action potentialwhich is a rapidly moving exchange of ions.ion channels.channel proteins that transport ionsvesiclestiny bubbles of chemicals that are caused by action potential reaching axon endneurotransmitterschemical messengers that cross the synaptic gaps between neuronsexcitatory neurotransmittersexcite the next cell into firinginhibitory neurotransmittersinhibit the next cell from firingSensory neuronssensitive to various non-neural stimuliMotor neuronsstimulate muscle cells throughout the body, including the muscles of the heart, diaphragm, intestines, bladder, and glands.Interneuronsneurons that provide connections between sensory and motor neurons, as well as between themselves. The neurons of the central nervous system, including the brain, are all interneurons.ganglion (gangliaA clump of neuron cell bodiesnerve.A fiber made up of many axonswhite matterIn the brain and spinal cord, areas that are mostly axonsAreas that include large number of cell bodiesgray matterAcetylcholinecetylcholine has many functions: It is responsible for much of the stimulation of muscles, including the muscles of the gastro-intestinal system. It is also found in sensory neurons and in the autonomic nervous system, and has a part in scheduling REM (dream) sleep.NorepinephrineNorepinephrine is strongly associated with bringing our nervous systems into "high alert." It is prevalent in the sympathetic nervous system, and it increases our heart rate and our blood pressure. Our adrenal glands release it into the blood stream, along with its close relative epinephrine (aka adrenalin). It is also important for forming memoriesDopamineDopamine is strongly associated with reward mechanisms in the brain. Drugs like cocaine, opium, heroin, and alcohol increase the levels of dopamine, as does nicotine. If it feels good, dopamine neurons are probably involved!GABAGABA acts like a brake to the excitatory neurotransmitters that lead to anxiety.GlutamateGlutamate is an excitatory relative of GABA. It is the most common neurotransmitter in the central nervous system - as much as half of all neurons in the brain - and is especially important in regards to memory.SerotoninSerotonin is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that has been found to be intimately involved in emotion and mood. Too little serotonin has been shown to lead to depression, problems with anger control, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and suicide. Too little also leads to an increased appetite for carbohydrates (starchy foods) and trouble sleeping, which are also associated with depression and other emotional disorders. It has also been tied to migraines, irritable bowel syndrome, and fibromyalgia.EndorphinInhibitory, it is involved in pain reduction and pleasure, and the opioid drugs work by attaching to endorphin's receptor sites. It is also the neurotransmitter that allows bears and other animals to hibernatedorsal rootssensory input to cordventral rootcontains axons of motor neuronsmedullaBesides containing tracts up and down to and from the higher portions of the brain, the medulla also contains some of the essential nuclei that govern respiration and heart rate.reticular formationIt is the regulatory system for sleep, waking, and alertnessponsIt is primarily the pathways connecting the two halves of the next part, which is called the cerebellumcerebellumprimarily responsible for coordinating involuntary movement. It is believed that, when you learn complex motor tasks, the details are recorded in the cerebellum.midbraincontains several pathways important to hearing and vision. It is much larger in lower animals and in the human fetus.thalamusThe thalamus is like a switching station, conducting signals from the body up to the relevant parts of the higher brain, and down from the brain to the lower brain and spinal cord.HippocampusA neural center located in the limbic system that helps process explicit memories for storage.Amygdalatwo lima bean-sized neural clusters in the limbic system; linked to emotion. (anger and sex)cingulate gyrusIt provides a pathway from the thalamus to the hippocampus, seems to be responsible for focusing attention on emotionally significant events, and for associating memories to smells and to pain.ventral tegmental areaonsists of dopamine pathways that seem to be responsible for pleasure. People with damage here tend to have difficulty getting pleasure in life, and often turn to alcohol, drugs, sweets, and gambling.basal gangliaThey are responsible for repetitive behaviors, reward experiences, and focusing attentionprefrontal cortexBesides apparently being involved in thinking about the future, making plans, and taking action, it also appears to be involved in the same dopamine pathways as the ventral tegmental area, and plays a part in pleasure and addiction.caudateresponsible for informing us that something is not right and we should do something about it:putamenIt appears to be involved in coordinating automatic behaviors such as riding a bike, driving a car, or working on an assembly lineglobus pallidusIt receives inputs from the caudate and putamen and provides outputs to the substantia nigranucleus accumbensIt receives signals from the prefrontal cortex (via the ventral tegmental area) and sends other signals back there via the globus pallidus. The inputs use dopamine, and many drugs are known to greatly increase these messages to the nucleus accumbens.Parkinson's diseaseParkinson's is characterized by tremor (shaking), rigid muscles, difficulty making quick, smooth movements, and difficulty standing and walking. Many people also develop depression and anxiety and, later in life, problems with memory loss and dementia.Huntington's diseaseHuntington's is characterized by loss of memory and odd jerking movements called chorea ("dance"). It is a