The Brain Flashcards by Sasha Krawczyk

Who are the founders of NS studies, and what did they contribute?

Gall, Flourens, Jame, Dewey, Broca, Hermann, Sherington (go, for, jelly, donuts, because, he, said)

Areas of brain EXPANSION equate to areas that are used more, functions through EXTIRPATION, FUNCTIONALSIM, REFLEX ARC, areas with LESIONS show distinct deficits, reaction TIME, and SYNAPSE ( enjoy, exercise, for, realizing, love, to, self)

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Functionalism

A school of thought that behaviour results from its utility in adapting to the environment.

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What NS is located in the cranial nerves?

parasympathetic system only

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What are the three broad organizations of the brain and what are their functions?

Forebrain, which includes the cerebrum, thalamus, and limbic system and deals with memory, learning, emotion, perception, and thirst.
Midbrain, which includes the colliculi for visual and auditory reflexes.
Hindbrain, which includes the rest of the brainstem (i.e. reticular formation, pons, cerebellum, and medulla) and deals with fundamental living processes and movement coordination.

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What are the areas of the hypothalamus and their function?

The Hypothalamus functions to maintain body homeostasis and regulate emotion. Its parts include the lateral, ventromedial, and anterior. They function in satiety (lack of hunger), hunger (very much hunger), and arousal, respectively.

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Basal Ganglia function?

Fine tuning movement

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Septal Nuclei function?

Pleasure centre

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Hippocampus function?

long-term memory formation with help from the septal nuclei and basal ganglia.\

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Amygdala function?

anger

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speech shadowing

A method to determine proper functionality of brain regions by having participants speak and listen simultaneously.

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AcH

Acetylcholine is excitatory in CNS and muscles and is the main neurotransmitter in parasympathetic transmission. Low levels attribute to Alzheimer’s (loss of memory).

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NE/epinephrine

Catecholamines that are excitatory through purpose in the sympathetic system. Inappropriate levels of them attribute to anxiety and depression.

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Dopamine

Catecholamine that maintains proper movement. Therefore, deficits are seen in individuals with Parkinson’s

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Serotonin

mood, eating, sleeping

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GABA

Inhibitory transmitter in the CNS along with glycine by causing hyper polarization.

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Neuropeptides

Are neuromodulators and are slow to react. (e.g. endorphin)

What studies allow researchers to test concepts of nurture vs nature?

Family studies: limited by the idea that both have the same environment
Twin studies: identical twins are compared to fraternal twins with regards to their concordance rates. If identical twins have higher rates, the trait is likely to be heritable.
- concordance rate: measure of the likelihood of both twins carrying a trait.
Adoption studies: relating the traits with biological parents versus adoption parents.

Explain the general social development that an infant goes through.

7 months: stranger anxiety
1 year: separation anxiety
2 years: parallel play = playing next to other kids while not influencing each other.
3 years: awareness of gender identity in play

Why can we say that many of human motor skills are innate?

They are predetermined on a timeline. Children will lose reflexes at certain times in development. Veering from the average may suggest a neurological issue.

sensation versus perception

sensation is the process of creating an AP and perception is making sense of data entering the CNS.

proximal versus distal stimuli

distal stimuli = the object that you will perceive because it is associated with stimuli that can be sensed.
proximal stimuli = the stimuli that can be sensed like light and heat.
ex: the campfire is the distal stimuli and the heat is proximal.

projection area

the area of the brain that sensory information is sent to to complete sensory integration

What are the three types of thresholds?

Absolute = the limit to when an AP is made
Threshold of conscious perception = the limit to when you can perceive the AP made.
Difference threshold = the minimum to how different two stimuli must be to realize that they are different.

Weber’s Law

Difference threshold is based off of ratio differences rather than absolute difference so that the more intense a stimulus is, the more of an absolute difference there needs to be to perceive the difference between two stimuli.

What is the cornea attached to? What about the Iris?

The cornea is attached to the sclera, the outer white protective CT of the eye, and the iris is continuous with the choroid, which is the middle vascular layer of the eye.

Canal of Schlemm

Drains the aqueous humour of the eye

duplicity of vision

The concept that vision is formed by two components: cones and roses, responsible for color and black/white, respectively.

What is the processing pathway for vision

The light hits the retina where the rods and cones respond, sending AP to nearby bipolar cells and horizontal/amacrine. These cells highlight gradients and relay information through convergence to the ganglion cells that form the optic nerve. The medial cells in the nerve cross at the optic chasm so that the visual field of one side is directed towards one side of the brain. The info travels through the LGN in the thalamus that contains parvocellular and magnocellular cells which integrate, spatial (space) and temporal (motion) information, respectively. The information carries onward to the occipital lobe.

What are the ossicles of the middle ear in the order that they appear?

malleus, incus, and stapes (MIS)

Describe the parts and function of the vestibule

There are two portions called the utricle and saccule. Each have a macula, a epithelial membrane with hair cells. On top of the hair cells is a fibrous membrane with otoliths that cause shear force upon linear acceleration to sense it.

Describe the parts and function of the semicircular canal?

The canal itself directs endolymph flow but the ampulla and the base of the canals has the hair cells that sense rotational acceleration.

Describe the parts and function of the cochlea?

There are three compartments called scala when observing a cross-section of the cochlea, with the middle section containing the organ of corti. This part has hair cells resting on the basilar membrane that vibrates with sound waves. Through vibration, the tectorial membrane above the hair cells causes mechanical movement that induces an AP.

Place theory of the ear

The pitch of sound is differentiated by the place along the cochlea that is triggered by sound waves, which depends on the thickness of the basilar membrane. The thicker portion is at the inner coil of the cochlea.

What do the Pacinian corpuscle, Meissner corpuscle, Merkle, Raffini, and free nerve endings sense?

deep pressure and vibration, light touch, deep pressure and texture, stretch, and pain

two point threshold

defines the minimum distance between two stimuli of touch to be interpreted as separate stimuli.

physiological zero

defines the temperature where above it equates to a perception of hot and below of cold

gate theory of pain

painful stimuli may be diverted to different types of sensation. (i.e. heat to pressure)

What are the two types of object recognition models ?

Bottom up: the stimuli are inspected individually to make an image (timely). Applies parallel processing. Top down: the memory assumes what the image is and then looks at its details (error-prone)

What are Gestalt's Principles?

Principles of how visual images are perceived to make sense of it. (i.e proximity, similarity, good continuity, subjective contours, law of closure)