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Psychology > The Brain > Flashcards

The Brain Flashcards

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1
Q

What are the three primary parts of the brain?

A

Hindbrain, forebrain, midbrain

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2
Q

What is the hindbrain?

A

Part of the brain continuous with the spinal cord that coordinates information coming into and out of the spinal cord, and controls basic functions like respiration, alertness and motor skills.

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3
Q

What are the three basic structures that make up the hindbrain?

A

Pons, cerebullum and medulla

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4
Q

What is the medulla?

A

An extension of the spinal cord into the skull that coordinates heart rate, circulation and respiration. Contains part of the reticular formation, which regulates sleep, wakefulness and arousal.

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5
Q

What is the pons?

A

A structure that relays information from the cerebellum to the rest of the brain.

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6
Q

What is the cerebullum?

A

A large structure of the hindbrain that controls fine motor skills.

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7
Q

Where is the midbrain located?

A

On top of the hindbrain

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8
Q

What structures are located in the midbrain?

A

Tectum and tegmentum

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9
Q

What is the tectum?

A

Receives stimulus from the eyes, ears and skin and moves the organism in a coordinated way toward the stimulus

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10
Q

What is the tegmentum?

A

Is involved in movement and arousal

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11
Q

What is the forebrain?

A

Highest level of the brain – controls complex cognitive, emotional, sensory and motor function. Divided into two main sections, the cerebral cortex and the subcortical structures.

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12
Q

What is the purpose of the thalamus? (subcortical)

A

Relays and filters information from all the senses except smell and transmits the information to the cerebral cortex. Gives more weight to some inputs than others. Closes information pathways during sleep.

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13
Q

What does Thalamic syndrome entail?

A

Severe pain, extreme sensitivity to touch

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14
Q

What is the purpose of the hypothalamus? (subcortical)

A

Regulates body temperature, thirst, hunger and sexual behaviour. Electric stimulation can lead to intense pleasure or aggressive behaviour, and lesioning can lead to overeating or starvation.

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15
Q

What structures are in the limbic system? (Subcortical)

A

Hippocampus and amygdala

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16
Q

What is the purpose of the hippocampus?

A

Critical in the creation and integration of new memories.

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17
Q

What happens if there’s damage to the hippocampus?

A

Can acquire new information but only keep it in awareness for a few seconds. Specific to memories about facts and events, so motor skills can be learned, but no memory of how they were learned.

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18
Q

What’s the purpose of the amygdala?

A

Plays a central role in many emotional processes, particularly the formation of emotional memories. Attaches significance to previously neutral events and when situations are emotionally arousing, it stimulates hippocampus to remember the details.

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19
Q

Which subcortical structure is highly implicated in anxiety?

A

The amygdala

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20
Q

What is the purpose of the basal ganglia (subcortical)?

A

Directs intentional movements - receive input from the cerebral cortex and send output to the motor centres in the brain stem.

21
Q

What purpose does the striatum of the basal ganglia serve?

A

Involved in the control of posture and movement – Parkinson’s: depletion of dopamine in the striatum

22
Q

What is the purpose of the pituitary gland? (Subcortical)

A

The master gland of the body’s hormone-producing system, which releases hormones that direct the functions of many other glands in the body.

23
Q

What are the gyri?

A

Raised smooth parts in cerebral cortex

24
Q

What are the sulci?

A

Indentations or fissures in cerebral cortex

25
Q

What is controlateral control?

A

Each hemisphere controls functions on the opposite side of the body

26
Q

How do the two hemispheres of the brain communicate?

A

Commisures - bundles of axons that allow communication between parallel areas of the cortex in each half. The corpus callosum is the largest and most important.

27
Q

What are the four lobes of the cerebral cortex?

A

Temporal, occipital, frontal, parietal

28
Q

What’s the purpose of the occipital lobe?

A

Processes visual information. Damage causes blindness.

29
Q

What’s the purpose of the parietal lobe?

A

Processes information about touch. Contains the somatosensory cortex and motor cortex (initiates voluntary movement).

30
Q

What’s the somatosensory cortex?

A

A strip of brain tissue running from the top of the brain to the sides. Each part maps onto a particular part of the body and sensitivity corresponds to area devoted to that part of the body.

31
Q

What’s the purpose of the temporal lobe?

A

Responsible for hearing and language. Contains the primary auditory cortex and visual association areas.

32
Q

What’s the primary auditory cortex?

A

Receives sensory information from the ears based on the frequencies of sounds

33
Q

What are the visual association areas?

A

Interpret the meaning of visual stimuli - helps to recognize objects

34
Q

What’s the purpose of the frontal lobe?

A

Responsible for executive functions – higher order planning, reasoning, inhibition etc. It has specialized areas for movement, abstract thinking, memory and judgement.

35
Q

Which part of the cerebral cortex contains the most dopamine sensitive neurons?

A

Frontal lobe

36
Q

What is brain plasticity?

A

The brain can adapt to changes in sensory input - for example, loss of input from one part of the body or higher levels of input.

37
Q

What is phantom limb syndrome?

A

Following limb amputation, some patients continue to feel sensations where the missing limb would be. Stimulating areas of the face and other parts of the body may activate sensations in the missing limb due to compensation of cortical area in somatosensory cortex.

38
Q

What’s the treatment for phantom limb syndrome?

A

Mirror box

39
Q

Phineas Gage

A

Metal rod was driven through head and affected connections between limbic system and frontal lobe, resulting in drastic personality change

40
Q

Where is verbal ability localized?

A

Left hemisphere of the human brain

41
Q

What is split brain procedure?

A

Severing the corpus callosum?

42
Q

What’s the problem split brain patients have?

A

Information presented to the left hemisphere can be described verbally, information presented to the right hemisphere cannot.

43
Q

Wada test/ISAP

A

Freezes one hemisphere to enable language testing

44
Q

What’s hemispatial neglect?

A

Usually follows stroke in the right hemisphere, and patients are unaware of what’s happening on the left side of the body/space.

45
Q

Structural brain imaging

A

Provides information about the basic structure of the brain and allows clinicians or researchers to see abnormalities in brain structure

46
Q

Functional brain imaging

A

Provides information about the activity of the brain when people perform various kinds of cognitive or motor tasks

47
Q

PET

A

Radioactive substance is injected into bloodstream and areas of the brain requiring more blood flow have more radioactive traces

48
Q

fMRI

A

Detects oxygenated hemoglobin in the blood and provides an image of the level of activation in each brain area

49
Q

TMS

A

Briefly deactivates neurons via magnetic pulse. Can establish causality in the break.

Psychology (28 decks)

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