurons. Behavior does not emerge from all neurons equally, but is often localized to specific brain regions. What does it mean to say that a behavior is “localized” or “hard-wired”?
Discussion 1 – How Behavior Reflects Evolution and the Brain
Step 1: Read https://psmag.com/social-justice/the-social-life-of-genes-64616 and https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/deep-dives/gene-environment-interaction/
Step 2: Address the following questions in discussion in one paragraph for each of the question items:
Questions
1. Much of our behavior is typical of the species yet individually different, even unique. Choose a specific form of one behavior, such as blinking, eating, or speaking, that probably evolved biologically but varies in different people. Suggest an explanation for its constancy in the species and its variability among individuals.
NOTE: You’ll have an easier time with tiny behaviors: a startle reflex, urination, or breathing. Feel free to take on larger traits like problem-solving and mate selection if you wish.
2. When we say that behavior is inherited, we mean that the behavior is influenced by our genes. How do our genes and the environment interact to guide behavior?
3. Post responses of 75 to 100 words each to two of your fellow class members.
PSYC301 Biological Base of Behaviour
Week 2 Discussion
Discussion 2 – Brain Localization and Mind Limits
Step 1: Watch Green, “Meet Your Master: Getting to Know Your Brain”
Step 2: Listen to the podcast at https://curiosity.com/topics/the-limits-of-the-human-body-may-be-more-mental-than-physical-curiosity/ or follow the transcript at https://gretta.com/curiosity The podcast lasts 45 minutes but there is nothing to memorize. Note: You may ignore everything but the podcast or its transcription at those websites. If Gretta.com is down and its transcript unavailable, you may substitute the interview at https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/18/17003304/alex-hutchinson-endure-fitness-science-health-exercise-running-body-limits for the video and transcript at the “Curiosity” and “Gretta” websites if you need a printed reference. Or feel free to use the podcast at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHexNzaXY-4 for a newer (but longer) podcast on the same issue. The transcript is available by clicking on the 3-dot ellipsis below the video.
Step 3: Read this discussion of the evidence mentioned in the podcast in Step 2: https://www.outsideonline.com/2112241/fatigue-all-your-head
Step 4: Address the following questions in discussion in one paragraph for each of the three question items:
Questions
1. Choose two parts of the brain described in Step 1 for this week and discuss how they might be related in function. How might a neuron in one structure depend for its function on what is happening in a neuron in the other structure?
2. Draw a conclusion about the way we localize functions in the brain: Was Broca justified in labeling a speech center in the brain with so few patients? How many brains are necessary to draw a conclusion? What does localization mean, after all? There is no strictly right or wrong answer to this question, but only thoughtful responses.
3. Describe an example in your own experience of misattributing a body function to a mental function or misattributing a mental function to a body function. For example, did doing chores as a kid really make you tired?
4. Post responses of 75 to 100 words each to two of your fellow class members.
PSYC301 Biological Base of Behaviour
Week 3 Discussion
Discussion 3 – How the Brain Constructs the Perceptual World
Step 1: Watch the following video: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/that-dress-isnt-blue-or-gold-because-color-doesnt-exist
Step 2: Review the published evidence:
https://www.maxplanckflorida.org/fitzpatricklab/homunculus/science/ (If this website is down, pPlease use the following URL as a substitute. You do not need to map your own homunculus. https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/blog/eureka-lab/do-it-yourself-map-touch )
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/did-humans-evolve-to-see-things-as-they-really-are/
https://www.npr.org/transcripts/654730916
All 3 audio clips are the same sentences: “It was a funny thing. The children were going to the park.” Recorded with, without, then with sine-wave garbling.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2131864-our-brains-prefer-invented-visual-information-to-the-real-thing/
Step 3: Address the following questions in discussion in one paragraph for each of the three question items:
Questions
1. Look closely at the rainbow (visual spectrum) in the picture located at the top of the Week 3 module – Week 3: How the Brain Constructs the Perceptual World, and ask yourself if any colors are missing. When you find a missing color, present a description or an illustration that shows the color. If you can explain why the color is absent from the spectrum, do so in a paragraph.
2. Judging from the resources in Steps 1 and 2, can we believe our senses? Where do individual differences seem to arise in the way we perceive the world?
3. Describe the combined roles of vision and the vestibular apparatus in a coordinated act in sports, such as a second baseman’s double play, a pole vault, or a turnaround jump shot. What are the differences and similarities in the roles of the two senses?
3. Post responses of 75 to 100 words each to two of your fellow class members.
PSYC301 Biological Base of Behaviour
Week 4 Discussion
Hip Hop by werner22brigitte comprises public domain materials.
