chapter 3

Question 1

Neuroscience

Answer 1

The study of how nerves and cells send and receive info from the brain, body and spinal cord

everything psychlogical is biological

Question 2

cerebral cortex

Answer 2

The top of the brain - wrinkly region

whats below is the subcortex

humans have a highly develop cerebral cortex
It is eolutinarly young and gives cognitive skills and ability to experience complex emotions

The cerebral cortex surround inner evolutianrly old parts - the older parts sned and receive connections from all organs, regultaing mental and bodily functions needed for survival

Question 3

neurons

Answer 3

the cells that makeup the brain

contain genes which infleunce how our brains are similar and diff

brain is product of both genes and envirnment

genes give the brain the abiilty to adapt to envirnment and learn from epxiernces

Question 4

Nervous system

Answer 4

A network of neurons that run throughout your brain and body

Nerves - collection of neruons - carry signals toa nd from the brain, relating perceptions, thoughts and feelings into actions

Question 5

Neurons

Answer 5

Motor neurons: Send meesages to the whole body, enabling you to interct with the envirnment

Sensory neurons: these neerves send status report back to brain - cary info from within the body and the outside world to the brain

Interneurons: connecting other neruons - interpret, store and retrieve info abt the world allowing you to make informed decisons before you act - most brain resoruces are devoted to processing sensory data it receives and using the data to plan and execute future actions

Question 6

Spinal cord

Answer 6

bundle of nerves that connects the body to the brain - encased in bone known as spine

Question 7

central nervous sytem

Answer 7

CNS exchanges info between teh brain and body - made of the brain and spinal cord

Question 8

Periphral nervous system

Answer 8

composed of sensory and motor nerves that travel in the whole body

Question 9

Somatic nervous sytem

Answer 9

PNS seperated into this system whcih allows you to feel external sensations

voluntary comands - controls the conscious body movements

includes skeltal muscles

Question 10

Autonomic nervous system

Answer 10

PNS also dived into this whch allows you to feel internal sensations

involunayr commands - maintains operations inside the body like heartbeat

includes organs, blood vessles and glands

Question 11

sympathetic and parasympatheic

Answer 11

autonomic nervous sytems splits into this

sympatheic nervous system acts on blood vessels, organs and glands in a way that prepares the body for action in life thretain situations

parasympatheic acts on blood vessels, organs and glands in a way that returns the body to a resting state by both counteracting adn complementing the actions of sympethic system

Question 12

endocrine system

Answer 12

network of glands that release hormones

coordinates hormone release with CNS and PNS allwing signal exchange from your brain to your body and back again

reaches crooks and crannies of body even though slower than nervous system

Question 13

adrenal glands

Answer 13

on kidneys

role in flight or fight

activated by sympatheic branch of autonmic system duirng stress

release adrenaline and cortisol which boost energy and icnrease heart rate, blood pressure and blood sugar

Question 14

hypothalamus

Answer 14

interestion of CNS and encodrine system happens here

plays imprtant role in governing many survival related behaviours lke eating, drinking and having sex
these all give pleasure which links psycholgical needs and wants to behaviours body needs

Question 15

pituitary galnd

Answer 15

under hypothalmus

master endocrine gland - oval shaped cluster

sends messages to regulate other endocrine glands, modulate hunger, sexual arousal and via the pineal gland, sleep

communicates with male and female sex glands to produce sex hormones

releases oxytocin

Question 16

major structures of brain

Answer 16

forebrain: occipital, temporal, parietal, frontal and insular - in the subcortex is the hippocampus, amygdala, basal ganglia, thalamus and hypothalmus
midbrain: tegmentum, ventral tegmental area, substantia nigra
hindbrain: pons, medulla oblogata, reticular formtaion and cerebellum

