The Brain and Behavior

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The Brain and Behavior
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• Men ought to know that from nothing else but the
  brain come joys, delights, laughter and sports,
  and sorrows, griefs, despondency and
  lamentations. And by this, in a special manner,
  we acquire wisdom and knowledge, and we see and
  hear, and know what are foul and what are fair,
  what are bad and what good, what are sweet and
  what unsavory . . . And by the same organ we
  become mad and delirious, and fears and terrors
  assail us, some by night and some by day, and
  dreams and untimely wanderings . . .

- Hippocrates
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What do these 5 things have in common?
0

• A brain tumor
• A womans menstrual period
• Eating junk food
• Taking anabolic steroids
• Taking an anti-depressant (Zoloft)

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• The brain and behavior
• -How does the brain work?
• -What makes you who you are, and how do you
  make the decisions you make?
• Psychopathology and Neuropathology
• -Psychopathology
• -Neuropathology
• -The oddities of genius
• 3. Bad news and good news
• -Labels
• -Bioethics
• -Understanding and hope

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The Human Brain
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Brain Divisions
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Inside the Brain
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The Ideal Neuron
Dendrite
Cell Body

• Myelinated
• Axon

Axon Terminals
Axon Hillock
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A Real Neuron
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Neurons have three parts
Dendrite
Cell Body
Axon
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Neurons are batteries (they store an electrical
charge)
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Action Potential
During an action potential the battery is
discharged
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Action Potential
Positive ions flow in
Negative ions flow out
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Action Potential
Until the battery
is discharged
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Transmitter Release
This discharge (action potential) causes
the release of neurotransmitter
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Synaptic Transmission
This neurotransmitter can, in turn, help cause
another nearby neuron to fire an action
potential
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Synaptic Transmission
and release neurotransmitter
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Synaptic Transmission
Note, the original neuron has recovered
(recharged)
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Neural Networks
Neurons can be hooked up together to form networks
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Neural Networks
For example,
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Neural Networks
Mutually excitatory pairs
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Neural Networks
Mutually excitatory pairs
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Neural Networks
Or loops
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Neural Networks
Or loops
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Neural Networks
Or loops
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Neural Networks
Or loops
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Neural Networks
Or loops
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Excitatory Neuron
Inhibitory Neuron
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Excitatory Neuron
Inhibitory Neuron
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Excitatory Neuron
Inhibitory Neuron
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Excitatory Neuron
Inhibitory Neuron
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Excitatory Neuron
Inhibitory Neuron
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Excitatory Neuron
Inhibitory Neuron
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Seven
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Seven
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Seven
Finished Dialing
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Network is Turned Off
Finished Dialing
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Step 1
Threat
Make War
Make Conciliatory Gesture
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Step 2
Threat
Make War
Make Conciliatory Gesture
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Step 3
Threat
Make War
Make Conciliatory Gesture
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Step 4
Threat
Make War
Make Conciliatory Gesture
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Step 5
Threat
Make War
Make Conciliatory Gesture
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Step 6
Threat
Make War
Make Conciliatory Gesture
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Step 7
Threat
Make War
Make Conciliatory Gesture
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Step 8
Threat
Make War
Make Conciliatory Gesture
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Step 9
Threat
Make War
Make Conciliatory Gesture
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Step 10
Threat
Make War
Make Conciliatory Gesture
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Number of Neurons Number of Possible States
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16,384
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1,048,576
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1,073,741,824
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1,099,500,000,000
100,000,000,000 (Your Brain)
????
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Psychopathology

• Huntingtons Chorea
• Frontal Lobe Disinhibition
• Phineas Gage

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Prefrontal Lobotomy

• See page 47 in text
• Animal studies Jacobsen, Wolfe and Jackson
  (1935).
• Becky the chimp
• Frontal lobe removal reduced frustration reaction
  and violent behaviors
• Egas Moniz Nobel Prize (1949)
• Could one reduce anxiety and frustration
  surgically?

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Prefrontal Lobotomy Transorbital
leucotomePatients could have lobotomy in Drs
Office
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Prefrontal Lobotomy

• Tens of thousands done in 50s - 70s
• Results
• Reduced violent behaviors
• Irresponsible and childlike
• Unemployable
• Different personality

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Psychopathology

• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
• - Runs in families genetic component
• - Increased metabolism in the prefrontal lobe
  area
• - We all often experience mild forms

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Psychopathology

• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

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Psychopathology

• Schizophrenic and Schizotypal Personality

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Psychopathology
Epilepsy

• Temporal Lobe Personality Disorder
• -Hypergraphia
• -Neophobia
• -Deep interest in religious issues

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Charlie Whitman
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The Criminal Mind (Brain?)

• Psycho pathology of Crime Criminal Behavior as a
  Clinical Disorder Adrian Raine, University of
  Southern California (Book)
• The Psychopaths Brain Renato M.E. Sabbatini,
  University of Sao Paulo,Brazil and post doctoral
  fellow at Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry,
  Munich, Germany (web paper)
• The Executive Brain Frontal lobes and the
  civilized Mind Elkhonon Goldberg, New York
  University School of Medicine (book)

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The Criminal Brain

• Traumatic brain injury
• Chemical ingestion (e.g., cocaine, lead, other
  drugs)
• Birth injuries
• Neurodevelopmental abnormalities
• Genetic abnormalities
• Electrocution
• Tumors
• Extreme environmental exposures (gasses,
  radiation)
• Nutritional deficiencies

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The Oddities of Genius

• Legendary inventor Nikola Tesla had abnormally
  long thumbs, a peculiar love of pigeons, and a
  horror of womens pearls.
• Forefather of modern electric-circuit design,
  Oliver Heaviside, furnished his home with granite
  blocks and sometimes consumed only milk for days
  (as did Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison).
• Renowned scholar Samuel Johnson had so many tics
  and quirks that some mistook him for an idiot.
  In fact, his behavior matches modern definitions
  of obsessive-compulsive disorder and Tourettes
  syndrome.

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The Continuum
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Bad News and Good News

• Labels can be dangerous.
• Bioethics
• Just because we can, should we?
• Jury duty
• Knowledge fosters understanding, help, and
  hope.
• The future is up to you.