biological terms for psychology pt 2 Flashcards
the main area responsible for processing auditory information, is located within the temporal lobe.
auditory cortex
essential for language perception (lobe of the brain)
Broca’s area
(Latin for “little brain”) receives messages from muscles, tendons, joints, and structures in our ear to control balance, coordination, movement, and motor skills. This is also thought to be an important area for processing some types of memories. In particular, procedural memory, or memory involved in learning and remembering how to perform tasks, is thought to be associated with this.
cerebellum
which is the outer surface of the brain, is associated with higher level processes such as consciousness, thought, emotion, reasoning, language, and memory.
cerebral cortex
involves taking a number of x-rays of a particular section of a person’s body or brain. The x-rays pass through tissues of different densities at different rates, allowing a computer to construct an overall image of the area of the body being scanned. This is often used to determine whether someone has a tumor or significant brain atrophy.
computerized tomography (CT) scan
allows the two hemispheres to communicate with each other and allows for information being processed on one side of the brain to be shared with the other side.
corpus callosum
this helps to gain an understanding of the overall activity of a person’s brain, without needing information on the actual location of the activity. This provides a measure of a brain’s electrical activity. An array of electrodes is placed around a person’s head. The signals received by the electrodes result in a printout of the electrical activity of their brain, or brainwaves, showing both the frequency (number of waves per second) and amplitude (height) of the recorded brainwaves, with an accuracy within milliseconds. Such information is especially helpful to researchers studying sleep patterns among individuals with sleep disorders.
electroencephalography (EEG)
the largest part of the brain. This contains the cerebral cortex and a number of other structures that lie beneath the cortex (called subcortical structures): thalamus, hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and the limbic system (a collection of structures).
forebrain
this shows changes in brain activity over time by tracking blood flow and oxygen levels. This provides more detailed images of the brain’s structure, as well as better accuracy in time, than is possible in PET scans
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
a distinctive pattern of folds or bumps on the cerebral cortex;allows us to separate the brain into functional centers
gyrus (or gyri when plural)
the deep groove that separates the brain into two halves
hemisphere
located at the back of the head and looks like an extension of the spinal cord. It contains the medulla, pons, and cerebellum
hindbrain
specialization of function in the left and right hemisphere, mainly regarding difference in language functions.
lateralization
involved in processing both emotion and memory. Interestingly, the sense of smell projects directly to this; therefore, not surprisingly, smell can evoke emotional responses in ways that other sensory modalities cannot. This is made up of a number of different structures, but three of the most important are the hippocampus, the amygdala, and the hypothalamus
limbic system
a person is placed inside a machine that generates a strong magnetic field. The magnetic field causes the hydrogen atoms in the body’s cells to move. When the magnetic field is turned off, the hydrogen atoms emit electromagnetic signals as they return to their original positions. Tissues of different densities give off different signals, which a computer interprets and displays on a monitor.
magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
