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The human nervous system is a collection of neurons across the body that detects information
from the environment and processes this, then directs the body to take action via the muscles
and/or glands. It is split into the Central nervous system (CNS) and the Peripheral nervous
system (PNS).
● The CNS is responsible for our complex processing. It consists of the brain (the centre of
all conscious and most unconscious processing) and the spinal cord (this receives and
transmits information).
● The PNS is the portion of the nervous system that is outside the brain and spinal cord.
The primary function of the peripheral nervous system is to connect the brain and spinal
cord to the rest of the body and the external environment.
★ The peripheral nervous system is split into the somatic and autonomic nervous systems
★ Somatic Nervous System (SNS) connects the central nervous system with the senses
and is composed of sensory nerve pathways bring information to the CNS from sensory
receptors, dealing with touch, pain, pressure, temperature etc, and motor nerve
pathways which control bodily movement by carrying instructions towards muscles
● Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) controls bodily arousal (how ‘excited’ or relaxed we
are), body temperature, homeostasis, heart rate and blood pressure. It is composed of
the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. the sympathetic ANS is involved
in preparing the body for fight or flight, so causes increased arousal (e.g. increase in
heart rate and blood pressure, pupil dilation, reduction in digestion and salivation)and
the parasympathetic ANS is used to return our body back to its normal state after the
fight or flight response, so leads to decreased arousal.
Under normal conditions there is a balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic
systems in order to maintain homeostasis.
Differences:
● The brain provides conscious awareness and allows for higher-order thinking, while the
spinal cord allows for simple reflex responses.
● The brain consists of multiple regions responsible for different functions, whereas the
spinal cord has one main function.
Differences:
● The autonomic nervous system consists of two sub-components, whereas the somatic
nervous system only has one.
● The somatic nervous system has sensory and motor pathways, whereas the autonomic
nervous system only has motor pathways.
● The autonomic nervous system controls internal organs and glands, while the somatic
nervous system controls muscles and movement.
● The Hypothalamus is connected to the pituitary gland and is responsible for stimulating
or controlling the release of hormones from the pituitary gland. Therefore, the
hypothalamus is the control system which regulates the endocrine system.
● The pituitary gland is sometimes known as the master gland because the hormones
released by the pituitary gland control and stimulate the release of hormones from other
glands in the endocrine system. The pituitary gland is also divided into the anterior
(front) and posterior (rear) lobes (see right), which release different hormones. A key
hormone released from the posterior lobe is oxytocin (often referred to as the ‘love
hormone’) which is responsible for uterus contractions during childbirth. A key hormone
released from the anterior lobe is adrenocortical trophic hormone (ACTH) which
stimulates the adrenal cortex and the release of cortisol, during the stress response.
● The main hormone released from the pineal gland is melatonin, which is responsible for
important biological rhythms, including the sleep-wake cycle.
● The thyroid gland releases thyroxine which is responsible for regulating metabolism.
People who have a fast metabolism typically struggle to put on weight, as metabolism is
involved in the chemical process of converting food into energy.
● The Pancreas releases insulin to lower blood glucose levels and releases glucagon to
raise blood glucose levels.
● The adrenal gland is divided into two parts, the adrenal medulla and the adrenal cortex.
The adrenal medulla is responsible for releasing adrenaline and noradrenaline, which
play a key role in the fight or flight response. The adrenal cortex releases cortisol, which
stimulates the release of glucose to provide the body with energy while suppressing the
immune system.
● Males and females have different sex organs, and in males the testes release
androgens, which include the main hormone testosterone. Testosterone is responsible
for the development of male sex characteristics during puberty while also promoting
muscle growth. In females, the ovaries release oestrogen which controls the regulation
of the female reproductive system, including the menstrual cycle and pregnancy.
As you can see from the diagram above, all three neurons consist of similar parts. The dendrites
receive signals from other neurons or from sensory receptor cells. The dendrites are typically
connected to the cell body, which is often referred to as the ‘control centre’ of the neuron, as it’s
contains the nucleus. The axon is a long slender fibre that carries nerve impulses, in the form of
an electrical signal known as action potential, away from the cell body towards the axon
terminals, where the neuron ends. Most axons are surrounded by a myelin sheath (except for
relay neurons) which insulates the axon so that the electrical impulses travel faster along the
axon. The axon terminal connects the neuron to other neurons (or directly to organs), using a
process called synaptic transmission.
★ Some functions are localised whereas other take place in general brain areas.
