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Nature Vs Nurture > Topic 1: Brain and The Nervous System > Flashcards

Topic 1: Brain and The Nervous System Flashcards

1
Q

What is Psychology?

A

The scientific study of behaviour and mental processes

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2
Q

Define Behaviour?

A

Behaviour is an observable action made by a living person or animal eg. sneezing, blinking, laughing etc;

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3
Q

Define a Mental Process?

A

A mental process is an experience that occurs within an individual when you are thinking or feeling something, it cannot be directly observed eg. nervous, happy, concentrated, excited etc;

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4
Q

What is the relationship between behaviour and mental process?

A

Behaviour and mental process influence each-other.
For example, you feel cold (mental process) so you put on your hoodie (behaviour).

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5
Q

What is the difference between psychology and psychiatry?

A

Psychology
- 6 years of study
- Can assess, diagnose and assist a patient through talking therapy.

Psychiatry
- 11 years of study
- Can assess, diagnose and treat a patient with therapy or medication.

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6
Q

What are some specialist areas of psychology and what do they study?

A
  • Sport: The study of the psychological basis, processes, and effects of sport.
  • Clinical neuropsychology: The study of applied science of brain-behaviour relationships.
  • Forensic: Forensic psychology is the application of scientific knowledge and methods to help answer legal questions
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7
Q

What is Biology?

A

Biology is the study of life and all living organisms.

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8
Q

What are some specialist areas of biology and what do they study?

A

Neuroscience: The scientific study of the nervous system.
Immunology: The study of immune systems in all organisms
Zoology: The scientific study of animals.

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9
Q

What is the CNS? What is its function?

A

CNS = Central nervous system
The central nervous system is composed of the brain and the spinal cord.
The CNS functions:
1. The brain is the control centre of the body.
2. The spinal cord allows the brain to communicate with the rest of the body.

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10
Q

What is the PNS? What is its function?

A

PNS = Peripheral nervous system
Any nerve outside the brain and spinal cord is part of the peripheral nervous system.
The PNS has two functions:
1. To communicate information from the body’s organs, muscles and glands to the brain.
2. To communicate information from the brain, to the bodies organs, glands and muscles

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11
Q

What are the two subdivisions of the Peripheral Nervous System?

A

The somatic nervous system and the autonomic nervous system.

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12
Q

What is the function of the Somatic Nervous System?

A

The somatic nervous system is responsible for carrying messages from the brain to the skeletal muscles (voluntary movement).

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13
Q

What are the two divisions of the Somatic Nervous System?

A

The somatic nervous system consists of both afferent (sensory) and efferent (motor) nerves.

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14
Q

What is the function of the Autonomic Nervous System?

A

The autonomic nervous system controls the body’s non-skeletal muscles (e.g. the heart and pupils of the eyes), as well as internal organs and glands.

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15
Q

What are the two divisions of the Autonomic Nervous System?

A

Sympathetic (arousing) and Parasympathetic (calming)

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16
Q

What is the function of the Sympathetic Nervous System?

A

Prepares us for actions, including the fight or flight responses.

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17
Q

What is the function of the Parasympathetic Nervous System?

A

Calms our body down and returns us to baseline/normal (homeostasis).

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18
Q

What is the Cerebrum and what is its function?

A
  • Located above the Cerebellum.
  • The Cerebrum is the largest part of the brain.
  • It is divided into two hemispheres which are then divided into 4 lobes.
  • The outer layer is called the Cerebral cortex.
  • Areas within the Cerebrum control muscle functions and also control speech, thought, emotions, reading, writing, and learning.
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19
Q

What is the Cerebellum and what is its function?

A
  • Located at the base of the brain.
  • The size of a tennis ball.
  • The Cerebellum is responsible for muscle coordination and balance.
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20
Q

What are the functions of the left and right hemispheres of the brain?

A
  • The left hemisphere controls speech, comprehension, mathematics, and writing. The left hemisphere has motor control of the right side of the body.
  • The right hemisphere controls creativity, spatial ability, artistic, and musical skills. The right hemisphere has motor control of the left side of the body.
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21
Q

What are the names of the 4 types of lobes?

