Chapter 12: Emotion & Motivation Terms [only bonus] Flashcards
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Activating Effects
Hormonal actions that influence activities in the adult brain.
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Amygdala
The part of the brain that participates in species-typical behaviors, emotion, and emotional memory; from the Greek word for ‘almond’ reflecting the general shape in the medial temporal lobe.
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Androgens
A class of hormones that stimulate or control masculine characteristics, and that play a role in levels of sexual interest in humans.
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Anorexia Nervosa
An eating disorder characterized by exaggerated concern with being overweight that leads to inadequate food intake and often excessive exercising; can lead to severe weight loss and even starvation.
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Aphasia
The failure to eat; may be due to an unwillingness to eat or to motor difficulties, especially with swallowing.
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Emotion
The cognitive interpretation of subjective experiences that can influence thought and behavior.
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Evolutionary Psychology
Disipline that seeks to apply principles of evolution to understand the causes of human behavior.
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Gender Identity
An individual’s concept of self as male, female, neither, or both.
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Hippocampus
From the Greek word for ‘seahorse’; distinctive allocortical structure lying in the medial temporal lobe; participates in memory and spatial navigation and is vulnerable to the effects of stress.
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Homeostatic Mechanism
A process that maintains critical body functions within a narrow, fixed range.
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Hyperphagia
Compulsive overeating that leads to significant weight gain.
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Hypovolemic Thirst
A thirst produced by a loss of overall fluid volume from the body.
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Innate Releasing Mechanism [IRM]
A hypothetical mechanism that detects specific sensory stimuli and directs an organism to take a particular action.
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Klüver-Bucy Syndrome
A behavioral syndrome, characterized by compulsive investigation and hypersexuality resulting from bilateral injury to the temporal lobe.
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Learned Taste Aversion
An acquired association between a specific taste or odor and illness; leads to an aversion to foods that have the taste or odor.
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Medial Forebrain Bundle [MFB]
Tract that connects the brainstem structures with various parts of the limbic system; includes fibers for activating projections of dopamine, norepinephrine, and acetylcholine.
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Motivation
The internal state of an organism that acts to initiate or energize behavior; from the Latin motivus, meaning ‘a moving cause’.
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Nonregulatory Behavior
Behavior unnecessary to an animal’s basic survival needs.
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Obesity
The excessive accumulation of body fat.
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Orbitofrontal Cortex [OFC]
Prefrontal cortex behind the eye sockets [the orbits]; receives projections from the dorsomedial nucleus of the thalamus; central to a variety of emotional and social behaviors, including eating; also called orbital frontal cortex.
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Organizing Effects
Hormonal actions that influence the organizational development of the fetal brain.
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Osmotic Thirst
Thirst that results from a high concentration of dissolved chemicals, or solutes, in body fluids.
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Pheromone
An odorant biochemical released by one animal that acts as a chemosignal and can affect the physiology or behavior of another animal.
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Pituitary Gland
Endocrine gland attached to the bottom of the hypothalamus; its secretions control the activities of many other glands of the body.
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Preparedness
Predisposition by an animal to emit behavior to certain sensory stimuli.
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Psychosurgery
Any neurological technique that damages the brain but is intended to improve behavior.
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Regulatory Behavior
Behavior motivated to meet an animal’s survival needs.
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Reinforcer
In operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.
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Releasing Hormone
Peptide released by the hypothalamus that increases or decreases hormone release from the anterior pituitary.
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Sexual Dimorphism
Differential development of brain areas in the two sexes.
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Sexual Orientation
A person’s pattern of sexual attraction - to the opposite sex, to the same sex, or to both sexes.
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Transgender
Possessing personal characteristics that transcend traditional gender boundaries and corresponding sexual norms; identification with a gender different from that expected based on the sex assigned at birth.
