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| A theory created by German psychologist, Franz Gal, which stated that the shape of a person's skull presented markers that reveal characteristics of that person. This was the first comparative analysis in the field of psychology. |
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| Nerve cells that are comprised of a cell body and two types of fiber: 1) dendrites and 2) axons. They are the basic building block of the nervous system. |
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| "The fibers that listen." They receive incoming information and conduct impulses towards the cell body; short and bushy. |
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| "The fibers that speak." They send out information to other neurons or to muscles and glands; long fibers that are sometimes covered with a myelin sheath and project several feet throughout the body. They are the neuron's extension that passes messages through its branching terminal fibers that form junctions with other neurons. |
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An electrical charge (neural impulse) that travels down an axon.
• Neurons transmit messages when stimulated by signals from our senses or when triggered by chemical signals from neighboring neurons. The signal can either be 1) excitatory or 2) inhibitory.
1) Speeds up neural activity.
2) Slows down neural activity. |
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| Minimum level of stimulation and if it is exceeded, then you have action potential, meaning there is information being sent out. |
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| The place where two neurons meet. The junction between the axon tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron. |
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| Discovered by the British physiologist, Sir Charles Sherrington. The space between a sending neuron and a receiving neuron; they never actually touch. |
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| Chemical messengers that go between one neuron and into another, they cross the synaptic gap and transfer information. When released by the sending neuron, neurotransmitters travel cross the synapse and bind to receptor sites on the receiving neuron, thereby influencing whether that neuron will generate a neural impulse. |
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| When the sending neuron reuptakes/reabsorbs any excess neurotransmitters that did not get received. |
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1) Sensory neurons: gets information from the body's tissue and sensory receptors and transfers it to the brain and spinal cord.
2) Motor neurons: are used the central nervous system to get information to the body's tissue; they carry outgoing information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands.
3) Interneurons: process information within the central nervous system, within the brain and spinal cord, once the information comes in and before it goes out. |
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| What two kinds of nervous systems is a body composed of? |
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1) Central Nervous System: the brain and spinal cord, the body's decision-maker.
2) Peripheral Nervous System: somatic and autonomic, is responsible for gathering info and for transmitting CNS decisions to other body parts.
- The sensory and motor neurons that connect the CNS to the rest of the body.
• The nervous system is extremely fast and quick, sending messages throughout your body in a second's time.
• The nervous system directs endocrine secretions, which then affects the nervous system.
o Brain → pituitary → other glands → hormones → brain |
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| Is the voluntary control of the skeletal muscles. The division of the peripheral nervous system that controls the body's skeletal muscles, aka skeletal nervous system. |
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| Controls the glands and organs of our internal organs. The part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs (such as the heart). Its sympathetic division arises; its parasympathetic division calms. |
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| a simple, automatic response to a sensory stimulus, such as the knee-jerk response. |
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"Feels sorry for you and pitches in to help," kicks in when you feel you are in danger by giving you more energy through extra adrenaline. The fight or flight response; arouses and expends energy.
• Causes your mouth to go dry so your digestive system stops creating saliva, it stops spending energy on digesting food and puts all the energy into surviving.
• Perspires to cool you down, stops you from overheating.
• Heartbeat increases → pumps more blood and gets more oxygen to your body.
• Breathing becomes quicker and shallower to get more oxygen to your brain.
• Pupils dilate to allow more light in. |
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| When the danger passes, it returns everything to normal; conserves energy and calms the body, conserving its energy. |
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The endocrine system is much slower and lasts longer than the nervous system. It produces hormones, which are chemical messengers.
• The endocrine system’s glands secrete hormones, some hormones are chemically identical to neurotransmitters.
• The endocrine system’s hormones influence many aspects of our lives – growth, reproduction, metabolism, mood – and work with our nervous system to keep everything in balance while we respond to stress, exertion, and our own thoughts. |
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| The master endocrine gland, affects growth, and is controlled by the hypothalamus. |
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| the oldest part and central core of the brain, begins where the spinal cord swells as it enters the skull; the brainstem is responsible for automatic survival functions. |
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About the size of a baseball, comprised of two halves, extends from the back of the brainstem, and processes sensory input, as well as coordinates movement.
