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PSYCH 200 > Chapter 3 Midterm 2 > Flashcards

Chapter 3 Midterm 2 Flashcards

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1
Q

What is the difference between excitation and inhibition?

A

Excitation- makes post-synaptic neuron more likely to fire.
Inhibition- Makes post-synaptic neuron less likely to fire, becomes hyperpolarized.
REMEMBER: Some neurotransmitters can be both excitatory OR inhibitory, depends on the receptors in the post-synaptic neuron

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2
Q

What is graded potential?

A

When the action potential doesn’t quite reach threshold

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3
Q

What is temporal firing?

A

When one neuron fires repeatedly and quickly, bumping up second neurons action potential.

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4
Q

What are the 5 steps of chemical communication across the synapse?

A

Step 1: Neurotransmitter synthesis in pre-synaptic neuron
Step 2: Neurotransmitter packaging in pre-synaptic neuron
Step 3: Neurotransmitter release into post-synaptic cleft
Step 4: Neurotransmitter binding to the receptor on post-synaptic neuron
Step 5: Stopping chemical signal

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5
Q

How is the signal deactivated?

A
  1. Enzymes break down neurotransmitter bound to the receptor site
  2. Reuptake- Pre-synaptic neuron reabsorbs neurotransmitter that is left in the synaptic cleft
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6
Q

Glutamate

A

Excitatory, found throughout the brain, involved in most behaviour-especially learning and memory. Too much can cause seizures and neuron death.

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7
Q

Acetylcholine

A

Excitatory, used for muscle movement and memory. Too little-causes paralysis and Alzheimer’s (botulism, drug “curare”). Too much- Causes convulsions.

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8
Q

Dopamine

A

Excitatory OR Inhibitory, involved in reward, pleasure, voluntary motor control, control of thought processes. Too little-Parkinson’s Disease (no movement control)
Too much-Schizophrenia, anti-psychotic drugs attempt to block dopamine

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9
Q

GABA

A

Inhibitory- found throughout the brain, most behaviour, especially motor control and lowering anxiety. Too much- Inhibits brain function (neurons fire less), Too little- Tremors, loss of motor control, anxiety.

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10
Q

Serotonin

A

Inhibitory- Involved in mood, pleasure (especially eating, sex, sleep) Prozac (MY DRUG)- works by blocking reuptake of serotonin. Too little- depression and/or anxiety.

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11
Q

Endorphins

A

Inhibitory, involved in inhibiting pain (physical). Opium and morphine bind to the same receptors. Too little- hypersensitive to pain. Too much-insensitivity to pain.

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12
Q

Norepinephrine

A

Excitatory, related to epineprhine (adrenaline). Stress hormone, involved in vigilance, arousal (awakeness), mood. Too little-linked to depression and lack of energy. Too much- anxiety.

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13
Q

How do psychoactive drugs work?

A

Either increase or decrease actions of neurotransmitters. (Agonist-increases, Antagonist- decreases).

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14
Q

What are the 4 methods of studying the brain?

A
  1. Destruction and Stimulation
  2. Neurophysical Tests
  3. Electrical Recording
  4. Brain Imaging
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15
Q

Destruction and Stimulation

A

Destruction- Ablation: remove a portion of an animals brain. Lesions: Focused damage in a specific area.
Stimulation-Mild electric current stimulates specific brain areas. Wilder Penfield: Stimulated brain of awake patient during brain surgery and recognized localization of function (different brain regions do different things).

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16
Q

Neurophysical Tests

A

Test verbal and non-verbal behaviours. Used in clinical evaluations to test for brain damage, scores can tell type and severity of damage.

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17
Q

Electrical Recording

A

Electroencephalogram (EEG): Measures activity of groups of neurons. Changes in activity are called Event-related potentials (ERP’s). Great for measuring real-time activity (high temporal resolution). Not good at localizing areas (poor spatial resolution).

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18
Q

Brain Imaging (brain structure)

A

CAT or CT scans, very powerful xray, takes picture of narrow “slices” of brain, and put them back together to create 3D pic of brain.

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19
Q

PET Scan

A

Inject radioactive glucose, measures radioactive energy emitted and from where, as glucose is needed as brain energy (more active area consumes more glucose). Looks at brain activity.

