Brain and Behavior Part 1 Lecture Flashcards
What is the name of an individual nerve cell?
Neuron
What are the four parts of a neuron and what are their functions?
- The dendrites: receive electrical signals from other neurons
- The cell body: contains the nucleus and provides for the life processes of the cell
- The axon: carries the electrical signal from the soma to the terminal buttons
- The terminal buttons: release neurotransmitters that cause electrical changes to the next neuron in the chain
What is an action potential?
a spike of electricity that travels down its axon
What is the space between the terminal buttons of one neuron and the dendrites of another neuron called?
Synapse
What is a neurotransmitter?
binds to receptors in the dendrites of the nest neuron in the chain thereby electrically exciting or inhibiting the next cell
Which part of the brain (hindbrain, midbrain, or forebrain) contains the medulla oblongata and the pons?
Hindbrain
What does the medulla oblongata do?
controls breathing, heart rate, and vomiting
What does the pons do?
regulates sleep and arousal
What part of the brain (hindbrain, midbrain, or forebrain) contains the superior colliculus, the inferior colliculus, and the substantia nigra?
midbrain
What do the superior colliculus and the inferior colliculus do?
Superior controls visual reflexes and inferior controls auditory reflexes
What disease involves the death of neurons in the substantia nigra?
Parkinson’s disease
What part of the brain (hindbrain, midbrain, or forebrain) contains the cortex, hypothalamus, amygdala, hippocampus, and basal ganglia?
Forebrain
What does the hypothalamus regulate?
the “Four Fs”: feeding, fighting, fleeing, and mating
What does the amygdala do?
controls emotional responses, particularly fear
What does the hippocampus do?
encodes long term memories
What part of the brain was missing in HM that led to his problems transferring information from short term to long term memory?
Hippocampus
What do the basal ganglia do?
the reward system of the brain
According to Burnham and Phelan’s theory of how the basal ganglia work, what happens when people have a gain in their material success?
the basal ganglia have been wired up to reward us briefly for gains in material success, but then for happiness to fade so we will continue to strive to make more money
According to Burnham and Phelan’s theory of how the basal ganglia work, what happens when people experience negative events?
the basal ganglia will punish us, but the emotional pain fades quickly with time so we won’t be debilitated by grief