• Enables one type of nonverbal learning and memory; it also coordinates voluntary movement. |
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One of the oldest parts of the brain, sits between the brain's two hemispheres, and helps with emotions, as well as memory formation.
Includes:
1) hippocampus
2) amygdala
3) hypothalamus |
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| Influences fear and aggression, two lima-bean sized neural clusters in the limbic system; linked to emotion. |
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is the link in the chain of command governing bodily maintenance (temperature, hunger, sex, thirst) and regulates our body to maintain a steady, balanced state.
• Monitors blood chemistry and takes orders from other parts of the brain. |
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The intricate fabric of interconnected neural cells covering the cerebral hemispheres; the body's ultimate control and information processing center. The larger the cerebral cortex, the greater capacity to think and learn.
• The body’s ultimate control and info-processing center. |
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Portion of the cerebral cortex lying just behind the forehead; involved in speaking and muscle movements and in making plans and judgments.
• Last part of our brain to develop.
• Helps understand consequences. |
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| portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the top of the head and towards the rear; receives sensory input for touch and body position. |
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| portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the back of the head; includes areas that receive information from the visual fields. |
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| portion of the cerebral cortex lying roughly above the ears; includes the auditory areas, each receiving information primarily from the opposite ear. |
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• Creates new neurons.
• Sleeping, being in a stimulating environment, and exercising are all natural ways to have neurogenesis occur. |
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| The wide band of axon fibers connecting the two hemispheres and carrying messages between them. |
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| Left brain vs. Right brain |
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•Left Brain functions:
1) Great with calculations.
2) Processes language and both deaf and hearing people.
3) Literally interprets the language
4) The left hemisphere → person’s right hand and speech.
5) The left hemisphere is adept at making quick, literal interpretations of language.
• Right brain:
1) Perception and makes inferences in language.
2) Our sense of self.
3) The right hemisphere → person’s left hand and could still talk.
4) Excels in making inferences and modulate out speech to make meaning clear, and it helps orchestrate our sense of self. |
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| Can a strong stimulus affect an action potential's speed or strength? |
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| No, increasing the level of stimulation above the threshold will not increase the neural impulse’s intensity → the neuron’s reaction is an all-or-none response. |
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| What discovery did Candace Pert and Solomon Snyder make? |
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| That our body releases several types of neurotransmitter molecules similar to morphine in response to pain and vigorous exercise → endorphins. |
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| Is the messenger at every junction between a motor neuron and skeletal muscles. |
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| What effect do drugs have on neurons? |
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| They either excite or inhibit neurons. |
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o Agonist molecules may be similar enough to a neurotransmitter to bind to its receptor and mimic its effects.
o Antagonists also bind to receptors but their effect is instead to block a neurotransmitter’s functioning. |
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| What are neural networks? |
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| The brain’s neurons cluster into work groups called neutral networks. Neurons network with nearby neurons with which they can have short, fast connections. |
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| What is the function of the spinal cord? |
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• The spinal cord is an info highway connecting the peripheral nervous system to the brain.
- Ascending neural fibers send up sensory info, and descending fibers send back motor-control info.
- A simple spinal reflex pathway is composed of a single sensory neuron and single motor neuron → they communicate through an interneuron.
- Another such pathway enables the pain reflex.
- Info travels to and from the brain by way of the spinal cord. |
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| Releases adrenaline and noradrenaline. |
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• A general reward system that triggers the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine.