Question 17

cerebral cortex

Answer 17

largest and outermost portion of brain
supports complex mental activty

majority is neocortex - develops through late adolescence and adulthood - supports most complex functions like language, thought problem solving and imagination

neocortex is folded to accomdate large number of neursons

lobes:
- occiptal lobe: devoted to vision, primary visual cortex is for sight
- temproal lobe: contains primary auditory cortex, responsble for hearing and understanding language, helps reocgnize objects and ppl, damage can cause you to not know what an objetc is or the meaning of a word
- parietal lobe:contains primary somatosnsry cortex which supports a map of the bodys skin surface and the sense of touch - helps you pay attenion, locate objects
- frontal lobe:essential for moevemt and planning, conatins primary motor cortex and map of bodys muscles whcih worsk withe spinal cord to control movement - the rest is prefrontal cortex which is for thoyght, planning, decison making and self conrol
- insular lobe: hidden under tempral, frontal and parietal, perceive the inside of our bodies, includes primary taste cortex, allows us to precive states of interal organs

each lobe has a primary sensory area which is cortical region to receive signals from associated sensory nerves - without them you would have no sensory expernces

primary motor cortex - repsonsible for volunary movements and conencts with motor neurons that make body move

most of the coretx surroudning primary somatosensry and motor cortex is association cortex which intergeates ifno comining in from the sneses with existing knowledge to produce meaningful expeirnce of world and how to navigate

Question 18

Subcortical structures

Answer 18

parts beneath the cerebral cortex

limbic system: bridges the higher brains trcyres that are related to compelx mental fucntions with odler brain regions that regulate the body and its moevemnst
Constsists of hippocampus, amygdala, basal ganglia, thalamus and hypothalamus

defined as emotional brain but also plays role in smell, leaning, memory and motivation

Hippocampus: crucial fro aspects of memory and ability to navigate the envrinment - creates memories of events time and place, supprting mental tiem travel into past - can related to emotions as it remembrers emotionally prominent events

amygdala: dedicated to emotion - plays role in how you register emotional signifacne of events - emotional behaviour- usually enhances emotionally signfianct memories

basal ganglia: group of interconnected sttcutures that are evolutinarly older subcortical motor system that is necesary for planning and executing movement - bridges motor regions of cebral cortex with ncueli that communcite with spinal cord,s ending signals to msucles to act

thalamus: located between basal ganglia - serves as subcorical hub fro signals it reecives from all sensory systems except smell - two way connection betwee thalamus and rbain regions that receive its info - relays sensory info from and to cerebal cortex

hypothalmus: interface between brain and body, integrating internal bodily signals with their associated feeelings and behaviours - composed of specilzied nuceli that regulate specifc functions like hunger or reward seeking

Question 19

brainstem and cerebellum

Answer 19

brainstem ensures that brain gets oxygen it needs - regulates vital functions

sensory nerves connect with brain from brainstem - brainstme consisst of midbrain, pons, medulla oblognata, and reticular formation

brainstem collects sensory signals from body and sendds signals down - plays role in emotion related chnages in the body

midbrain: includes tegmentum which reflexively moves the head and eyes towards sudden sights and sounds - ventral tegmental area is compnent of motiavtion and reward system - substatntia nigra regulates movement itself

pons and medulla oblongata are located in hindbrain part of brainstem - generates certain autmtc movements -pons controls breathing and relays senstaions like hearing and taste to cortex and subcortex - medula oblogata involved in controlling autonomic fnctions like hear rate
- these contain the reticular formation - plays cnetral role in arousal and attention - helps with mainting cognitive abilities

cerebellum contributes to coordination, precison, baalnce and timing

Question 20

Where is self

Answer 20

• distributed all over
• in the frontal lobe, thoughts, planning, decison making and self control are all tehre
• frntal lobe needs inputs form other regions that conatin emmories and knowledge and personal traits
• fonrtal lob reps conscience and will - keeps behaviour in check

prefrontal cortexx supports executive functions - congintve processes that allow you to plan, focus attention and organisze multiple takss to complete - includes inhibtory control

