August 21, 2013
The Brain
Brain changes well into adulthood.
Neurons are electrochemical
Albert Einstein had more glia cells
Brain fed by blood vessels
Cell body of each neuron length 600 miles
Dendrites are nerve cells ears
Length of neuron is the axon. Conducts electrical impulse down to the terminal buttons
Terminal Buttons go to Dendrites
Neurotransmitter travels across the gap between terminal buttons and dendrites.
One type of glia cell make up the myelin sheath
When myelin sheath starts to degenerate = MS
Cells are reaching out to make contact with thousands of other cells.
Cells that fire together, wire together.
By the time you reach adolescence you lose 50% of brain cells.
Grey matter is cell bodies
We only use about 10% of our brains capacity = FALSE, we use all of it.
Cortex
Frontal Lobe
Ability to calm ourselves down and think things through
Set goals, think ahead
Try to figure out what other people are thinking
Making good decisions
Damage to frontal lobe
Phineas Gage
Parietal Lobe
Eyes, ears, fingers, tongue go for processing
Where you are in space
Damage to parietal lobe
Inability to sense aspects of the world
Damage to Occipital Lobe
Blindsight
Temporal Lobe
Auditory info
Encoding of memory
Regulation of emotion
Damage to temporal lobe
Inability to experience fear
Brain development
Occipital lobe is early bloomer
Takes the longest to reach its optimal state
Limbic System
Theories of Development
Perspective
Psychodynamic- internal thought processes
Learning
Cognitive developmental- how people think ecological and systems life-span 100 years ago no developmental theories. Children fully developed by adolescence
Purpose of theories
Ground & guide research
How children interact with the world
How we develop across time. Physical and psych
How we relate to the environment around us
How does change occur?
Nature vs Nurture
Bio vs environment
Heredity or Social environment
External