Module 5: Tools of Discovery and Older Brain Structures Flashcards
True/false:
the brain is CONTRALETERLA (left hemisphere controls right, right controls left)
trueeee
lesion definition
damage to brain tissue
define sparse coding
about 16% of the brain works at any specific given time, as to not blow up our brain with the amount of energy used by a 100% neuron firing event, insteading using the 100% over TIME
True/false:
multitasking is, like, not really possble (you just use less brain effort for each individual task)
true
what are “older brain structures?”
- structures of the brain whose purposes we discovered first
- the parts of the brain which keep us alive unconsciously
Who was Phineas Gage? What did his incident teach us?
a railway foreman who had a 4 foot rail shoot straight through his brain, separating his frontal lobe
- different parts of the brain = different functions
- severed neurons do not regenerate, and damage often manifests itself psychologically
True/false:
our brain processes most information outside of our awareness
true
Brain stem
- CROSSOVER POINT - central core of the brain and automatic brain, performs survival functions and is middle man of brain and body, where the right and left sides CROSS OVER to control the opposite sides
Cerebellum
“little brain,” learning without speech, helps coordinate ALL voluntary movements, primarily stuff with MOVEMENT AND BALANCE
Medulla
bottom of brain stem that does stuff with heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing
pons
Signal messenger, linking Medulla and THalamus, good catch–all for involving basically everything that’s INVOLUNTARY
reticular formation
nerve network that helps control informationn, filtering and relaying incoming info. responsible for LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
- INPUT FOR THE SPINAL CORD
THalamus
sensory switchboard for every sense except smell, relays messages to cerebral cortex (how you interpret something), higher functions to and fro
limbic system
FOUR FS
1. fighting
2. feeding
3. fleeing
4. fu-
fear, aggression, motivation like hunger and lust
contains: hippocampus, amygdala, hypothalamus
Amygdala
Amygdala - FIGHT OR FLIGHT (A-FF) (but not the only thing that causes the reaction, brain is not in neat separated structures with separate roles)
you have two of them (fear and loathing in my amygdalas)
Hypothalamus
hypo(below)thalamus
MAINTENANCE - eating, drinking, homeostasis, sexual behavior
governs endocrine system via control of the king/master gland
pituitary gland
CATCHALL OF GLANDS
growth, blood rpessure, metabolism, pain relief, regulators, sex organ development and maturity, aspects of pregnancy and breast milk, thyroi gland, blah blah blah
Hippocampus
creates/consolidates short and long term memory (also navigates in space) (remembering how to get from school to home and alternate routes, and how to parallel park)
Cerebral cortex
intricate thing fabric of neural cells covering cerebral hemispheres, ULTIMATE output and input processing
23 billion neurons, supported by 9x as many glial cells
frontal lobe - prefrontal cortex
speaking, muscle movement, PLANS AND JUDGEMENTS, new memory processing, parts of personality
frontal lobe - motor cortex
voluntary stuff, invluding muscle memory
while motor cortex also does movement, the cerebellum is more precise (motor cortex = more the intention to raise left or right hand, whereas cerebellum is the DEGREE and PRECISION of the movement)
Broca’s area
speech - outward, left brain
Parietal Lobes
- Sensory cortex,
- math and spacial reasoning, receives touch and body position info
parietal lobe - sensory cortex
REGISTERS and PROCESSES incoming sensory info, more sensitive = more of cortex area devoted
