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Neuro and Psychopharm > Brain > Flashcards

Brain Flashcards

1
Q

Involuntary mouth and throat movements involved in swallowing, coughing, and sneezing, and it regulates a number of functions that are essential for survival including respiration, heart rate, and blood pressure. Brain injury and certain diseases and drugs (especially opioids) can disrupt the functioning of the medulla

A

Medulla

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2
Q

Connects the two halves of the cerebellum and helps coordinate movements on the two sides of the body, and it relays messages between the cerebellum and cerebral cortex

A

Pons

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3
Q

Plays a role in respiration and the regulation of deep sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.

A

Pons

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4
Q

Coordinates voluntary movements and is responsible for maintaining posture and balance. Damage can cause ataxia which is characterized by symptoms associated with alcohol intoxication and include a lack of muscle control, impaired balance and coordination, slurred speech, nystagmus (jerky eye movements), and blurred or double vision

A

Cerebellum

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5
Q

Regulation of muscle tone, coordination of eye movements, and control of pain. It contains the reticular activating system (RAS) which is also known as the ascending reticular activating system (ARAS).

A

Reticular Formation

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6
Q

Reward-seeking, drug addiction, and, through its connection to the basal ganglia, motor control

A

Substantia Nigra

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7
Q

Body’s homeostasis and regulates functions critical to survival through its influence on the autonomic nervous system and pituitary gland. These functions include regulating body temperature, blood pressure, heart and respiration rates, thirst and hunger, growth, sexual activity, reproduction, and the body’s response to stress. It also contributes to emotions, memory, and circadian rhythms

A

Hypothalamus

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8
Q

Blank contains the mammillary bodies, which play a role in memory, and the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), which serves as the body’s biological clock and regulates the sleep-wake cycle and other circadian rhythms.

A

Hypothalamus

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9
Q

described as a “relay station” because it receives and then transmits sensory information to the cortex for all of the senses except smell. It also plays an important role in the coordination of sensory and motor functioning, language and speech, and declarative memory. With regard to memory, Korsakoff syndrome is caused by a thiamine deficiency that’s often the result of chronic alcoholism and that damages neurons in the thalamus and mammillary bodies

A

Thalamus

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10
Q

The caudate nucleus, putamen, nucleus accumbens, and globus pallidus.

A

Basal Ganglia

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11
Q

These structures are involved in the initiation and control of voluntary movements, procedural and habit learning, cognitive functioning (e.g., attention and decision-making), and emotions.. damage has been linked to a number of conditions including mood disorders, schizophrenia, ADHD, OCD, Tourette’s disorder, Huntington’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease.

A

Basal Ganglia

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12
Q

Important role in the experience of emotions, recognition of fear and other emotions in facial expressions, acquisition of conditioned fear responses, evaluation of the emotional significance of events, and attachment of emotions to memories

A

Amygdala

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13
Q

is involved in the formation of flashbulb memories, which are vivid and enduring memories for surprising and shocking events.

A

Amygdala

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14
Q

Symptoms include hyperphagia, hyperorality, reduced fear, hypersexuality, and visual agnosia (which is also known as psychic blindness)

A

Kluver-Bucy syndrome

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15
Q

plays a role in motivation, memory, and emotions, including emotional reactions to pain. experience pain but are not emotionally distressed by it.

A

Cingulate Cortex:

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16
Q

involved more in memory and less in emotions than the other limbic system structures are. responsible for transferring declarative memories from short-term to long-term memory and plays an important role in spatial memory (memory for the spatial characteristics of the environment)

A

Hippocampus

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17
Q

People with this disorder have slow, labored speech that consists primarily of nouns and verbs. They also exhibit impaired repetition and anomia (an inability to recall the names of familiar objects), but their comprehension of written and spoken language is relatively intact.

A

Broca’s area

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18
Q

plays an important role in executive functions, which are also known as higher-order cognitive functions and include planning, decision-making, social judgment, and self-monitoring.

