Week 1

Question 1

What are the two different nervous systems?

Answer 1

Central nervous system - brain, spinal cord

Peripheral nervous system - somatic nervous system, autonomic nervous system; sympathetic nervous system, parasympathetic nervous system

Question 2

What does the spinal cord initiate?

Answer 2

Relaxes; the PNS links the CNS to the organs, muscles, and glands of the body.

Question 3

What are the two parts that make up the PNS?

Answer 3

Somatic (SNS): nerves controlling voluntary muscle movements

Automatic (ANS): controls glands, organs, blood vessels

Question 4

What two parts make up the Autonomic nervous system (ANS)?

Answer 4

Sympathetic: arouses body to prepare for action (fight or flight)

Parasympathetic: slows down body to reserve energy

Question 5

What are the three systems that control behaviour? Give an example for each.

Answer 5

Sensory/stimulation (short term) - reactions, blinking

Situation (medium) - thinking about the situation, adrenaline working to ready the body

Seasonal (long term) - female menstrual cycle

Question 6

When information passes through through the spinal cord, information travelling to the brain goes through the __ and the response from the brain goes through the __.

Answer 6

Dorsal; ventral

Question 7

What are the characteristics of a simple withdrawal reflex vs. an inhibited withdrawal reflex?

Answer 7

Makes a decision without the brain vs. delays the brain from performing the reflex motion as to calculate how long you can hold the object for without tissue damage.

Question 8

What effect does binge drinking have on the brain stem?

Answer 8

Vomiting, swallowing, breathing, depression of reticular activation system (sleep); can cause death.

Question 9

What are the features of damage to the cerebellum?

Answer 9

Loss of motor function ipsilateral (same side) to damage; able to generate motor activity; but loses precision (e.g. uncoordinated)

Question 10

Outline the role of the limbic system and what are the three sections that make up the limbic system?

Answer 10

Emotional center. Hippocampus; memory, emotional reactions to memories
Amygdala; fear, aggression, sexual interaction and anxiety
Hypothalamus; control of drives/emotion and reward

Question 11

What type of conditions are associated with disorders in the basal ganglia area of the brain?

Answer 11

Parkinson’s; causes tremors, slowed movement, stiffness, difficulty swallowing and incontinence.
Huntington’s causes uncontrolled movements, loss of intellectual faculties and emotional disturbances.

Question 12

What is the cerebral cortex?

Answer 12

Brain’s outer ‘bark’ layer.

Question 13

During a traumatic brain injury, car crash for example, what areas of the brain are affected and what type of injuries occur?

Answer 13

Forebrain, occipital lobe and temporal lobes are affected. Coup injury (front of the brain) and contrecoup injury occur (back of the brain). The brain swings forward then back.

Question 14

Outline the role of the brainstem.

Answer 14

(Midbrain, pons, medulla) Autonomic functions; heartbeat and breathing.

Question 15

Outline the role of the hypothalamus.

Answer 15

Fundamental overseer of hormonal excretion: body temp, hunger, thirst, sleep and circadian rhythms.

Question 16

Outline the role of the thalamus.

Answer 16

Post office for sensory and motor signals. Everything would be out of sync without the thalamus.

Question 17

Outline the role of the cortex.

Answer 17

Outermost layered structure of neural tissue.

Question 18

Outline the role of the frontal lobes.

Answer 18

Reward, attention, planning, motivation and short-term memory.

Question 19

Which cortex is Wernicke’s area of the brain located near, therefore sharing similarities?

Answer 19

Auditory cortex; Wernicke’s area of the brain focuses on the understanding of speech, i.e. content.

Question 20

Which part of the peripheral nervous system controls involuntary actions of internal organs and glands?

Answer 20

Autonomic nervous system

Question 21

The response - the stomach slowing digestion - is created by which of the nervous systems?

Answer 21

The sympathetic nervous system (also involved in the flight or fight response).

Question 22

What is ‘split brain’ and what does the corpus callous do?

Answer 22

Cutting of the corpus callous to prevent the spread of epilepsy. The corpus callous connects the left and right hand side of the brain together.