UNIT 2

CONTENT
REVIEW
BIOLOGICAL BASES OF BEHAVIOR
15% - 20% of EXAM

AP PSYCHOLOGY EXAM DATE

May 16, 12:00 p.m.
 Essential Questions

★ Why do we learn biology in a psychology course?

★ How does knowledge of the connection between biological systems and mental

processes help us live healthier lives?

★ How much of who you are is determined by what is in your brain?

Today’s Objective

★ SWBAT … Review Unit 1 Content for the AP Psychology Exam.

Hemispheres: The brain has two hemispheres, the
left controls the right side of the body, the right
hemisphere controls the left side of the body

The two sides of the brain are always working

together
Corpus Callosum: Bundle of nerve fibers that
connects the two hemispheres, messages move from
one side of the brain to the other
Lateralization: There is some evidence that each
brain hemisphere has its own distinct functions

● Left hemisphere: Specializes in language,

speech, handwriting, calculation, sense of
time and rhythm, and basically any kind of
thought requiring analysis

● Right hemisphere: Appears to specialize in

more widespread processing involving
perception, visualization, spatial perception,
recognition of patterns, faces, emotions,
melodies, and expression of emotion
 Frontal Lobe Association Area
Frontal Lobes: Areas of the cortex
located in the front and top of the Prefrontal Cortex: This brain region has been
implicated in planning complex cognitive behavior,
brain, associated with reasoning,
personality expression, decision making, and
motor skills, higher level moderating social behaviour
cognition, and expressive language
Motor Cortex: This area of the brain receives
information from various lobes of the brain and utilizes
- EXECUTIVE FUNCTION
this information to carry out body movements

Broca’s Area: Located in the lower portion of the left

frontal lobe, controls motor functions involved with
speech production and language comprehension

● May be involved with muscle movements for

speech
Parietal Lobes: Sections of the brain Parietal Lobes Association Area
located at the top and back of each
cerebral hemisphere containing the Somatosensory Cortex: Part of your brain that receives
centers for processing sensory and processes sensory information from the entire body
signals such as touch, pressure,
temperature, and pain
Occipital Lobes: Section of the brain located at
the rear and bottom of each cerebral hemisphere
containing the visual centers of the brain

● Information from left half of visual field of

both eyes processed in right occipital lobe,
right processed in left occipital lobe

Visual Association Cortex (Recognize lines, angles, shapes, shadows, and movement )
Temporal Lobe: Areas of the cortex located just Wernicke's Area: It is located in the temporal
behind the temples containing the neurons lobe on the left side of the brain and is responsible
responsible for the sense of hearing and for the comprehension of speech
meaningful speech
● Plans for meaningful speech created in
Wernicke’s Area (Broca’s Area determines
movements needed for vocalization)
Brainstem: Most primitive part of the brain, Base
of brain connected to the spinal cord

● The brain stem controls the flow of

messages between the brain and the rest of
the body

● Controls basic body functions such as

breathing, swallowing, heart rate, blood
pressure, consciousness, and whether one is
awake or sleepy
Medulla Oblongata “Medulla”: Located at Pons: The larger swelling above the medulla
the top of the spinal cord (transition zone), that connects the top of the brain to the
controls life sustaining functions bottom, the bridge between cerebral
hemispheres and both medulla & cerebellum
● Controls many vital autonomic
functions such as heart rate, breathing, ● Role in several autonomic functions
and blood pressure such as stimulating breathing and
controlling sleep cycles
● Where most fibers cross, resulting in
contralateral (opposite side) control
The Reticular Formation: Network of nerves
that carry messages between parts of the brain
stem (Integrating the nervous system)

● It helps regulate the intensity of pain

and controls some parts of the body

● Helps people focus on useful sensory

input while filtering out unnecessary
stimuli
Cerebellum “Little Brain”: Helps control Thalamus: Processes and transmits movement and
posture, balance, and the coordination of sensory information. Considered the sensory
voluntary movements. This allows different
“relay station” of the brain, passing information on
muscle groups in the body to act together and
to the cerebral cortex
produce coordinated fluid movement.