A

The prefrontal cortex

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19
Q

which prefrontal cortex is involved primarily with executive functions, and damage can cause concrete thinking, impaired judgment and insight, poor planning ability, deficits in working memory, perseverative responses, and disinterest and apathy

A

dorsolateral prefrontal cortex

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20
Q

Which prefrontal cortex plays a role in emotion regulation, response inhibition, and social behaviors. Damage to this area can cause poor impulse control, social inappropriateness (e.g., immature behavior, offensive jokes), lack of concern for others, aggressive and antisocial behaviors, distractibility, and affective lability. Damage to this area can cause poor impulse control, social inappropriateness (e.g., immature behavior, offensive jokes), lack of concern for others, aggressive and antisocial behaviors, distractibility, and affective lability

A

orbitofrontal cortex

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21
Q

Which prefrontal cortex isinvolved in decision-making, social cognition, memory, and emotion regulation. Damage can produce impaired decision-making and moral judgment, lack of insight, deficits in social cognition (e.g., impaired emotion recognition, reduced empathy), confabulation, and blunted emotional responses.

A

ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC)

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22
Q

Which lobe? auditory cortex is involved in processing sound, and damage to this area can produce auditory agnosia, auditory hallucinations, or cortical deafness. Wernicke’s area is a major language area and is located in the dominant (usually left) hemisphere.

A

Temporal Lobe:

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23
Q

Which lobe? People with this disorder have impaired comprehension of written and spoken language, impaired repetition, and anomia. Although their speech is fluent, it contains many word substitutions and other errors and is devoid of meaning.

A

Temporal lobe

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24
Q

Which lobe contains the somatosensory cortex, which processes sensory information related to touch, pressure, temperature, pain, and body position

A

Parietal Lobe

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25
Q

an inability to recognize objects by touch

A

tactile agnosia

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26
Q

a lack of interest in or recognition of one or more parts of one’s own body

A

asomatognosia

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27
Q

denial of one’s illness

A

anosognosia

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28
Q

Damage to the X lobe can also produce hemispatial neglect, ideomotor apraxia, ideational apraxia, or Gerstmann’s syndrome:

A

Parietal

29
Q

is also known as unilateral neglect and contralateral neglect and is usually caused by damage to the right (nondominant) parietal lobe and involves neglect of the left side of the body and stimuli on the left side of the body

A

Hemispatial neglect

30
Q

involves an inability to perform a motor activity in response to a verbal command (which apraxia?)

A

Ideomotor apraxia

31
Q

involves an inability to plan and execute a task that requires a sequence of actions (e.g., an inability to complete the steps needed to make a sandwich

A

ideational apraxia

32
Q

involves finger agnosia, right-left disorientation, agraphia (a loss of writing skills), and acalculia (a loss of arithmetic skills).

A

Gerstmann’s syndrome

33
Q

contains the visual cortex, which processes visual information. Damage to this area can cause visual agnosia, visual hallucinations, achromatopsia (loss of color vision), or cortical blindness.

A

occipital lobe

34
Q

occurs when the primary visual cortex is damaged while the eyes and optic nerves are intact. When the visual cortex in only the left hemisphere is damaged, blindness affects the right visual field, and vice versa

A

Cortical blindness

35
Q

do not consciously see a visual stimulus but have appropriate physiological and behavioral responses to it (e.g., they reach for objects they claim they cannot see)

A

blindsight

36
Q

main bundle of nerve fibers that allows the two hemispheres to share information with each other

A

corpus callosum

37
Q

Which system includes the brain and spinal cord

A

central nervous system (CNS)

38
Q

Which system transmits signals between the CNS and the rest of the body and includes the somatic and autonomic nervous systems

A

peripheral nervous system

39
Q

transmits information from the body’s sensory receptors to the CNS and from the CNS to the skeletal muscles. It’s responsible for actions that are usually considered voluntary

A

somatic nervous system

40
Q

transmits information from the body’s smooth muscles and organs to the CNS, and vice versa

A

autonomic nervous system (ANS)

41
Q

responsible for preparing the body for action. For instance, during the body’s fight-or-flight response to an emergency, the sympathetic nervous system causes pupil dilation, sweating, and increased heart and respiration rates and inhibits digestion and sexual activity

A

sympathetic nervous system

42
Q

responsible for activities that govern rest and relaxation, and it causes the body to return to its pre-emergency state after a fight-or-flight response.

