Chapters 1-2 Flashcards
What is a neuron?
A cell that receives and transmits electrochemical signals.
What was the case of Jimmie G?
Extreme short-term memory loss; Kosakoff’s syndrome. Related to alcoholism and thiamine (b1) deficiency.
What are the four themes of the text?
Thinking creatively, clinical implications, evolutionary perspective, neuroplasticity.
What is biopsychology?
The scientific study of the biology of behavior.
What types of research characterize the biopsychological approach?
Comparative approach, experiments, quasiexperimental studies, case studies.
How do biopsychologists study the unobservable workings of the brain?
Scientific inference-basically an educated guess.
Critical thinking about biopsychological claims: Case 1
Jose and the Bull, believed he had discovered a caudate taming center of a bull.
Critical thinking about biopsychological claims: Case 2
Egas Moniz won the Nobel Prize for the prefrontal lobotomy. Transorbital lobotomy was popularized by Walter Freeman.
The case of the man who fell out of bed:
Asomatognosia-losing awareness of parts of your body. caused by damage to right parietal lobe.
Case of chimps with mirrors
Proved self-awareness (“mind”) in chimps.
Three factors of behavior:
genetic endowment (evolution), experience, perception of the current situation.
What are the three major contributions of the Human Genome Project?
New techniques for DNA, humans have relatively few genes (about same as mice and less than corn), discovery of multiple genes for each disease.
Epigenetics:
The study of all mechanisms of inheritance other than the genetic code and its expression.
Epigenetics have led to these discoveries:
Non-gene DNA still important/active, multiple RNA types, proteins and DNA-tightness affecting gene expression, can be passed on.
What did the maze bright/dull experiment prove?
Behavioral traits can be selectively bred; genes influence the development of behavior.
Main point of PKU example
a recessive gene, early detection and diet changes can reduce effects of the disorder.
Birdsong example
Males learn from others, predisposed to learn from own species, brain plasticity in response to environment
What are the two main parts of the nervous system?
Central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and peripheral nervous system (somatic and autonomic)
What is the somatic system?
Connects our body to outside world (senses), both afferent and efferent.
What is the autonomic system?
Regulates internal functions. Two parts: sympathetic and parasympathetic.
What are the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems?
Para=rest and digest, symp=fight or flight
What are meninges?
The three protective membranes that encase the brain and spinal cord.
What is cerebrospinal fluid?
Fills the spinal cord and ventricles of the brain, protects and supports.
What are ventricles?
Four large inner chambers of the brain, filled with cerebrospinal fluid.
What is the blood-brain barrier?
Special structure of cerebral blood vessels. Resists foreign chemicals.
What is a acronym for the parts of a neuron?
DCAAMBS: Don’t Care About Aunt Mary’s Bull Shit.
Dendrites, Cell body, Axon hillock, Axon, Myelin, Buttons, Synapses.
What is the nucleus of a cell?
A spherical structure inside the cell body, holds DNA.
what are the neuroanatomical techniques?
Golgi stain, nissl stain, electron microscopy.
What is a golgi stain?
a few neurons stained black by silver cromate.
what is a nissl stain?
dye that binds only to neuron cell bodies.
What is electron microscopy?
creates an electron micrograph by coating thin slices of neural tissue with an electron-absorbing substance.
What is gray vs white matter?
Gray matter is cell bodies and white matter is axons.
What is the medulla?
Carries signals between brain and body
What is the pons?
Bridge between various parts of the nervous system
What is the cerebellum responsible for?
Coordinated movement.
What is the thalamus responsible for?
Info from senses, sends info to motor cortex.
What is the hypothalamus responsible for?
Eat, drink, sex; regulates pituitary gland
What is the cerebral cortex?
The surface of the brain, gray matter
What are fissures?
“Folds” of the brain
What is the corpus callosum?
Connects left and right brain
What are the four lobes?
Frontal, occipital, temporal and parietal.
What is the hippocampus responsible for?
Memory
What is the limbic system?
Memory, motivation, emotion
What si the cingulate cortex responsible for?
Connects limbic system to cerebral cortex. Social behavior.
What is the basal ganglia?
Voluntary motor response. Parkinson’s=decaying basal ganglia.
Dopamine vs l.dopa
Dopamine cannot easily pass through the blood-brain barrier. l dopa can, and works the same although becomes less and less effective.
What is the membrane potential?
the difference in electrical charge between the outside and inside of a cell
What is the measurement of the neuron’s resting potential?
about -70mV
What are excitatory neurotransmitters?
They depolarize the receiving cell, making it more likely to fire.
What are inhibitory neurotransmitters?
They hyperpolarize the receiving cell, reducing the chances of it firing.
How are action potentials conducted?
Through the action of voltage-activated ion channels.
Cat scan
Computer assisted X-ray
MRI
High detail
Pet scan
Requires radioactive substance
Fmri
Shows oxygen use
Excitatory neurotransmitters
Serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine
Serotonin
Obsessions and compulsions
Dopamine
Attention, motivation, pleasure
Norepinephrine
Alertness
GABA
Regulates anxiety. Low GABA=high anxiety
Proprioception
Sense of where body is
Kinesthesia
Coordinated movement
