chapter 5 Flashcards
What is the brain, what does it do and what is it responsible for
The powerhouse of the body
The control centre of all your body and bodily functions
it is responsible for things such as intelligence, creativity, perceptions, reactions, emotions, and memories
Timeline of understanding the complexity of the brain
1- Brain vs heart debate
2- Mind-body problem
3- Phrenology
What was the brain vs heart debate, who believed what and what is now accepted?
debate about what was the source of all thoughts, feelings and behaviours
Ancient-Egyptions believed it was the heart and soul
Antient Greeks believed both- brain hypothesis and heart hypothesis
Brain hypothesis is now universally accepted
What was the results of the mind Body Problem
-Mind and body are separate
-Mind is non-physical (soul), and body is physical
When and what is Phrenology and is it true?
- A popular study in the 19th century
- Study was based on the brain being the organ of the mind, and that certain areas have localised, specific functions
- They would measure the bumps- that’s what makes people smart etc
- It is a pseudoscience (not true)
First Brain Experiments
1- Brain Ablation
2- Electical Stimulation
3- Split Brain
What does brain Ablation involve and why was it know as (lesioning)
- Involves disabling, destroying, or removing selected brain tissue then assessing the new change in behaviour
- Sometimes known as lesioning, because it ends in brain injury and is usually irreversible
How did Electrical Stimulation work
- Weak electrical signals are generated continuously by neurons throughout the brain
- A small current-induced wire is inserted or placed onto a specific area of the brain
- A signal was either passed through the brain, to see what body part moves; or a body part moves then the pulse is detected by the wire
What did Roger Sperry demonstrate through Split-Brain Experiments, who had undergone this and what does the surgery involve
- Roger Sperry demonstrated that the brain’s cerebral hemispheres specialise in different tasks
- He studied patients who had undergone split brain surgery as radical treatment towards epilepsy
- Split-brain surgery involves cutting the tissue that connects the two hemispheres
What is the main function of the Central Nervous System
The main function of the CNS is to process information recieved through the sensory systems and other parts of the body and to activate appropriate actions (e.g speaking)
CNS includes
-Brain
-Spinal cord
What is the Spinal Cord, what does it link the brain to and two major functions
- A long, bundle of nerve tissue that extends from the brain to the lower back
- Links the brain to the body parts below the neck
- Two major functions are:
1- Recieve sensory information from the body and sends to the brain
2- Recieve motor information from the brain and send to relevant parts of the body
What is the primary role of the Peripheral Nervous System and what does it provide the CNS with
The primary role is to relay motor information from the brain to the needed body parts
Provides CNS with information about the external and internal environments
What is a Neuron
Neurons are the most important cell
A neuron is an individual nerve cell that receives, and/or transmits information to other cells
What are the 3 types of neurons
1- Motor Neuron
2- Sensory Neuron
3- Interneurons
What does the Axon Terminal do
- Neurotransmitters carry messages from one neuron to the next
How do the Nodes of Ranvier help
Enables the impulse to travel much faster
what do Dendrites do
Deflects and recieves information from another neuron
information recieved is passed down to the soma
What does the Soma do
Combines the neural information recieved at the dentrites and sends it to the axon
What is an Axon and what does it do
Single, tubelike, extension of a neuron
transmits neural information away from the soma to other neurons or cells
What does the Myelin do
- Coats and helps insulate the axon from other axons’ activities
- helps communicate messages much faster
Divisions of the brain
- Forebrain
- Midbrain
- Hindbrain
What does the Forebrain help regulate, examples and what does it maintain?
