SCTL ONE :

HUMAN AND BEHAVIOUR

by
GROUP M18

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Learning objectives
At the end of this lesson students should be able to
- describe the Nervous System and
behaviour.
- define and describe the of Behavioural
Genetics studies.

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Activity 1: Nervous System

1.1 Briefly describe (through figures,

diagrams or table) the major parts of the
brain and their basic functions which are
associated with behaviour.

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 Hindbrain and the associated
components
(i.e.: medulla, pons, cerebellum, and
reticular formation).

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Medulla:
- This structure is the caudal-most part of the brain stem,
between the pons and spinal cord.
- Location:
The medulla oblongata is the lower portion of the brainstem.
It is inferior to the pons and anterior to the cerebellum.
- Function:
 Controls Autonomic Functions.
 Relays Nerve Signals Between the Brain and Spinal Cord.
 It is responsible for maintaining vital body functions, such as
breathing and heart rate.

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Pons:
- Part of the metencephalon in the hindbrain.
- Location:
The pons is the portion of the brainstem that is superior to the
medulla oblongata.
- Function:
 Arousal
 Assists in Controlling Autonomic Functions
 Relays Sensory Information Between the Cerebrum and Cerebellum
 Sleep
 It is involved in motor control and sensory analysis, for example,
information from the ear first enters the brain in the pons.
- Some structures within the pons are linked to the cerebellum, thus are
involved in movement and posture.

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Cerebellum:

- Location: The cerebellum is located just above the brainstem,

beneath the occipital lobes at the base of the skull.
- Function:
 Controls Fine Movement Coordination.
 Balance and Equilibrium.
 Muscle Tone.
 It is involved in the coordination of voluntary motor
movement, balance and equilibrium and muscle tone.

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Reticular formation:

- It forms the central core of the brainstem.

- Location:
The reticular formation is a group of nerve fibers located inside the
brainstem.
- Function:
 Arousal
 Attention
 Cardiac Reflexes
 Motor Functions
 Regulates Awareness
 Relays Nerve Signals to the Cerebral Cortex
 Sleep
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Midbrain

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 Location
• between the forebrain
and the hindbrain.

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 General Functions
• Controlling Responses to Sight
• Eye Movement
• Pupil Dilation
• Body Movement
• Hearing

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 Functions by parts
• A rostral part of the brainstem that, if impaired in its core (i.e. the tegmentum),
results in the loss of consciousness or coma, because it contains the rostral end
of the reticular formation.

• The dorsal or posterior part has the superior colliculus, which is important

for visual system reflexes, and the inferior colliculus, which is important for
auditory system function.

• The ventral or anterior part has the cerebral peduncle, which is a huge bundle
of axons traveling from the cerebral cortex into/ through the brainstem; those
fibers are important for voluntary motor function.

• Two other structures in the depth of the midbrain that are important for
normal motor function are the red nucleus (not visible) and the substantia
nigra.

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Forebrain

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 Forebrain
-The anterior and largest portion of the brain

-Includes the cerebral hemispheres, the limbic

system, the thalamus and hypothalamus, and the
corpus callosum.

-Collectively, the forebrain functions to control

cognitive, sensory and motor function, and
regulate temperature, reproductive functions,
eating, sleeping and the display of emotions.

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• Thalamus : Its function includes relaying sensation, spatial
sense and motor signals to the cerebral cortex, along with the
regulation of consciousness, sleep and alertness

• Hypothalamus : contain neurons that regulate ACTH and TSH

secretion from the anterior pituitary, as well as gastric reflexes,
maternal behavior, blood pressure, feeding, immune
responses, and temperature. Maternal behavior typically
occurs due to pregnancy and childbirth, it may also occur
between a woman and an unrelated child, such as in adoption.
There are hundreds of factors, physical and emotional, which
influence the mother-infant bonding process.