● Receives information from all the senses

Limbic System: Network of structures lo Hypothalamus: Connects with many other regions of
cated beneath the cerebral cortex. the brain and is responsible for controlling hunger,
thirst, emotions, body temperature regulation, and
Coordinates: circadian rhythms
● Emotions such as fear and aggression ● The hypothalamus also controls the pituitary
● Basic drives such as hunger and sex gland by secreting hormones
● The formation of episodic memories Hippocampus: The hippocampus plays a critical role
in the formation, organization, and storage of new
memories as well as connecting certain sensations
and emotions to these memories

Amygdala “Fear Center”: Primarily involved in

processing emotion and survival responses
● Becomes active during potentially threatening
situations (coordinates fight-or-flight response)
● Influence aggression and fear
Neuroscience “Brain Researchers”: Brain Autopsy: Examination of brain tissue
Neuroscience is an interdisciplinary after death is currently the only definitive
way to diagnose the specific
brain science that works closely with
neurodegenerative disorder of an individual
other disciplines
Lesioning Studies: Humans with brain
● Researchers might look into brain lesions are often the subjects of research with
activity with different tools the goal of establishing the function of the
area where their lesion occurred
Brain Scanning: Not used to treat Electroencephalograph (EEG): Measurement of the
disorders rather they provide electrical activity of the brain by recording from
information about the structure of the electrodes placed on the scalp
brain or about the activity of the brain
Functional MRI (fMRI): Measuring Brain
PHINEAS GAGE CASE STUDY
Activity, detects the changes in blood oxygenation
and flow that occur in response to neural activity
(more oxygen=increases to active area)
Nervous System: Body’s
communication network that consists
of all nerve cells
“Body’s Electrical Wiring”

● Allows organisms to sense,

organize, and react to information
in the environment
Central= Peripheral=
Center Outer
Boundary
Sensory Neurons Motor Neurons
“Afferent Neurons”: “Efferent Neurons”:
Carry information from carry information from
the nerves to the central the brain and spinal
nervous system cord to muscle fibers
throughout the body
● It is these sensory
neurons that allow us
to take in sensory ● These motor neurons
information and send allow us to take
it to the brain and physical action in
spinal cord. response to stimuli in
the environment.
Autonomic Nervous System:
Regulates involuntary and
unconscious actions

● Breathing, blood pumping through

veins, digestion, heartbeat, work of
other internal organs
Sympathetic Nervous System: Emergency
response system, If something alarms, enrages,
or challenges you “Fight, Flight or Freeze”
● Accelerate your heartbeat, raise your blood pressure,
slow your digestion, raise your blood sugar, and cool
you with perspiration, making you alert and ready for
action

Parasympathetic Nervous System:

Functions to calm the person “Rest &
Digest”
● Reduces body arousal, energy, decreases blood sugar,
increases blood flow to the digestive organs, decreases
heart rate
 The synaptic cleft between the two nerve
cells

The presynaptic ending that contains

neurotransmitters

The postsynaptic ending that contains receptor sites

Acetylcholine “Movement & Memory” Serotonin “Mood”: Connected to feelings of
(ACh): Principal neurotransmitter involved in well-being and happiness (regulation of
thought, learning and memory. In the body, it emotion). It regulates the sleep cycle along
is involved in activating muscle action with melatonin, and also regulates intestinal
movements
● Excitatory
● Inhibitory
● First neurotransmitter discovered
● Serotonin is a major part of many
popular drug treatments for depression
and anxiety
Dopamine “Reward”: “Pleasure Chemical of Norepinephrine “Fight or Flight”:
the Brain” Released into the pleasure centers Associated with response to danger, attention
of the brain, related to reward and motivation & and responding actions in the brain
(learning)
● Excitatory
● Inhibitory
● Its effect in the body is to contract blood
● It is also associated with addiction,
movement, and motivation vessels to increase blood flow

● Person will repeat behaviours that lead

to release of dopamine
GABA “Calming”: Inhibitory transmitter that Glutamate “Memory”: Major excitatory
slows things down, calming the central neurotransmitter, involved with most normal
nervous system “natural tranquilizer”, GABA operations of the brain including thinking,
also contributes to motor control and vision long-term memory, and learning

● Inhibitory ● Excitatory

● GABA increases sleepiness and ● Most common neurotransmitter in the brain

decreases anxiety, alertness, memory
and muscle tension
Endorphins “Euphoria”: Relieve pain and Substance P: Recognize Pain
stress, “Brain’s natural aspirin”, feelings of ● P = Pain
pleasure/euphoria
Ghrelin: Hunger
● Inhibitory
Leptin:
● Released in the brain during exercise,
excitement, pain, and sexual activity,
and produce a feeling of well-being or
even euphoria
Circadian Rhythm “24 Hours”: The cycle
of physiological and biological processes
that fluctuate on a roughly 24-hour
timetable (16 hours awake and 8 hours
asleep)
● Sleep and wakefulness
● Metabolism
● Core body temperature
● Cortisol levels
● Melatonin levels
● Other hormones (growth hormone,
thyroid hormone, etc.)
The Sleep/Wake Cycle: Sleep has a
biological rhythm, cycle every 90-110
minutes, five distinct stages