- Helps regulate complex cognitive processes such as:
- decision making
- problem solving
- processing sensory info
- initiating voluntary movement
Attention and filtering sensory info
Maintaining the body’s stable biological state, known as homeostasis
What does the Midbrain do, what does it filter and direct and whats it involved in
- Relaying messages between the hindbrain and forebrain
- Filtering and directing sensory info
- Involved in movement, processing sensory info, regulating arousal and alertness
What does the Hindbrain do
- Regulation of sleep-wake-cycle
- Regulation of autonomic functions such as breathing, heart rate and digestion
- Coordination of muscle movement
What is in Hindbrain
Pons, Cerebellum, Medulla
What is the Pons involved in and how does it connect parts of the brain
- Involved in sleep, dreaming, and waking up from sleep
- Acts as a bridge to connect parts of the brain to each other (e.g medulla and midbrain)
What does the Cerebellum do, whats it involved in and how many neurons
- Coordinates fine muscle movements and regulates posture and balance
- Involved in learning and memory associated with movement (muscle memory)
- 10% of the brain’s mass but contains 80% of brains neurons
What is the Medulla connected to, what does it control what happens if damaged
- Connected to the brain stem
- Controls vital automatic life functions
- e.g swallowing, breathing, heart rate
- Damage or injury is often fatal
What is in the Midbrain
Reticular Formation
Where is the Reticular Formation located, what does it help screen, what does it alert higher brain centres with and what does it help maintain
- Runs through the midbrain and hindbrain
- Helps screen incoming information so the brain doesnt get overloaded
- Alerts higher brain centres regarding important information
- Helps maintain consiousness
Whats in the Forebrain
Cerebrum, Hypothalamus, Thalamus
What is the Cerebrum responsible for and what is it divided into
- Responsible for almost everything we consciously think, feel and do
- Divided into left and right
What does the Hypothalamus help maintain, help regulate and what is it associated with
- Helps maintain homeostasis (maintenance of a stable internal environment)
- Helps regulate the release of hormones by controlling the pituitary gland
- Associated with hunger, thirst, and sleep, partly responsible for emotional and motivated behaviours
What is processed in the Thalamus and what does it filter
- Almost all sensory and motor information is processed here
- Filters information from all senses (exept smell) and passes to relevant processing areas
What is the Cerebral cortex responsible for and organised into
Responsible for:
- higher order processes e.g thinking, perception, problem-solving
- Memory
- language
- regulation of emotion
Organised into sensory areas (receive information), motor areas (initiate movement) and association areas (integration of information)
Cereberal Hemispheres
- Left Hemisphere
- Right Hemisphere
Left Hemisphere
- Sensory stimulus from the right side of the body
- Motor control of the right side of the body
- Speech, language and comprehension
- Analysis and calculations
- Time and sequencing
- Recognition of words, letters and numbers
Right Hemisphere
- Creativity
- Sensory stimulis from left side of body
- Motor control of left side of body
- Spatial ability
- Context/ perception
-Recognition of face, places and objects
Cortical lobes of the cerebral cortex
- Frontal Lobe
- Parental Lobe
- Occipital Lobe
- Temporal Lobe
What is the Parietal lobe main functions
- Its main function is to receive and process bodily, or ‘somatosensory information
- Somatosensory simply means bodily sensation, for instance, touch, vibration, itch, tikle
- spatial reasoning
- perception of 3D objects
What does the Primary Somatosensory Cortex receive and process, examples and what occupies more of the cortex
- Recieves and processes sensory information from the skin and body
- sensory info such as touch, pressure, temperature and pain from the body
- areas more sensitive occupy more of the cortex
What is the Occipital lobe devoted to and contains
- Almost exclusively devoted to the sense of vision
- contains primary visual cortex
What does the Primary visual cortex receive and prosses
- receives and processed visual information
What is the Temporal lobe involved in, contain x2 and what is processed in each hemisphere
- Involved in auditory perception, memory, our ability to identify faces and objects and emotional responses to sensory information and memories
- contains wenickles area (only in left hemisphere) responsible for language comprehension
- contains primary auditory cortex which received and processed auditory information
- verbal words are processed in left hemisphere
- non-verbal music is processed in right hemisphere
What does the Primary auditory cortex receive and process and what is Wernicke’s area connected to
- primary auditory cortex receives and processes from both ears so that we can perceive and identify different types of sounds
- wernickes area is connected to the brocas area (frontal lobe)
What is the Frontal lobe responsible for and contains
- Planning
- judgement
- problem-solving
- aspects of personality
- regulation of emotions
- production of fluent and articulate speech (Broca’s area left hemisphere only)
- Contain primary motor cortex
What is the Primary motor cortex responsible for and what occupies more of the cortex
- responsible for the movement of the skeletal muscles of the body
- areas with more precise movement occupy more of the cortex