• The hypothalamus also affects the endocrine system and

governs emotional behavior, such as anger and sexual activity.
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• Limbic system: Set of brain structures including the
hippocampus, amygdala, anterior thalamic nuclei, septum and
limbic cortex, which seemingly support a variety of functions
including emotion, behavior, long term memory, and
olfaction.

• Amygdala: Involved in signaling the cortex of motivationally

significant stimuli such as those related to reward and fear in
addition to social functions such as mating.

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• Lobes of cerebral cortex : Each hemisphere of the cerebral
cortex is divided into four lobes. It plays a key role in
memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought,
language, and consciousness.
- Frontal lobes: Plays a key role in planning, judgement,
decision-making and reasoning.
- Occipital lobes: Controls vision and colour recognition
- Parietal lobes : Cognition, information processing, pain
and touch sensation, spatial orientation, speech, visual
perception
- Temporal lobes: Emotional responses, hearing, memory,
speech.

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Brain Dysfunctions

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 Dysfunctions by location
• Frontal Lobe Damage: 
causes loss of the ability to solve problems
and to plan and initiate actions, such as
crossing the street or answering a complex
question

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• Parietal Lobe Damage: 
causes numbness and impairs sensation on
the opposite side of the body.
difficulty identifying a sensation's location and
type (pain, heat, cold, or vibration).

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• Temporal Lobe Damage: 
 If the right temporal lobe is damaged, memory for sounds
and shapes tends to be impaired.
 If the left temporal lobe is damaged in people with left-
hemisphere language dominance, memory for words can
be drastically impaired, as can the ability to understand
language—an impairment called Wernicke's (receptive)
aphasia.
 Sometimes damage to part of the temporal lobe can cause
personality changes such as humorlessness, extreme
religiosity, and loss of libido.

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• Occipital Lobe Damage: 
 The occipital lobe contains the main center for processing
visual information.
 If the occipital lobe on both sides of the brain is damaged,
people cannot see, even though the eyes themselves are
functioning normally. This disorder is called cortical
blindness. Some people with cortical blindness are unaware
that they cannot see.
 If the front part is damaged, people have difficulty
recognizing familiar objects and faces and accurately
interpreting what they see.

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 Activity 1.2
Briefly describe (through figures, diagrams or table)
the major parts of Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)
and their basic functions which are associated with
behaviour in the following distribution:

a- Somatic nervous system:

Sensory
Motor system.
b- Autonomic Nervous System (ANS):
o Sympathetic
o Parasympathetic

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 The Peripheral Nervous System is divided into two sub-systems ;

a- The Somatic Nervous System ;

- Transmits sensory communications and is

responsible for voluntary movement and action.

- This system is composed of ;

a- sensory (afferent) neurons.
which carry information from the nerves to the
brain and spinal cord.
b- motor (efferent) neurons
which transmit information from the central
nervous system to the muscle fibers.

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b- The Autonomic Nervous System ;
- This system is further broken down into two
complimentary systems: 
Sympathetic Nervous System.
Parasympathetic Nervous Systems.

- The autonomic nervous system is responsible for

controlling involuntary functions such as certain aspects of
heartbeat, respiration, digestion and blood pressure.

- This system is also related to emotional responses such as

sweating and crying.

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Sympathetic Nervous System ;
- Controls the body’s response to emergencies.

- When this system is aroused, a number of things begin to

occur ;
The heart breathing rates increase.
Slow down the digestion process.
Pupils dilation.
Sweating.

- Known as the fight-or-flight response, this system

responds by preparing your body to either fight the
danger or flee.
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 The sympathetic nervous system

• The stimulation portion of the autonomic nervous

system.
• It includes a chain of spinal ganglia lying just outside
and along the length of the spinal column; these are
groups of cell bodies of the neurons involved.
• Axons of these neurons run out to various organs,
sometimes through other ganglia.

