message travel from our brain to our limbs...so we can move our bodies

~Or from our sensory organs to our brains...so we can make sense of and respond to the world

Spinal cord and brain

Central to all behavior and mental processes

~central processing center

Information highway

sensory nerves send information up to the brain

~Brain receives and interprets them

~motor nerves and send them information down to muscles

Base of skull

controls the most basic functions of survival...breathing, swallowing, vomiting, urination, orgasm

*damages likely to cause death!!!

proper motor functioning and motor learning

~If damaged, may cause...balance problems, trouble walking, problem with limb coordination

vital for temp. regulation, body rhythms, blood glucose level

~basic drives of thirst, hunger, aggression and lust

damage may cause...overwhelming urge to eat, drink, lost of sexual desire, highly irregular sleep patterns

plays role in the formation on new memories

grows larger with increased use

~damage causes of the inability to form new memories

serves a role in associating things in the world with emotional responses

~has a special role in responding to stimuli that elicit fear...i.e. protect us from danger, flashbulb memories

~Helps us evaluate the emotional significance of a facial expression

the outer layer of the brain tissue

~4 lobes: occipital, parietal, temporal, frontal

devoted almost exclusively to vision

primary visual cortex

devoted partially to touch

somatosensory cortex

damages to this may result in hemineglect!!!

All areas of body have corresponding part of sensory cortex.

~Parts of body that are more sensitive to touch have bigger area of cortex

important for processing auditory information

~hold the primary auditory cortex

~fusiform face area

at the intersection of temperal and occipital corticies

~Specializes in facial recognition

Essential for planning and movement

~primary motor cortex

~prefrontal cortext: 30% of the human brain, controls rational activity, important in social activity-understanding others, behave according to norm

deliberates damage to the prefrontal cortex

~left patient lethargic, emotionally flat and disconnected from social activities

connects right to left hemispheres

~severing this will drastically affect the way people think about and deal with the world.

includes all nervous system that is not housed in bone

~Carries out sensory and motor function

~divided into somatic and autonomic nervous systems

Transmits info from senses to the CNS

~Transmits info from CNS to muscle

~involved with all voluntary movement

Carries info back and forth bt CNS and heart, lungs, organs and glands

~Controls activities outside conscious control...breathing, digestion, sweating

Basic unit of communication
Specialized cells that receive and transmit
information throughout the body

Communication within and between
~It is an electrochemical process
~It use electrical impulses and
chemical messengers to send information

This is the gap between neurons

Greek for “point of contact”

Chemical messengers
~Stored in vesicles at axon tips
~When released they travel across synapse
to adjacent neuron

~influence mind and behavior
~Including emotions, motor skills, sleep, learning
and memory, pain control, and pain perception
~more than 60 ? have been
identified

reward motivation

Monitor control over voluntary movement