A

parasympathetic nervous system

43
Q

refers to the brain’s ability to modify, change, and adapt both structure and function throughout life and in response to experience

A

Neuroplasticity

44
Q

4 types of neuroplasticity

A

Homologous area adaptation occurs when, in response to early damage to a particular area of the brain, the functions of that area shift to the corresponding area in the opposite hemisphere. A drawback of this type of neuroplasticity is that the pre-existing functions of the corresponding area may be negatively affected. As an example, when the right parietal lobe is damaged in childhood and the left parietal lobe takes over its visuospatial functions, the mathematical functions normally carried out by the left parietal lobe may be impaired. (b) Cross-modal reassignment occurs when a brain area that is responsible for processing a particular type of sensory input is deprived of that input and, as a result, the function of the neurons in that area changes. For example, neurons in the visual cortex of a child who was born blind do not receive and process visual input. As a result, these neurons may receive and process somatosensory input which, like visual input, allows the child to create cognitive representations of the physical world. (c) Map expansion is the temporary or permanent enlargement of a functioning cortical region as the result of practice or exercise and involves recruiting neurons from the borders of that region. This type of neuroplasticity often occurs when people are learning and practicing a new skill such as playing a musical instrument. (d) Compensatory masquerade occurs when person is no longer able to perform a task using usual cognitive processes that were mediated by a recently damaged area of the brain and, instead, begins using alternative cognitive processes that are mediated by an intact area of the brain. For instance, when people lose their spatial sense (sense of direction) as the result of a brain injury, they may rely on memorizing landmarks to get from one place to another.

45
Q

serves both excitatory and inhibitory functions. It contributes to movement, personality, mood, and sleep and has been identified as a contributor to several disorders.

A

Dopamine

46
Q

is both excitatory and inhibitory and is involved in movement, arousal, attention, and memory. causes muscles to contract, and myasthenia gravis is an autoimmune disorder that causes muscle weakness by destroying X receptors at neuromuscular junctions.

A

Acetylcholine

47
Q

excitatory neurotransmitter and contributes to movement, emotions, learning, and memory.

A

Glutamate

48
Q

Excessive X can cause cell damage and death, which is referred to as “X-induced excitotoxicity” and is believed to contribute to a number of conditions including stroke, seizure disorders, and several neurodegenerative diseases including Huntington’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease

A

Glutamate

49
Q

excitatory neurotransmitter and is involved in arousal, attention, learning, memory, stress, and mood. According to the catecholamine hypothesis, some forms of depression are caused by a deficiency of X while mania is due to excessive X.

A

Norepinephrine

50
Q

It has an inhibitory effect and plays a role in many functions including arousal, sleep, sexual activity, mood, appetite, and pain.

A

Serotonin

51
Q

primary inhibitory neurotransmitter and is involved in memory, mood, arousal, sleep, and motor control

A

GABA

52
Q

mimic or increase the effects of a neurotransmitter

A

Agonists

53
Q

do not produce any effects on their own but block or reduce the effects of a neurotransmitter or agonist.

A

Antagonists

54
Q

X cues depend on both eyes, are responsible for depth perception of objects that are relatively close, and include retinal disparity and convergence. Retinal disparity occurs because our two eyes see objects from two different views and, the closer an object, the greater the disparity

A

Binocular cues

55
Q

depend on one eye and are responsible for depth perception of objects at greater distances. They include the relative size of objects, the overlap (interposition) of objects, linear perspective, texture gradients, and the relative motion of objects (motion parallax).

