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MCAT Psych/soc > Chapter 1 - Brain > Flashcards

Chapter 1 - Brain Flashcards

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1
Q

Franz Gall

A
  • behavior, intellect, and personality are linked to brain anatomy
  • phrenology - brain expands when trait is larger. Cause large head
  • measure attributes by measuring brain
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2
Q

Pierre Flourens

A
  • functions of sections of brain
  • extirpation/ablation - remove part of brain and observe behavior
  • specific parts have specific functions
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3
Q

william james

A
  • functionalism - how thought leads to adaption to environment
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4
Q

John Dewey

A
  • functionalism
  • study whole organism as it adapts to environment
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5
Q

Paul Broca

A
  • link lesions to specific impairments
  • speech connected to specific left side area (Broca’s area)
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6
Q

Hermann von Helmholtz

A
  • measure speed of nerve impulse
  • bridge to natural science
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7
Q

Charles Sherrington

A
  • existance of synapses
  • originally thought of as an electrical process but is actually chemical
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8
Q

sensory neurons

A
  • aka afferent
  • transmit sensory info
    • spinal cord to brain
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9
Q

motor neurons

A
  • aka efferent
  • brain to spinal cord to muscles/glands
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10
Q

Interneuron

A

between neurons and are most numerous neuron

mostly in spinal cord and brain

reflexive behavior

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11
Q

reflex arc

A
  • immediate response to a stimulus without the help of the brain
  • uses interneurons
  • info sent to the brain but reflex has already occured
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12
Q

nervous system divisions

A
  • central - brain and spinal cord
  • peripheral - nerve tissue and fibers outside of the brain, spinal nerves and cranial nerves, olfactory and optic nerves
    • somatic
    • autonomic
      • sympathetic
      • parasympathetic
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13
Q

somatic nervous system

A
  • sensory and motor neurons
  • sensory - afferent
  • motor - efferent
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14
Q

autonamic nervous system

A
  • regulate heartbeat, respiration, digestion, glands, body temp
  • involuntary muscle control
  • sympathetic and parasympathetic systems are antagonistic - oppose each other
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15
Q

parasympathetic nervous system

A
  • conserve energy
  • reduce heart rate, constrict bronchi, increase digestion, constrict pupils, stimulate saliva, contracts bladder
  • acetylcholine is the responsible NT
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16
Q

sympathetic nervous system

A
  • activated by stress
  • fight or flight
  • rage and fear reactions
  • increase heart rate, blood to muscles, relax bronchi, increase blood glucose, decrease digestion, dilate eyes, release epinephrine into blood
  • secrete adrenaline and noradrenaline (epinephrine and norepinephrine)
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17
Q

Layers of meninges

A
  • meninges - connective tissue. protects brain, anchors to skull, resorb CSF
    • closest to brain - pia mater, arachnoid mater, dura mater
  • superficial to meninges is the bone then periosteum and skin
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18
Q

Overall brain structure

A
  • hindbrain and midbrain form the brainstem
    • most primitive
  • forebrain - includes limbic system (emotion and memory - aggression, fear, pleasure, pain)
    • cerebral cortex - most recent evolutionarily
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19
Q

hindbrain

A
  • rhombencephalon - controls balance, motor coordination, breathing, digestion, arousal (sleep/wake)
  • divides into -
    • myelencephalon - medulla oblongata - vital functions
    • metencephalon - pons and cerebellum
      • pons - pathway between cortex and medulla
      • cerebellum - posture, balance, coordinate body movement
      • impaired by alcohol
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20
Q

midbrain

A
  • mesencephalon - receive motor and sensory info from body
  • involuntary response to visual/audio stimuli
    • superior colliculus - visual sensory input
    • inferior colliculus - auditory sensory input
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21
Q

forebrain

A
  • prosencephalon - complex perceptual, cognitive, behavioral processes. Emotion and memory
  • greatest influence on human behavior
    • telencephalon - cerebral cortex, basal ganglia, limbic system
    • diencephalon - thalamus, hypothalamus, posterior pituitary gland, pineal gland
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22
Q

neuropsychology

A
  • functions and behaviors associated with specific regions of the brain
  • study brain lesions in order to see affected behavior/function
    • difficult in humans, use lab animals and precisely cause lesion
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23
Q

cortical maps

A
  • electrically stimulate the brain and make a map
  • use patient input to make map
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24
Q

electroencephalogram (EEG)

A
  • monitor electrical activity of large groups of neurons
  • place electrodes on the scalp
  • noninvasive
  • map brain
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25
Q

regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF)