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20
Q

fMRI

A

Very precise, measures magnetic properties of brain, allows us to see what areas are using oxygen during specific cognitive tasks.

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21
Q

TMS

A

Stimulates or deactivates activity in specific brain area using magnetic fields.

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22
Q

What are the 3 divisions of the hierarchical brain?

A

Hindbrain, midbrain, and forebrain. Goes from innermost to outermost, evolutionary oldest to newest , basic functions to most complex.

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23
Q

Brain Stem- Medulla

A

Hindbrain, involved in heart rate and respiration, well-developed at birth. Extreme alcohol levels can suppress the medulla, leading to death (heart/respiratory failure). Also is the point where motor and sensory nerve tracts cross over.

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24
Q

Brain Stem- Pons

A

Hindbrain, bridge between lower and higher layers, involved in sleeping/wakefulness, somewhat involved in respiration. Damage is often fatal.

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25
Q

Cerebellum

A

Hindbrain, “little brain.” Invoved in balance, coordination, fine motor movements, walking. Does not initiate movement but helps to coordinate muscle timing. Alcohol- causes inability to walk straight. Damage to cerebellum causes jerky, uncoordinated movements, lurching. Involved in certain types of learning and memory (muscle memory).

26
Q

The midbrain

A

Connects hindbrain and forebrain, both sensory and motor pathways. Relay centre for visual and auditory info. Passes on to forebrain (thalamus). Involved in eye movements-motion in peripheral vision. Coordinates body and eye movement.

27
Q

Reticular Formation

A

All 3 levels of brain, bulk in midbrain. Involved in sleep/wake cycles, gate-keeper to consciousness. Blocks useless information (ex: feel of clothes on body). Receives order from forebrain to “let it through,” or “block it.” Reticular Formation naturally blocks.

28
Q

Forebrain

A

Also called “cerebrum.” Two halves (cerebral hemispheres). Completely distinguishes us from other animals.

29
Q

Thalamus

A

Forebrain, another relay station for sensory input. Visual, auditory and bodily senses (switchboard). Sends signals to specific sensory areas. Abnormal thalamus-garbled sensory information (schizophrenia and synesthesia).

30
Q

Basal Ganglia

A

Forebrain, initiates voluntary movements (BG— Cerebellum). Parkinson’s Disease-malfunctioning Basal Ganglia. Reflexes are NOT controlled by this (dopamine).

31
Q

Hypothalamus

A

Forebrain, connects to pituitary gland, controlling many hormones, which regulate stress, metabolism, sexual development/activity, basic biological urges. Electrical stimulation of this area causes pleasure (orgasmic). Hypothalamus is not the pleasure centre but is connected to Nucleus Accumbens.

32
Q

Limbic System-Nucleus Accumbens

A

Forebrain-Reward and motivation, sex, drugs, favourite foods activate this area-releases dopamine.

33
Q

Limbic System-Amygdala

A

Forebrain-emotional response, especially aggression and fear. Can produce emotions without higher brain “knowing.”

34
Q

Limbic System-Hippocampus

A

Forebrain- forming and retreiving memories. Damage-can’t form long term-memories. Short term memory transfers to long term storage. Also critical for processing spatial information. Getting bearings, remembering where places are.

35
Q

Cerebral Cortex

A

Forebrain, very outermost layer (3-5mm thick), most complex cognition, sets us apart from other animals. 80% of neurons in our entire brain are in the cerebral cortex.

36
Q

Longitudinal Fissure

A

Divides brain into right and left hemispheres.

37
Q

Central Sulcus

A

Divides brain into front and rear portions.

38
Q

Lateral Fissure

A

Divides brain into upper and lower portions

39
Q

What are the 4 lobes and their functions?

A

Temporal- Primary auditory cortex
Occi[ital-Primary visual cortex, dorsal and ventral pathways direct signals
Parietal- Primary somatosensory cortex (pain, touch, temperature)
Frontal- Primary motor cortex, Broca’s area, primary olfactory cortex.

40
Q

Somatosensory Cortex

A

Just behind central sulcus. Specific body regions activate specific areas. Homuncular arrangement (distorted). Sensitivity of body part proportional to size of cortex.

