Chapter 12: Emotion & Motivation Terms [only bonus]

Question 1

Define:

Activating Effects

Answer 1

Hormonal actions that influence activities in the adult brain.

Question 2

Define:

Amygdala

Answer 2

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.

Question 3

Define:

Androgens

Answer 3

A class of hormones that stimulate or control masculine characteristics, and that play a role in levels of sexual interest in humans.

Question 4

Define:

Anorexia Nervosa

Answer 4

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.

Question 5

Define:

Aphasia

Answer 5

The failure to eat; may be due to an unwillingness to eat or to motor difficulties, especially with swallowing.

Question 6

Define:

Emotion

Answer 6

The cognitive interpretation of subjective experiences that can influence thought and behavior.

Question 7

Define:

Evolutionary Psychology

Answer 7

Disipline that seeks to apply principles of evolution to understand the causes of human behavior.

Question 8

Define:

Gender Identity

Answer 8

An individual’s concept of self as male, female, neither, or both.

Question 9

Define:

Hippocampus

Answer 9

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.

Question 10

Define:

Homeostatic Mechanism

Answer 10

A process that maintains critical body functions within a narrow, fixed range.

Question 11

Define:

Hyperphagia

Answer 11

Compulsive overeating that leads to significant weight gain.

Question 12

Define:

Hypovolemic Thirst

Answer 12

A thirst produced by a loss of overall fluid volume from the body.

Question 13

Define:

Innate Releasing Mechanism [IRM]

Answer 13

A hypothetical mechanism that detects specific sensory stimuli and directs an organism to take a particular action.

Question 14

Define:

Klüver-Bucy Syndrome

Answer 14

A behavioral syndrome, characterized by compulsive investigation and hypersexuality resulting from bilateral injury to the temporal lobe.

Question 15

Define:

Learned Taste Aversion

Answer 15

An acquired association between a specific taste or odor and illness; leads to an aversion to foods that have the taste or odor.

Question 16

Define:

Medial Forebrain Bundle [MFB]

Answer 16

Tract that connects the brainstem structures with various parts of the limbic system; includes fibers for activating projections of dopamine, norepinephrine, and acetylcholine.

Question 17

Define:

Motivation

Answer 17

The internal state of an organism that acts to initiate or energize behavior; from the Latin motivus, meaning ‘a moving cause’.

Question 18

Define:

Nonregulatory Behavior

Answer 18

Behavior unnecessary to an animal’s basic survival needs.

Question 19

Define:

Obesity

Answer 19

The excessive accumulation of body fat.

Question 20

Define:

Orbitofrontal Cortex [OFC]

Answer 20

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.

Question 21

Define:

Organizing Effects

Answer 21

Hormonal actions that influence the organizational development of the fetal brain.

Question 22

Define:

Osmotic Thirst

Answer 22

Thirst that results from a high concentration of dissolved chemicals, or solutes, in body fluids.

Question 23

Define:

Pheromone

Answer 23

An odorant biochemical released by one animal that acts as a chemosignal and can affect the physiology or behavior of another animal.

Question 24

Define:

Pituitary Gland

Answer 24

Endocrine gland attached to the bottom of the hypothalamus; its secretions control the activities of many other glands of the body.

Question 25

Define:

Preparedness

Answer 25

Predisposition by an animal to emit behavior to certain sensory stimuli.

Question 26

Define:

Psychosurgery

Answer 26

Any neurological technique that damages the brain but is intended to improve behavior.

Question 27

Define:

Regulatory Behavior

Answer 27

Behavior motivated to meet an animal’s survival needs.

Question 28

Define:

Reinforcer

Answer 28

In operant conditioning, any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.

Question 29

Define:

Releasing Hormone

Answer 29

Peptide released by the hypothalamus that increases or decreases hormone release from the anterior pituitary.

Question 30

Define:

Sexual Dimorphism

Answer 30

Differential development of brain areas in the two sexes.

Question 31

Define:

Sexual Orientation

Answer 31

A person’s pattern of sexual attraction - to the opposite sex, to the same sex, or to both sexes.

Question 32

Define:

Transgender

Answer 32

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.