100% satisfaction guarantee Immediately available after payment Both online and in PDF No strings attached
logo-home
Previously searched by you
Previously searched by you
logo
A-level/University Comprehensive overview of neuroscience CA$7.38   Add to cart
Quickly navigate to
Preview
  2.  
  3. Lancaster University (LU)
  4.  
  5. Psych112 Introduction to neuroscience (PSYC112)

Class notes

A-level/University Comprehensive overview of neuroscience
 4 views  0 purchase
  • Course
  • Psych112 Introduction to neuroscience (PSYC112)
  • Institution
  • Lancaster University (LU)
  • Book
  • Biopsychology [RENTAL EDITION]

A comprehensive summary of lecture notes on neuroscience including the Nervous system, Hearing, Vision etc. Suitable for 1st-year university and A-level students

Last document update: 2 year ago

Preview 1 out of 51  pages

Document information

  • April 8, 2022
  • April 8, 2022
  • 51
  • 2021/2022
  • Class notes
  • Multiple
  • All classes

Subjects

  • neuroscience
  • psychology
  • human brain
  • neurons
  • sexual selection
  • neuroanatomy
  • nervous system
  • cns
  • brain divisions
  • grey matter
  • white matter
  • lobes
  • resting potential
  • action potential
  • axon
  • synapses
  • neurotransm

Connected book

book image

Book Title:

Author(s):

  • Edition:
  • ISBN:
  • Edition:

More summaries for

  • Test Bank - Biopsychology, 10th Edition (Pinel, 2018) Chapter 1-18 | All Chapters
  • Test Bank Biopsychology, 11th Edition Author:John Pinel, Steven Barnes All Chapters {1-18}With Verified Questions And Answers A+ Guide 100% Complete
  • Exam 5 Review
All for this textbook (9)

Written for

  • Lancaster University (LU)
  • Unknown
  • Psych112 Introduction to neuroscience (PSYC112)
All documents for this subject (1)

Seller

avatar-seller
emmadoug200147

Reviews received

Content preview

What is Brain and Behaviour
Psychology deals with mental processes in isolation from underlying physiology
 We talk about behaviour, but we don’t always tie this to the brain which is instructing this behaviour
The neuroscience module introduces the structures and processes in the brain that underlie behaviour
 The brain underlies all human behaviour, it cannot be done without the brain
At a fundamental level, all psychological phenomena are the result of the physiology of the nervous system
 It is essential to understand how the brain functions to understand behaviour

Neuroscience
Neuroscience is the specific study of the nervous system
It has several different sub-disciplines
 Biopsychology (the biology of behaviour)
 Neuroanatomy (structure of the nervous system)
 Neurochemistry (chemical bases of neural activity)
 Neuroendocrinology (interactions between the nervous system and the
 endocrine system)
 Neuropathology (nervous system disorders)
 Neuropharmacology (effects of drugs on neural activity)
 Neurophysiology (functions and activities of the nervous system)
The endocrine system includes all the glands in the body that produce hormones
The human brain is the most complex structure in the universe (100 billion neurons, each with 1000s of
connections to other neurons)

The Connectome
A comprehensive map of neural connections in the brain, and is known as a “wiring diagram”
Would include the mapping of all neural connections within an organism’s nervous system
Provides the opportunity to achieve never realised conclusions about the living human brain

Humans Have Big Brains!
Over 2-3 million years, the human brain size has tripled (450g to 1300g)
Most of the increase is due to the cerebral cortex
 Cerebral cortex is the most advanced part of the brain
 It involves high level thinking (problem solving)
 It makes sense that it is the most developed as humans are more sophisticated human beings
We are much more intelligent than our primate cousins
 Primates can do impressive things such as use tools, understand certain symbols, manipulate, and deceive
each other, but they are very far away from human intelligence
However, elephants and whales have bigger brain sizes
 But we have very large brains relative to our body size
 We don’t have the biggest brains in terms of relative size as dolphins have very big relative brain sizes
Relative brain sizes are not indicative of intelligence
Brains are expensive in terms of energy consumption (takes up 10x more energy relative to proportion of body
size)

Tool Use
Our brains helped us to make tools and to use them
 As we started to use tools there may have been an evolutionary pressure on us to develop big brains to
exploit this ability
 However, until 200,000 years ago tools were very simple, they did not develop significantly during the
most rapid increase in our brain size
 Therefore, rapid brain increase did not coincide with tool use

Some of the primitive tools:
 Oldowan (Ethiopia) 2.4 million years ago (Homo Habilis)
 Acheulean (East-Central Africa) 1.5 million years ago (Homo Eraaster and Homo Erectus)
 Mousterian (Europe, Africa) 200,00-40,000 years ago (Homo Neanderthalensis and Homo Sapiens)

Machiavellian Hypothesis (Nicholas Humphrey)
We evolved big brains to manipulate each other in social situations (to plot with and against other individuals for
status)
Humans can form complex social interactions beyond any species

Our big brains may have been needed for the sophisticated use of language and for interpreting the intentions of
others (makes us uniquely successful)
We can communicate through science
 However, baboons and chimpanzees also show Machiavellian intelligence, and there is no evolutionary
pressure on them to develop large brains to compete
 So, if other species have this, it cannot explain our big brains

The benefits of buying summaries with Stuvia:

Guaranteed quality through customer reviews

Guaranteed quality through customer reviews

Stuvia customers have reviewed more than 700,000 summaries. This how you know that you are buying the best documents.

Quick and easy check-out

Quick and easy check-out

You can quickly pay through credit card or Stuvia-credit for the summaries. There is no membership needed.

Focus on what matters

Focus on what matters

Your fellow students write the study notes themselves, which is why the documents are always reliable and up-to-date. This ensures you quickly get to the core!

Frequently asked questions

What do I get when I buy this document?

You get a PDF, available immediately after your purchase. The purchased document is accessible anytime, anywhere and indefinitely through your profile.

Satisfaction guarantee: how does it work?

Our satisfaction guarantee ensures that you always find a study document that suits you well. You fill out a form, and our customer service team takes care of the rest.

Who am I buying these notes from?

Stuvia is a marketplace, so you are not buying this document from us, but from seller emmadoug200147. Stuvia facilitates payment to the seller.

Will I be stuck with a subscription?

No, you only buy these notes for CA$7.38. You're not tied to anything after your purchase.

Can Stuvia be trusted?

4.6 stars on Google & Trustpilot (+1000 reviews)

72042 documents were sold in the last 30 days

Founded in 2010, the go-to place to buy study notes for 14 years now

Start selling
CA$7.38
  • (0)
  Add to cart