41
Q

Motor Cortex

A

Controls voluntary movement (decision to move). Homunculus, complexity of movement proportional to amount of cortex devoted to that area. In front of central sulcus, movement and sensation are linked.

42
Q

Association Cortex

A

Areas of cortex not directly involved in receiving specific types of sensory info/voluntary movement. Found in all four lobes, 75% of human cortex.Doesn’t do anything when stimulated, combines information (complex activities like playing piano, combo of motor pathways).

43
Q

Broca’s Area

A

Frontal Lobe, near facial motor area. Responsible for speech production, necessary for articulating words, finding the right word, and grammar. Damage- great difficulty speaking and articulating, can still comprehend words. (mostly in left Hemisphere).

44
Q

Wernicke’s Area

A

Temporal and Parietal Lobes-processes auditory and some visual information. Responsible for language comprehension (spoken or written), other’s words AND own. Damage-babbling, words pronounced correctly but with no meaning-Wernicke’s Affasia.

45
Q

Frontal Lobe

A

Involved in speech production, skeletal muscle movements, planning, emotion, self awareness, responsibility, taking initiative. Damage-loss of ability to plan ahead, can’t carry out sequences of action, can’t judge order of events, can’t predict cause and effect, problems with impulse control and loss of empathy.

46
Q

Prefrontal cortex

A

Very front of frontal lobe.Responsible for “executive function,” (planning ahead), setting goals, making plans, judging situations

47
Q

What is the difference between the right and left brain?

A

Right- More arts and spatial relations. Facial recognition, mental imagery, navigation, drawing and musical melodies.
Left- Language and math, Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas are only on left side (especially for right handed people)

48
Q

What is lateralization?

A

Some mental activities use one side of the brain more than the other, especially in males and right handed people.

49
Q

What happens in split-brain patients?

A

Corpus Callosum gets severed, so hemispheres cannot communicate, treatment for severe epileptic seizures. . Vision is affected, therefor if shown an image on the right eye, signal travels to the left hemisphere and person is able to name the object. If shown an image on the left side, signal travels to right hemisphere and person is unable to name the object but is able to grab it with their left hand.

50
Q

What are genes?

A

Sections of DNA, instructions for building proteins, around 70000 proteins in our body. 25000 genes in humans, each codes for specific function

51
Q

Function of proteins

A

Determine physical and mental functioning, structural (branching of dendrites), and ion channels to action potentials.

52
Q

What is a phenotype?

A

Affected by genes AND environment. People with same genotype can have different phenotype. (height, weight).

53
Q

What is Polygenic Transmission (Inheritance)?

A

Many genes combining to influence a single phenotypic trait. Few behaviours are controlled by one single gene.

54
Q

What is recombinant DNA

A

Enzymes are used to “cut” out a piece of DNA from one organism and insert into DNA of another. Typically place human genes into bacteria.

55
Q

Gene Knockout Procedure

A

Alter/Stop/Block a gene from doing its job to infer gene function from what a person can/cannot do after this gene has been tampered with.

56
Q

What is genotype?

A

The specific genetic makeup of an individual. People with different genotypes can have same phenotypes.

57
Q

Behavioural Genetics

A

Psychological traits and how much is caused by genetics and how much by environment. Nature AND nurture.

58
Q

Heritability Coefficient

A

Extent to which a variation of a trait within a group is accounted for by variation in their genes. Estimates importance of genetics in explaining variabilty of a trait. Only applies to differences within a specific group, not generalized to other groups, as environment can also cause differences.

59
Q

Concordance

A

Behavioural Genetics- likelihood that 2 people share a given trait (family risk factors). On average we share 50% of our genes with our siblings.
1. Form a correlation of 2 family members on a trait
2. Look at likely genetic similarity of people.
Does risk go down as we get less and less related? Suggests a genetic basis.

60
Q

Adoption and Twin studies

A

Adoption-look at people who were adopted early in life and compare to biological versus adoptive parents
Twin Studies- Look at pairts of twins to see similarities. If identical twins are more similar than fraternal, suggets genetic basis.

PSYCH 200 (9 decks)

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