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Psychology > Psych Semester 1 Exam > Flashcards

Psych Semester 1 Exam Flashcards

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1
Q

What is the central nervous system’s function?

A

recieves sensory information from the PNS, processes a response and then responds

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2
Q

What is the CNS comprised of?

A

the brain and the spinal cord

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3
Q

What does the spinal cord communicate in the body?

A
  • motor (efferent) information from the brain (CNS) to the body (PNS)
  • sensory (afferent) information from the body (PNS) to the brain (CNS)
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4
Q

What is the peripheral nervous system’s function?

A

conveys info from the body’s organs, muscles and glands to the CNS and vice versa.

involves both sensory and motor messages

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5
Q

What is the PNS comprised of?

A

all of the nerves and neurons in the rest of the body including muscles, organs and glands.

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6
Q

What two nervous systems are apart of the PNS?

A

autonomic NS and somatic NS

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7
Q

What does homeostasis mean?

A

returning to normal operation

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8
Q

What is the somatic nervous system?

What role does it play within the CNS?

A

is responsible for voluntary movement of skeletal muscles via motor neurons

communicates recieved sensory info (eg. pressure & temperature) to the CNS via motor neurons

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9
Q

What is the autonomic nervous system?

What role does it play within the CNS?

A

self-regulating system that contols involuntary functions eg. heartrate, digestion

links the CNS to the body’s non-skeletal muscles, organs and glands

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10
Q

What two nervous systems are apart of the autonomic nervous system?

A

sympathetic NS and parasympathetic NS

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11
Q

What does the sympathetic NS do?

A

activates the internal muscles, organs and glands to prepare for vigorous activity or to deal with stressful/threatening situation

(preparing body for fight-or-flight response)

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12
Q

What does the parasympathetic NS do?

A

maintains homeostasis or normal bodily functioning eg. resting HR, BR, digestion, etc

(returning body to a state of calm after a period of increased arousal)

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13
Q

What are the four lobes of the cerebral cortex?

A

frontal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe and temporal lobe

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14
Q

What are the primary cortice and association areas of the frontal lobe?

A
  • voluntary movement (PC)
  • higher mental processes (eg. language production, planning, problem solving, reasoning , judgement (AA)
  • personality and emotions (AA)
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15
Q

What would damage to the frontal lobe cause?

A

changes to personality & emotions e.g Phineas Gage
also changes in problem solving and flexibility

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16
Q

What is the primary motor cortex and where is it located?

A
  • a band of cortex located at the back of the frontal lobe
  • responsible for voluntary movements of skeletal muscles
  • contralateral control
  • top of the motor cortex controls the bottom of the body & vice versa
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17
Q

What is contralateral control?

A

control the opposite side of the body eg. left and right hemispheres

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18
Q

What would damage to the primary motor cortex cause?

A

unable to move parts of the body on the opposite side of damage

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19
Q

What is the Broca’s area?

A
  • region of the frontal lobe responsible for speech and articulating words
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20
Q

What is the parietal lobe and where is it located?
(PC and AA’s)

A
  • located behind the frontal lobe & in front of the occipital lobe
  • recieves and processes sensory information (PC)
  • spatial reasoning (AA)
  • spatial awareness = sense of position of body (AA)
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21
Q

What would damage to the parietal lobe cause?

(hint: left and right differ)

A

left parietal lobe - disrupt ability to understand spoken or written language

right parietal lobe - cause spatial neglect or visuo-spatial deficits

22
Q

What is the primary somatosensory cortex and where is it located?

A
  • band of cortex front of parietal lobe
  • responsible for recieving & processing sensory info
  • contralateral control
  • top of motor cortex controls bottom of body & vice versa
23
Q

What would damage to the primary somatosensory cortex cause?

A

unable to process sensation from parts of the body on the opposite side of damage (numb)

24
Q

What is the occipital lobe and where is it located?

