ch 4 Flashcards

Question

v Reticular activating system (or formation)

Answer 1

Ø Arouses cortex and screens incoming | information

Answer 2

```  Regulates movement and balance.  Involved in remembering simple skills and acquired reflexes.  Plays a part in:  Analyzing sensory information  Solving problems  Understanding words ```

Answer 3

```  Relays sensory messages to the cerebral cortex.  Includes all sensory messages except those from olfactory bulb. ```

Answer 4

 Involved in emotions and drives vital to survival.  fear, hunger, thirst, and reproduction.  Regulates autonomic nervous system  Pituitary gland  Small endocrine gland which releases hormones and regulates other endocrine glands.

Answer 5

```  Responsible for:  Arousal  Regulation of emotion  The initial emotional response to sensory information.  Plays important role in  Mediating anxiety and depression  Emotional memory ```

Answer 6

```  Responsible for:  Storage of new information in memory.  Comparing sensory information with what the brain expects about the world.  Enabling us to form spatial memories for navigating the environment. ```

Answer 7

```  Largest brain structure  This upper part of the brain is divided into two cerebral hemispheres that are connected by the corpus callosum.  In charge of most sensory, motor and cognitive processes.  Surrounded by cerebral cortex, a collection of several thin layers of cells (grey matter). ```

Answer 8

``` Occipital lobes (visual cortex)  Parietal lobes (somatosensory cortex)  Temporal lobes  Memory, perception, emotion and auditory cortex  Left lobe, Wernicke’s area  Frontal lobes  Emotion, planning, creative thinking and motor cortex  Left lobe, Broca’s area ```

Answer 9

Bilinguals may use different brain regions for retrieval in different languages  Literacy shapes the distribution of white matter and grey matter in the brain  Technological literacy may affect brain activity

Answer 10

``` Gage was a railroad construction foreman  An 1848 explosion forced a steel tamping rod through his head  Others said he was “…no longer Gage…”  Lost his job and worked as a sideshow exhibit ```

Answer 11

```  A house divided  Evidence from: 1. People with lateralized brain damage. 2. People with the two halves of the brain disconnected 3. People with normal, intact brains ```

Answer 12

``` Knowing your Lefts and Rights  The Greek physician Hippocrates discovered that injuries to one side of the head led to the opposite side of the body becoming paralyzed or seizing.  The left side of the brain controls the right side of the body.  The right side of the brain controls the left side of the body. ```

Answer 13

```  Basic sensory and motor functions are the same.  Higher association areas have functional differences between the hemispheres.  Subject to individual variation, such as left- or right-handedness. ```

Answer 14

``` Millions of myelinated axons connecting the brain’s hemispheres. • Provides a pathway for communication between hemispheres. • If surgically severed to treat epilepsy, hemispheres cannot communicate directly. ```

Answer 15

``` results in: - Impairments in facial recognition - Lack of emotion in spoken language - Poor perception of emotion in language - Disorganization of movement - Less likely to result in depression than LH damage ```

Answer 16

- Problems with language - Right side hemiparesis - Depression - Impairment on tasks requiring “logical ordering”

Answer 17

```  Can selectively expose one half of the brain to visual or tactile Stimulation.  Normally, this information would be “shared” between the two Hemispheres. ```

Answer 18

Research on split-brain patients shows us:  Nearly all right-handed and the majority of left-handed individuals process language mainly in the left hemisphere.  Many researchers believe in left-hemisphere dominance.  Others insist the right-hemisphere is important for spatial visual problem-solving, comprehending non-verbal sounds, and some language abilities.

Answer 19

 After analyzing 49 studies of sex differences in brain anatomy, researchers found small differences between the two groups and larger differences within groups.  There do appear to be sex differences in lateralization of language. Males show left-hemisphere activation only; females, left and right.  There also appear to be differences in amounts of grey matter: females have more.

Answer 20

These supposed differences are stereotypes.  A brain difference does not necessarily explain behaviour or performance.  Sex differences in the brain could be the result rather than the cause of behavioural differences.  Use your critical thinking skills to evaluate all of the research!