Psychology: Neuroscience and Child Development Flashcards
medulla
part of the brainstem; it is also responsible for heartbeat, breathing, swallowing etc
Brainstem
part of the brain responsible for automatic survival functions (breathing, heartbeat)
reticular formation
controls wakefulness and arousal
thalamus
brain’s sensory switchboard, directs message to the sensory receiving areas in the cortex
cerebellum
helps coordinate voluntary movements and balance
limbic system
ring of structures that regulates important functions such as memory, fear, aggression, hunger, thirst
the limbic system includes within it the hypothalamus, hippocampus and amygdala
hypothalamus
below the thalamus that helps regulate hemostatic functions such as hunger, thirst, body temperature
also responsible for the fight or flight mechanism, emotion, pleasure and sexual functions
hippocampus
processes and stores memories
amygdala
controls emotional responses such as fear and anger
corpus callosum
connects the two brain hemispheres and allows the to communicate with one another
frontal lobes
responsible for advanced cognitive abilities such as judgement and planning (contains Broca’s area) and some motor movement
parietal lobes
includes the somatosensory cortex and general association areas used for processing information
occipital lobes
visual processing areas of the brain
temporal lobes
auditory processing center
motor cortex
control voluntary movement; component of the frontal lobe
somatosensory cotex
registers and processing body sensations; component of the parietal lobe
Broca’s area
directs muscle movements involved in speech (left frontal lobe)
Wernicke’s area
part of brain involved language comprehension (left temporal lobe)
case study
a research technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles
Phineas Gage
a railroad worker in 1848 who obtained a traumatic injury to his frontal lobe; the personality changes that resulted allowed us to understand that the frontal lobe heavily influences personality and judgement
computerized axial tomography (CAT scan or CT scan)
a series of x-ray photographs taken from different angles and combined by the computer into a composite representation of a slice through of the body; basically this allows us to see the structure of the brain