Human Behavior Biology: Lecture # 11. Introduction to Neuroscience II [Robert Sapolsky, 2010]

We present you the eleventh lecture of the course “ Biology of Human Behavior ” by Robert Sapolsky about the genetics of behavior.

At the beginning of this lecture, Patrick House talks about the memories and the mechanism of their formation, then Dana Terker gives a lecture on the autonomic nervous system and its functions.

Under the cat you can find the previous lectures of this course.

List of lectures already translated:

1st lecture : Introductory lecture on the main directions of the course and why it is dangerous to think in categories.
Lecture 2 : Evolution of behavior, I. In this lecture, the professor explains the evolution of behavior using vivid examples, including the well-known “prisoner's dilemma”.
Lecture 3 : Evolution of behavior, II. Continued explanation of the evolution of behavior.
Lecture 4 : Molecular genetics, I. It describes the connection between protein synthesis and point mutations with microevolutionary changes, and discusses conflicting theories of gradualism and intermittent equilibrium, as well as the phenomenon of epigenetics.
5th lecture: Molecular Genetics, II. It describes the different mutations in the components of natural selection at the molecular level, and the theories of gradualism and intermittent equilibrium are reduced to a general model of development.
Lecture 6 : Genetics of Behavior, I. The lecture covers the classical approaches of behavioral genetics, their shortcomings, the influence of environmental factors, the non-genetic heritability of certain features and epigenetics.
Lecture 7 : Behavioral Genetics, II. The lecture highlights the main difficulties associated with isolating individual genes, understanding variability and heritability, and also explains why genes and the environment are inextricably linked, although the latter’s role is often underestimated.
8th lecture: Recognition of relatives. This lecture is devoted to different ways of recognizing relatives in animals and people, using special proteins, smell, or cognitive effort and sensory information. It also discusses the important role played by this ability in various aspects of the life of living beings.
Lecture 9 : Ethology. In this lecture, the biology of behavior is viewed through the prism of ethology, the basic principles of which are the study of animals in their natural habitat and “interviews” in their language. Examples of behavioral diversity, the importance of interaction between genes and the environment, and experiments in ethology are also given.
10th lecture: An Introduction to Neuroscience, I. In the lecture, the assistants Nathan Woodling and Anthony Chang-Ming will talk in general terms about neuroscience and their connection to human behavior. They will introduce us to the lobes of the brain, its cells, neuropharmacology and reuptake.
Lecture 11 : An Introduction to Neuroscience, II. At the beginning of the lecture, Patrick House talks about the memories and the mechanism of their formation, then Dana Terker gives a lecture on the autonomic nervous system and its functions.

There are 25 lectures in total, gradually we will translate them all.