● The pattern occurs three the five times

per night
 Measurement of Electrical Activity in the Brain

Types of Waves Speed (Vibrations Per What They Show EEG Tracings
Second)

Beta Waves, Between 15 and 30 Hz Awake, Normal Alert,

Consciousness
Awake/Alter

Alpha Waves, Between 7 and 12 Hz Physically and mentally relaxed,

aware but drowsy
Light Sleep

Theta Waves, Between 4 and 7 Hz Reduced consciousness, deep

meditation, light sleep
Early Sleep

Delta Waves, Up to 4 Hz, slow Deep sleep (dreamless) sleep, loss

of bodily awareness
Deepest Sleep waves
non-REM Stage 1 “Light Sleep”: non-REM Stage 2 “Sleep Spindles”:
Transition period between wakefulness Body temperature will drop, heart rate
and sleep, drifting in & out of sleep slows, breathing more shallow and
irregular (20 Minutes)
● Theta wave activity increases and
alpha wave activity fades away (5-10
Minutes) ● EEG will show first signs of sleep
spindles (brief bursts of activity
● Hypnagogic hallucinations—sensory lasting a second or two)
experiences that occur without a
sensory stimulus ● Sleep Talking—usually garbled or
nonsensical—can occur during Stage
● Sensation of falling, hypnic jerk 2 or any other sleep stage
non-REM Stage 3 & Stage 4 “Deep REM Sleep “Paradoxical Sleep”:
Sleep”: Slow-wave sleep, delta waves, Rapid eye movements and your muscles
begin to appear more often (35-45 Minutes) become almost paralyzed, brain waves as if
we are awake (10 Minutes)
● The most restorative stage of sleep,
● REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement
Difficult to be awaken
and represents what is known as
“dream sleep”
● Hard to arouse, breathing slowed
down, pulse slowed down
● REM sleep gets longer throughout the
night
Sleep Apnea “Stop Breathing”: Chronic
medical condition where the affected
person repeatedly stops breathing during
sleep
● These episodes last 10 seconds or
more and cause oxygen levels in the
blood to drop or awakenings from
sleep
Psychoactive Drug is a chemical that Agonist Drug that binds to receptors in the
changes our states of consciousness, and brain and activate the receptors they bind to
particularly our perceptions and moods
Antagonists Block receptor sites so natural
● Depressants
agonists within the body cannot bind or block
● Sedative-Hypnotic Drugs reuptake of neurotransmitters by certain
● Stimulants neurons
● Hallucinogens

Drugs affect consciousness by influencing

how neurotransmitters operate at the
synapses of the central nervous system
Addiction: People who have a drug addiction
experience compulsive, sometimes
Barbiturates (Major Tranquilizers): Addictive
uncontrollable, craving for their drug of choice
sedative-hypnotic drugs that reduce anxiety
Depressants “Downers”: Slow the activity of the and help people sleep
central nervous system. They reduce tension and
inhibitions and may interfere with a person’s
Benzodiazepines (Minor Tranquilizers): The
judgment, motor activity, and concentration
most common group of antianxiety drugs,
Alcohol: Any beverage containing ethyl
which includes Valium and Xanax
alcohol including beer, wine, and liquor
Opioids: Opium or any of the drugs derived
Sedative-Hypnotic Drugs: A drug used in low from opium, including morphine, heroin, and
doses to reduce anxiety and in higher doses to codeine
help people sleep.
Stimulants “Uppers”: Substances that Methamphetamine: A powerful
increase the activity of the central nervous amphetamine drug, Illegal substance (crystal
system resulting in increased blood meth), super stimulant, effects, which can
pressure and heart rate, more alertness, include eight hours or so of heightened
and sped-up behavior and thinking energy and euphoria

Caffeine: The world’s most widely used Cocaine: The most powerful natural
stimulant, most often consumed in coffee stimulant now known (central active
ingredient of the coca plant, found in South
Amphetamines: A stimulant drug that is America)
manufactured in the laboratory
Hallucinogens: A substance that causes powerful changes primarily in sensory
perception, including strengthening perceptions and producing illusions and
hallucinations
● Also called a psychedelic drug

LSD: Powerful synthetic hallucinogen drug; also known as acid

Cannabis: Drugs produced from the variety of the hemp plant Cannabis sativa. They
cause a mixture of hallucinogenic, depressant, and stimulant effects
Sensation “Detection & Encoding”: The Perception “Interpretation’: Process by
senses collect some kind of information which we select, organize, and interpret
from the environment and convert it to a sensory information in order to recognize
signal that can travel to the brain meaningful objects and events