★ The frontal lobe is responsible for your higher decision-making capacity.
★ The parietal lobe integrates information from the different senses and therefore plays an
important role in spatial navigation
★ The occipital lobe processes visual information.
★ The temporal lobe processes sound.
★ The big gyrus (wrinkle) between the frontal and parietal lobe is called the central sulcus.
In the frontal lobe by the central sulcus is the motor cortex.
★ The motor cortex allows you to control all of your voluntary movement. Each part of your
body is mapped out to a different part of your motor cortex and some parts are bigger
than others. The size of the area is not proportional to the size of the body part it
controls. Instead it is proportional to how much control you need to have of that body
part. So the area for your hands makes up around ⅓ of the motor cortex. Damage to the
frontal cortex causes us to lose control of our fine movements. Hitzig and Fritsch
(1870) first discovered that different muscles are coordinated by different areas of the
motor cortex by electrically stimulating the motor area of dogs. This resulted in muscular
contractions in different areas of the body depending on where the probe was inserted.
★ In the part of the temporal lobe next to the central sulcus is the somatosensory cortex,
which detects sensory information from all over the body and converts it into physical
sensation. Robertson (1995) found that this area of the brain is highly adaptable, with
Braille readers having larger areas in the somatosensory area for their fingertips
compared to normal sighted participants.
★ The visual cortex is just below this area, one in each hemisphere. These deal with sight
and visual perception.
★ The auditory centre is in the top part of the temporal lobe and processes information
from speech. Damage to this area can lead to loss of hearing.
★ Just behind the auditory centre (in the left temporal lobe) is Wernicke’s area. It is used to
interpret the meaning of speech. Damage to this area causes Wernicke’s (receptive)
aphasia. This condition prevents people from being able to interpret speech properly and
so start to produce nonsense words.
★ Broca’s area is in the left frontal lobe and is responsible for the production of speech.
Damage to this area leads to Broca’s (expressive) aphasia which leads to slow speech
which lacks fluency.
Evaluation
★ Peterson (1998) used brain scans to show that Wernicke’s area was active in a listening
task, and that Broca’s area was active in a reading task, demonstrating that these
functions are localised.
★ Rougherty (2002) shows lateralisation of brain function in that neurosurgery can treat
OCD by cutting the cingulate gyrus
★ Equipotentiality theory argues that although basic brain functions such as the motor
cortex and sensory functions are controlled by localised brain areas, higher cognitive
functions (such as problem-solving and decision-making) are not localised. Research
has found that damage to brains can result in other areas of the brain taking over control
of functions that were previously controlled by the part of the brain that has been
damaged. Therefore, the severity of brain damage is determined by the amount of
damage to the brain rather than the particular area which has been damaged.
★ The way in which brain areas are connected with each other may be as important for
normal cognitive function as particular brain sites themselves. Brain sites are
interdependent and damage to connections between sites may lead to the brain site not
being able to function normally. For example, Dejerine (1892) found that damage to the
connection between the visual cortex and Wernicke’s area lead to an inability to read
(vision + comprehension).
★ Gender differences have been found with women possessing larger Broca’s and
Wernicke’s areas than men, presumably as a result of women’s greater use of language.
Event Related Potential (ERP)- a similar approach to EEGs (same apparatus), but looks at
responses to stimuli rather than general activity. Measures small voltages of electrical activity
when a stimulus is presented. Because these small voltages are difficult to pick out from other
electrical signals in the brain, the stimulus needs to be repeatedly presented (100s of times),
and only signals which occur every time the stimulus is presented will be considered an ERP for
that stimulus (recordings for each time are added together such that a pattern of response
appears as ‘noise’ is cancelled out. This is called ‘averaging’). ERPS are of 2 types: (i) sensory
ERPS - those that occur within 100 milliseconds of stimulus presentation; (ii) cognitive ERPS –
those that occur 100 milliseconds or more after stimulus presentation. Sensory ERPS indicate
the brain’s 1st recognition of a stimulus. Cognitive ERPS represent information processing and
evaluation of the stimulus.
Evaluation
★ ERPs provide a continuous measure of neural activity in response to a stimulus.
Therefore, changes to the stimulus can be directly recorded: e.g. if a blue coloured slide
turned green.
★ Like the EEG it only takes milliseconds to take a reading, compared to several seconds
for the fMRI.
★ ERPs only monitor electrical activity in outer layers of the brain, therefore, cannot reveal
electrical activity in deeper brain sites.