Gage was proof that prontal cortex and self are connected

Question 21

Two hemispheres

Answer 21

parallel structures of the brain dont necisarly divide the same job in half

left hemisphere improtant for language - damage to left frontal (brocas) impairs ability to speak but not to comperehend speech
damage to uppler left temproal lobe (Wernickes) results in impaired ability to comprehend speech not the ability to speak

hemispheric lateralization/specialization in left side for language

two halves of brain work via bridge of fibers clled corpus callosum - allows both sides to share info and support the contralateral communciation between brain and body

allows interhemispheric transfer

left hemisphere focus on details and right focuses on seeing big picture

Question 22

split brain procedure

Answer 22

severing corpus callosum

Question 23

Neuron parts

Answer 23

regardless of type, neurons have same basic parts

• Have cluster of dendrites which receive chemical messages from other neurons
• cell body or soma collects neural impuslses, contains the cell ncuelus and rpvides life sustainng functions for the cell
• axon whcih transports electrcal impulses to other neurons via terminal branches which convert these impulses into chemical messages

some neurons have long axons to transmit messages a long way

myelin sheath is fatty tissue that covers axon and ensures signal gets there fast and with less resistance - gives brain white matter light appearnce and critcal for human brain dvelpemnt - demylentaion is chatacetric of neurodiegnative diseases - provides proetcion and speed of conducted eletrcial signals

myelin, not part of neuron, is made up of glial cells or glia - insulate and noruish neurons - vacuum up neruosnal debris and sevre as cellular glue between nuerons gving brain jelly like consistency - contrbute to info processing in dveelopment - essentail in brain dveelopment, providng scaffol along which axons grow and gudie them to correct location - glia aid in fomration of neural netwroks

Question 24

Action potential - neurons firing

Answer 24

when stimulated with sufficnet energy and called into action, neurosn fire an eletrical impulse called an action potential down the axon- this impulse creates volatge needed for action - that is teh capacty to communicate with other neurons

action potential is wave of change in elcrical potential that rushes down the axon

the electricty in neurons is created by chem
nuerons are bathed in extracellular fluid composed of pos an neg charges particles or ions of sodium, chloride, potasisum and calcium
The memrbane that seperates intracellular and extracellular fluids is sleetive
Pos charged ions reside outside so extracellular fluid is relatevly pos to the neg intracellular envirnment
These chem conc differences result in neg voltage
As long as resting potential is strongly neg polzarised, a neuron cannot fire an action potential

when other neurosn sufficently stimulate neurons dendrites, ion channels open allowing pos sodium ions to enter, they set off a chain rxn as they spread down axon causing more channels to open
this results in depolarization moving neg resting potental to zerp
when neuron passes voltage threshold of -50 milivolts, voltages controlled ion channels opne rapidly allowing more pos ions in and then voltage surges and becomes pos

action potetals are bases for neural signaling

when ion flood is completem the flood reverses causing memrban repolarization in which membrane returns to resting potential
there is a refractory period in which neuron cannot fire action potential again

some signals from neurons are excitatory messages, mvoing the volatge of neuron closerto threshold
some are inhibitory messages moving it further away from. threshold
if the excitatory pos messages outweight the inhibory neg messages to research threshold then action potental is fired

Question 25

How neurons communicate

Answer 25

a gap called synapse spans the axon terminals of the sending neuron with the dendrites or cell body of receving neuron

Process of neurotransmission allows eltrcical messages to bridge the synaptic gap by converting the eeltrcial implse into a chemcial one allowing neurons to trasnmit their signals
eletrcal to chem trasnlation is critcial for communication between enurons - from sending presynaptic neuron temrinals to receving postsynpatic tagret neuron dendrites

the terminal braanches release chem messengers called neurotransmitters across the synpatic gap toarad the target receving neuron
surface of target neuron has rceeptors that bind with specific neurotransmitters - once they bind, ion channels open up thereby inducing changes in ion flow on the taregt neuron cll membrane creating eeltrical signal

receptors response to neurotransmitter is either excitory or inhibitory

inactivation of neurotransmitters in synapse is imprtant - if not removed that target neuron would be bombared by stimulationfrom the neurotransmitter causing an imbalance

neurtransmitters in synpase removed by diffusion, degradation, and reuptake into the presynaptic terminal bracnehs

neuortransmittr classes: aa, monoamines and acetylcholine

aa like glutamate or GABA are brain abusdant neurtransmitters - important exciattroy receptors - involved in ability to form long term memories
GABA for inhibory - inolved in regulation of muscle tone

monoamines like norepinephrine are imprtant for fliht or fight - dopamine and serotoin also are monoamines

acetylcholine: behave as both inhibory and excitatry - supprots heart and skeltal muscle and cognitive function