Discussion section: Behavior is movement more than anything else. The output of the brain is seen chiefly in the secretions of the glands and the contraction of the muscles. We will consider the effects of hormonal secretions in the next topic. This week, consider our movements, which reflect the influences of the state of the body and the pressures of the environment.
Discussion 4 – How the Brain Coordinates Our Movements
Step 1: Address the following questions in discussion in one paragraph for each of the three question items:
Questions
1. Do you think that conscious (voluntary) movements must be organized differently from unconscious (involuntary) movements? What does the evidence tell you?
2. Can you point to any body movements that do not involve reflexes–or some reflexes that do not involve bodily movement?
3. Post responses of 75 to 100 words each to two of your fellow class members.
PSYC301 Biological Base of Behaviour
Week 5 Discussion
Emotion by pixel2013 comprises public domain material.
Discussion topic: This week you will try to come to a conclusion as to whether emotions evolved as a limited set of universal functions or are constructed actively as part of our decision-making.
Discussion 5 — Why Do We Need Emotions?
Step 1: Address the following questions in discussion in one paragraph for each of the three question items:
Questions
1. What are the components (biological, cognitive, behavioral) of a specific emotion like love or fear?
2. Describe two emotions that could easily be confused by the person feeling them. Why are some emotions confused and not others?
3. What are the advantages of an emotion like love or fear? Cockroaches may lack emotions yet they manage to reproduce and escape threats pretty well.
4. Post responses of 75 to 100 words each to two of your fellow class members.
PSYC301 Biological Base of Behaviour
Week 5 Discussion
Discussion topic: This week you will try to come to a conclusion as to whether emotions evolved as a limited set of universal functions or are constructed actively as part of our decision-making.
Why Do We Need Emotions?
Step 1: Address the following questions in discussion in one paragraph for each of the three question items:
Questions
1. What are the components (biological, cognitive, behavioral) of a specific emotion like love or fear?
2. Describe two emotions that could easily be confused by the person feeling them. Why are some emotions confused and not others?
3. What are the advantages of an emotion like love or fear? Cockroaches may lack emotions yet they manage to reproduce and escape threats pretty well.
4. Post responses of 75 to 100 words each to two of your fellow class members.
PSYC301 Biological Base of Behaviour
Week 6 Discussion
Discussion section: We will open up the question of whether memory is a faithful record and show how our patchwork memories serve us better than a mental museum.
How We Construct and Lose Our Memories
Step 1: Address the following questions in discussion in one paragraph for each of the three question items:
Questions
1. How memories formed at the following levels?
Molecular: What is long-term potentiation (LTP)?
Cellular: How is the hippocampus important for memory?
System: How widely are memories distributed in the brain?
2. How would you distinguish amnesia from normal forgetting? When would you call an absent-minded person amnesic?
3. What’s better: A memory that records objectively and accurately, or a memory that can be updated to support newer levels of understanding?
4. Post responses of 75 to 100 words each to two of your fellow class members.
PSYC301 Biological Base of Behaviour
Week 7 Discussion
Discussion section: Brain trauma and psychological trauma can have devastating effects. Because trauma is not usually delivered by a surgeon but by a catastrophe, the effects can be hard to categorize. Because concussions and other brain traumas are common, however, they deserve an attempt to figure them out.
Step 1: Watch the following video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=343ORgL3kIc 11 min., Crash Course Trauma & Addiction
Step 2: Read at least the abstract of this article: http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/users/hasherlab/PDF/2013%20Kapur%20et%20al%20positive%20clinical%20neuroscience.pdf
Step 3: Read all of this article: https://www.outsideonline.com/1907661/some-reassembly-required
Step 4: Address the following questions in one paragraph for each of the three question items:
Questions
1. How does acute stress differ from chronic stress?
2. It’s clear that people differ in their exposure to stressors. How do they differ in resilience as well?
3. Post responses of 75 to 100 words each to two of your fellow class members.
PSYC301 Biological Base of Behaviour
Week 8 Discussion
Discussion topic: As hard as it is to define the boundaries between what we call physical and what we call mental, assigning disorders to either domain is even harder. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders avoids the problem by classifying disorders according to their symptoms and not their causes. This is analogous to grouping appendicitis, a stomach ulcer, and intestinal bloating together as Sore Tummy Syndrome.
In sickness behavior, an illness of the body becomes an illness of the mind. An inflammation of the brain becomes schizophrenia or depression. Mental and physical stress both contribute to mental and physical disorders. Can you decide what causes what?
Step 1: Address the following questions in discussion in one paragraph for each of the three question items:
Questions
1. Are we wrong in identifying the mind exclusively with what the brain does? Is “self” more than the brain?
2. How might psychological disorders have evolved? Why have they not become extinct?
3. Post responses of 75 to 100 words each to two of your fellow class members.
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