A
  • Frontal Lobe, Parietal Lobe, Occipital Lobe and Temporal Lobe.
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22
Q

What are the characteristics/functions of the Frontal Lobe?

A
  • It is the largest of the four lobes
  • The frontal lobe has many functions including:
    problem solving, planning, decision making, expression of emotion, personality and production of speech (Broca’s area).
  • The frontal lobe also contains the Primary motor cortex which initiates voluntary movement.
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23
Q

What are the characteristics/functions of the Parietal Lobe?

A
  • Found in the upper back half of the brain
  • Functions include: processing sensory information, spatial awareness and direction.
  • The frontal lobe also contains the Primary motor cortex which initiates voluntary movement.
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24
Q

What are the characteristics/functions of the Occipital Lobe?

A
  • Almost all this area of the brain is dedicated to vision.
  • Contains the primary visual cortex
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25
Q

What are the characteristics/functions of the Temporal Lobe?

A
  • Located next to the ears
  • Contains areas responsible for hearing and language comprehension (Wernicke’s area).
  • Contains the Primary Auditory Cortex
  • Has a role in recognizing: faces, places, songs etc;
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26
Q

What is the function of the Primary motor cortex?

A

The primary function of the motor cortex is to send signals to direct the body’s movement.

27
Q

What is the function of the Primary somatosensory cortex?

A

The primary function is to detect sensory information from the body regarding temperature, touch, texture, and pain.

28
Q

What is the brain stem’s function and where is it located?

A

Brain stem: regulates survival functions such as our heartbeat, blood pressure and breathing rates.
It connects your brain to your spinal cord.
It sits near the bottom of your brain.

29
Q

What is the Pons and what is its function?

A
  • The pons is the largest part of the brain stem.
  • It is a group of nerves that function as a connection between the cerebrum and cerebellum.
  • It has a role in regulating breathing and sleep cycles.
30
Q

What is the Amygdala and what is its function?

A
  • The Amygdala is associated with the emotions of fear and anger, and plays a key role in our emotional responses.
31
Q

What is the Thalamus and what is its function?

A
  • Sensory data arrives here and is then relayed to specific areas of the somatosensory cortex.
32
Q

What are the two areas of the brain that are connected to speech?

A
  1. The Broca’s Area
  2. The Wernicke’s Area
33
Q

What is the Broca’s Area?

A
  • Found in the Left Frontal Lobe
  • Responsible for coordinating the movements of the muscles required for production of speech.
  • Crucial role in the production of fluent speech.
34
Q

What is the Wernicke’s Area?

A
  • Found in the Left Temporal Lobe
  • Responsible for the comprehension of speech.
  • Interprets the sound of human speech.
  • Crucial for making our speech coherent (speech makes sense).
35
Q

What is a neuron?

A
  • A neuron is an individual nerve cell.
  • Neurons are commonly described as a ‘building block’ of the nervous system because the entire nervous system is made up of neurons.
36
Q

What is a nerve?

A

A bundle of fibers that receives and sends messages between the body and the brain.

37
Q

What are the 3 Types of Neurons? What are their functions?

A

There are three types of neurons:
1. Sensory neurons - pick up info from your senses to send to your brain.
2. Interneurons - only found in CNS.
3. Motor neurons - move your muscles/organs/glands.

38
Q

What is the soma and what is its function?

A
  • Also known as the cell body.
  • This contains the nucleus and maintains the neuron and keeps is functioning.
39
Q

What is the function of dendrites?

A
  • Receives information from other neurons and transmits it to the soma.
40
Q

What is the function of the axon?

A
  • Thin tube-like extension that transmits information from the soma to the axon terminal.
  • The space between two neurons.
41
Q

What is the function of the axon terminal?

A
  • Found at the end of axons, this small structure stores and secretes neurotransmitters.
42
Q

What is the Myelin and what is its function ?

A
  • A white fatty substances that coats the axon.
  • This insulates the axon and allows the message to pass faster along the axon.
43
Q

What is the Synaptic Gap?

A

The space between two neurons.

44
Q

What happens in the synaptic gap? What structures are involved?

