Biology and neuroscience Flashcards
What are the nervous system influences
nature and nurture
What are microglial?
immune system cells that respond to pathogens and damage
What are the excitatory neurotransmitters?
-acetylcholine (Ach)
- glutamate
-serotonin
- dopamine
What are the inhibitory neurotransmitters?
- Gamma-aminobutyric acid
- glycine
- serotonin
- dopamine
What is an agonist neurotransmitter?
drug replicates receptor action (receptor opens)
What is an antagonist neurotransmitter?
drug prevents receptor action (receptor closes)
What is a direct neurotransmitter?
drug binds at same site
What is an indirect neurotransmitter?
drug binds at different site
What are the 2 major categories of the PNS? And what does it mean?
somatic(what we control) and autonomic (what we can’t control)
What is the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems control of?
S - fight or flight
PS- breathing, heart beat
What is the difference between afferent and efferent?
A - from sensory nerves
E - to motor nerves
What is the frontal lobe responsible for?
-making decisions
Motor cortex
- preforming voluntary movement
Prefrontal cortex
- deciding when, why, and how to complete actions
What is the parietal lobe responsible for?
- processing numbers and preforming calculations
Somatosensory cortex
- receptor of sensation
What is the temporal lobe responsible for?
- important in recognizing and using language
Auditory cortex
- processes auditory information
Olfactory
- smell
What is the occipital lobe responsible for?
Visuospatial cortex
- visual processing
damage could cause blindness
What is the reticular activating system responsible for?
- regulating awareness (ex. sleeping )
- coordinates several brain areas
What is the function of the limbic system and what does the amygdala do?
- helps store emotional memories
- involved in fear
What is the cerebellum responsible for?
- coordinating movements and thought
- muscle memory
What is the thalamus responsible for?
- relay sensory information
- every sense passes through this but not smell
What is the function of the HPA (hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis)
- activated in time of stress
What is the function of the corpus callosum?
- connects the two hemispheres of brain and shares information
Explain MRI.
- magnetic fields to picture hydrogen ions
- precision, no radiation
- detect changed in structure due to disease
Explain CT.
- uses x-ray to get “slice” images
- fast and cheap
- detect changes in structure due to disease
Explain fMRI.
- magnetic fields to picture hydrogen ions
- no radiation, no injection
- measure activation during tasks/ areas of brain that is active
Explain DTI.
- tracks and images water movement in pathways and density of neural tracts
- non invasive, no radiation
- white matter degeneration
Explain PET.
-ingested radioactive compound to track molecular changes
- molecular changes in real time
- visualize the activity of specific neurotransmitters and binding
