Unit 1 exam Flashcards
What is the definition of Phrenology?
It is the psudoscientific study of the relationship between the skull’s surface and personality
What is brain ablation?
It is the surgical removal or cutting of tissue, it helped researches to determine how the brain responds to damage.
- it was only done to animals
What are the split brain studies?
A patient underwent a procedure that cuts the nerve between the tissue that connected the two hemispheres. Allowed researches to understand that both sides have different functions and specialisations.
What are the pros and cons of CT scans?
cons = limited to black and white, non detailed, electromagnetic radiation is used. pros = detects issues with structural function, such as cancers, blood clots and hemorrhage.
What are the pros and cons of MRI scans?
cons = cannot be used on a person with internal screws or pacemakers. pros = less harmful to the patient due to the device using a magnetic field to take images. Can produce more detailed and coloured images.
What are the pros and cons of PET scans?
cons = less detailed in showing brain structures. pros = shows the structure of the brain as well as activity. useful for tracking brain functions
What are the pros and cons of fMRI scans?
cons = can only capture a clear image if the person being scanned stays completely still pros = able to trace brain function and activity, does not require an injection of a radioactive substance.
What do interneurons do?
They relay neuronal messages between motor and sensory neurons
What does the nervous system consist of?
CNS (central nervous system) and PNS (peripheral nervous system)
What does the CNS consist of?
Brain and spinal cord
What does the PNS consist of?
The autonomic nervous system, and somatic nervous system
What does the autonomic nervous system consist of?
Parasympathetic nervous system and Sympathetic nervous system
What is the role of the cerebrum?
Most sophisticated functions such as language, perception, evaluation, learning and memory
What is the role of the reticular formation?
- filters important information to the brain
- adjusts muscle tension
- regulates the sleep-wake cycle and consciousness
- regulates physiological arousal and alertness
What is the role of the cerebellum?
Calculate and help coordinate muscle movement, maintain balance, memory formation for natural tasks such as riding your bike.
What is the role of the Hypothalamus?
- Maintaining homeostasis
- biological processes such as sleep cycles, hunger, and sex drive.
What is the left hemispheres role?
Verbal and analytical functions including
- reading
- writing
- speaking
- sequential (step by step) processes of analysis
What is the right hemispheres role?
Non-verbal functions including
- visual awareness, including recognition of places, objects and faces
- spatial awareness
What are the midbrains functions?
- processing sensory information
- regulating sleep and physiological arousal
- motor movement
What are the hindbrains functions?
Autonomic regulation of breathing and basic movement
What are the forebrains functions?
Cognition, perception, learning and memory
What is the primary somatosensory cortex?
An area of the parietal lobe responsible for receiving and processing sensory information
What is the primary motor cortex?
An area of the frontal lobe that initiates voluntary movements by signalling the other parts of the brain to send motor neural messages to our skeletal muscles
What is brain plasticity?
The ability of the brain to physically change in response to experience and learning.
What is rerouting?
A neuron’s ability to form a new connection with another undamaged neuron