Bio 150 Lecture Notes

Key Points and Main Ideas

Introduction

• Lecture start with a scenario involving a 40-year-old man exhibiting sudden bizarre behaviors.
  • Possibilities for his actions include being a creep, midlife crisis, or a single-gene mutation causing neurological disease.

Human Behavior and Genetics

• Questions to the class about various beliefs related to genetics and human traits.
  • Sexual orientation, political opinions, religiosity, belief in God, souls, evil, free will.
• Emphasis on what influences human behavior: genetic, biological basis, and a combination of nature and nurture.

Factors Affecting Behavior

• Four surprising factors common in courts of law to explain murderer's behavior:
  • Having period, brain tumor, junk food, anabolic steroids
  • Underlying commonality: hormonal changes
• Key Points of the Course:
  • Body affects the brain and vice versa.
  • Interconnection between physiology and behavior.

Understanding Complex Human Behavior

• Importance of thinking categorically but recognizing its issues.
  • Categories help simplify and remember complex information, e.g., line lengths, mile times, colors.
• Problems with categorical thinking:
  • Underestimating differences within the same categories.
  • Overestimating differences across boundaries.
  • Losing the big picture due to focusing on categories.

Case Study Examples

• Example activities involving categorical thinking: estimating phone numbers, subway stops
  • Illustrate issues with over-reliance on categories.

Challenges in Studying Human Behavior

• Examples of pathologically categorical thinking:
  • John Watson's behaviorism
  • Egas Moniz and frontal lobotomies
  • Konrad Lorenz’s Nazis views
• Goal: Avoid such extremes and think holistically.

Comprehensive Approach

• Interaction of various factors influencing behavior: genes, neurons, hormones, environment, etc.
• Rejecting oversimplified explanations in favor of nuanced, integrated understanding.

Steps In Understanding Behavior

• Analyzing behavior involves understanding:
  • Immediate neural activity (second before behavior)
  • Sensory stimulation (causing neural activity)
  • Hormonal states (affecting neural sensitivity)
  • Developmental, genetic, and evolutionary backgrounds

Specific Study Areas

• Study of specific behaviors: Sexual behavior, Aggression, Parental behavior, Mental disorders, Language use.
  • Tracing roots back to evolutionary pressures.

Course Structure

• First half: Overview of disciplines (evolutionary theory, genetics, ethology, brain anatomy, endocrinology)
• Second half: Focus on specific behaviors and cross-disciplinary integration.
• Designed for students of various backgrounds.

Additional Resources

• Weekly sections for detailed review and catch-up sessions.
• Additional readings: Books by lecturer and James Glick's “Chaos.”
• Online resources: Lecture notes, commonly asked questions, slides.

Logistics

• Office hours, midterm, and final exam details provided.
• Encouragement to attend sections and make use of resources available for better understanding.