test 2

Question 1

meditation has been associated with changes in 4 parts of the brain

Answer 1

white matter
gray matter
cortical thickness
neuroplasticity

Question 2

how does it translate to individual neutrons, neural networks, glia?

Answer 2

• potential changes in increased insulation and speed of neurotransmission (oligodendrocytes)
• increased neuropil (dendrites & axons)
• decreased neuronal loss
• enhanced neurogenesis (hippocampus, involved in learning and memory, emotion, stress, depression)
• neuropharmacological changes (NT Synthesis & release, NT uptake, receptor up and down regulation)

Question 3

occipital lobe

Answer 3

decode visual information, form, color, and movement, visual cortex that lets you recognize and identify objects

Question 4

temporal lobe

Answer 4

let you hear & distinguish the volume and frequency of sounds, understand speech

Question 5

partial lobe

Answer 5

sensory perception- touch, temperature pain

auditory and visual signals

Question 6

frontal lobe

Answer 6

responsible for reasoning planning, problem solving, modulation of emotions, speech

Question 7

Amygdala

Answer 7

role in learning, in memory, regulation of emotions. fear and aggressive

Question 8

Hippocampus

Answer 8

long term storage

helps us complete context associated with an event

Question 9

corpus callous

Answer 9

thick band of axons from the two brain’s hemisphere to communicate with each other

Question 10

cingulate gyrus

Answer 10

ANS in adjusting réponses that accompany emotional reactions

Question 11

insula

Answer 11

awareness of body states
pain perception 
regulation of autonomic function 
bodily self-awareness 
emotion, empathy

Question 12

thalamus

Answer 12

visual, auditory and taste and touch information in the cortex

Question 13

hypothalamus

Answer 13

ensures the balance of our internal environment by influencing our hunger, thirst and sex drive

Question 14

cerebellum

Answer 14

integrates the information that it receives from other motor regions of the brain and coordinates the body’s movement to make them fluent and precise

also implicated in sensory, cognitive and emotional processing

Question 15

brainstem

Answer 15

regulating heart rate, respiration, blood pressure.

sleep and attentiveness and enables us to concentrate in midst distraction

Question 16

Lambda waves

Answer 16

are physiological, triangular shaped, sharp transients occurring over the occipital regions when eyes are open

Question 17

epsilon wave

Answer 17

a small positive deflection buried in the end of the QRS complex. It is the characteristic finding in arehythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD)

Question 18

mrs

Answer 18

the nuclei of some atoms behave like magnets, they line up with BO
When excited by a specific RF pulse they flip
the radio signal (echo) is what the scanner measures

Question 19

Buddha taught:

• virtue
• mindfulness/meditation
• wisdom

Answer 19

virtue: cooling the fires of greed, hatred, living with integrity
- mindfulness/meditation: steady and concentrate the mind to see through its confusion
- wisdom: develop liberating insight

Question 20

virtue 5 concepts

Answer 20

1. i undertake to abstain from killingg living beings
2. abstain from taking that which not given
3. abstain from sexual misconduct
4. abstain from false speech
5. abstain from substance that confuse the mind

Question 21

Eightfold path (3-5)
samma vaca:
samma-kammanta
samma ajiva

Answer 21

samma vaca: perfected or whole speech
samma kammanta: integral action,right action
samma ajiva: proper livelihood, right livelihood

Question 22

virtue and the brain

Answer 22

top down- from the prefrontal cortex (including off, dlpf, vmpfc) to interconnected areas (ACC, Amygdala, hippocampus, thalamus, hypothalamus) implicated in self-regulation/self-control

a) behavioural inhibition and impulse control - OFC - ORBITOFRONTAL or simply Orbital PFC
b) drive & motivation- VMPFC ventromedial or simply medial PFC
c) executive function (planning, problem solving, mental flexibility, evaluation of incentives ) DLPFC- dorsolateral or simply - lateral PFC

It requires level of caring which includes empathy & compassion associated

bottom up cooling of the sympathetic NS & engaging of the Parasympathetic NS

Question 23

eightfold path 6-8
samma vayama
samma sati
samma samadhi

Answer 23

samma vayama - complete or full effort or virtuality
samma sati- complete or thorough awareness
samma samadhi- full integral or holistic samadhi

Question 24

mindfullness and the brain

Answer 24

top down- prefrontal cortex ( associative cortex, depending on what we are attending to) will help in regulating our attention/awarness
body awareness (insula)
emotional awareness (portico-limbic)
awareness of thought (pfc and other associative cortex areas)
awareness/mindfulness of objects (temporal, occipital)
awareness/ mindfulness of space (parietal, occipital

bottom up- cooling of the sympathetic NS and engaging of the parasympathetic NS

Question 25

wisdom

Answer 25

wisdom and insight develop naturally when you practice virtue and mindfulness/mediation (neural plasticity leading to the brain re-organization) the 3 are totally interconnected and interdependent

Question 26

the 3 noble truth

Answer 26

1. noble truth of dukkha : stress, dissatisfaction, suffering
2. noble truth of the causal arising of dukkha - grasping, clinging, wanting, craving, liking/disliking
3. noble truth of nirvana, the ending of dukkha, awakening, enlightenment

first you come to understand what hurts and what helps, to end the pain and suffering;3 noble truths

eightfold path (1-2)

1. samma ditthi- complete or perfect vision- right view or understanding
2. samma senkappa - perfect emotion or aspiration, right thought or attitude

Question 27

3 levels within the framework of system neuroscience

Answer 27

• virtue: regulation of the motivational system (seeking pleasure-reward/ avoiding pain-punishment)
• mindfulness/ meditation: attention/awareness; sensation/ perception
• wisdom: some sort of elevated/ insightful form of consciousness that might be entirely different from a regular brain function or very similar

Question 28

large scale neural networks

Answer 28

salience network (SN)- decides which information is most urgent, task relevant, and which sound receive priority; must suppress either DMN or CEN depending on the task at hand

default mode network- system for autobiographical, self-monitoring and social cognitive functions, typically activated during REST (rapid episodic spontaneous thinking) and deactivated during task performance

Central executive network- responsible for high-level cognitive functions- control of attention and working memory