Brain & Nervous System

Dr. Kübra CELIK

Brain & Behavior
If we want to understand behavior, we should understand these
systems first;
• Central nervous system (CNS)
brain and the spinal cord,
• Peripheral nervous system (PNS),
the neurons that link the CNS to our skin, muscles, and glands.
• Endocrine system,
the chemical regulator of the body that consists of glands that secrete
hormones.
Brain
Evolution of brain
• • Formation of the earth  4.5 billion years ago
• • Formation of the first living thing 1.5 billion years after the formation of the earth
• • Animal with the first brain cell 700 million years ago
• • First brain evolution  250 million years ago
• • First humanoid brain  6 million years ago
• • Brain formation of today's people  200 thousand years ago
Evolution of brain
• • While the brain consists of a single
hemisphere in fish, it is two
hemispheres from frogs.
• • As you go from fish to mammals,
the cerebral hemispheres develop,
but the olfactory lobe becomes
smaller.
• • Cerebellum development develops
in direct proportion to movement in
vertebrates. For example, while it is
developed in fish, birds and
mammals, it is underdeveloped in
frogs and reptiles.
How did the brain evolve?
• • Primate lifestyle: diet (meat vs. vegetables), hunting style
• • Ability to walk on two legs
• • Encephalization (Brain enlargement)
• • Language
• • Cultural evolution: Adapting to natural changes through learning
The brain is flexible
• The nervous system allows us to receive external stimuli and transforms it into
subjective experience and perception occurs.
• The brain’s neurons have a remarkable capacity to reorganize and extend
themselves to carry out particular functions in response to the needs of the
organism, and to repair damage
• The brain constantly creates new neural communication routes and rewires
existing ones.
• Neuroplasticity refers to the brain’s ability to change its structure and function in
response to experience or damage.
• Neuroplasticity enables us to learn and remember new things and adjust to new
experiences.
• New neurons originate deep in the brain and may then migrate to other brain
areas where they form new connections with other neurons  neurogenesis
Structure of the brain
• • What is CSF?
Colorless liquid
consisting of sodium
chloride and other
salts
• • CSF nourishes the
brain tissue and takes
away the metabolic
wastes. It protects the
brain against impacts
and bumps.
Structure of the brain
• Gyrus and sulcus  they increase with development and form cerebral
cortex
• Gray matter neurons
• White matter  myelin
• Ventricules and cisternas  filled with CSF
Brainstem/ Hindbrain

• First structure of the brain

(primitive)
• Receives sensory information and
transfers to brain
• medulla, the area of the brain
stem that controls heart rate and
breathing, reflexes
• pons, a structure in the brain stem
that helps control the movements
of the body, playing a particularly
important role in balance and
walking.
Midbrain
• The midbrain has a reward or pleasure
center, which is stimulated by food, sex,
money, music, attractive faces, and some
drugs (cocaine);
• has areas for visual and auditory reflexes,
• For example :automatically turning your
head toward a noise
• Reticular formation,which arouses the
forebrain so that it is ready to process
information from the senses 
awakeness
Cerebellum
• The cerebellum (literally, “little brain”)
consists of two wrinkled ovals behind the
brain stem.
• The cerebellum, which is located at the
very back and underneath the brain, is
involved in coordinating motor
movements but not in initiating voluntary
movements.
• performing timed motor responses, such
as those needed in playing games or
sports,
• and in automatic or reflexive learning,
such as blinking the eye to a signal, which
is called classical conditioning
Basal ganglia
• It makes the thought to a motor
action.
• It regulates the power of the
movement
• Control of smooth and perfect
moves
• In lesions movement disorders
• Parkinson’s and Huntington’s
disease
Limbic System
• The limbic system is a brain
area, located between the
brain stem and the two
cerebral hemispheres, that
governs emotion and memory.
It includes the amygdala, the
hypothalamus, and the
hippocampus.
Amygdala
• Primarily responsible for regulating our
perceptions of, and reactions to, aggression
and fear.
• Emotional memory
• What happens if we lose our fear emotion?
• Klüver Bucy Syndrome  sexual and
emotional abnormalities
• Electrical stimulation of the amygdala in other
animals also influences aggression.
Hypothalamus and pituitary gland
• linking the nervous system to the endocrine
system via the pituitary gland
• Hypothalamus helps regulate :
• body temperature, hunger, thirst, and sex,
and responds to the satisfaction of these
needs by creating feelings of pleasure.
• Stress response
• It secretes growth hormone.
• Sex-related hormones (testosterone,
estrogen)
• Vasopressin, oxytocin
Thalamus
• Filtering to the sensory information
that is coming up from the spinal cord
and through the reticular formation,
and it relays some of these remaining
signals to the higher brain levels
• Except for the sense of smell
• it shuts off incoming signals from the
senses, allowing us to rest.  sleep
• Regulating pain, excitability,
awareness, attention
Hippocampus
• Sea horse shaped structure inside of temporal lobe
• It also plays a major role in transferring information in short-term
memory to long-term memory and consolidating information in long-
term memory.
Henry Gustav Molaison (H.M.) Case
• As a result of bilateral removal of the temporal
lobes hippocampus loss.
• Anterograde amnesia
• It cannot save new information (except for a short
time).
• He cannot remember 1-2 years before the operation.
• Gains new motor skills.
What we learned from H.M??
• There are different memory processes.
• Different memory systems are controlled by different
brain regions and structures.

