PSY Exam #2 Flashcards
Nueron
A nerve cell, the basic building block of the nervous system
Cell Body
Life support CENTER of the cell body
Dendrites
RECEIVE messages from other cells
Axon
PASSES messages away from cell body
Terminal Branches
FORM junctions with other cells
Resting Potential
Waiting to fire
Action Potential
Brief electrical charge when the neuron fires down the axon
Synapse
Meeting point between two different neurons
Neurotransmitters
chemical messengers that bind to the receptor site causing it to go into action potential
Reuptake
Neurotransmitters in the synapse are reabsorbed into the sending neurons
Central Nervous System contains what?
Brain and Spinal
Peripheral Nervous System contains what?
Everything else (Not Brain/Spinal)
Autonomic
Involuntary; self regulated (breathe, blink)
Somatic
Voluntary; skeletal movements
Sympathetic
Short term arousal, alert, fear (Reaction to tiger in pine grove)
Parasympathetic
Calming, body returning to normal
Reflex
Involuntary, signal doesn’t need brains permission to react
Endocrine System
Slower communication through hormones
Lesion
A scan that experimentally destroys brain tissue to study animal behaviors after destruction
EEG
A scan that is an amplified recording of the electrical waves in the brain, measured by electrodes
PET
A scan that is a visual display of the brain’s activity while doing a task by using a radioactive form of glucose
MRI
A scan that uses magnetic and radio waves to produce computer generated images which distinguish different brain tissue
Medulla
Bottom most part of the brain that controls breathing and other automatic functions
Thalamus
Part of the brain that controls all of the senses other than smell
Reticular Formation
Part of the brain that deals with arousal and other mood related functions
Cerebellum
“Little brain” that deals with the body’s movement/balance, memory, and processing of sensory information
Limbic Systems
Tied with fear and aggression. Also has drives for food and sex
Cerebral Cortex
Ultimate control and processing system which is supported by glial cells for energy
Parietal Lobe
Controls touch and incoming messages (Top, middle of the brain)
Temporal Lobe
Controls auditory and complex vision (Bottom, middle by ears)
Occipital Lobe
Controls vision (Back of the brain)
Frontal Lobe
Controls thinking, learning, and personality (Front part of the brain)
Plasticity
Our brain has the ability to change. During childhood development, experiences, and damage
Corpus Callosum
Works with the two parts of our brain
Left Brain
Language processing
Right Brain
Senses, intake of information
Consciousness
awareness of ourselves and the environent
Spontaneous (State of Consciousness
day dreaming, drowsiness, and dreaming
Physiologically Induced (State of Consciousness)
Hallucinations, Orgasm, Starvation
Psychologically Induced (State of Consciousness)
Sensory Deprivation, hypnosis, meditation
Dual Processing
Simultaneously Processing information on both conscious and unconscious tracks
Dual Processing
Simultaneously Processing information on both conscious and unconscious tracks
System 1
Evolutionarily older, automatic, unconscious, affective, experiential
System 2
Evolutionarily recent, human specific, explicit, conscious, rule based
Inattentional Blindness
If we aren’t paying attention to something we won’t see it
Myelin Sheath
The fatty cells that surround axons that enhance the rate the electrical signal travels
Default Reaction
We go on autopilot but we are able to override
Bottom-up processing
starts at your sensory receptors and works up to higher levels of processing. (boiling pot example)
Top down processing
constructs perceptions from this sensory input by drawing on your experience and expectations (Meeting someone after rumors)
