Lecture 8 Flashcards
Describe the different parts of the nervous system.
Includes central nervous system (CNS) & peripheral nervous system (PNS)
- CNS; comprised of the brain & spinal cord
- PNS; connects the CNS to the rest of the body
Describe the processes and function of the autonomic nervous system.
Controls our internal organs & glands, is generally considered to be outside voluntary control.
Identify features & functions of the midbrain.
Contains the reticular formation, which is important for sleep and arousal, as well as the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental area (important for movement, reward, and addictive processes).
What are subcortical structures?
A group of diverse neural formations deep within the brain (include the diencephalon, pituitary gland, limbic structures and basal ganglia). They are involved in complex activities such as memory, emotion, pleasure and hormone production.
What does the frontal lobe do?
The brain’s main motor centres located at front of head.
What makes up the limbic system?
Involved in processing emotion, learning & memory, smell projects here (can evoke emotional responses in ways that other sensory modalities cannot), made up of diff structures; hippocampus, amygdala, hypothalamus.
What does the occipital lobe do?
Located at very back of brain, contains the primary visual cortex (responsible for interpreting incoming visual info).
What does the temporal lobe do?
Located on the side of the head (hearing, memory, emotion, language).
What does the parietal lobe do?
Located behind the frontal lobe (processes info from body senses).
Identify features & functions of the hindbrain.
Includes the upper part of the spinal cord, the brain stem, and cerebellum. Controls respiration and heart rate.
Identify features & functions of the forebrain.
Contains the cerebral cortex & other structures that lie beneath the cortex (subcortical structures): thalamus, hypothalamus, pituitary gland & the limbic system.
What is the corpus callosum?
Thick band of neural fibres that connect hemispheres (200 million axons), allows hemispheres to communicate w/ each other & for info being processed on one side of the brain to be shared w/ the other side.
What are cortical structures?
Cortical areas are areas of the brain located in the cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex refers to the superficial part of the brain and containing gray matter of the cerebral hemispheres.