A
  • broad patterns based on increase blood flow to areas of the brain
  • assumes blood flow increases as brain is active
  • uses radioactive blood dye
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26
Q

Common brain scanning methods

A

CT - computed tomography - X rays at different angles to make cross sectional images

PET - positron emission tomography - track radioactive sugar

MRI - magnetic resonance imaging - magnetic field and maps hydrogen density

fMRI - functional MRI - measures changes associated with blood flow. monitor neural activity

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27
Q

thalamus

A

relay input sensory info

all senses except smell

sort and transmit to cortex

28
Q

hypothalamus

A

homeostatic functions (metabolism, temp, water), emotions (arousal, aggression, sex), control endocrine, autonomic NS, hunger, thirst, sexual behavior

lateral - eating and drinking (LH, lacks hunger when destroyed)

ventromedial - satiety center. signals stop eating (VMH, very much hungry when destroyed)

anterior - sexual behavior, sleep, body temp (A, asexual, when destroyed)

Four F’s - feeding, fighting, flighting, functioning (sexual)

29
Q

posterior pituitary and pineal gland

A
  • post. pituitary - release hypothalamic hormones such as ADH and oxytocin
  • pineal - secrete melatonin - regulate circadian rhythms
    • signals from retina to coordinate with sunlight
30
Q

basal ganglia

A
  • coordinate muscle movement
  • receive info from cortex and relay
  • extrapyramidal system - gather info about pody position and sends to CNS
  • smooth movement and steady posture
  • parkinsons - destruction of basal ganglia
31
Q

limbic system

A
  • emotion and memory
  • septal nuclei - primary pleasure center - associated with addiction
  • amygdala - defensive and aggresive behavior
    • fear and rage
  • hippocampus - learning and memory processes
    • consolidate into long term memory
    • communicate through the fornix
32
Q

anterograde and retrograde amnesia

A

anterograde - not being able to establish new long term memories. Prior memory intact

retrograde - memory loss of events before brain injury

33
Q

cerebral cortex

A

aka neocortex

  • bumps are gyri
  • folds are sulci
  • cerebral hemispheres are the halves
  • frontal - executive function
  • parietal - touch, temp, pain
  • occipital - vision
  • temporal - hearing
34
Q

frontal lobe

A
  • prefrontal cortex - executive function - perception, memory, emotion, impulse, long term planning
    • association area - integrates input from diverse brain regions
  • primary motor cortex - precentral gyrus - initiates voluntary motor movements
  • Brocas area - speech, in dominant hemisphere
35
Q

projection area

A

rudimentary or simple perceptual and motor tasks

  • processes sensory information
36
Q

homunculus

A
  • motor - maps areas of brain used for motor skills. Fine motor skills use larger area than proportional to that body part
  • somatosensory - sensitive areas like fingers and face have large areas on map
37
Q

parietal lobe

A
  • somatosensory cortex - postcentral gyrus
  • destination for all sensory input signals for touch, pressure, temp, and pain
  • central parietal - spatial processing and manipulation - mapreading
    • orient in 3D space
38
Q

occipital lobe

A
  • visual cortex - aka striate cortex
  • sensation and perception of visual info
39
Q

temporal lobe

A
  • auditory cortex - sound processing - speech, music, other
  • wernickes area - larguage reception and comprehension
  • also helps with memory processing, emotion, language
40
Q

contralaterally and ipsilaterally

A
  • contra - one side of brain communicates with opposite side of the body
    • motor neurons
  • ipsa - same side of brain and body communicate
    • hearing
41
Q

dominant hemisphere

A
  • usually left
  • more stimulated during language reception adn production
  • analytic in function - language, logic, math
  • not determined by handedness
42
Q

nondominant hemisphere

A
  • usually right
  • intuition, creativity, music cognition, spacial processing
  • emotional tone of language
  • faces, music, emotion, geometry, sense of direction
43
Q

acetylcholine

A
  • CNS and PNS
  • muscle control
    • excite skeletal and inhibit cardiac muscle
  • CNS - attention and arousal, excitatory
  • parasympathetic and efferent (motor) of somatic
  • sympathetic - small influence - in ganglia and innervate sweat glands
44
Q

epinephrine and norepinephrine

A
  • catecholamines
  • monoamines
  • experience of emotions
  • control alertness
  • sympathetic NS - promote flight or fight
  • norepi at local level, epi at systemic (from adrenal medulla)
  • low norepi - depression
  • high norepi - anxiety and mania
45
Q

dopamine

A
  • catecholamine
  • monoamine
  • movement and posture
  • high conc in basal ganglia
  • dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia - symptoms caused by too much dopamine or oversensitivity
  • parkinsons - loss of dopaminergic neurons
46
Q

serotonin

A
  • monoamine
  • mood, eating, sleeping, dreaming
  • high - manic
  • low - depression
47
Q