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• When the sympathetic system is stimulated, the
fight-or-flight response sends commands to all these
organs at once, as a unified response to danger.
• Some organs, such as the heart, are activated in the
fight-or-flight response; other organs, such as the
intestines, are deactivated.
• (if you don’t survive in the next 10 minutes, digestion
won’t be needed anyway; if you do, it can be done
later)

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Parasympathetic Nervous Systems ;

- Functions to counter the sympathetic

system.

- After a crisis or danger has passed, this

system helps to calm the body.

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 The parasympathetic nervous system

• The parasympathetic nervous system or

relaxation system differs with the sympathetic
nervous system in a few ways.
• It has no spinal chain or ganglia, and it reaches
the organs from nerves at each end of the
spinal cord rather than along the full length.

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• It does not work in as integrated a way as the
sympathetic nervous system.
• The fight-or-flight response is a rash package,
and in recovery the various systems go back to
their own business at their own pace.

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These two subsystems are at work constantly shifting your body
to more prepared states and more relaxed states. 

Every time a potentially threatening experience occurs (e.g.,

someone slams on their breaks in front of you, you hear a noise
in your house at night, you hear a loud bang, a stranger taps you
on the shoulder unexpectedly), your body reacts. 

The constant shifting of control between these two systems

keeps your body ready for your current situation.

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Example ;

Imagine walking down a

dark street at night by
yourself.  Suddenly you
hear what you suspect are
footsteps approaching you
rapidly. 
What happens?  
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Your Sympathetic Nervous System kicks in to prepare your body:
- your heart rate quickens to get more blood to the
muscles.
- your breathing becomes faster and deeper to increase
your oxygen.
- blood flow is diverted from the organs so digestion is
reduced and the skin gets cold and clammy and
rerouted so to speak to the muscles.
- your pupils dilate for better vision. 

In an instant, your body is prepared to either defend or escape.

Omig
o d3!!

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Now imagine that the
footsteps belong to a
good friend who catches
up to you and offers to
walk you home.

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You feel relief instantly, but your body takes longer to
adjust. 

In order to return everything to normal,

the Parasympathetic Nervous System kicks in. 

This system is slow acting, unlike its counterpart, and may

take several minutes or even longer to get your body back to
where it was before the scare. Fiu
h hh
.... h..
..

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 Activity 2:
Genetics influences on behaviour


Family studies

Twin studies (monozygotic twins and dizygotic twins)

Adoption studies

Molecular genetic studies

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 Family studies

These kinds of studies are most often used to determine the
risk of passing down mental disorders to offspring within
families.

Children share 50 percent of their genes with each parent.
Therefore, for genes to be influential whatsoever, the trait in
question must run in families.

Obviously, a trait could be environmentally transmitted rather
than inherited.

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Twin studies (monozygotic twins and dizygotic
twins)

Same home environment but differ in their degree
of genetic similarity

differences between attitudes of the participants
were at least partially correlated to genetic factors.
It showed that attitudes related to self-reported
perspectives or to activities were often correlated.

Monozygotic twins (who share 100% of their genes)
will be more similar to each other.

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
Dizygotic twins (who share 50% of their genes, average, like
typical siblings born at different times) has less similarity to
each other.

Non-shared environment experiences between pairs of twins
seemed to be the strongest cause of attitude variances,
overshadowing genetic predispositions as well as shared
environment experiences . The study did indicate that some
nonshared environment experiences were very much
connected to attitudes and self-reports of physical
characteristics and intelligence.

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 Adoption studies

If shared environment is influential, then sibling reared in the
same family should be more similar than adopted away
siblings (siblings reared apart).

any links between the biological parents and the child that is
given away is usually explained by genetics, and any links
between the adoptive, or environmental parents, to the
adopted child is usually attributed to environment.  

