The Brain and Behavior: Nervous System Explained and Organization Flashcards
Nervous System
o Body’s electrochemical communication system: electrical and chemical in nature
o Main function is COMMUNICATION: transmits information from one place to another
Behavioral Neuroscience
the study of how the nervous system affects and controls behavior
Plasticity
MOST IMPORTANT AND UNIQUE!!: the brain’s ability to adapt and change after learning, an experience (good or bad), and injury
Special capacity to change and adapt as we experience new things or encounter injuries
Plasticity in young brain vs. mature brain
• **The younger you are, the more easily the body recovers/has resilience
Organization of the Nervous System
Study Image in Notes: rewrite?
Central Nervous System
anything incased in bone
• Like brain and spinal cord
Three General Sections of the Brain
o Includes the Hindbrain(“the stem”), Midbrain(“the center”), and Forebrain(“the petals”)
o Structures are working together to form the same function in each region
Peripheral Nervous System
everything else that is not brain and spinal cord
• Eyes, ears, etc.
- autonomic and somatic
Autonomic system
strictly motor system that automatically and involuntarily activates or inhibits internal organs of the body
o Affects pupils, blood pressure, reparatory rate, heart rate, bladder and bowels, blood flow, sweat, salivation, and hormones
- includes parasympathetic and sympathetic systems
Sympathetic System
Increases heart rate, breathing increases, bladder and bowls can evacuate, sweating= FIGHT OR FLIGHT!
Parasympathetic
calming system, regulating blood flow, processing everything at normal rate, able to eat in “normal body” function
Somatic System
sensory and motor system that relays information about touch and pain to the central nervous system, and sends messages from the brain to the muscles to produce voluntary movement
o Same for voluntary information; nerves coming down from brain to muscles to take notes