Postmortems are when the brains of the deceased are dissected after being donated for
research. Brains chosen to be dissected are typically those that have had brain trauma, mental
illness or some other unusual behaviour that researchers wanted to understand. Often
compared to a neurotypical (standard/typical brain) to look for structural differences.
Evaluation
★ Allow for detailed examinations and measurement of deep brain structures (e.g. the
hypothalamus) not measurable by brain scans.
★ Various factors can act as confounding variables and might confuse
findings/conclusions. For example, length of time between death and post-mortem, other
damage caused to the brain either during death or as a result of disease, age at death,
drugs given in months prior to death, etc.
★ Modern techniques such as fMRI and EEG have largely replaced post-mortems
★ Brain activity cannot be measured as the person is deceased, so can only see the
damage and not how it affected the functioning.
Lateralisation is the idea that the two halves of the brain are functionally different and that each
hemisphere has functional specialisations, e.g. the left is dominant for language, and the right
excels at visual motor tasks.
Compensation
● Functional recovery is the transfer of functions from a damaged area of the brain after
trauma to other undamaged areas.
● The brain is able to do this due to Neuronal unmasking. Wall (1977) noticed the brain
contained ‘dormant synapses’ – neural connections which have no function. However,
when brain damage occurs these synapses can become activated and open up
connections to regions of the brain that are not normally active and take over the neural
function that has been lost as a result of damage.
Evaluation
★ Teuber (1975) 60% of soldiers <20 showed signs of improvement after trauma like
moving affected areas, compared to only 20% of those over 26.
★ Danielli (2003) studied a 2 ½ year old boy who had his left hemisphere removed. By 17
(and after rehabilitation) he only had minor language problems as the right hemisphere
had compensated.
★ Elbert et al concluded that the capacity for neural reorganisation is much greater in
children than in adults, meaning that neural regeneration is less effective in older brains.
This may explain why adults find change more demanding than do young people.
Therefore, we must consider individual differences when assessing the likelihood of
functional recovery in the brain after trauma.
★ See Kuhn, Kemperman, and Maguire above
★ A final strength of research examining plasticity and functional recovery is the application
of the findings to the field of neurorehabilitation. Understanding the processes of
plasticity and functional recovery led to the development of neurorehabilitation which
uses motor therapy and electrical stimulation of the brain to counter the negative effects
and deficits in motor and cognitive functions following accidents, injuries and/or strokes.
This demonstrates the positive application of research in this area to help improve the
cognitive functions of people suffering from injuries.
Biological rhythms: circadian, infradian and ultradian and the difference between these
rhythms
The physiological processes of living organisms follow repetitive cyclical variations over certain
periods of time. These bodily rhythms have implications for behaviour, emotion and mental
processes.
Infradian rhythms: occur less than once a day: e.g. menstruation (monthly) or hibernation
(yearly)
● A monthly infradian rhythm is the female menstrual cycle, which is regulated by
hormones that either promote ovulation or stimulate the uterus for fertilisation. Ovulation
occurs roughly halfway through the cycle when oestrogen levels are at their highest, and
usually lasts for 16-32 hours. After the ovulatory phase, progesterone levels increase in
preparation for the possible implantation of an embryo in the uterus. It is also important
to note that although the usual menstrual cycle is around 28 days, there is considerable
variation, with some women experiencing a short cycle of 23 days and others
experiencing longer cycles of up to 36 days.
● A second example of an infradian rhythm is related to the seasons. Research has found
seasonal variation in mood, where some people become depressed in the winter, which
is known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD). SAD is an infradian rhythm that is
governed by a yearly cycle. Psychologists claim that melatonin, which is secreted by the
pineal gland during the night, is partly responsible. The lack of light during the winter
months results in a longer period of melatonin secretion, which has been linked to the
depressive symptoms.
Exogenous zeitgebers (time givers) (EZ’s)- External environmental factors that influence the
rhythm.
● The most important zeitgeber is light, which is responsible for resetting the body clock
each day, keeping it on a 24-hour cycle.
● The SCN contains receptors that are sensitive to light and this external cue is used to
synchronise the body’s internal organs and glands. Melanopsin, which is a protein in the
eye, is sensitive to light and carries the signals to the SCN to set the 24-hour daily body
cycle. In addition, social cues, such as mealtimes, can also act as zeitgebers and
humans can compensate for the lack of natural light, by using social cues instead.