Unit 3, Topic 1 - Localisation of function in the brain Flashcards
Central nervous system
Brain and spinal cord. Receives sensory info from the PNS and sends motor info to the PNS.
Peripheral nervous system
Muscles, organs, glands - somatic and autonomic nervous systems.
Somatic nervous system
- Transmits sensory messages from receptors to CNS
- Transmits motor messages from the CNS to skeletal muscles, controlling voluntary movement.
Autonomic nervous system
Responsible for unconscious communication between the CNS and organs/glands, to regulate automatic processes.
Sympathetic nervous system
Controls fight/flight/freeze response and prepares body for action, e.g. raising heartrate
Parasympathetic nervous system
Maintains homeostasis (i.e. balance in automatic day-to-day functions) - rest and digest
Spinal reflex
An unconscious, involuntary response to certain stimuli that is initiated in the spinal cord, independent of the brain.
Frontal lobe
Responsible for initiating body movement, language, planning, judgement, problem solving, personality, and emotion.
Occipital lobe
Located at rear of brain. Responsible for processing visual stimuli, and face and object recognition. Contains primarily visual cortex.
Parietal lobe
Located at top back of brain. Responsible for receiving and processing sensation (e.g. touch, pressure, pain, temp.), and for body and spatial awareness. Contains primary somatosensory cortex.
Temporal lobe
Located at below temples and above ears. Responsible for auditory analysis (contains primary auditory cortex), language comprehension (contains Wernicke’s area), encoding memory (contains hippocampus).
Broca’s area
Speech production - damage results in difficulty articulating words fluently and with correct grammar.
Wernicke’s area
Speech comprehension/interpretation - damage results in difficulty understanding language and production of fluent but meaningless sentences.
Geschwind’s territory
Connects Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas.
Involved in multimodal processing, and enables brain to interpret and classify language stimuli.
Primary motor cortex
Located at rear of frontal lobe.
Communicates with basal ganglia and cerebellum, then generates neural impulses that execute movement.
Basal ganglia
Located at base of forebrain/top of midbrain. Gathers and processes info from many brain regions then sends it back to motor cortex, to regulate fundamentals of movement and inhibit unsuitable movements.
Cerebellum
Located in hindbrain. Uses previously learnt sequences of movement to organise muscle groups to produce a smooth, coordinated movement - sends this info to primary motor cortex.
Limbic system
Controls our primitive emotional responses. Includes the hippocampus and amygdala, and possibly the thalamus and hypothalamus.
Amygdala
Senses threats and activates emotions (particularly anger and fear) by associating current events with emotional memories.
Prefrontal cortex
Regulates the emotional response produced by the amygdala to moderate behaviour.
Excitatory neurotransmitters
Activate postsynaptic neurons to fire an action potential and perform their functions (e.g. glutamate: enables learning by helping with memory formation and retrieval)
Inhibitory neurotransmitters
Block postsynaptic neurons from firing (e.g. gamma-amino butyric acid - GABA: blocks brain signals to calm stress, fear, or anxiety)
Acetylcholine physical function
triggers muscle contractions/ stimulates hormones/ controls heartbeat
Epinephrine physical function
-“fight-or-flight” response
- fast breathing
- increased strength \blood sugar/heart rate/ metabolism
Norepinephrine physical function
-“fight-or-flight” response
- vasoconstriction - narrows blood vessels (to maintain blood pressure in stress)
Dopamine physical function
controlling movement, memory and PLEASURE/ motivation
Serotonin physical function
-involuntary responses such as sleep-wake cycle. and constricting smooth muscle movement
Parkinson’s disease
Symptoms:
Treatments:
Alzheimer’s disease
Symptoms:
Treatments:
Acetylcholine psychological function:
arousal/ MEMORY / learning
-sustains focus - maintains sleep
Epinephrine psychological function
panic/ excitement/ anxiety/ focus/ attention
Norepinephrine psychological function
- increases Alertness/ Arousal/ Attention
- increased energy during stress
