PSYCHOLOGY
Neuroscience and
Behavior
(7th Edition)
David Myers
PowerPoint Slides
Aneeq Ahmad
Henderson State University
Worth Publishers, © 2008
Chapter 2
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Neuroscience and Behavior
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Neuroscience and Behavior
Neural Communication
The Endocrine System
Neurons
The Brain
How Neurons Communicate
Older Brain Structures
How Neurotransmitters Influence Us
The Cerebral Cortex
The Nervous System
Our Divided Brain
The Peripheral Nervous System
Studying Hemispheric
Differences in the Intact Brain
The Central Nervous System
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History of Mind
Neural Communication
Phrenology
The body’s information system is built from billions of interconnected cells called neurons.
Bettman/ Corbis
In 1800, Franz Gall suggested that bumps of the skull represented mental abilities. His theory, though incorrect, nevertheless proposed that different mental abilities were modular.
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Neural Communication
Neuron
Neurobiologists and other investigators understand that humans and animals operate similarly when processing information.
A nerve cell, or a neuron, consists of many different parts.
Note the similarities in the above brain regions, which are all
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engaged in information processing.
Parts of a Neuron
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Action Potential
A neural impulse. A brief electrical charge that travels down an axon and is generated by the movement of positively charged atoms in and out of channels in the axon’s membrane. Cell Body: Life support center of the neuron.
Dendrites: Branching extensions at the cell body.
Receive messages from other neurons.
Axon: Long single extension of a neuron, covered with myelin [MY‐uh‐lin] sheath to insulate and speed up messages through neurons.
Terminal Branches of axon: Branched endings of an axon that transmit messages to other neurons.
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Threshold
Action Potential