● Sensing our environment through ● Information is organized, interpreted,

touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell and consciously experienced
(nervous system)

● Our senses depend on each other ● Enables recognition of meaningful

events
Transduction The transformation of stimulus energy to electrochemical energy of neural
impulses (except smell)
Absolute Threshold: Smallest level of
stimulus that can be detected, usually
defined as at least half the time
(Point something becomes noticeable)

● How dim can a light be or how soft can a

sound be and still be detected half of the
time
Signal Detection Theory: Theory Difference Threshold “Just Noticeable
predicting how and when we detect the Difference (JND)”: The amount something
presence of a faint (weak) stimulus (signal) must be changed in order for a difference
amid background stimulation (noise) to be noticeable, or detectable at least half
the time
● Assumes there is no single absolute
threshold, detection depends partly
on a person’s experience,
expectations, motivation, and level of
fatigue
Weber’s Law: The principle that, to be
perceived as different, two stimuli must Stimulus Constant (k)
differ by a constant minimum percentage
(rather than a constant amount) Light 8%

Weight 2%
● Bigger stimuli require larger
differences to be noticed Tone 3%

Bigger stimuli require larger differences to

be noticed
Sensory Adaptation: Reduction in Cocktail Party Effect “Filter & Focus”:
sensitivity to a stimulus after constant Ability to focus on a particular sound
exposure to it while partial filtering out other sounds

Selective Attention: We center our

● Happens not just at cocktail parties
attention on certain important elements of
but also in virtually any environment
our environment while other things blend
into the background or pass us by
● Awareness of background “buzz” but
completely unnoticed
limited semantic processing

Divided Attention “Multitasking”:

Occurs when mental focus is on multiple
tasks or ideas at once
Cornea: Transparent, dome-like structure
on the front part of the eye, gives the eye
focusing or refracting power

Pupil: The adjustable opening in the

center of the eye through which light
enters, controls the amount of light that
enters into the eye

Iris: A ring of muscle tissue that forms the

colored portion of the eye around the
pupil and controls the size of the pupil
opening (colored part of eye)
Crystalline Lens: The transparent
structure behind the pupil that changes
shape to help focus images on the retina,
focus eye on near or far objects

Retina: Light-sensitive layer that lines the

back of the eye

Photoreceptors: Convert light energy to

electrochemical neural impulses that are
conducted to our brain
● Photoreceptors are called Rods and
Cones
The Retina-Photoreceptors The Retina-Photoreceptors

Cones: Light-detecting cells that are Rods: Specialized photoreceptors that

concentrated near the center of the retina work well in low light conditions, involved
and that function in daylight or in well-lit in our vision in dimly lit environments as
conditions, directly involved in our ability well as in our perception of movement on
to perceive color the periphery of our visual field
Optic Nerve: The nerve that carries neural Opponent-Process Theory: Retinal
impulses from the eye to the brain (cross to processes only occur in 3 sets of opponents
opposite side of brain, once inside the
brain, visual information is sent via a ● Red-Green Complex
number of structures to the occipital lobe
● Blue-Yellow Complex
at the back of the brain for processing)
● Black-White Complex

● Cells can only detect the presence of

one color at a time because the two
colors oppose one another
Amplitude: Height of the sound wave
(greater compression), the psychological
quality of loudness
● The intensity or power of sound is
measured using a scale of decibels (dB)

Frequency: The number of wavelength

cycles in a unit of time, measured using
hertz, determines the highness or lowness
of the sound (Pitch)
Locating Sound “Sound Localization”: Sensorineural Hearing Loss/ Nerve
Sound waves strike one ear sooner and more Deafness: Occurs when the inner ear,
intensely than the other. From this cochlea or auditory nerve itself is not
information, our nimble brain computes the functioning properly
sound’s location
● Hearing aids are ineffective since no
Conduction Hearing Loss: Hearing loss auditory message can reach the brain
caused by structural damage (eardrum is
punctured) to the mechanical system that Cochlear Implant: A device for converting
conducts sound waves to the cochlea sounds into electrical signals and
stimulating the auditory nerve through
electrodes threaded into the cochlea
Taste (Gustation): The tastes that we perceive Pain: The body’s warning sign that
are a two-phase chemical reaction that something isn’t right (many varieties and
involves both our mouth and throat (taste) as intensities) combine both bottom-up
well as our nose (smell). sensations and top-down processes

Smell (Olfaction): Chemical molecules Pain Is Necessary for Survival, but Our
breathed in through the nose
Brain Can Stop It if It Needs To
Somesthetic Senses: The senses of the skin,
allow us to feel light touch, pressure, pain,
cold, and warmth