Role of Nervous System in Shaping Behavior

Your nervous system guides almost everything you do, think, say or feel. It controls complicated
processes like movement, thought and memory. It also plays an essential role in the things your
body does without thinking, such as breathing, blushing and blinking. A great deal of human
behavior involves social interaction. Although the whole brain contributes to social activities,
certain parts of the cerebral hemispheres are particularly involved. The surgical procedure of
leucotomy, cutting through the white matter that connects parts of the frontal lobes with the
thalamus, upsets this aspect of behavior. This procedure, proposed by the Spanish neurologist
Egas Moniz, used to be performed for severe depression or obsessional neuroses. After the
procedure, patients lacked the usual inhibitions that were socially demanded, appearing to obey
the first impulse that occurred to them. They told people what they thought of them without
regard for the necessary conventions of civilization.
The defense reaction
When certain neurons of the hypothalamus are excited, an individual either becomes aggressive
or flees. These two opposite behaviors are together called the defense reaction, or the fight-or-
flight response; both are in the repertoire of all vertebrates. The defense reaction is accompanied
by strong sympathetic activity. Aggression is also influenced by the production of androgen
hormones.
Mating
The total act of copulation is organized in the anterior part of the hypothalamus and the
neighbouring septal region. In the male, erection of the penis and the ejaculation of semen are
organized in this area, which is adjacent to the area that controls urination. Under normal
circumstances, the neurons that organize mating behavior do so only when they receive relevant
hormones in their blood supply. But when the septal region is electrically stimulated in conscious
patients, sexual emotions and thoughts are produced. There are visible differences between the
male and female sexes in nuclei of the central nervous system related to reproduction. These
differences are a form of sexual dimorphism.
Urination and defecation
Electrical stimulation in cats of regions in and related to the anterior part of the hypothalamus
can induce the behavior of expelling or retaining urine and feces. When electrodes planted in
these regions are stimulated by radio waves, the cat stops whatever it is doing and behaves as
though it is going to urinate or defecate. It goes through its usual behavior of digging a hole,
squatting, and assuming the correct posture, and then it passes urine or feces. At the end, it even
goes through its customary ritual of hiding its excreta.
Eating and drinking The eating and drinking centers are in the lateral and ventromedial regions
of the hypothalamus, although such basic aspects of living concern most of the brain. If the
lateral region is experimentally destroyed, the animal consumes less food or stops eating
altogether; if the ventromedial region is destroyed, it eats enormously. When neurons of the
lateral region are electrically stimulated, a monkey eats, and when those of the ventromedial area
are stimulated, the monkey stops eating. There is an increase in the activity of these neurons
when the monkey looks at food, but only when it is hungry. Receptors in the lateral region
monitor blood glucose and are stimulated only when blood glucose is low; satiety stops their
response.Hunger does not depend only on these glucose receptors. Severe hunger is associated
with contractions of the stomach, which are felt almost as a sensation of pain. Yet neither is this
an essential mechanism for feeling hungry, as patients who have had total removal of the
stomach still feel hunger. In experiments in rats, it is found that stress may make the animal
either increase or reduce the amount it eats. This is probably the same in humans.When certain
neurons in the same regions of the hypothalamus are experimentally destroyed, animals lose the
urge to drink, although they continue to eat normally. Stimulation of these neurons causes them
to drink excessively. Control of drinking depends on osmoreceptors located throughout the
hypothalamus. When receptors detect a minimal increase in the concentration of dissolved
substances in the extracellular fluid, which indicates cellular dehydration, the sensation of thirst
occurs. A less-important contributor to the sensation of thirst is a reduction in blood volume.
Dryness of the mouth can also be a component of thirst, noted by receptors in the mucous
membrane. The feeling of having drunk enough depends not only on the hypothalamic neurons
but also on receptors in the wall of the stomach, which report when the stomach is full. Both
glucose receptors and imprecators are sensitive to the temperature of the passing blood. When
the temperature starts to rise, one feels thirsty but not hungry; cooling the blood makes one feel
hungry.
Temperature regulation
To maintain homeostasis, heat production and heat loss must be balanced. This is achieved by
both the somatomotor and sympathetic systems. The obvious behavioral way of keeping warm or
cool is by moving into a correct environment. The posture of the body is also used to balance
heat production and heat loss. When one is hot, the body stretches out—in physiological terms,
extends—thus presenting a large surface to the ambient air and losing heat. When one is cold, the
body curls itself up—in physiological terms, flexes—thus presenting the smallest area to the
ambient temperature. The sympathetic system is the most important part of the nervous system
for controlling body temperature. On a long-term basis, when the climate is cold, the sympathetic
system produces heat by its control of certain fat cells called brown adipose tissue. From these
cells, fatty acids are released, and heat is produced by their chemical breakdown. Body
temperature fluctuates regularly within 24 hours; this is a type of circadian rhythm. It also
fluctuates in rhythm according to the menstrual cycle. During fever, the body Temperature is set
at a higher point than normal.
Reward and punishment
In a fundamental discovery made in 1954, Canadian researchers James Olds and Peter Milner
Found that stimulation of certain regions of the brain of the rat acted as a reward in teaching the
Animals to run mazes and solve problems. The conclusion from such experiments is that
Stimulation gives the animals pleasure. The discovery has also been confirmed in humans. These
Regions are called pleasure, or reward, centers. One important center is in the septal region, and
there are reward centers in the hypothalamus and in the temporal lobes of the cerebral
hemispheres As well. When the septal region is stimulated in conscious patients undergoing
neurosurgery, they Experience feelings of pleasure, optimism, euphoria, and happiness. Regions
of the brain also clearly cause rats distress when electrically stimulated; these are called Aversive
centers. However, the existence of an aversive center is less certain than that of a reward Centre.
Electrodes stimulating neurons or neural pathways may cause an animal to have pain, Anxiety,
fear, or any unpleasant feeling or emotion. These pathways are not necessarily centers That
provide punishment in the sense that a reward center provides pleasure. Therefore, it is not
definitely known that connections to aversive centers punish the animal for biologically wrong
Behavior, but it is thought that correct behavior is rewarded by pleasure provided by neurons of
The brain.
Circadian rhythms
Learn about the bunker experiment to understand the human biological clock Humans have
inevitably adapted to the orderly rhythms of the universe. These biological cycles are called
circadian rhythms, from the Latin circa (“about”) and dies (“day”). They are essentially
Endogenous, built into the central nervous system. Circadian activities include sleeping and
waking, rest and activity, taking in of fluid, formation of urine, body temperature, cardiac output,
Oxygen consumption, cell division, and the secreting activity of endocrine glands. Rhythms are
Upset by shift work and by rapid travel into different time zones. After long journeys it takes
Several days for the endogenous rhythm generator to become synchronized to the local time.