Discuss+two+effects+of+the+environment+on+physiological+processes.+(Taryn)

Discuss two effects of the environment on physiological processes. 1) Brain plasticity - the ability for the brain to respond and adapt to outside experiences, and to change its responses based on environmental changes. -Ex: Hubel and Weisel (1970): Sutured one eye closed for 8 weeks in kittens. Even after the experiment, the kittens had blindness in the eye that was once closed. This happens because the brain can make new connections in the event of change. In the Hubel and Weisel experiment, the kittens did not use their visual cortex for one eye, so the brain rerouted itself so that connections to that eye were lost since it was not being used. Brain plasticity is based off the principle that if you do not use or do something frequently, you lose the ability to do it at all. 2) Mirror Neurons - the brains empathetic reaction to observing another being doing a task, and through the observation, allowing us to mimic or relate to the actions that occurred. -Rizzolatti, Gallese, and Fogassi (1996): They tested neural activities in monkeys as they reached for different objects. They came across the discovery that their brains' premotor neurons fired the same when a human researcher reached for a peanut, and when the monkey itself reached for the peanut. The brain picks up on outside factors, such as the actions of those around them to learn new tasks and relate to others emotions. Mirror neurons cause the brain to understand the environment around it, and allow it to adapt. This is why we feel or understand others pain, or find ourselves able to do activities fairly well just by observing someone else do the activity. VS Ramachandran has a really good TedTalk explaining mirror neurons: http://www.ted.com/talks/view/lang/en//id/724