A
  • located at the rear of each cerebral hemisphere
  • recieving and processing visual info (PC)
  • integrating visual info with other lobes eg. sound, touch, taste, smell (AA)
25
Q

What does damage to the occipital lobe cause?

A

gaps in vision, inability to visually recognise things

26
Q

What is the temporal lobe and where is it located?

A
  • located below the temples above the ear in each hemisphere
  • recieves and processes auditory info (PC)
  • long term memory, particularly facial recognition (AA)
  • language comprehension (AA)
27
Q

What does damage to the temporal lobe cause?

A

trouble recognising songs, sounds & faces

28
Q

Where is the auditory cortex?

A

inside of the temporal lobe, processes auditory information

29
Q

What does the left auditory cortex process?

A

verbal sounds

30
Q

What does the right auditory cortex process?

A

non-verbal sounds

31
Q

What three units is the brain divided into?

A

the hindbrain, midbrain and forebrain

32
Q

Where is the hindbrain located and what is its purpose?

A
  • located at the base of the brain near the back of the skull
    (bottom back)
  • part of the autonomic nervous system
33
Q

What does the hindbrain include?

A

cerebellum, medulla, pons

34
Q

Where is the midbrain located and what is its purpose?

A
  • located in the area between hindbrain & forebrain
    (middle)
  • part of the central nervous system
  • sends messages to different parts of the brain/spinal cord
35
Q

What does the midbrain include?

A

reticular activating system - processing of sensory information, sleep & arousal)

36
Q

Where is the forebrain located and what is its purpose?

A
  • largest part of the brain and is located at the top, front
  • recieving and processing sensory information
  • motor function & language
37
Q

What does the forebrain inlude?

A

thalamus (sensory stimuli excluding smell), cerebrum (high order thinking processes), hippocampus (explicit memories), amygdala (forming emotional memories)

38
Q

What is hemispheric specialisation?

A

idea that one hemisphere has specialised functions or exerts greater control over a particular function

39
Q

What connects the hemispheres and allows them to communicate?

A

the corpus callusom

40
Q

What does the left hemisphere contol?

A
  • verbal functions
  • analytical functions
    e.g logical reasoning, organisation, critically evaluating
41
Q

What does the right hemisphere control?

A
  • non-verbal functions
  • spatial & visual thinking
  • recoginising faces, patterns & tunes
  • creative thinking
  • recognising emotions
42
Q

What is neural plasticity?

A

the way the brain changes in response to stimulation from the environment

43
Q

What is developmental plasticity?

A

ability of synapses to change or modify in response to experience during growth and development

44
Q

What are the three types of neurons?

A

motor neurons, inter neurons and sensory neurons

45
Q

What two synapse processes are involoved in developmental plasticity

A

synaptogenesis - involves the formation of new synapses between the brains neurons
synaptic pruning - weak or unused connections are eliminated (brain automatically removes excess neurons so networks can expand to enable new learning)

46
Q

What two non-synaptic processes contribute to the development of the brain?

A

development of myelin (myelination) - allows neurons to be more efficient
frontal lobe development - the last part of the brain to fully mature

47
Q

What stage of life does myelination occur?

A

begins before birth during fetal devlopment and continues into early adulthood

48
Q

What is one psychological reason for young adolsecents risk-taking behaviours?

A

underdeveloped prefrontal cortex - responsible for reasoning, problem-solving and impulse control

49
Q

What is adaptive plasticity?

A

changes in the brain’s neural structure to enable adjustment to experience and compensate for lost function in the event of brain damage

50
Q

How does the brain compensate for damage? (adaptive plasticity)

A

re-organisation - shift in connections that might alter the function/structure of a particular area of the brain

51
Q

What does re-organisation involve?

A
  1. re-routing = neurons near damaged areas seek new active connections with healthy neurons
  2. sprouting = growth of new dendrites to make new neural connections
52
Q

What is the reflex arc?

A

A type of neural circuit that begins with a sensory neuron at its receptor and ends with a motor neuron - directly bypass the brain and create a reflex

Psychology (2 decks)

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