Complete summary of the literature for 3.6C "The Brain" Theme 1: Brain Basics for the Psychology "Brain and Cognition" specialisation. The summary covers the following book chapters:
Breedlove & Watson (2017). Behavioural neuroscience Chapter 6: Evolution of the brain and behaviour (pg 163 - 191)
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Theme 1
Brain Basics
Breedlove & Watson (2017): Chapter 6: Evolution of the brain and behaviour
How Did the Enormous Variety of Species Arise on Earth?
Naturalist: A student of the forms and classication of organisms
Evolution by natural selection:
1. Reproduction will tend to increase a population rapidly unless factors limit it
2. Individuals of a given species are not identical
3. Some of the variation among individuals is inherited
4. Not all the offspring of a given generation survive to reproduce.
Adaptations: traits that increase the probability of successful reproduction
Convergent evolution: behavioural or structural similarities among animals that are only
distantly related in response to ecological features
- Homoplasy: a resemblance between physical or behavioural characteristics that is due
to convergent evolution
- Homology: a resemblance based on common ancestry, such as the similarities in
forelimb structures of mammals
- Analogy: similar function although the structures may look different
However, Darwin's theory didn’t sufciently explain two mechanisms:
1. the mechanism by which an individual inherits its characteristics from its parents, and
2. the source of individual variation upon which natural selection acts
→ these were later able to be studied via genetics and mutations
Mutations occur randomly, spontaneously, are heritable, and can be good, bad, or neutral.
Linnaeus's animal classication system: each species is assigned two names - the rst name
identifying the genus, the second name indicating the species (e.g., Homo sapiens).
, Order of categories, from most broad to most narrow: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family,
genus, species
Phylogeny: the evolutionary history of a group of organisms
Ecological niches: specic sets of environmental opportunities (e.g. ability to learn)
Linear descent: the idea that evolution had proceeded along a single trajectory from simple to
complex, culminating in humans
Why study particular species?
1. Outstanding features
2. Convenience
3. Comparison
4. Preservation
5. Economic importance
6. Treatment of disease
Researchers have found that the strategies that different species use to obtain food are
correlated with brain size and structure.
Vertebrate Brains
The various orders of mammals all share the same basic set of brain regions devoted to visual,
auditory, and somatosensory processing. The regions are also arranged in the same basic
pattern. However, they differ in size, proportions,
and anatomical locations following adaptation to
ecological niches.
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