The consensus among biologists is that behavior is a motor act that has no meaning at all from the functional point of view unless referred to in a specific environmental context as organisms do not move randomly. Behavior is a type of response to a particular environmental trigger. However, the brain plays a significant role in shaping behavior and is heralded as the well-defined substrate that corresponds to all behavioral systems. The central part of the brain in behavior regulation is the hypothalamus. It controls the automatic motor response system and is critical in the regulation of endocrine secretion. The function of the hypothalamus is also influenced by insulin and glucose concentrations; which makes it responsive to a broad spectrum of external stimuli hence triggering corresponding behavioral acts.
The nervous system comprises of the central nervous system made up of the brain and spinal chord; and peripheral nervous system that connects the rest of the body to the CNS. The connections between the CNS and PNS and the rest of body implies that it is responsible for orchestrating all behavioral responses that form the symphony of life depicted in voluntary and involuntary activities. According to Kreibig (2010) the nervous system performs the three overlapping roles of sensor input, integration, and motor output that connect the stimuli to behavioral responses.
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The sensory system is instrumental in shaping behavior because it is equipped with the main senses of vision, smell, touch, taste, and hearing. Through these senses, the sensory system is able to detect and encode changes in energy caused by exogenous or endogenous stimuli through receptor cells located in sense organs and internal body tissues. The stimuli are then converted into electrical impulses that are transported to the brain through transduction. It is in the brain that perception occurs as sensory impulses are organized, interpreted, and assembled into meaningful patterns that are reflected in actions (behavior).
Discussion of the Role of Cognitive Function in Shaping Behavior
The general definition of cognition, according to Gutt (2014) is that it refers to thinking. Thoughts occur in both the conscious forms such as performing actions, playing, and deconstructing and subconscious or subtle forms such as interpretation of sensory input, empathizing with others, and guiding physical actions. Behaviorists view cognition as thee human equivalent logical information processing computer. It encapsulates the mental process of knowledge acquisition, understanding through thought, sense, and experience. As a result, cognition is regarded as a critical aspect of learning because it encompasses a number of processes among them, knowledge, attention, memory, reasoning, judgment, computation, problem solving, comprehension, and decision making. These processes are critical in knowledge acquisition and use, implying that behavior is dependent on these processes.
According to Greeno (2011), the relationship between cognition and learning is important in understanding the concepts of social interactions and subject matter information. Cognition has a vital role in understanding the construction of information in common ground that individuals deem relevant to the progress of the task they are preforming. Understanding and memory are especially crucial processes of cognition because they facilitate response to stimuli through trigger of corresponding behavior actions from memory. In addition, it facilitates understanding of new phenomena by linking the new information through judgment, computation to memory to elicit corresponding behavior.
Discussion of the Interrelation of the Brain, Nervous System, Sensory System, and Cognitive Functions in Shaping Behavior
According to Bavelier, Levi, Li et al. (2010), brain plasticity is possible by remains restricted in adults compared to developmental years. The assertion brings to sharp focus thee need for conditions that facilitate circuit rewriting in mature brain. Such conditions are limited under cellular and molecular levels; hence the need for genetic, pharmacological, and environmental removal of brakes that limit such processes. One can argue that this behavioral approach is crucial in establishing the interconnections between functional functions that influence human behavior.
As earlier mentioned in the discussion of the roles of individual components in behavior regulations, the brain is the control center of all functions that lead to behavior, but it does not mean other components are of less importance. The complex neural circuits in the brain are responsible for controlling voluntary movements, and these circuits are linked to sensory and motor systems which are controlled through the peripheral nervous system. It is important to understand that the motor system is responsible for direct control of voluntary movement, but the decision to initiate such movement is the responsibility of the motivational or cognition system. Cognition is responsible for memory of stimuli and its motivational system acts on somatic motor system to influence voluntary movement. It also influences behavior through action on autonomic nervous system leading to innervation of the exocrine system, viscera, and all smooth muscles in different parts of the body. Motivational and emotional states are also mediated by sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions of the nervous system.
The relationship between the four components discussed here is evident from sensing of the stimuli to trigger of response behavior. The sensory system receives and converts the stimuli into impulses that are conveyed to the brain by the peripheral nervous system. Processing and interpretation is done in the brain in which cognition plays a vital role to elicit the desired response, which is then conveyed to the motor system via the nervous system to produce corresponding action that is perceived as behavior. For instance, in reaching a glass of water, the sensory processing involves determination of the position of the glass of water, a process whose stimulus is provided by the motivational system (thirst), through cognition of the act and necessary response. The limbic system modulates the motor output to the respective motor muscles, but the brain and the nervous play intermediate crucial roles in the processing and transduction of impulses from and to the respective areas.
References
Bavelier, D., Levi, D. M., Li, R. W., Dan, Y., & Hensch, T. K. (2010). Removing brakes on adult brain plasticity: from molecular to behavioral interventions. Journal of Neuroscience , 30 (45), 14964-14971.
Greeno, J. G. (2011). A situative perspective on cognition and learning in interaction. In Theories of learning and studies of instructional practice (pp. 41-71). New York: Springer.
Gutt, E. A. (2014). Translation and relevance: Cognition and context . UK: Routledge.
Kreibig, S. D. (2010). Autonomic nervous system activity in emotion: A review. Biological psychology , 84 (3), 394-421.