hereditary disease (with a dominant gene) involving cell death in the caudate nucleus. It usually starts in a person's 30s, but may start at any age.Cerebral palsyPeople with cerebral palsy have various motor problems, such as spasticity, paralysis, and even seizures. Spasticity is where some muscles are constantly tight and so interfere with normal movement. This is the reason for the unusual hand and arm positions most of us have seen in people with cerebral palsy.PAP ( or Athymhormic) syndromePAP is characterized by an unusual lack of motivation.cerebrumIt is here that things like perception, imagination, thought, judgment, and decision occur.sulcivalleysgyriridgesfrontal lobeIt seems to be particularly important: This lobe is responsible for voluntary movement and planning and is thought to be the most significant lobe for personality and intelligence.motor cortexan area at the rear of the frontal lobes that controls voluntary movementssomatosensory cortex,area at the front of the parietal lobes that registers and processes body touch and movement sensationstemporal lobeA region of the cerebral cortex responsible for hearing and language.occipital lobeA region of the cerebral cortex that processes visual informationcorpus callosumthe large band of neural fibers connecting the two brain hemispheres and carrying messages between themleft hemispherecontrols the right side of the body; analytical, language, mathright hemispherecontrols the left side of the body; creative, intuitive, spacialBroca's areaControls language expression - an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech.Wernicke's areacontrols language reception - a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobeJames-Lange theory.First, they said, we have physiological responses to a situation, and only then do we use those responses to formulate an experience of emotionCannon-Bard theory.They suggested that there are neural paths from our senses that go in two directions. One goes to the cortex, where we have a subjective experience, and one goes to the hypothalamus, where the physiological processes beginPapez circuitA limbic-based circuit that was once thought to constitute a largely undifferentiated "emotional" brainThe Surprise Familystartle, astonishment, bewildermentThe Fear Familyfear, threat, terror
anxiety
doubt, caution, suspicionThe Anger Familyanger, rage, frustration
hatred, hostility
envy, jealousy
disgust, contempt, annoyance, indignationThe Sadness Familysadness, sorrow, depression
anguish, despair
grief, loneliness
shame, embarrassment, humiliation
guilt, remorse, regretThe Eagerness Familyeagerness, anticipation, excitement, confidence
hopefulness
curiosity, interestThe Happiness FamilyJoy
Contentment
Elation
Amusement
ExhilarationThe Boredom Familyboredom, ennui, complacencylibidoSince the survival of all needs and the instincts that serve them in fact depends on reproduction, it is quite reasonable to make sex the key desire! Sociobiology - the study of the effects evolution on behavior - agrees with the Freudians on this.actualizationwhich means "the desire to maintain and enhance the self." "Maintenance" certainly includes survival, as long as it is understood that we are referring to the survival of the psychological self as well as the physical self. And "enhancement" means we do more than just try to survive.positive regardwarmth, affection, love, and respect that come from significant others in one's lifepositive self-regardalso known as self-respect, self-worth, or self-esteem.inferiority complex (poor self regard)is one of the most common sources for psychological problems a therapist finds.hierarchy of needsBeyond the details of air, water, and food, he laid out five broader layers: the physiological needs, the need for safety, the need for belonging, the need for esteem, and the need to actualize the self, in that order.1. Physiological needsThese include the needs we have for oxygen, water, protein, salt, sugar, calcium, minerals, and vitamins. They also include the need to maintain a pH balance (getting too acidic or basic will kill you) and temperature (98.6 or near to it). Also, there's the needs to be active, to rest, to sleep, to get rid of wastes (CO2, sweat, urine, and feces), to avoid pain, and to have sex.2. The safety and security needsThe need for safety has both physical and psychological aspects. The person needs to feel safe, both in the physical environment and in relationships.3. The love and belonging needsThe third level of needs includes giving and receiving affection, attaining a place in a group, and maintaining the feeling of belonging.4. Esteem needsneed for self-esteem, achievement, competence, and independence; need for recognition and respect from othersdeficit needsf you don't have enough of something - i.e. you have a deficit - you feel the need. But if you get all you need, you feel nothing at all!5. Self-actualizationSelf-actualization as Maslow uses the term refers to the kind of things we have called higher motivations -- creativity, compassion, the appreciation of beauty, truth, justice, and so on. They differ from the deficit needs in that they become a part of your being, part of who you are. Maslow once said that the being needs were the desire to "be all that you can be!"paraventricular hypothalamusincreases and decreases appetite by controlling the level of sugar in the bloodCCKis released when food begins to move from the stomach to the intestines and that signals the hypothalamus (this time, the ventromedial hypothalamus) that it's time to stop eating.leptindecreases appetite via the hypothalamusset point hypothesisit suggests that everyone has a certain metabolic set point, a certain weight that your body is geared towards, which is determined by your metabolism, or the rate at which you burn calories.bulimia