biopsychology Flashcards
nervous system
cells that’s respond to info in environment
body’s communication system
peripheral central nervous system
PNS transmits messaged to and from CNS via neutrons
autonomic nervous system
controls certain functions like breathing , heart rate
somatic nervous system
information from sensory receptors
central nervous system
brain is centre of awareness
2 hemispheres
spinal cords sends messages to and from brain to peripheral nervous system
spinal cord
responsible for reflexes
endocrine system
major information system that instructs glands to release hormones directly to blood stream
pineal gland
CNS sends signal to the pineal gland directing it to increase melatonin at to night to decrease high levels in the morning
morgans study of hamster
bred strain of hamsters with circadian rhythm of 20 hours rather that 24
these were then transplanted into normal hamsters and they displayed same abnormal circadian rhythm
morgans hamster findings
the importance of SCN in setting circadian rhythms
endogenous pacemakers
biological time keeps that set our biological rhythms
SCN
directed between frontal cortex and an eye
detects changes in light and dark therefore controls circadian rhythms of sleep wake
decoursey chipmunks
disable the SCN and released chipmunks into the wild
most chipmunks were eaten when wondering at night
exogenous zeitgebers
rhythmically occurring natural phenomenon which acts as a queue for the body’s circadian rhythms
light is most important zeitgeber