1926-2008 Have you watched the movie ‘50 first dates’? 

anterograde amnesia
Cerebral cortex
• Consciousness and thinking
• the outer bark-like layer of our brain that allows us to so successfully use
language, acquire complex skills, create tools, and live in social groups
• It is the last structure of the nervous system to emerge in evolution.
• Frontal lobe (behind the forehead), which is responsible primarily for
thinking, planning, memory, and judgment. Motor cortex
• Parietal lobe, which extends from the middle to the back of the skull
and which is responsible primarily for processing information about
touch. Somatosensory cortex
• Occipital lobe, at the very back of the skull, which processes visual
information. Visual cortex
• Temporal lobe, responsible primarily for hearing and language.
Auditory cortex
Functions of cortex

• Motor cortex, the part of

the cortex that controls
and executes movements
of the body by sending
signals to the cerebellum
and the spinal cord.
Functions of cortex
• Somatosensory cortex, an area just behind and parallel to the motor
cortex at the back of the frontal lobe, receives information from the
skin’s sensory receptors and the movements of different body parts.
• The visual cortex is the area located in the occipital lobe (at the very
back of the brain) that processes visual information.
• Auditory cortex, which is responsible for hearing and language.
• Association areas in which sensory and motor information is
combined and associated with our stored knowledge.
Spinal cord
• The spinal cord is the long, thin, tubular
bundle of nerves and supporting cells that
extends down from the brain
• It is the central throughway of information for
the body.
• Ascending tracts of sensory neurons relay
sensory information from the sense organs to
the brain while descending tracts of motor
neurons relay motor commands back to the
body.
• Reflex center
• 31 spinal nerves
Peripheral nervous system
PNS consists spinal and cranial nerves
• Nerves are differentiated according to their function.
• A sensory (or afferent) neuron carries information from the
sensory receptors
• A motor (or efferent) neuron transmits information to the
muscles and glands.
• An interneuron, which is by far the most common type of
neuron, is located primarily within the CNS and is responsible for
communicating among the neurons
• nerves—bundles of interconnected neurons that fire in
synchrony to carry messages.
• 31 Spinal nerves
• 12 Cranial nerves
• Enteric nervous system (NEW!)
The PNS links the CNS to the body’s sense
receptors, muscles, and glands.
• The somatic nervous system (SNS) is the division of the PNS that
controls the external aspects of the body, including the skeletal
muscles, skin, and sense organs.  motor nerves
• The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is the division of the PNS that
governs the internal activities of the human body, including heart
rate, breathing, digestion, salivation, perspiration, urination, and
sexual arousal
• Sympathic NS
• Parasympathic NS
The autonomic nervous system
• Sympathic NS is involved in preparing the body for behavior,
particularly in response to stress, by activating the organs and the
glands in the endocrine system.
• Parasympathic NS tends to calm the body by slowing the heart and
breathing and by allowing the body to recover from the activities that
the sympathetic system causes

• This systems keep the body in balance  homeostasis

The endocrine system
• The endocrine system is
made up of numerous
glands that are located
throughout the body.
• These glands secrete
various chemicals, called
hormones, which affect
organs, muscles, and other
glands in the body
Hypothalamus
• Control center of endocrine system
• Linking the nervous system to the endocrine
system via the pituitary gland
• Hypothalamus helps regulate :
• body temperature, hunger, thirst, and sex,
and responds to the satisfaction of these
needs by creating feelings of pleasure.
• Stress response
• It secretes growth hormone.
• Sex-related hormones (testosterone,
estrogen)
• Vasopressin, oxytocin
Other glands
• Thyroid: This gland, which is located in the neck, regulates metabolism through
the secretion of hormones.
• Hormone deficiency during development leads to stunted growth and mental
retardation. Undersecretion during adulthood leads to reduction in motivation.
Oversecretion results in high metabolism, weight loss, and nervousness.
• Adrenal glands: secretes two hormones that arouse the body to deal with stress
and emergencies: epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline).
 stimulates SNS  stress response
• Pancreas. This organ regulates the level of sugar in the bloodstream by secreting
insulin
• Gonads. In females, the ovaries produce hormones that regulate sexual
development, ovulation, and growth of sex organs.
• In males, the testes produce hormones that regulate sexual development,
production of sperm, and growth of sex organs.
Thank you 