Neuropsychology and Neuroscience Lectures 1-2 Flashcards
What are the two major systems of the brain?
The Central Nervous System (CNS) and the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)
What is the Central Nervous System? CNS
The central nervous system (CNS) controls most functions of the body and mind. It consists of two parts: the brain and the spinal cord.
What is the Peripheral Nervous System? PNS
The peripheral nervous system (PNS) is the division of the nervous system containing all the nerves that lie outside of the central nervous system (CNS). The primary role of the PNS is to connect the CNS to the organs, limbs, and skin.
What are the two parts of the central nervous system?
The Brain and the Spinal cord
What are the two systems of the peripheral nervous system?
- Somatic Nervous System
2. Autonomic Nervous System
What are the two divisions of the Autonomic Nervous System?
Sympathetic division (Increase/arousal for action) and the Parasympathetic Division (Dampen, rest, return)
What is the Somatic Nervous System?
Associated with the voluntary control of body movements via skeletal muscles. Motor nerves to muscles and sensory nerves from body; the cranial and spinal nerves.
What is the Autonomic Nervous System?
The part of the nervous system that supplies the internal organs, including the blood vessels, stomach, intestine, liver, kidneys, bladder, genitals, lungs, pupils, heart, and sweat, salivary, and digestive glands. AKA Relatively autonomous actions of internal organs and glands.
What is neuropsychology?
The behavioural and cognitive characteristics associated with brain function and especially disfunction in animals and especially humans. With a goal to understand humans learning key issues from both human and animal research
What are neurological and Neuro-Psychiatric disorders?
Neuropsychiatric disorder encompasses a broad range of medical conditions that involve both neurology and psychiatry. Common neuropsychiatric disorders include: seizures. attention deficit disorders. cognitive deficit disorders.
Neurological disorders are diseases of the central and peripheral nervous system
How prevalent are brain injury/ degenerative disorders?
5%
What does MDMA/Synthetic methanphetamine cause?
Loss or dysfunction of the terminals of neurons that release the neurochemical seratonin
What is neuroplasticity?
the ability of the brain to form and reorganize synaptic connections, especially in response to learning or experience or following injury. Offers real hope for stroke victims ect
What is neuroplasticity?
The ability of the brain to form and reorganize synaptic connections, especially in response to learning or experience or following injury. Offers real hope for stroke victims ect
True or False? There are productions of new brain neurons in some regions of the adult brain
True
True or False? The external environment does not influence brain neurons
False
What does the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) do?
Creates ‘live’ images of soft tissue, such as the brain using minute signals produced by brief changes in the behaviour of hydrogen H nuclei in the abundant water of brain tissue
What is cerebrospinal fluid?
While the primary function of CSF is to cushion the brain within the skull and serve as a shock absorber for the central nervous system, CSF also circulates nutrients and chemicals filtered from the blood and removes waste products from the brain.
What is dementia?
Loss of independent everyday function and impaired thoughts and decision making
True or False? Dementia involves the loss of brain tissue and increased ventricles
True
What are lesions?
A lesion is any damage or abnormal change in the tissue of an organism, usually caused by disease or trauma.
What is diffusion MRI?
Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging is the use of specific MRI sequences as well as software that generates images from the resulting data that uses the diffusion of water molecules to generate contrast in MR images.
What is the white-matter disorder?
White matter disease is the wearing away of tissue in the largest and deepest part of your brain that has a number of causes, including aging.
What is Parkinson’s disease and how is it caused?
Parkinson’s disease is caused by a loss of nerve cells in the part of the brain called the substantia nigra. Nerve cells in this part of the brain are responsible for producing a chemical called dopamine. “Movement Disorder”
What is Functional MRI?
Measures changes in neural activity (every 2-3 seconds) by using pulse and gradient tweaks sensitive to the level of oxygenated blood in the brain
Oxygenated blood is sensitive to what?
Magnetic fields
What is the working memory?
Working memory is a system for temporarily storing and managing the information required to carry out complex cognitive tasks such as learning, reasoning, and comprehension
What is fMRI?
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) measures the small changes in blood flow that occur with brain activity. … fMRI may detect abnormalities within the brain that cannot be found with other imaging techniques.
What is the brains “Default Mode Network”?
a large scale brain network of interacting brain regions known to have activity highly correlated with each other and distinct from other networks in the brain.
What are neutrons?
They process information and transmit it from one place to another
What are Glial cells?
They support and keep neutrons healthy in diverse ways
How many cells does the human brain have?
170 billion cells where roughly half are neurons and half are cells
What is the purkinje cell?