• Animals come equipped with built-in systems that reward activities essential to survival. |
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| What is the reward deficiency syndrome supposedly associated with? |
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| Some researchers believe that addictive disorder stem from a reward deficiency syndrome → a genetically disposed deficiency in the natural brain systems for pleasure and well-being that leads people to crave whatever provides that missing pleasure or relieves negative feelings. |
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area at the front of the parietal lobes that registers and processes body touch and movement sensations.
o The more sensitive the body region, the larger the sensory cortex area devoted to it . |
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Neurons in these association areas integrate info and link sensory inputs with stored memories. Areas of the cerebral cortex that are not involved in primary motor or sensory functions; rather, they are involved in higher mental functions such as learning, remembering, thinking, speaking, and integrating information.
o Association area functions cannot be neatly mapped.
o Association areas interpret, integrate, and act on info processed by the sensory areas.
o Association areas are found in all four lobes → in the frontal lobes, they enable judgment, planning, and processing of new memories.
→ Ruptured frontal lobe: Similar impairments to moral judgment have appeared in more recent studies of people with damaged frontal lobes, less inhibited. |
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| impairment of language, usually caused by left-hemisphere damage either to Broca's area (impairing speaking) or to Wenicke's area (impairing understanding) |
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| French physician Paul Broca → area of the left frontal lobe, damage to this area disrupts speaking. Controls language expression; usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscle movements involved in speech. |
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| German investigator Carl Wernicke → left temporal lobe, damage to this area disrupts understanding. Controls language reception; a brain area, is involved in language comprehension and expression. |
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| The angular gyrus, is involved in reading aloud → damage to the angular gyrus leaves a person able to speak and understand, but unable to read. |
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| How does the brain process language? |
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| o In processing language, as in other forms of info processing, the brain operates by dividing its mental functions → speaking, perceiving, thinking, remembering are all subfunctions. |
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the brain's ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganizing after damage or by building new pathways based on experience.
• Some neural tissue can reorganize in response to damage.
• Our brains are most plastic when we are young children.
• Blindness and deafness makes unused brain areas available for other uses.
• Plasticity is especially evident after serious damage.
• Brain modification often takes form of reorganization, adult mice and humans can also generate new brain cells. |
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| The brain’s two sides serve differing functions, this hemispheric specialization is apparent after brain damage. |
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A condition resulting from surgery that isolates the brain's two hemispheres by cutting the fibers (mainly those of the corpus callosum) connecting them.
o With a split brain, both hemispheres can comprehend and follow an instruction to copy – simultaneously – different figures with the left and right hands.
o When the “two minds” are at odds, the left hemisphere does mental gymnastics to rationalize reactions it does not understand.
o The conscious left hemisphere is an “interpreter” or press agent that instantly constructs theories to explain our behavior. |
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| the scientific study of the links between biological (genetic, neural, hormonal) and psychological processes. (Some biological psychologists call themselves behavioral neuroscientists, neuropsychologists, behavior genetics, physiological psychologists, or biopsychologists) |
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| "Morphine within" - natural, opiatelike neurotransmitters linked to pain control and to pleasure. |
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| the body's speedy, electrochemical communication network, consisting of a ll the nerve cells of the peripheral and central nervous system. |
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| Bundled axons that form neural cables connecting the CNS with muscles, glands, and sense organs. |
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| a pair of endocrine glands that sit just above the kidneys and secrete hormones that help arouse the body in times of stress. |
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| tissue destruction. A brain lesion is a naturally or experimentally caused destruction of brain tissue. |
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| Electroencephalogram (EEG) |
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| an amplified recording of the waves of electrical activity that sweep across the brain's surface. These waves are measured by electrodes placed on the scalp. |
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| PET (positron emission tomography) |
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| a visual display of brain activity that detects where a radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain performs a given task. |
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| MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) |
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| a technique that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to produce computer-generated images of soft tissue. MRI scans show brain anatomy. |
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| a technique for revealing bloodflow and, therefore, brain activity by comparing successive MRI scans. fMRI scans show brain function. |
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| the base of the brainstem; controls heartbeat and breathing. |
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| on top of the brain stem, is the brain’s switch board (controls where information is sent) it directs messages to the sensory receiving areas in the cortex and transmits replies to the cerebellum and medulla. |
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A nerve network in the brainstem that plays an important role in controlling arousal.
✶ Filters incoming stimuli and relays important info to other areas of the brain. |
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| an area at the rear of the frontal lobes that control voluntary movements. |
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