Alzheimer’s Disease HISTORIC PERSPECTIVE Human Longevity Although historic records indicate that older people have always existed, old age was once rare. Before the 20th century, few people lived beyond 50…

Schizophrenia HISTORIC PERSPECTIVE Over 100 years ago, Emil Kraepelin, a German psychiatrist, described the syndrome now called schizophrenia. Bleuler actually coined the term schizophrenia. Kraepelin called it dementia praecox. Kraepelin’s…

Anxiety INTRODUCTION Anxiety is part of a mechanism developed in higher animals to handle adverse situations. The anxiety response can be conceptualized as part of the brain’s alarm system firing…

Attention INTRODUCTION The last aspect of cognition that we will review is the ability to attend to external or internal stimuli. Like memory, attention is one of the oldest and…

Memory The next three chapters review important aspects of cognition. Cognition is loosely defined as the ability to do the following: Attend to external or internal stimuli Identify the significance…

Attachment PARENTAL BEHAVIOR The goal of reproduction is successful offspring. Parents want offspring who can survive the rigors of the world and produce their own descendents. Many animals produce offspring…

Sex and the Brain SEXUAL DIMORPHISM Humans are sexually dimorphic (di, “two”; morph, “type”). That is, we come in two styles. How one conceptualizes these differences depends on one’s perspective….

Sleep and Circadian Rhythms NORMAL SLEEP Sleep remains a mystery. We spend roughly a third of our lives in this suspended state. All mammals sleep, as does most of the…