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Samenvatting biopsychologie deeltentamen 1
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Samenvatting van biopsychologie voor deeltentamen 1; Introductie tot en met H7; James W. Kalat
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Test Bank For Biological Psychology, 14th Edition, James W. Kalat || Complete Guide A+||Latest Update 2024
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Test Bank For Biological Psychology, 14th Edition, James W. Kalat || Complete Guide A+||Latest Update 2024
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Test Bank For Biological Psychology, 14th Edition, James W. Kalat Fully Covered Complete Guide A+ Solution ISBN:9781305105409 Newest Version
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Biological PsychologyIntroduction: Overview and Major Issues
Biological psychologists study the animal roots of behavior, relating actions and experiences
to genetics and physiology. In this chapter, we consider three major issues: the relationship
between mind and brain, the roles of nature and nurture, and the ethics of research. We also
briefly consider career opportunities in this and related fields.
Learning Objectives:
1. Briefly state the mind-brain problem and contrast monism with dualism.
2. List three general points that are important to remember from this text.
3. Give examples of physiological, ontogenetic, evolutionary, and functional
explanations of behavior.
4. Discuss the ethical issues of research with laboratory animals.
The Biological Approach to Behavior
There are two difficult questions. First, why is there something rather than nothing?
Nothingness would be the default state. Evidently, the universe had to be self-created. The
universe could have been different in many ways, nearly all of which would have made life
impossible. Why is this?
1. It’s a coincidence.
2. Some sort of intelligence guided the formation of the universe.
3. A huge number of other universes do exist and we only know about the kind of
universe in which we could evolve.
Secondly, there is the mind-brain problem or the mind-body problem, the question of
how mind relates to brain activity. Chalmers and Rensch proposed that we regard
consciousness as a fundamental property of matter. A fundamental property is one that
cannot be reduced to something else. This is an unsatisfying answer, however. First,
consciousness isn’t like other fundamental properties. Besides, it’s unsatisfying to call
anything a fundamental property.
The Field of Biological Psychology
Biological psychology is the study of the physiological, evolutionary, and developmental
mechanisms of behavior and experience. It is not only a field of study, but also a point of
view. It holds that we think and act as we do because of brain mechanisms that we evolved
because ancient animals with these mechanisms survived and reproduced better than
animals with other mechanisms.
Three Main Points to Remember from This Book
At least three general points should stick with you forever:
1. Perception occurs in your brain.
2. Mental activity and certain types of brain activity are, so far as we can tell,
inseparable. This is called monism, the idea that the universe consists of only one
type of being. Dualism is the opposite; it is the idea that minds are one type of
substance and matter is another.
3. We should be cautious about what is an explanation and what is not.
,Biological Explanations of Behavior
Commonsense explanations of behavior often refer to intentional goals. However, we often
have no reason to assume intentions. We don’t always know the reasons for our own
behaviors.
In contrast, biological explanations of behavior fall into four categories: physiological,
ontogenetic, evolutionary and functional. A physiological explanation relates a behavior to
the activity of the brain and other organs. It deals with the machinery of the body. An
ontogenetic explanation describes how a structure or behavior develops, including the
influences of genes, nutrition, experiences, and their interactions. An evolutionary
explanation reconstructs the evolutionary history of a structure or behavior. The
characteristic features of an animal are almost always modifications of something found in
ancestral species. A functional explanation describes why a structure or behavior evolves as
it did. Within a small, isolated population, a gene can spread by accident through a process
called genetic drif.
Career Opportunities
If you want to consider a career related to biological psychology, you have a range of options
relating to research and therapy.
The Use of Animals in Research
Certain ethical disputes resist agreement. For example, the use of animals in research. Well-
meaning people on each side of the issue insist that their position is proper and ethical.
Given that most biological psychologists and neuroscientists are primarily interested in the
human brain and human behavior, why do they study nonhumans? Here are four reasons:
1. The underlying mechanisms of behavior are similar across species and sometimes
easier to study in a nonhuman species.
2. We are interested in animals for their own sake.
3. What we learn about animals sheds light on human evolution.
4. Legal or ethical restrictions prevent certain kinds of research on humans.
In much of medicine and biological psychology, research would progress slowly or not at
all without animals.
Degrees of Opposition
Opposition to animal research ranges considerably in degree. “Minimalists” tolerate certain
types of animal research but wish to prohibit others depending on the probable value of the
research, the amount of distress to the animal, and the type of animal. “Abolitionists”
maintain that all animals have the same rights as humans, they regard killing an animal as
murder, regardless of the intention.
The legal standard emphasizes “the three Rs”: reduction of animal numbers,
replacement, and refinement (modifying the procedures to reduce pain and discomfort.
The disagreement between abolitionists and animal researchers is a dispute
between two ethical positions: “Never knowingly harm an innocent” and “Sometimes a little
harm leads to a greater good”.
Chapter 1: Nerve Cells and Nerve Impulses
People talk about growing into adulthood and becoming independent, but in fact almost no
human life is truly independent. People can do an enormous amount together, but very little
by themselves. The cells of your nervous system are like that too. We begin our study of the
nervous system by examining single cells. Later, we examine how they act together.
,Learning Objectives:
1. Describe neurons and glia, the cells that constitute the nervous system.
2. Summarize how the blood-brain barrier relates to protection and nutrition of
neurons.
3. Explain how the sodium-potassium pump and the properties of the membrane lead
to the resting potential of a neuron.