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 Molecular genetic studies
Gene chromosome DNA

Segments on DNA on the chromosomes that contain the information

needed to influence some aspect of the body are called genes.
Mutations of genes help the organism to survive and reproduce and
therefore, are passed on the future generations. Genes with more
than one version are called polymorphic genes.
Different version of polymorphic genes are partly responsible for
differences among people in their behaviour and mental process.
When two version of polymorphic genes are inherit have conflict, it
depends on which is dominant gene. To express the recessive gene,
one must inherit recessive gene from both parents.
Chromoses abnormalities result of damage or malformed of
chromosomes.this can be inherited.

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 Activity 3:
Environmental influences on
behaviour
•Even highly heritable physical characteristics
are influenced by environmental factors:
physical and social environments
•Heredity and experience always work
together to influence our psychological
characteristics.

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 3.1 PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENTS
• Exposures to chemicals:
• E.g. water and air polution
• A number of studies suggest that high levels of
lead, mercury, and other heavy metals in the blood
might influence neurotransmitter functioning and
reduce the intellectual ability of children.
• Greater exposure to alcohol during pregnancy 
causal impact on the level of aggressive and rule-
breaking behavior later in childhood.

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 3.2 SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT
CULTURE
• Defined as the patterns of behavior, beliefs,
and values that are shared by a group of
people.
• Includes everything that we learn from the
people with whom we live: from languages
and superstitions to moral beliefs and food
preferences

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 SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT
ETHINICITY and IDENTITY
• An ethnic group is composed of the
descendants of a common group of ancestors,
usually from a particular country or area.
• Ethnic identity: each person’s sense of
belonging to a particular ethnic group and o
sharing that group’s beliefs, attitudes, skills,
music, ceremonies, and the like.

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• Members of an ethnic group often share racial
characteristics, but there are exceptions!!
• E.g. : An immigrant to the united states from the
Dominican Republic grew up speaking Spanish
and learned English only after moving to the
United States as a teenager, see herself as a
Hispanic (people in the United States who are of
Spanish or Hispanic American origin).
• However, she is one of the African descent and
also identifies with her fellow African Americans.
• Thus, her race is an important part of her ethnic
identity, but it is only one part of it.
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 CULTURE and PARENTING
Social and cultural environment refers to the influence exercised by
certain social factor which are “beyond the companies gate” Culture
refers to dance, drama, music and festival include Knowledge,
belief, art, moral, law, customs & others capability
 Factors which effect social and cultural environment:
- Attitude of people
- Attitude of wealth
- Marriage
- Religion
- Education
- Ethics
- Social Responsibility

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 Culture is not just ethnicity or race. Culture is reflected in any
group that shares a history and belief system that influences
how they function. It is important to distinguish “societal
culture” and “home culture”.
 Societal culture is made up of the institutions in a society that
express the group’s value system (educational systems,
medical systems, political systems, religious systems, the
media, etc.). As practitioners, you work in the cultural
institutions of your society which may make it difficult to
understand see that views different from your own are okay
 “Home culture” is made of the values of the immediate
family. Sometimes, “home culture” can conflict with the
“societal culture”.

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For example, the cultural practice of arranged marriage. It can be
hard for families to maintain their home culture with their children
(e.g., values, behaviors, ceremonies), while also integrating them
into the society around them (e.g., schools, doctors, clubs). The
process of integrating and balancing the two cultures can be
challenging for families who are always interacting with new
institutions and value systems.
Cultural values can commonly be divided into “independence” or
“interdependence”. The U.S. culture commonly stresses values of
“independence” while non-Western cultures focus more on
“interdependence”. The most important goal of raising independent
children is for them to be self-sufficient and act on their own
personal choices.
On the other hand, the primary goal of raising interdependent
children is for them to be part of a larger system of relationships —
to “depend” on others for wellbeing. A range of both independence
and interdependence can be seen in any family or culture.
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 Parents are usually adjusting each value according to the
particular goal they are trying to achieve for their children.

Being unaware of one’s own

cultural framework creates the
“potential for both personal conflict
and interpersonal misunderstanding
in multicultural environments”
— Greenfield & Suzuki, 199

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