3.3 anatomy of the brain

Question 1

the brain

Answer 1

major control centre, for our behaviour and psychological experiences
subdivided into three parts: hind brain, mid brain and forebrain
divided into two cerebral hemispheres: left and right

Question 2

the hindbrain

Answer 2

-midbrain
-pons
-cerebellum
-medulla
-spinal cord
(damage to this part is very lethal, b/c they are part of life substantial functions)
-form our functions without a need for us to be aware
ex.breath, hearts pumping

Question 3

medulla

Answer 3

regulates breathing, heart rate, sneezing, salivating and vomiting

Question 4

pons

Answer 4

contributes to our sleeping and waking cycle, and helps to control our balance, eye movements and swallowing

Question 5

reticular activating system

Answer 5

important for alertness and contributes to everyday cycle of waking and sleeping
behind the spinal cord

Question 6

Cerebellum

Answer 6

important for coordinating movements , maintaining balance, and also influences attention and emotional responses

Question 7

midbrain

Answer 7

located behind hindbrain
serves as our transmission point for info for our senses
physical movement

Question 8

midbrain:

superior colliculus

Answer 8

controls our orienting response to the sudden presence of a visual stimulus

Question 9

midbrain:

inferior colliculus

Answer 9

responsible for orienting attention to the sudden occurrence of a sound

Question 10

forebrain

Answer 10

ventricles are filled with cerebrospinal fluid

• lateral ventricle
• third ventricle
• fourth ventricle
• cerebral aqueduct

Question 11

cerebrospinal fluid

Answer 11

performs important waste removal and nutrient providing functions

Question 12

forebrain

basal ganglia:

Answer 12

responsible for engaging planned physical movements, learning motor skills, and integrating sensory info physical movement, and the reward system of the brain

• thamlya
• amygdala

Question 13

disorders that originate from basal ganglia dysfunction include;

Answer 13

• parkinsons disease-uncontrollable motor function
• Huntington’s disease- cant control their muscles from twitching
• tourette’s syndrome

Question 14

tourette’s syndrom

Answer 14

may be unable to control facial and muscle movement, their eyes from blinking, or from making grunting or snorting noises
Corprolalia-shouting offensive words is a rare symptom

Question 15

the forebrain

nucleus accumbens

Answer 15

works with the basal ganglia to generate pleasurable experiences

Question 16

forebrain

limbic system

Answer 16

-contains parts critical for memory and emotion
amygdala
hippocampus 
hypothalamus 
thalamus

Question 17

amygdala

Answer 17

controls the creation of memory for emotional experiences and processing emotional content of stimuli

Question 18

hippocampus

Answer 18

key structure for creating new memories

damage to this can cause catastrophic amnesia

Question 19

hypothalamus

Answer 19

regulates body temperature and helps coordinate biological drives, such as sex and aggression, by controlling the release of hormones by the pituitary gland
-orgasms for both genders depend on signals originating from this structure

Question 20

thalamus

Answer 20

relay station for receiving and transmitting sensory info from the eyes, ears, skin and tongue to higher brain areas

Question 21

cerebral cortex

Answer 21

large and dense with neurons
serves as primary explanations for our mental advantages over other species
abilities to plan, make decisions , solve problems creatively, think deep thoughts and language, and our personalities
white matter(axons) , grey matter(neurons), ventricles(

Question 22

neurons in cerebral cortex

Answer 22

mice - millions
dogs -160m
cats 300m
chimpanzees 6 billion
humans 19-23b

Question 23

cerebral cortex lobes

Answer 23

frontal lobe
parietal lobe
occipital lobe
temporal lobe

Question 24

occipital lobes

Answer 24

devoted to early processing of visual info with direct connections from the regions of the thalamus that relay inputs from the eyes to our brains
AKA primary visual cortex

Question 25

Parietal lobes

Answer 25

receive info about the visual world from the occipital lobes and use it to provide us with info for visually guided action -also contain the somatosensory cortex, which controls our sense of touch

