Chapter 2

Question 1

Why are psychologists concerned with human biology?

Answer 1

psychologists working from a biological perspective study the links between biology and behavior.

Question 2

what do phrenology and biological psychology have in common?

Answer 2

They share a focus on the links between the brain and behavior.

Question 3

Biological psychology

Answer 3

the scientific study of the links between biological (genetic, neural, hormonal) and psychological processes.

Question 4

Plasticity

Answer 4

the brains ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganizing after damage or by building new pathways based on experiences.

Question 5

How do biology and experiences react?

Answer 5

plasticity enables our brain to adjust to new experiences, thereby being sculpted by both genes and life. This is life long ability, greatest in childhood. with practice, our brain develops unique patterns that reflect out life experiences.

Question 6

What are neurons, and how do they transmit information?

Answer 6

Neurons are a nerve cells; they are the basic building block of the nervous system; they transmit information with chemical and electrical signals.

Question 7

Cell body

Answer 7

The parts of the neuron that contains the nucleus; the cells life support center.

Question 8

Dendrites

Answer 8

A neurons often bushy, branching extensions that receive and integrate messages, conducting impulses toward the cell body.

Question 9

Axon

Answer 9

The neuron extension that passes messages through its branches to other neurons, or muscles, or glands.

Question 10

Myelin Sheath

Answer 10

A fatty tissue layer segmentally encasing the axons of some neurons; enables vastly greater transmission speed as neural impulses hop from one nod to another.

Question 11

Glial Cells

Answer 11

Cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons; they also play a role in thinking, learning, and memory.

Question 12

Action potential

Answer 12

A neural impulse; a brief electrical charge that travels down the axon.

Question 13

When a neuron fires an action potential, the information travels through the axon, the dendrites, and the cell body, but not in that order. Explain the order of sequence these three structures are in.

Answer 13

Dendrites, cell body, then the information travels through the axon.

Question 14

How does our nervous system allow us to experience the difference between a slap and a tap on the back?

Answer 14

Stronger stimuli (the slap) cause more neurons to fire and to fire more frequently than happens with a weaker stimuli (the tap)

Question 15

Threshold

Answer 15

the level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse.

Question 16

How do nerve cells communicate with other nerve cells?

Answer 16

Nerve cells or neurons communicate with each other by releasing specific molecules in the gap between them, the synapses. The sending neuron passes on messages through packets of chemicals called neurotransmitters, which are picked up by the receiving cell with the help of receptors on its surface.

Question 17

Refractory period

Answer 17

Period of inactivity after a neuron has fired

Question 18

All-or-none response

Answer 18

A neuron’s reaction of either firing (with a full-strength response) or not firing

Question 19

Neuro transmitters

Answer 19

Chemical messengers that cross the synaptic gaps between neurons. When released by the sending neuron, neurotransmitters travel across the synapse and bind to receptor sites on the receiving neuron, thereby influencing whether that neuron will generate a neural impulse.

Question 20

Reuptake

Answer 20

A neurotransmitters reabsorption by the sending neuron.

Question 21

What happens in the synaptic gap?

Answer 21

Neurons send neurotransmitters (chemical messengers) across this tiny space between ones neurons terminal branch and the next neurons dendrite or cell body.

Question 22

What is reuptake? What two other things can happen to excess neurotransmitters after a neuron reacts?

Answer 22

Reuptake occurs when excess neurotransmitters are reabsorbed by the sending neuron. They can drift away or be broken down by enzymes.

Question 23

Serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins are all chemical messengers called?

Answer 23

Neurotransmitters

Question 24

What role does acetylcholine play?

Answer 24

Learning, and memory

Question 25

What are Endorphins?

Answer 25

Natural, opiate like neurotransmitters linked to pain control and to pleasure.

Question 26

Agonist

Answer 26

A molecule that increases a neurotransmitter’s action

Question 27

What are antagonists?

Answer 27

a molecule that inhibits or blocks a neurotransmitter’s action

Question 28

Curare poisoning paralyzes its victims by blocking ACh receptors involved in muscle movements. Morphine mimics endorphin actions. Which is agonist, and which is an antagonist.

Answer 28

Morphine is agonist; curare is an antagonist.

Question 29

What are the functions of the nervous system’s main divisions?

Answer 29

The central nervous system is the body’s decision maker, and the peripheral nervous system is responsible for gathering information and for transmitting CNS decisions to other body parts

Question 30

What are the three main types of neurons?

Answer 30

Sensory neurons, motor neurons, and interneurons.

Question 31

Sensory (afferent) neurons

Answer 31

Neurons that carry incoming information from the body’s tissues and sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord.

Question 32

Motor (efferent) neurons

Answer 32

Neurons that carry ongoing information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and glands.

Question 33

Interneurons

Answer 33

Neurons within the brain and spinal cord; they communicate internally and process information between the sensory inputs and motor outputs

Question 34

Somatic nervous system

Answer 34

the division of peripheral nervous system that controls the body’s skeletal muscle. Also know as the skeletal nervous system.

Question 35

Autonomic nervous system

Answer 35

the part of the peripheral nervous system that controls the glands and muscles of internal organs (such as the heart). Its systematical division arouse; its parasympathetic division calms.

Question 36

Endocrine system

Answer 36

the body’s slow chemical communication system; a set of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream.

Question 37

Adrenal glands

Answer 37

Right on top of the kidneys, it releases a hormone when in distress.

Question 38

pituitary glands

Answer 38

The endocrine’s system’s most influential gland. under the influence of the hypothalamus, the pituitary regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands

Question 39

How are the nervous and endocrine systems alike, and how do they differ?

Answer 39

both communication systems produce chemical molecules that act on the body’s receptors to influence our behavior and emotions, endocrine delivers messages much slower than the speedy nervous system, and the effects of the endocrines system lasts longer that the nervous systems.