Psychology 2

Question 1

What is the central nervous system?

Answer 1

consists of nerves within brain and spinal cord- information superhighway

Question 2

Peripheral nervous system?

Answer 2

all the nerves that radiate for the CNS to the rest of the body. consists of somatic and autonomic system.

Question 3

Somatic Nervous System (voluntary)

Answer 3

Branch of the peripheral nervous system.Transmit signals ( sights, sounds, pain) from sensory organs to CNS and from CNS to skeletal muscles. VOLUNTARY MOVEMENTS

Question 4

Autonomic nervous system (involuntary)

Answer 4

branch of peripheral nervous system connects CNS to smooth involuntary muscles and glands and organs. Regulates heartbeat, blood pressure.body temp

Question 5

Sympathetic nervous system(arousing)

Answer 5

branch of autonomic system.heightens arousal and energizes body for action. when stressed tells adrenal glands to secrete more adrenaline, increased heart rate, pupils dilate, breathing speeds up.

Question 6

Parasympathetic system(calming)

Answer 6

after stress restores body to pre energized state. breathing slows, body relaxes, cools down.

Question 7

What is a neuron?

Answer 7

nerve cells that serve as the building blocks of the nervous system. send and receive info throughout body in electrochemical signals.

Question 8

What are sensory neurons?

Answer 8

sends signals from senses, skin, muscles, internal organs to CNS

Question 9

motor neurons?

Answer 9

transmit commands from the CNS to the muscles, glands and organs.

Question 10

interneurons?

Answer 10

CNS neurons that link sensory inputs and motor outputs

Question 11

Brain stem

Answer 11

inner core of brain. connects to the spinal cord. contains medulla, pons, reticular formation.

Question 12

Medulla

Answer 12

brainstem structure that controls involuntary functions. swallowing, breathing, heart rate.

Question 13

pons

Answer 13

play a tole in sleep and arousal connects higher and lower regions of brain. brainstem

Question 14

Reticular formation

Answer 14

group of nerve cells in brainstem controls sleep arousal and attention.

Question 15

Cerebellum (little brain)

Answer 15

little brain. plays a role in balance and coordination and complex voluntary movements.

Question 16

basal ganglia

Answer 16

gray matter in brain. helps initiate and coordinate deliberate movements. (turning head/ reaching for something)

Question 17

Limbic System

Answer 17

thalamus, amygdala, hippocampus and hypothalamus. loosely connected structures in brain that help to regulate emotion and memory.

Question 18

thalamus

Answer 18

limbic structure, relays neural messages between the senses and areas of cerebral cortex.

Question 19

amygdala(anger)

Answer 19

limbic, controls fear, anger and aggression.

Question 20

hippocampus

Answer 20

limbic. plays role in memory the largest

Question 21

hypothalamus

Answer 21

kidney bean size limbic, helps regulate the autonomic nervous system, endocrine, emotions and drives like hunger and sex

Question 22

Cerebral cortex

Answer 22

the outermost covering of brain responsible for higher order mental processes more wrinkles=more complex.

Question 23

Frontal lobes

Answer 23

behind forehead

Question 24

temporal lobes(temples)

Answer 24

at the temples above ear

Question 25

parietal lobes

Answer 25

in the back at top of skull

Question 26

occipital lobes

Answer 26

in the back at the base of the skull

Question 27

Somatosensory cortex

Answer 27

are that receives sensory information from the touch receptors in skin

Question 28

motor cortex

Answer 28

area that sends impulses to voluntary muscles

Question 29

association cortex

Answer 29

communicates with the sensory and motor areas and house the brain's higher mental processes. damage result in changed spatial awareness

Question 30

Broca's area (speech)

Answer 30

region of left hemisphere that directs the muscle movements in production of soeech and comprehension

Question 31

Wernike's area (comprehension)

Answer 31

Region involved in comprehension of language. found that damage to temporal lobes loss of comprehension of language.

Question 32

neurotransmitter: Acetylcholine

Answer 32

links motor neurons and muscles. walk, talk, dance ACh released. lacking: alzheimers

Question 33

neurotransmitter:Dopamine

Answer 33

voluntary movements linked to muscle activity. rewarding behavior like drugs and food. parkinson's disease- hand tremors

Question 34

neurotransmitter: endorphines

Answer 34

"runners high" trigger by pain natural opiates relieve pain by injury/labor pains

Question 35

corpus callosum

Answer 35

a bundle of nerve fibers that connects the right and left hemisphere

Question 36

Split brain

Answer 36

a surgically produced condition in which corpus callosum is severed. worked for epilepsy treatment. most input to one hemisphere gets trapped

Question 37

describe how each hemisphere processes sensory info

Answer 37

left hemisphere get sensory info and sends motor commands to right side of body. right hemisphere gets info from the left side of body.

Question 38

cerebral lateralization

Answer 38

tendency for each hemisphere of the brain to specialize in different functions

Question 39

left hemisphere

Answer 39

largely controls verbal activities reading, writing, speaking.

Question 40

right hemisphere

Answer 40

plays a role in non verbal activities. visual spatial, music, recognition of faces

Question 41

structure of neuron:soma

Answer 41

cell body

Question 42

structure of neuron: dendrites

Answer 42

extensions from the cell body of a neuron that receive incoming impulses.

Question 43

axon

Answer 43

extension of cell body of a neuron send impulses to other neurons

Question 44

myelin sheath

Answer 44

layer of fatty cells tightly wrapped around axon to insulate it and speed up electrical impulses.

Question 45

neurogenesis

Answer 45

the production of new brain cells. happens beyond infancy. billions of cells between birth and age 6. adult brain spawns new cells in hippocampus.

Question 46

resting potential

Answer 46

When a neuron is at rest, the inside of the cell has a negative charge relative to the outside, making it a store of potential energy.

Question 47

plasticity

Answer 47

a capacity to change based on experience. can recover from injury

Question 48

phantom pain

Answer 48

amputees often feel excruciating pain in area of lost limb. brains capacity for reorganization and growth.

Question 49

action potential

Answer 49

an electrical impulse that surges along an axon, caused by influx of positive ions. certain threshold must be reached for this to happen. signals must exceed a certain intensity.

Question 50

what are receptors

Answer 50

specialized neural cells that receive neurotransmitters. on dendrites.

Question 51

synaptic gap. synapse

Answer 51

junction between axon terminal of one neuron and the dendrite of another

Question 52

neurotransmitters

Answer 52

Ex: dopamine chemical messengers that send messages across synaptic gap. when impulse reaches axon causes release of these. some neurotransmitters will fire an action potential in others and others with stop firing of others.

Question 53

norepinephrine

Answer 53

increases arousal

Question 54

GABA

Answer 54

lowers arousal