Chapter 1- Introduction To Brain Behavior

Question 1

Neuroscience

Answer 1

The scientific study of the nervous system

Question 2

Biological Psychology

Answer 2

Also behavioral neuroscience, brain and behavior, and physiological psychology. The study of the biological bases of psychological process and behavior.

Question 3

Dualism

Answer 3

The notion, promoted by Rene Descarte, that the mind has an immaterial aspect that is distinct from the material body and brain.

Question 4

Phrenology

Answer 4

The belief that bumps on the skull reflects enlargements of brain regions responsible for certain behavioral faculties.

Question 5

Localization of function

Answer 5

The concept that different brain regions specialize in specific behaviors

Question 6

Ontogeny

Answer 6

The process by chic an individual changes in the course of its lifetime- that is, grows up and grows old

Question 7

Neuron

Answer 7

Also called nerve cell. The basic unit of the nervous system.

Question 8

Neural plasticity or neuroplasticity

Answer 8

The ability of the nervous system to change in response to experience or the environment.

Question 9

adult neurogenesis

Answer 9

The creation of new neurons in the brain of an adult.

Question 10

social neuroscience

Answer 10

A field of study that uses the tools of neuroscience to discover the biological bases of social behavior, and the effects of social circumstances on brain activity

Question 11

evolutionary psychology

Answer 11

a field of study devoted to asking how natural selection has shaped behavior in humans and other animals.

Question 12

epigenetic

Answer 12

The study of factors that affect gene expression without making changes in the nucleotide sequence of the gene themselves.

Question 13

gene expression

Answer 13

The turning on or off of specific genes

Question 14

Neuroeconomics

Answer 14

The study of brain mechanisms at world during economic decision making

Question 15

Consciousness

Answer 15

The state of awareness of ones own existence, thoughts, emotions, and experience.

Question 16

Somatic intervention

Answer 16

An approach to finding relations between body variables and behavioral variables that involves manipulating body structure or function and looking for resultant changes in behavior

Question 17

Independent Variable

Answer 17

The factor that is manipulated by an experimenter

Question 18

Dependent Variable

Answer 18

The factor that an experimenter measures to monitor a change in response to changes in an independent variable

Question 19

Control Group

Answer 19

A group of research subjects that are identical to an experimental group in every way except that they do do not receive the experimental treatment or manipulation. The experimental group is then compared to the control group to assess the effects of the treatment.

Question 20

within-subjects experiment

Answer 20

An experiment in which the same set of subjects is compared to before and after and experimental manipulation. The subjects thus serve as their own controls

Question 21

Between-subjects experiment

Answer 21

An experiment in which a group of experimental subjects is compared with a control group of individuals who have been treated identically in every way except that they haven’t received the experimental manipulation.

Question 22

Behavioral intervention

Answer 22

An approach to finding relations between body variables and behavioral variables that involves intervening in the behavior of an organism and looking for resultant an organism and looking for resultant changes in body structure or function.

Question 23

correlation

Answer 23

The covariation of two measures

Question 24

Negative correlation

Answer 24

A covariation of two measures in which one of the two usually goes up when the other goes down (and vice versa)

Question 25

Positive Correlation

Answer 25

A covariation of two measures in which they both usually increase together or always decrease together.

Question 26

Causality

Answer 26

The relation of cause and effect, such that we can conclude that an experimental manipulation has specifically caused an observed result.

Question 27

reductionism

Answer 27

The scientific strategy of breaking a system down into increasingly smaller parts in order to understand it.

Question 28

levels of analysis

Answer 28

The scope of experimental approaches. A scientist may try to understand behavrion by monitoring molecules, nerve cells, brain regions or social environments or using some combination of those levels of analysis.