4. Discuss how the movement of sodium and potassium ions produces the action
potential and recovery after it.
5. State the all-or-none law of the action potential.
Module 1.1: The Cells of the Nervous System
Neurons and glia
The nervous system consists of two kinds of cells, neurons and glia. Neurons receive
information and transmit it to other cells. Glia serve many functions that are difficult to
summarize.
Santiago Ramón y Cajal, a Pioneer of Neuroscience
Cajal found out that the brain, like the rest of the body, consists of individual cells. His
detailed drawings of the nervous system are still considered definitive today. How the
separate cells combine their influences is a complex and still mysterious process.
The Structures of an Animal Cell
The surface of a cell is its membrane (or plasma membrane), a structure that separates the
inside of the cell from the outside environment. Most chemicals cannot cross the membrane,
but protein channels in the membrane permit a controlled flow of water, oxygen, sodium,
potassium, calcium, chloride, and other important chemicals. Except for mammalian red
blood cells, all animal cells have a nucleus, the structure that contains the chromosomes. A
mitochondrion is the structure that performs metabolic activities, providing the energy the
cell uses for all activities. They require fuel and oxygen. Ribosomes are the sites at which the
cell synthesizes new protein molecules. Proteins provide building materials for the cell and
facilitate chemical reactions. Some ribosomes are attached to the endoplasmic reticulum, a
network of thin tube that transport newly synthesized proteins to other locations.
The Structure of a Neuron
The most distinctive feature of neurons is their shape, which varies enormously from one
neuron to another. Neurons have long branching extensions. The larger neurons have
dendrites, a soma (cell body), an axon, and presynaptic terminals. A motor neuron, with its
some in the spinal cord, receives excitation through its dendrites and conducts impulses
along its axon to a muscle. A sensory neuron is specialized at one end to be highly sensitive
to a stimulation. Tiny branches lead directly from the receptors into the axon, and the cell’s
soma is located on a little stalk off the main trunk.
Dendrites are branching fibers that get narrower near their ends. Its surface is lined
with specialized synaptic receptors, at which the dendrite receives information from other
neurons. Many dendrites contain dendritic spines, short outgrowths that increase the
surface area available for synapses.
The cell body, or soma, contains the nucleus, ribosomes, and mitochondria. The cell
body is covered with synapses on its surface in many neurons.
The axon is a thin fiber of constant diameter. It conveys an impulse toward other
neurons, an organ, or a muscle. Many vertebrate axons are covered with an insulating
, material called a myelin sheath with interruptions known as nodes of Ranvier. An axon has
many branches, each of which swells at its tip, forming a presynaptic terminal. Here, the
axon releases chemicals that cross through the junction between one neuron and the next.
An afferent axon brings information into a structure, an efferent axon carries
information away from a structure. Every sensory neuron is an afferent to the rest of the
nervous system, and every motor neuron is an efferent from the nervous system. Within the
nervous system, a given neuron is an efferent from one structure and an afferent to another.
If a cell’s dendrites and axon are entirely contained within a single structure, the cell is an
interneuron or intrinsic neuron of that structure.
Variations among Neurons
Neurons vary enormously in size, shape, and function. The shape of a neuron determines its
connections with other cells and thereby determines its function.
Glia
Glia, the other components of the nervous systems, perform many functions. Glia are
smaller but more numerous than neurons.
The brain has several types of glia. Astrocytes wrap around the presynaptic terminals
of a group of functionally related axons. They help synchronize the activity of neurons, guide
the formation and elimination of synapses, remove waste material of dead neurons, control
the amount of blood from to each brain area, and they dilate blood vessels to bring more
nutrients to a specific area when needed. According to the tripartite synapse hypothesis, the
tip of an axon releases chemicals that cause the neighboring astrocyte to release chemicals
of its own, thus magnifying or modifying the message to the next neuron.
Microglia act as part of the immune system, removing waste material, viruses, and
fungi from the brain. Oligodendrocytes (brain & spinal cord) and Schwann cells (periphery)
build the myelin sheaths that surround and insulate certain vertebrate axons. They also
supply an axon with nutrients necessary for its functioning. Radial glia guide the migration of
neurons and their axons and dendrites during embryonic development.
The Blood-Brain Barrier
The mechanisms that excludes most chemicals from the vertebrate brain is known as the
blood-brain barrier.
Why We Need a Blood-Brain Barrier
To minimize the risk of irreparable brain damage, the body builds a wall along the sides of
the brain’s blood vessels. This keeps out most viruses, bacteria, and harmful chemicals.
How the Blood-Brain Barrier Works
The blood-brain barrier depends on the endothelial cells that form the wall of the capillaries.
Outside the brain, such cells are separated by small gaps, but in the brain, they are joined so
tightly that they block viruses, bacteria, and other harmful chemicals from passage.
For the brain to function, it needs special mechanisms to get useful chemicals across
the blood-brain barrier. It has several. Small, uncharged molecules, including oxygen and
carbon dioxide, cross freely. Water crosses through special protein channels in the wall of the
endothelial cells. Molecules that dissolve in the fats of the membrane (vitamins A and D, but
also all the drugs that affect the brain) cross easily too.
For a few other chemicals, the brain uses active transport, a protein-mediated
process that expends energy to pump chemicals from the blood into the brain (glucose,
amino acids, purines, choline, a few vitamins, iron, and certain hormones.
The blood-brain barrier is essential to health.
Nourishment of Vertebrate Neurons
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