Biological Basis of Behavior and Perception

Biological Basis of Behavior

• Neurons have dendrites, axons, and synaptic terminals.
• Synaptic communication involves the process of communication between neurons.
• Action potentials involve ions that depolarize the membrane, ions that keep the resting potential negative (sodium-potassium pump), and a threshold for the action potential.
• GABA is inhibitory, while glutamate is excitatory.
• The nervous system is divided into central and peripheral systems.
• Brain lobes have specific functions; language involves Broca's and Wernicke's areas, and aphasias can occur.
• The corpus callosum connects brain hemispheres in split-brain patients.
• The limbic system includes the amygdala and hippocampus.
• The thalamus has a primary function.
• The hypothalamus controls the pituitary gland.
• The hindbrain contains the cerebellum, pons, medulla, and reticular formation.
• The midbrain has specific structures and functions.

Sensation and Perception

• Sensation versus perception definitions.
• Transduction describes the conversion of sensory stimuli into neural impulses.
• Sensory systems (visual, auditory, etc.) have specific receptor cells, and respond to their respective stimuli.
• Visual system receptors include cones and rods, the processes for perceiving light, and visual perception.
• Hyperpolarization is an exception to synaptic transmission in the visual system.
• Bottom-up and top-down processing are methods of perception.
• Touch, hearing, smell, and taste have respective receptor organs and mechanisms.

Memory and Attention

• Memory centers encode, consolidate, and retrieve memories.
• Consolidation involves processes like Long-Term Potentiation (LTP) and sleep.
• Amygdala and hippocampus functions are involved in memory processes and emotional responses.

Abnormal Psychology

• Identifying disorders based on symptoms is part of diagnosis.
• Anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive disorders have unique characteristics.
• OCD includes compulsions and obsessions.
• Depressive disorders can be unipolar or bipolar with differing biological causes (serotonin imbalance, MAOIs and SSRIs).
• Schizophrenia includes both positive and negative symptoms, as well as aspects of biological theory.
• Common factors of therapy are considered.
• Common symptoms of trauma and resilience are described.
• The HPA-axis, amygdala, hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and posterior cingulate cortex play roles.
• Trauma's effect on the brain and the definition of trauma itself are considered.
• PTSD has specific symptoms to examine in particular.
• The role of epigenetics is described.
• Methylation is a biological process involving adding methyl groups to DNA.
• Various factors cause epigenetic changes.

Evolutionary Psychology

• Natural selection vs. sexual selection.
• Intrasexual and intersexual competition.
• Individual selection vs. kin selection vs. reciprocal altruism.
• Hamilton's Rule of relatedness.
• Parental investment and differences between species.