Neurobiology and Behavior

Grammar is the structure of languages that is learned early on as a child usually from parents then in a more former setting such as school. It differs from language to language, but the basics of grammar are the same. Grammar is a complex system of verbs, subjects, and objects. All languages have them, even the languages developed in isolation. The sign system of three deaf young adults in Nicaragua was studied Dr. Elissa Newport, a professor at the University of Rochester and Dr. Marie Coppola, a post-doc at the University of Chicago. They found the three deaf young adults had incorporated the intricate, formal ideas of subjects, objects and verbs into their languages, even though they had no contact with an established deaf community.

There are several hormonal changes that occur in the mother and father prior to their baby's birth. Once the baby is born, physical contact between the parents and baby increase hormones levels that facilitate bonding and attachment. The brain and nervous system highly influences the primary experience of parental instinct. Most interestingly, the hormonal change of the father allows him to better bond with his child only when he lives in cohabitation with the expecting mother. Human culture and environmental factors tend to affect the definition of his “good” parenting. Variation in his parental bonding stems not only from hormone levels but also from his own personal choice and cultural background.

Stanley Milgram’s Obedience to Authority explores the individual’s decisions and responses to authoritative figures. The series of experiments measured the level of obedience towards authoritative figures such as an experimenter. The subjects were placed in different scenarios to control certain factors. Are we indiscriminate followers, who will obey anyone that is able to convince us that he or she has the right to command? In the experiment the subject sent electric shocks to the victim. The victim was presented with questions, and for each incorrect answer he or she would receive a shock from the subject; further more, with each incorrect answer the voltage increased.

            Listening to Prozac describes Dr. Peter D. Kramer’s encounters as a psychiatrist with the 1990 FDA approved SSRI, Prozac. Kramer first describes several success stories of his patients trying this new selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. With few side effects compared to the previous antidepressants such as a MAOIs and imipramine, the patient’s depressive symptoms soon subsided. He then goes on to discuss the theories and studies behind Prozac, depressive symptoms, ethics of psychiatric drugs and human behavior.1

Thanks all for an interesting/generative semester of getting it less wrong.  How about reflecting a bit on where we started and where we've gotten to?  Go back to your original thoughts in the forum about Emily Dickinson's (and others') thought that everything we do and experience is a function of the nervous system.  How have your feelings about that changed?  Is it a good story?

A few more things to deal with, the neocortex/I-function, and story telling/bipartite brain, and ...  Your thoughts on these or other things from this week? Save your thoughts about the course as a whole for our last forum (next week).

Generalized control mechanisms ... mood, emotion, feelings, dreams and the I-function/story teller?  Thoughts about all this, and/or whatever else is on your mind/brain this week?

So, the "picture in the head" can be/is "made up", and may be differently so in different people.  Moreover, its made up without the "I-function" knowing it.  We'll talk this week about where that picture is, and what its good for, and what that tells us about the I-function.  Thoughts about any of that ... or anything else on your mind/brain this week ....

So, if a tree falls in a forest and no one's there and it DOESN'T make a sound, what are the implications of that? What have we learned form the nervous system about "reality", about "disabilities"?  Or anything else that's been on your mind this week .... 

So, if the brain isn't organized to give on a picture of "reality", what is it doing?  And how does it do it?  Or, of course, any other thoughts that you've had/want to share this week.