Theme: Biological Basic of Psychology

Brain structures and their functions
3. Stages of mental development
4 Consciousness

нервная система;
Occipital lobe -Затылочная доля;
Brainstem – ствол головного мозга;
Temporal lobe

– Височная доля
Parietal lobe – Теменная доля;

that function together. Let's start with a simple division:
The nervous

system is divided into the central nervous system and peripheral nervous system.

connects to the spinal cord. Neurological functions located in the

brainstem include those necessary for survival (breathing, digestion, heart rate, blood pressure) and for arousal (being awake and alert).

the back) which helps coordinate movement (balance and muscle coordination).

Damage may result in ataxia which is a problem of muscle coordination. This can interfere with a person's ability to walk, talk, eat, and to perform other self care tasks.
Frontal Lobe - Front part of the brain; involved in planning, organizing, problem solving, selective attention, personality and a variety of "higher cognitive functions" including behavior and emotions.

brain which processes visual information. Not only is the occipital

lobe mainly responsible for visual reception, it also contains association areas that help in the visual recognition of shapes and colors. Damage to this lobe can cause visual deficits

of the brain located behind the frontal lobe at the

top of the brain.
Parietal Lobe, Right - Damage to this area can cause visuo-spatial deficits (e.g., the patient may have difficulty finding their way around new, or even familiar, places).
Parietal Lobe, Left - Damage to this area may disrupt a patient's ability to understand spoken and/or written language.
The parietal lobes contain the primary sensory cortex which controls sensation (touch, pressure). Behind the primary sensory cortex is a large association area that controls fine sensation (judgment of texture, weight, size, shape)

on each side of the brain located at about the

level of the ears. These lobes allow a person to tell one smell from another and one sound from another. They also help in sorting new information and are believed to be responsible for short-term memory.
Right Lobe - Mainly involved in visual memory (i.e., memory for pictures and faces).
Left Lobe - Mainly involved in verbal memory (i.e., memory for words and names).

into two halves, called hemispheres. Each hemisphere communicates with the

other through the corpus callosum, a bundle of nerve fibers. (Another smaller fiber bundle that connects the two hemispheres is called the anterior commissure).

in three ways:
Sensory (afferent) - carry information INTO the central

nervous system from sense organs or motor (efferent) - carry information away from the central nervous system (for muscle control).
Cranial - connects the brain with the periphery or spinal - connects the spinal cord with the periphery.
Somatic - connects the skin or muscle with the central nervous system or visceral - connects the internal organs with the central nervous system.

Thought
Voluntary movement
Language
Reasoning
Perception

for "bark" (of a tree). This is because the cortex

is a sheet of tissue that makes up the outer layer of the brain. The thickness of the cerebral cortex varies from 2 to 6 mm. The right and left sides of the cerebral cortex are connected by a thick band of nerve fibers called the "corpus callosum." In higher mammals such as humans, the cerebral cortex looks like it has many bumps and grooves. A bump or bulge on the cortex is called a gyrus (the plural of the word gyrus is "gyri") and a groove is called a sulcus (the plural of the word sulcus is "sulci"). Lower mammals, such as rats and mice, have very few gyri and sulci.

"little brain." Located behind the brain stem, the cerebellum is

similar to the cerebral cortex because it has hemispheres and a cortex that surrounds the hemispheres.

brain between the thalamus and spinal cord. Structures of the

brain stem include the pons, medulla oblongta, tectum, reticular formation and tegmentum. The brain stem is important for maintaining basic life functions such as breathing, heart rate and blood pressure.

located at the base of the brain. The hypothalamus is

only 1/300 of the total brain weight. One function of the hypothalamus is the control of body temperature. The hypothalamus detects changes in body temperature and sends commands to adjust the temperature. For example, the hypothalamus can detect fever and respond by sending a command to expand capillaries in the skin. The expansion of the capillaries cools the blood and results in a drop in body temperature. The hypothalamus also controls the pituitary.

The thalamus receives sensory information from other areas of the

nervous system and sends this information to the cerebral cortex. The thalamus is also important for processing information related to movement.

the limbic areas) is a group of structures that includes

the amygdala, the hippocampus, mammillary bodies and cingulate gyrus. These areas are important for controlling the emotional response to a given situation. The hippocampus is also important for memory.

is one part of the limbic system that is important

for memory and learning

of structures, including the globus pallidus, caudate nucleus, subthalamic nucleus,

putamen and substantia nigra, that are important in coordinating movement.

structures such as the superior and inferior colliculi and red

nucleus. There are several other areas also in the midbrain.

Cells of the nervous system, called nerve cells or neurons,

are specialized to carry "messages" through an electrochemical process. The human brain has approximately 100 billion neurons. To learn how neurons carry messages, read about the action potential.

send information.
Sensory (or afferent) neurons: send information from sensory receptors

(e.g., in skin, eyes, nose, tongue, ears) TOWARD the central nervous system.
Motor (or efferent) neurons: send information AWAY from the central nervous system to muscles or glands.
Interneurons: send information between sensory neurons and motor neurons. Most interneurons are located in the central nervous system.

sensitive living organisms is associated with complication of their vital

activity. This complication consists in a differentiation of the processes of external activity that mediate organism's relations with those properties of the environment on which... their life depend.

Elementary Sensory Psyche
2. The Stage of the Perceptive Psyche
3. The

Stage of [Animal] Intellect

history: a phylogenetic classification of species.
1 level of mental

development - irritability inherent in single-celled organisms, is defined as forced activity.
2 level of mental development –sensibility – it is ability to sense from Biological important factors but also biological neutral.
.

[animal] intellect is characterized by very complex... forms of reflecting

reality
4 the highest level - consciousness inherent just for human being.

from embryo to adult. Also called ontogenesis.
Life stages
1 Infancy
2 Early

childhood
3 Late Childhood: Preadolescence
4 Adolescence
5 Young Adult etc.

processing system with specific functions and emergent operating properties, all

of which are necessary to maintain system stability.
The minimum specific functions for any conscious system are: 1) perception; 2) recognition; 3) memory; 4) recall; and 5) behavior.

we are aware of. This is the aspect of our

mental processing that we can think and talk about rationally. A part of this includes our memory, which is not always part of consciousness but can be retrieved easily at any time and brought into our awareness. Freud called this the preconscious.

of the mind that represents ordinary memory. While we are

not consciously aware of this information at any given time, we can retrieve it and pull it into consciousness when needed.

of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that outside of our

conscious awareness. Most of the contents of the unconscious are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings of pain, anxiety, or conflict. According to Freud, the unconscious continues to influence our behavior and experience, even though we are unaware of these underlying influences.