These cells are remarkable and recognised for their massive, branched, flat dendritic trees, which give them the ability to integrate large amounts of information and to learn by remodeling their dendrites.
What is the spiny cell?
They play a key role in initiating and controlling movements of the body, limbs, and eyes.
What is the pyramidal neuron?
A type of multipolar neuron found in areas of the brain including the cerebral cortex, the hippocampus, and the amygdala.
What are dentrites?
A short branched extension of a nerve cell, along which impulses received from other cells at synapses are transmitted to the cell body.
What is a dentrite tree?
The term dendritic tree refers to the branching out of the nerve fibers at the end of a neuron. Dendrites are the branch-like structures of neurons that extend from the cell body (the soma). The dendrites receive neural impulses (electrical and chemical signals) from the axons of other neurons.
True or False? Brain cells are randomly arranged
False, they are not randomly arranged
What is the arch of the brain?
The fornit
What is the seahorse of the brain?
The hippocampus
What is the Almond of the brain?
The amygdala
What is the X of the brain?
The chiasm
What are the breasts of the brain?
The mammilary bodies
What is the bridge of the brain
The Pons
What are the pyramids of the brain?
The medulla
Severe alcohol abuse can shrink what?
Your mammillary bodies
What are synaptic connections?
In the nervous system, a synapse is a structure that permits a neuron (or nerve cell) to pass an electrical or chemical signal to another neuron or to the target effector cell.
True or False? The more the synaptic connections the better
True although there still needs to be an equilibrium. Aka there cant be too many.
What are axons?
The long threadlike part of a nerve cell along which impulses are conducted from the cell body to other cells.
Damage to the mammillo thalamic Tract or MTT after stroke in humans is the most consistent thalamic injury asscociated with what?
Amnesia
What are the 5 main divisions of the brain?
TDMMM. Telencephalon Diencephalon Mesencephalon Metencephalon Myelencephalon
What is an easy way/acronym to remember the 5 main divisions of the brain?
Tell Dianne a Messenger Met My elephant
Aka. TDMMM
Brain development starts as a what?
A Neutral tube with three parts that grow differently in size
What are the 3 bulges of the initial neutral tube?
The Fore-Brain, Mid-Brain, and the Hind-Brain
What are the subcategories of the Telencephalon of the brain?
The Neocortex, Basal ganglia, and the Limbic system
What are the subcategories of the Diencephalon of the brain?
The Thalamus and the Hypothalamus
What are the subcategories of the Mesencephalon of the brain?
Midbrain
What are the subcategories of the Metencephalon of the brain?
Cerebellum and the Pons
What are the subcategories of the Mylencephalon of the brain?
Medulla oblongata
True or False? The basic Organization and structure of the brain is different in all individuals.
False, it is the same in all individuals
True or False? The basic Organization of the brain is the same across all mammals
True
What does the word “Cortex” mean?
Outer bark, the outer surface of the brain
Do humans have lots or little cortex in the brain (Outer surface)?
Humans have lots, so much that it is scrunched up inside the cranium
What is the cortex responsible for?
Social, cognitive and perceptual skills
True or False? The cortex and its nerve fibres make up most of our brain
True
What are the differences between the brains of mammals
They are to do with relative brain size and greater number of neurons especially the amount of cortex
What are associated cortex regions?
parts of the cerebral cortex that receive inputs from multiple areas. Aka more complex and more cell communication across neurons
True or False? The human brain can vary in total size?
True. In the number of brain cells in certain areas of the brain and there strength and number of neural connections
What does variation of the brain depend on?
Most of the variation is genetic but it is also extremely dependant on the environment including the effects of different experience/epigenetic effects
True or False? The human brain is unique
True
Is having a big brain a good thing?
No it might not always be good. Can be linked to a lower IQ
What happens to neurons during fetal development?
The brain produces heaps of neurons but then culls them dramatically.
Can adult brains produce completely new neurons?
Absolutely
What is adult neurogenesis?
Adult neurogenesis is the process of generating new neurons which integrate into existing circuits after fetal and early postnatal development has ceased.
What is cerebro-spinal fluid?
Cerebrospinal fluid is a clear, colorless body fluid found in the brain and spinal cord. the primary function of CSF is to cushion the brain within the skull and serve as a shock absorber for the central nervous system, CSF also circulates nutrients and chemicals filtered from the blood and removes waste products from the brain.
What is the olfactory region?
The olfactory system enables us to detect odors. Aka it is the smell centre of the brain
Which part of the brain produces new brain cells in adults?
The seahorse aka hippocampus