A
  • In the synaptic gap, the electrical signals are converted into chemicals that can easily cross the gap and pass on to the next neuron where they again get converted into electrical signals.
  • A synapse is made up of a presynaptic and postsynaptic terminal. The presynaptic terminal is at the end of an axon and is the place where the electrical signal (the action potential) is converted into a chemical signal (neurotransmitter release).
45
Q

What are neurotransmitters?

A

Neurotransmitters are chemicals that neurons used to communicate with each other.

46
Q

How are excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters different?

A
  • If a neurotransmitter is excitatory then it makes the post-synaptic (after the synapse) neuron more likely to fire eg. medication to increase concentration and focus (eg ADHD medication).
    If a neurotransmitter is inhibitory then it makes the post-synaptic neuron less likely to fire. eg. medication to reduce seizures (eg epilepsy medication)
47
Q

Why are neuron messages referred to as electrochemical?

A

When a neuron passes a message to another neuron it is called an electrochemical message. This is because inside the neuron, the message is electrical (impulse) and outside the neuron the message is in a chemical form (neurotransmitters).

48
Q

What is a brain injury?

A

A brain injury refers to any brain damage that impairs or interferes with the normal functioning of the brain.

49
Q

What are some causes of brain damage?

A
  • Some potential causes of a brain injury may be: A blow to the head, car accident, a stroke, alcohol, drugs, brain surgery (eg, tumor removal), infection or disease.
50
Q

What is plasticity?

A

Plasticity is the ability of the brain to change in response to experience.

51
Q

How does plasticity change the brain?

A

It changes the brain by changing the connections between neurons. If a neuron is damaged then the neurons around it can find new connections with other undamaged neurons to form new pathways in the brain.

52
Q

What are the 2 types of brain plasticity?

A
  1. DEVELOPMENTAL PLASTICITY
  2. ADAPTIVE PLASTICITY
53
Q

What is Developmental Plasticity?

A

Developmental plasticity is the natural changes that take place in all peoples brains as we mature older and have new experiences (eg, learning to read).

54
Q

What is Adaptive Plasticity?

A

Adaptive plasticity is the ability of the brain to compensate for lost function in the event of brain injury. Also explains how the brain changes when we learn something new.

55
Q

What are the 3 processes of plasticity?

A

1.Synaptogenesis
2. Rerouting
3. Sprouting

56
Q

What is Synaptogenesis?

A

Synaptogenesis is the formation of synapses between neurons in the nervous system.

57
Q

What is Rerouting?

A

Rerouting is when an undamaged neuron that has lost connection with an active neuron may seek a new active neuron to connect with.

58
Q

What is Sprouting?

A

Sprouting is the growth of axon and dendrite branches to enable the neuron to make new connections.

59
Q

What is Aphasia?

A

Aphasia is an impairment of language, affecting the production or comprehension of speech and the ability to read or write.

60
Q

What are the 2 types of Aphasia?

A

Broca’s Aphasia and Wernicke’s Aphasia.

61
Q

What is Broca’s Aphasia?

A
  • This is when there is damage to Broca’s area and it is difficult for people to produce fluent speech.
  • They can understand speech the same, they just cannot produce it as easily.
62
Q

What is Wernicke’s Aphasia?

A
  • This is when there is damage to Wernicke’s area and have issues with understanding speech.
  • This results in fluent speech that may not make much sense.
63
Q

What are some key ideas about Phineas Gage’s Case Study?

A
  • In 1848 a 25 year old Phineas sent a 4 foot long tamping iron into his left cheek through his frontal lobe and out through his skull.
  • The Frontal Lobe is where our personality and emotional regulation is stored so because Gage’s Frontal lobe was damaged he became a very aggressive and intolerant man.
64
Q

What are some key ideas about Henry Molaison’s Case Study?

A
  • Henry developed severe amnesia after surgery to help reduce seizures at age 27.
  • The surgeon removed most of the hippocampus on both sides of the brain, which meant that Henry could no longer form long term memories.
  • Studies displayed that the hippocampus is not involved in procedural memories, meaning Henry was still able to learn new things like tying his shoelaces.

Nature Vs Nurture (3 decks)

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