Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

CHAPTER2Neuroscienceand BehaviorAsha’s StoryPROLOGUEThe headaches began without warning. else was terribly surprised. Asha was bornA pounding, intense pain just over in India, and her first language was Tulu.Asha’s left temple. Asha just couldn’t seem Although Asha was extremely fluent into shake it—the pain was unrelenting. She English, she often got English phraseswas uncharacteristically tired, too.slightly wrong—like the time she said thatBut our friend Asha, a 32-year-old universityprofessor, chalked up her constant “straight arrow.” Or when she said that itPaul was a “straight dart” instead of aheadache and fatigue to stress and exhaustion.After all, the end of her demanding “raining cats and dogs.”was “storming cats and birds” instead offirst semester of teaching and research was There were other odd lapses in language.“I would say something thinking itdrawing near. Still, Asha had always beenvery healthy and usually tolerated stress was correct,” Asha recalled, “and peoplewell. She didn’t drink or smoke. And no would say to me, ‘What are you saying?’matter how late she stayed up working on I wouldn’t realize I was saying somethingher lectures and research proposals, she wrong. I would open my mouth and juststill got up at 5:30 every morning to work nonsense would come out. But it madeout at the university gym.perfect sense to me. At other times, theThere were other, more subtle signs that word was on the tip of my tongue—something was wrong. Asha’s husband, I knew I knew the word, but I couldn’tPaul, noticed that she had been behaving find it. I would fumble for the word, butrather oddly in recent weeks. For example, it would come out wrong. Sometimes Iat Thanksgiving dinner, Asha had picked would slur words, like I’d try to say ‘Saturday,’only it would come out ‘salad-day.’”up a knife by the wrong end and tried tocut her turkey with the handle instead of On Christmas morning, Paul and Ashathe blade. A few hours later, Asha had were with Paul’s family, opening presents.made the same mistake trying to use scissors:She held the blades and tried to cut the pool cue he had received as a gift. AsAsha walked over to Paul’s father to look atwith the handle.she bent down, she fell forward onto herAsha laughed these incidents off, and father-in-law. At first, everyone thoughtfor that matter, so did Paul. They both Asha was just joking around. But then shethought she was simply under too much fell to the floor, her body stiff. Secondsstress. And when Asha occasionally got her later, it was apparent that Asha had lostwords mixed up, neither Paul nor anyone consciousness and was having a seizure.>Chapter Outline• Prologue: Asha’s Story• Introduction: Neuroscience andBehavior• The Neuron: The Basic Unit ofCommunicationFOCUS ON NEUROSCIENCE: Is“Runner’s High” an EndorphinRush?• The Nervous System and theEndocrine System: CommunicationThroughout the Body• A Guided Tour of the BrainSCIENCE VERSUS PSEUDOSCIENCE:Phrenology: The Bumpy Road toScientific ProgressFOCUS ON NEUROSCIENCE: Jugglingand Brain Plasticity• Specialization in the CerebralHemispheresCRITICAL THINKING: “His” and“Her” Brains?SCIENCE VERSUS PSEUDOSCIENCE:Brain Myths• Closing ThoughtsENHANCING WELL-BEING WITHPSYCHOLOGY: Maximizing YourBrain’s Potential43