Unit 2 Flashcards
Neurons
Process and transmit information
Basic building block of the nervous system
Cell body
Contains the nucleus
The cell’s life support center
Dendrites
The bushy, branching expressions
Receive messages
Axon
Passes messages through its branches to other neurons or to muscles or glands
Myelin Sheath
The fatty tissue layer segmentally encasing the axons of some neurons
Axon terminal branches
The ends of the axon contain terminal buttons, which hold synaptic vesicles that store neurotransmitters
Glial cells
Cells that support, nourish, and protect neurons, producing the insulating myelin that speeds up connections
Excitatory signal
Signal trigger action
Inhibitory signal
Signals depress action
Acetylcholine
Plays a role in learning and memory
Messenger between motor neurons and skeletal muscles
causes muscles to contract
without it paralysis occurs
Dopamine
Movement, learning, attention, and emotion
Associated with rewarded feelings
Endorphins
Bodies natural painkiller
Agonist
drug molecule that increases a neurotransmitters action
Antagonist
inhibits or blocks neurotransmitter actions
Nervous system
The bodies speedy, electrochemical communication network
Nerves
Bundled axons of many neurons that form neural connections
Sensory Neurons
contain afferent nerve fibers
Carries information from sense organs to the central nervous system
Motor neurons
Contains efferent neurons
Carries messages from the central nervous system to the muscles and glands
Central Nervous System
Brain and spinal cord
responsible for coordinating incoming sensory messages and outgoing motor messages
Peripheral nervous system
Sensory and motor neurons
connects the body to the central nervous system gathering information from the senses and transmitting messages from the CNS
Somatic peripheral nervous system
Controls the body’s skeletal muscles
Skeletal nervous system
Autonomic peripheral nervous system
Operates automatically
Responsible for homeostasis
Sympathetic nervous system
Arouses the body
Flight, freeze, fight
Accelerates heartbeat, raises blood pressure, slows digestion, raises blood sugar, and cools the body
Parasympathetic nervous system
Calms the body
Rest and digest
Deaccelerates heartbeat, lowers blood pressure, stimulates digestion, processes waste, and calms the body
Endocrine system
“slow” chemical communication system
glands secrete hormones
hormones move through bloodstream
Adrenal glands
when the sympathetic nervous system is activated the adrenal glands release epinephrine to energize the body
Growth hormone
growth and metabolism
Oxytocin
Stimulates the uterine contractions of childbirth and milk secretion
Lesion
Brain tissue is destroyed
Stimulation
brain regions are stimulated electrically, chemically, or magnetically
EEG
(electroencephalogram)
Electrodes placed on the scalp to measure electrical activity in neurons
MEG
(Magnetoencephalography)
A head coil records magnetic fields from the brains natural electrical currents
CT
(Computerized tomography)
X-rays of the head generates images that may locate brain damage
PET
(Positron Emission tomography)
Tracks where a temporarily radioactive form of glucose goes while the brain of a person given it performs a given task
MRI
(Magnetic resonance imaging)
People sit or lie down in a chamber that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to provide a map of brain structure
fMRI
(Functional magnetic resonance imaging)
Measures blood flow to brain regions by comparing continuous MRI imaging
Medulla
Base of the brain stem
Controls heartbeat, blood pressure, and breathing
The pons
Controls sleep
Helps coordinate movement
Reticular formation
Helps control arousal
filters incoming sensory stimuli
Thalamus
Serves as a relay station
Sends incoming and outgoing sensory signals to the portion of the brain responsible for processing sensory information
Cerebellum
Processing sensory input
coordinating balance and movement
nonverbal learning and memory
Referred to as the little brain
Amygdala
Two lima-bean sized neural clusters
Linked to emotion, fear, and aggression
Hypothalamus
Directs eating, drinking, and body temperature
helps govern the endocrine system
Linked to emotion and reward
Hippocampus
Helps process for storage explicit
Frontal lobes
Speaking
motor movements
judgement
attention
decision-making
pariteal lobes
receives and processes sensory input for taste, touch, and body position
Temporal lobes
Auditory information
Home to primary auditory cortex
Occipital lobes
Receives visual information
Home to primary visual cortex
Motor cortex
Controls voluntary movements
Somatosensory cortex
Registers information from the skin senses and body movement
Auditory cortex
Recieves information from the ears
Visual cortex
Recieves information from the eyes
Brocas area
production of speech
Wernickes area
comprehension of speech
Plasticity
The brains ability to change, by reorganizing after damage or by building new pathways based on experience
Corpus collosum
A wide band of axon fibers connecting the two hemispheres
Left hemisphere is involved in…
Speaking and language
Math calculations
making literal interpretations
controlling the right side of the body
Right hemisphere is involved in
Perceptual tasks
Making inferences
Modulating speech
Visual perception
Recognition of emotion
Controlling the left side of the body
Consciousness
Our subjective awareness of ourselves and our environment
Cognitive neuroscience
combines the study of brain activity with how we learn, think, remember, and percieve
Dual processing
Information is often simultaneously processed on separate conscious and unconscious tracks
Blindsight
A condition in which a person can respond to a visual stimulus without consciously experiencing it
Parallel processing
Unconscious processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously
Sequential processing
Conscious processing or one aspect of a problem at a time
Sleep
Periodic natural loss of consciousness
Circadian rhythm
Our bodies roughly synchronize with the 24-hour cycle of day and night
Internal biological clock