GABA, Glycine, Glutamate

A
  • GABA - gamma-amminobutyric acid
    • inhibitory postsynaptic potentials - stabilize neural activity
    • cause hyperpolarization
  • glycine - inhbitory NT in CNS. Increase Cl- into neuron, hyperpolarize
  • glutamate - excitatory NT
48
Q

peptide NT

A
  • neuromodulators aka neuropeptides
  • chain of events cause effect
    • slower and longer effects
  • endorphins - natural painkillers. similar to morphine/opioids
    • enkephalins is a relative
49
Q

hypophyseal portal system

A
  • hypothalamus links the endocrine and nervous systems
    • controls function of pituitary gland and hormone release
  • portal system connects the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland
50
Q

pituitary gland

A
  • anterior and posterior
  • anterior - master gland
    • FSH, LH, ACTH, TSH, prolactin, endorphins, GH
    • regulate activity of other endocrine glands
  • posterior - ADH, oxytocin
51
Q

adrenal glands

A
  • top of kidneys
  • medulla and cortex
    • medulla - epi and norepi
    • cortex - corticosteroids such as cortisol, testosterone, estrogen
52
Q

innate behavior

A
  • genetically programmed as a result of evolution
    • regardless of environment
53
Q

learned behaviors

A
  • not hereditary
  • experience and environment
54
Q

adaptive value

A
  • extent to which a trait or behavior positively benefits a species by influencing the evolutionary fitness of the species
  • leads to adapation and natural selection
55
Q

nature v. nurture

A
  • genetics vs environmental influence
  • combination of both influences
56
Q

family studies

A
  • compare rate of trait within a family to rate of the trait in general population
  • cannot distinguish between environment and genetic influence
57
Q

twin studies

A
  • concordance rate - likelihood that both twins exhibit the same trait
  • monozygotic are identical and have 100% same genes
  • dizygotic have about 50% same genes
  • difference between mono and di twins is likely hereditary factor
  • compare twins raised together and seperate to test environment
58
Q

adoption study

A
  • compare adoptive child to bio parents and to adoptive parents
  • bio parents have same genes different environment
  • adoptive parents have different genes and the same environment
59
Q

neurulation

A
  • ectoderm overlying the notocord begins to furroe and form neural groove surrounded by two neural folds
  • leading edge of neural fold are neural crest
    • forms disparate tissue - dorsal root ganglia, melanocytes, and calcitonin producing cells (thyroid)
  • Close furrow to form neural tube - CNS
    • alar plate of neural tube - sensory neurons
    • basal plate of neural tube - motor neurons
  • neural tube folds on itself several times to become the brain
60
Q

rubella

A

cataracts

deafness

heart defects

mental retardation

61
Q

Pharmaceuticals during pregancy

A

thalidomide - malformed limbs, taken to combast morning sickness

antiepileptic - neural tube defects. spina bifida and anencephaly

62
Q

environmental factors during pregnancy

A
  • malnutrition - leading cause of abnormal development
    • slow growth, mental retardation, reduce immunity
  • cigarettes - slow growth, high heart rate, premature birth
  • alcohol - slow growth
  • X-rays
63
Q

primitive reflexes

A
  • disappear with age
  • rooting - turning head to touch of cheek
  • sucking and swallowing
  • moro - abrupt movement of head causes flinging out arms and slowly retracting them and crying
    • asymmetric response could mean neuromuscular problem
  • babinski - toes spread apart when sole of foot stimulated
  • grasping - close fingers around object
64
Q

motor skill development

A
  • same age and order therefore used to assess child
  • uncoordinated movements lead to coordinated movements later
  • gross motor skills - large muscles/whole body, sitting, crawling, walking
  • fine motor skills - small muscles, specific and delicate, drawing, catching, waving
65
Q

social development

A
  • stranger anxiety - 7 months
  • seperation anxiety - 12 months
  • soliatry to onlooker play
  • parallel play - 2 years
  • gender identity - 3 years, gender psecific play, knows full name
  • age 5 - conform to peers, romantic feelings
  • 6-12 - same sex friend circles
  • 13+ self sufficient and desire independence and rebell, cross gender friendship, sexual orientation and relationships
66
Q

developmental milestones

A
  • themes
  • social - parental to self to others oriented
  • language and motor skills become more complex
    • begin very basic
    • motor - head to toe and core to extremities

MCAT Psych/soc (12 decks)

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