nervosaconsists of a pattern of "binging" and "purging" - periods of sometimes extreme overeating followed by periods of vomiting or the use of laxativesAnorexia nervosaeating disorder which involves dieting to the point of starvationmelatoninWhen it is dark, the melatonin is released and tells us to sleepbeta wavesSometimes, when we are very alert yet momentarily not thinking about anything in particular, these waves become synchronized, and you can see the beta wave pattern on the EEG.alpha wavesThis is usually a very pleasant state to be in, so much so that some people have even promoted the "alpha state" as something akin to meditationstage one sleepthe waves begin to slow down, and become theta waves (4 to 7 cps). In addition, we enter into a state of flaccid paralysis of the large muscles, which means that your muscles become very relaxed and no longer respond to motor messages from the brain.myoclonus.Sometimes, as we move into this paralysis, our body responds as if we were falling, and we have a sudden jerkstage twothe second stage that lasts for about 20 minutes, clearly asleep and experience sleep spindles (random bursts of activity)stage threethe third stage of sleep that is a transition stage into stage four, first emission of delta wavesstage fourthe deepest stage of sleep in which it is hard to wake, lasts for about 30 minutes, emission of delta waves, sleep walking, bed wetting, etc. occur during this stageinsomniarecurring problems in falling or staying asleepnarcolepsyA sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks. The sufferer may lapse directly into REM sleep, often at inopportune times.sleep apneaa sleep disorder characterized by temporary cessations of breathing during sleep and repeated momentary awakeningsmanifest contentthe apparent or surface meaninglatent contentthe underlying meaning of a dreamCarl Jung went even further, and suggested that dreams involve patterns of thought we inherited from our ancestors, which he called archetypesThese archetypes - including "mother", "father", "child", "hero", "maiden", "shadow", "the wise old man", and so on - are also seen in mythology, religion, art, fairy tales, novels, movies, and so on. A good example of a movie that uses Jungian archetypes is Star Wars.Richard von Krafft-Ebingwho studied sexual "deviations" in the late 1800's. He popularized the term homosexuality, and fought to decriminalize it. On the negative side, he was convinced that women who have strong sexual appetites are quite abnormal.Henry Havelock EllisHe is a hero to both the homosexual community and the feminist movement. He insisted that homosexuality was both inborn and irreversible, a notion some people still don't accept. And he had the audacity to suggest that women have the similar sexual needs and desires as men!Alfred Kinseystarted to systematically collect data on sexual practices.Virginia Masters and William JohnsonThey observed and measured many thousands of volunteers and prostitutes engaging in intercourse, masturbation, and what not. Among the results of their work is the famous "sexual response cycle:Excitementinvolves the contraction of the muscles of the pelvis, the erection of the penis, and the lubrication of the vagina. There is, of course, also a less obvious >erection of the clitoris and lubrication of the penis.plateaua bit less clear and some researchers just consider it a part of excitementOrgasmIt is really just a matter of repeated reflexive contractions of a variety of muscles.Resolutionsimply a matter of getting back to normalrefractory periodwhich is the length of time it takes before the person is ready for another round of sex.`Hypoactive sexual desire disorderis a "deficiency or absence of sexual fantasies and desire for sexual activity" which causes the person distress or problems with other people, and which is not due to some other problem, such as a medical condition or substance use.sexual aversion disorderA person with this problem has considerable anxiety, fear, or disgust feelings regarding genital contact, either in general or to specific aspects of sex such as smells or secretions. Both the preceding problems are found more often in people who grew up in homes where sex was considered evil or dirty.Female sexual arousal disorderthe inability of a woman to become sexually aroused or to reach orgasmmale erectile disorderhe inability to attain and maintain an adequate erection. About 10% of men have this problem. It is much more common among older men.female orgasmic disorderwhich involves a long delay or absence of orgasm after normal sexual excitementDyspareuniapainful intercoursevaginismusWhile contractions of the vagina are a normal part of sex, some women suffer from intensely painful contractions that prevent them from enjoying sexuality at all. Fortunately, it is rare.Exhibitionismis when a person likes to expose their genitalia, breasts, or buttocks to strangersVoyeurismis a matter of secretly observing others undressing or engaging in sexual acts. In common parlance, these people (usually men) are called "peeping Toms."Frotteurisminvolves touching and rubbing against other people in the street, on crowded buses or trains, and so on.fetishisma paraphilia in which a nonhuman object is the preferred or exclusive method of achieving sexual excitementtransvestic fetishismwhich is dressing in the clothes of the opposite sex for sexual stimulationsadism and masochismsadists find sexual arousal and satisfaction in hurting and humiliating others, while masochists find their pleasure in being hurt and humiliated.romantic loveintimacy and passioncompanionate lovethe deep affectionate attachment we feel for those with whom our lives are intertwinedconsummate loveintimacy + passion + commitmentparental lovelove parent has for childfilial lovelove children have for parents