Question 26

temporal lobes

Answer 26

receive inputs from occipital cortex and use them to provide info about the identity and meaning of visual stimuli top -contains the area fro early processing of auditory info AKA primary auditory cortex -damage hear causing hearing impairments, cortical deafness front -essential for accessing general knowledge about the world back wernickes area- controls speech comprehension and written comprehension

Question 27

frontal lobes | brocas area

Answer 27

involved in articulation spoken words

Question 28

frontal lobes

Answer 28

-source of planning, initiating actions in support of those plans, creative problem-solving, language productions, and hosts our personalities -control suppressing emotional responses when they are inappropriate for the context back primary motor cortex-controls voluntary movements

Question 29

hemispheric specialition

Answer 29

right-art, creativity-music left-language, logic and math the idea of a division of labour b/w the hemispheres have some supportive evidence, but have also been highly exaggerated

Question 30

corpus callosum

Answer 30

thick band of neural tissues which connects left and right

Question 31

split brain patients

Answer 31

items presented to the right visual field can be verbally identified - info presented from the left side of visual field gets sent to the right hemispheres of our brains and vise versa but in split brain this is not the case - for most ppl, language production capacity originates exclusively from the left hemisphere, right cannot

Question 32

neuroplasticity

Answer 32

the brains extraordinary capacity to change its structure as a consequence of experience and learning - brain structure is not stable over time - brain changes for our need

Question 33

neuroscientific methods

Answer 33

lesioning trans-cranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) structural neuroimaging

Question 34

lesioning

Answer 34

causing brain damage in non-human animals and the measuring what effect the damage has on their behaviour

Question 35

trans-cranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)

Answer 35

directing a magnetic pulse at an area of a person's brain and seeing what affect that has on their mental function

Question 36

structural neuroimaging

Answer 36

non-invasive technologies that provide info about the state of brain structures - computerized tomography (CT) scan - magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) - Disruption tensor imaging (DTI)

Question 37

computerized tomography (CT) scan

Answer 37

a set of x-rays are taken of the brain by rotating a tube around the person's head

Question 38

magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Answer 38

a machine generates a magnetic field that brings hydrogen molecules in our brain into alignment - radio waves then get sent through the skull to disrupt this alignment - when the radio waves are turned off, energy absorbed from the radio waves are released when the H molecules become aligned by the magnetic field again - diff types of brain matter and the ventricle release diff amounts of energy and alignment occurs at diff speed for diff types of brain matter - computers then use this info to create a quite detailed image of the interior structure of the brain

Question 39

Disruption tensor imaging (DTI)

Answer 39

provides a measure of white matter pathways

Question 40

functional neuroimaging

Answer 40

tools for measuring changes in brain activity across time - tools unable to provide researchers with an understanding of which brain areas are active during specific types of mental activity - electroencephal ogram (EEG) - Event related potentials - functional magnetic resonance imaging - positron emission tomography - Magnetoenchephalography (MEG)

Question 41

-electroencephal ogram (EEG)

Answer 41

involves attaching electrodes to a persons scalp and measuring the electrical activity generated by neurons sending messages to one another

Question 42

event related potentials (ERPs)

Answer 42

EEF recordings that follow presentation of a stimulus

Question 43

Magnetoenchephalography (MEG)

Answer 43

Provides a measure of the magnetic fields generated from neural activity

Question 44

Positron emission tomography (PET)

Answer 44

involves injecting a radioactive substance into the bloodstream and then later using a scan to detect which parts of the brain contain more of the substance

Question 45

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

Answer 45

involves placing a person's head in a magnetic field and scanning for changes in the consumption of Oxygen by did parts of the brain - areas that generate more deoxygenated blood, and that require more oxygenated blood to replace it are areas that are more active - allows for the creation of images that identify the areas of the brain that identify the areas of the brain that are most active when someone is performing some mental function

Question 46

Pros and Cons for each technique

Answer 46

EEG is fast and cheap but not very precise MEG is more sensitive than EEG, but more expensive PET is more expensive and slower than EEG and MEG, but also more precise at localizing brain activity fMRI is the most expensive and not as fast as EEG and MEG, but it is faster and more precise than PET.