A

Monocular cues

56
Q

a major theory of pain perception and distinguishes between two types of nerve fibers in the spinal cord: Small unmyelinated fibers are responsible for transmitting most pain signals to the brain, while larger myelinated fibers transmit other sensory signals.

A

Gate control theory

57
Q

predicts that the just noticeable difference (JND) for a stimulus is a constant proportion, regardless of the intensity of the original stimulus. For example, the proportion is always 2% for weight, which means that, to notice a change in weight, a second object must be at least 2% lighter or heavier than the first object. Weber’s law applies only to some stimuli and to intensities in the mid-range.

A

Weber’s Law:

58
Q

predicts that there’s a logarithmic relationship between psychological sensation and the magnitude of a physical stimulus. In other words, the JND “grows to an increasingly greater degree with each linear increment in intensity”

A

Fechner’s Law:

59
Q

and it proposes that there’s an exponential relationship between psychological sensation and the magnitude of a physical stimulus and that the exponent varies for different stimuli

A

Stevens’s Power Law

60
Q

What theory? assumes that perception of a stimulus (signal) is the outcome of both sensory and decision-making processes. It proposes that the decision-making process is always accompanied by some degree of uncertainty, which is caused by the presence of background noise (e.g., random neural activity in the perceiver’s perceptual system, the perceiver’s levels of motivation and fatigue, distractions in the environment).

A

Signal Detection Theory:

61
Q

theory proposes that exposure to an emotionally salient stimulus causes a physiological reaction which, in turn, is perceived as an emotion – e.g., when a person is faced with a growling bear while hiking in the woods, her heart begins to beat faster and she starts breathing more deeply, and she then feels afraid

A

James-Lange Theory:

62
Q

theory proposes that the experience of an emotion and physiological arousal occur together when an environmental stimulus causes the thalamus (which receives input from the senses) to simultaneously send signals to the cerebral cortex and the sympathetic nervous system.

A

Cannon-Bard Theory:

63
Q

known as cognitive arousal theory and describes the experience of emotion as the result of physiological arousal followed by an attribution (“cognitive label”) for that arousal

A

Schachter and Singer’s Two-Factor Theory

64
Q

proposes that differences in emotional reactions to events are due to different appraisals of those events. In other words, two people can experience the same event but respond with different emotions because they appraise the situation differently. It also assumes, in contrast to other theories, that physiological arousal follows cognitive appraisal.

A

Lazarus’s Cognitive Appraisal Theory

65
Q

theory proposes that fear consists of two separate but interacting systems that both respond to threatening stimuli: (a) The subcortical system is also referred to as the survival system. It reacts quickly and automatically to sensory information about a threatening stimulus with physiological and defensive behavioral responses. The amygdala is the major component of the subcortical system. (b) The cortical system is also referred to as the conscious emotional system. It processes information from the senses, subcortical system, and episodic and semantic memory using relevant cognitive processes (e.g., attention, working memory, and decision-making) and generates the conscious feeling of fear when it determines that the stimulus is actually threatening and warrants a fear response.

A

LeDoux’s Two-System Theory

66
Q

An influential model of the body’s reaction to stress. initial alarm reaction stage, resistance stage , exhaustion stage

A

by Selye’s (1976) general adaptation syndrome,

67
Q

Structural Neuroimaging Techniques?

A

computerized axial tomography (CT scan), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and are used to identify structural changes due, for example, to traumatic brain injury, strokes, tumors, degenerative diseases, and infections.

68
Q

Functional Neuroimaging techniques

A

regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) or blood volume (Small, 2006). These techniques include positron emission tomography (PET), single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and functional MRI (fMRI). PET and SPECT both use radioactive tracers (radiotracers) that are injected into the bloodstream to measure brain activity; fMRI, like MRI, uses magnetic fields and radio waves.

69
Q
A

Neuro and Psychopharm (2 decks)

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