Biology and Behavior Flashcards
What are the three main types of neurons?
Sensory/afferent neurons - transmit sensory info from receptors to spinal cord and brain
Motor/efferent neurons - motor info from cord/brain to muscles and glands
Interneurons - most numerous and take care of reflexive actions
What makes up the CNS?
Central nervous system - brain and spinal cord
What makes up the PNS?
Peripheral nervous system - made up of nerve tissue and fibers outside of the CNS
What are the two subdivisions of the PNS and describe them?
Somatic Nervous System - consists of sensory and motor neurons distributed throughout the skin, joints and muscles “voluntary” movement
Autonomic Nervous System - “nonvoluntary movement”, regulates heartbeat, respiration, digestion and secretions, temp
What are the two subdivisions of the ANS?
Sympathetic Nervous System - activated by stress and associated with flight or fight reactions; increased heart rate, pupil dilation, releases epinephrine, increases blood glucose, redistributes blood to muscles of motion
Parasympathetic Nervous System - conserves energy and calms body down after sympathetic NS goes off; reduce heart rate, manages digestion, opposite of SNS
What is the meninges and what is it made of?
It is a thick sheath of connective tissue that covers the brain and allows it to connect to the inside of the skull. It is made of three types of membranes: dura mater, arachnoid mater, pia mater in that order from outside to inside
What is the aqueous solution in which the brain and spinal cord rest and where does it come from?
Cerebrospinal fluid that is produced by ventricles in the brain
What is the brainstem?
The most primitive region of the brain that includes the hindbrain and the midbrain
What is the limbic system?
Part of the forebrain that is a group of neural structures primarily associated with emotion and memory, aggression, fear, plesure, and pain.
What is the cerebral cortex?
an outer covering of the cerebral hemispheres that is associated with language processing, problem solving, impulse control and long term planning
What is the hindbrain?
The hindbrain is a label for multiple structures. Itis located where the brain meets the spinal cord is and responsible for: balance, motor coordination, breathing, digestion, and general arousal processes. It contains within it the medulla, pons and cerebellum
What is the medulla and where?
The medulla regulates vital functions such as breathing, heart rate and blood pressure and is located in the hindbrain
What is the pons and where?
The pons contains sensory and motor pathways between cortex and medulla, involved in sensations and helps with breathing. Located in the hindbrain, above the medulla
What is the cerebellum and where?
The cerebellum helps maintain balance and posture and coordinate body movements and is located in the hindbrain behind the pons
What is the midbrain?
Located above the hindbrain, it receives sensory and motor information and is often associated with reflexive responses
What are colliculi?
Prominent nuclei located in the midbrain. Superior colliculus receive visual sensory information and inferior colliculus receive auditory sensory information.
What is the forebrain?
Located above the midbrain, it is involved in complex perceptual, cognitive and behavioral processes.
What is an EEG?
Electroencephalogram is a test used to evaluate electrical activity in the brain by placing electrodes on the scalp.
What is rCBF?
Regional cerebral blood flow is a noninvasive procedure which detects patterns of neural activity based on increased blood flow to different parts of the brain
What is CT?
Computed tomography - multiple x-rays are taken at different angles and processed by a computer to cross-sectional slice images of the tissue
What is PET?
Positron emission tomography scan - radioactive sugar is injected and absorbed into the body, and its dispersion and uptake throughout the target tissue is imaged
What is MRI?
Magnetic resonance imaging - uses a magnetic field to interact with hydrogen and map out hydrogen dense regions of the body
What is fMRI?
Functional MRI - uses a magnetic field to interact with hydrogen and map out hydrogen dense regions of the body but specifically measures changes associated with blood flow
What is the thalamus?
Located in the forebrain and serves as an important relay station for incoming sensory information
What is the hypothalamus?
Located in the forebrain and helps maintain homeostasis by regulating metabolism temp and water balance and is therefore a key player in the autonomic nervous system. It also plays a role in emotional arousal. It can be divided into lateral (hunger center, promotes eating), ventromedial (stops eating) and anterior hypothalamus (sexual behavior/sleep/temp).
What is the pineal gland?
Forms part of the forebrain and is a key player in biological rhythms like circadian rhythms.
What is the basal ganglia?
Found in the forebrain and coordinates muscle movement and relays motor information to brain and spinal cord. Helps make movement smooth and posture steady
What is the septal nuclei?
primary pleasure centers in the brain, part of the limbic system
What is the amygdala?
plays important role in defensive and aggressive behaviors, part of limbic system
What is the hippocampus?
plays a vital role in learning and memory processing, consolidates memories into long term storage, part of limbic system
What is anterograde amnesia?
an inability to form new memories but still recall the old ones
What is retrograde amnesia?
the loss of old memories but still have the ability to form new ones
What are the four lobes of the brain?
Frontal, Parietal, Occipital and Temporal
What does the frontal lobe do?
Divided into two subdivisions:
Prefrontal cortex - manages executive function by supervising and directing the operations of the other brain regions (perception, memory, emotion, planning) does not store info
Motor cortex - initiates voluntary motor movements
What is an association area?
An area of the brain the integrates input from diverse brain regions, ex: prefrontal cortex
What is a projection area?
An area of the brain that performs rudimentary or simple perceptual and motor tasks, ex: motor cortex, visual cortex
What is Broca’s area?
found in the frontal lobe and helps with speech production
What is the parietal lobe?
Mainly involved in sensory processing
What is the occipital lobe?
contain visual cortex and involved in helping you see
What is the temporal lobe?
Mainly associated with auditory functions (also has some memory functions, emotion, language)
What is Wernicke’s area?
Found in the temporal lobe and associated with language reception and comprehension. If damaged, person will not understand what is being said to them
What is acetylcholine?
a neurotransmitter that sends nerve impulses to muscles and is linked attention and arousal
What are catecholamines?
a group of neurotransmitters that play important roles in emotions and include epinephrine, norepinephrine and dopamine
What is epinephrine?
involved in controlling alertness and wakefulness and secreted from the adrenal medulla and acts on the whole body
What is norepinephrine?
also involved in controlling alertness and wakefulness and acts at a local level
What is dopamine?
plays important role in movement and posture
What is serotonin?
plays role in regulating mood, eating, sleeping and dreaming. Too much can cause mania and too little causes depression
What is GABA?
gamma-aminobutyric acid produces inhibitory postsynaptic potentials and stabilizing neural activity in the brain
What is glycine?
serves as an inhibitory neurotransmitter in the CNS by increasing chloride influx into the neuron
What is glutamate?
serves as an excitatory neurotransmitter in CNS
What are neuromodulators?
peptides that are involved in a slow chain of neurotransmission
What are endorphins?
a type of neuromodulator which are natural pain killers
What is the pituitary gland?
“master” gland;
Anterior - releases hormones that regulate endocrine glands but is controlled by the hypothalamus
What are the adrenal glands?
located on top of the kidneys and divided into two
Adrenal medulla - releases epinephrine and norepinephrine
Adrenal cortex - produces corticosteriods, like cortisol, and testosterone and estrogen
What is neurulation?
occurs when the ectoderm overlying the notochord begins to furrow, forming a neural groove surrounded by two neural folds
What is the rooting reflex?
automatic turning of the head in which the direction of a stimulus that touches the cheek
What is the Moro reflex?
Infants reacting to the abrupt movement of their heads by flinging out their arms and then slowly retracting them and crying
What is the Babinski reflex?
causes the toes to spread apart automatically when the sole of the foot is stimulated
