Neuroscience – The Brain (Quiz 4 Review)

Vocabulary flashcards covering core brain structures, functions, and related neuroscience concepts from the lecture notes.

Medulla

Part of the brainstem that controls unconscious, essential life functions such as breathing, swallowing, and blood circulation.

Cerebellum

‘Little brain’ responsible for coordination of movement, balance, and muscle memory; depressed by alcohol.

Muscle Memory

Automatic execution of practiced movements after sufficient repetition, managed largely by the cerebellum.

Demyelination

Loss or damage of the myelin sheath around neurons, as seen in multiple sclerosis (MS).

Thalamus

Brain structure that acts as a relay station, directing incoming sensory nerves (except smell) to the appropriate cortical areas.

Sensation

Process in which external stimuli make contact with a sense organ and are converted into neural signals (action potentials).

Sensory Neuron

Neuron located in a sense organ that transduces physical energy into neural impulses (e.g., rods and cones in the retina).

Optic Nerve

Bundle of approximately one million neurons transmitting visual information from each eye to the brain.

Synesthesia

Rare condition where sensory pathways cross, causing experiences such as ‘seeing’ sounds or ‘tasting’ shapes.

Reticular Formation

Network in the brainstem that regulates arousal, sleep–wake cycles, and filters attention to environmental stimuli.

Sleep Inertia

Time (≈15 min–1.5 h) between waking and reaching full alertness.

Cocktail Party Phenomenon

Ability of the brain to monitor background noise yet instantly attend to personally relevant information (e.g., one’s name).

Hypothalamus

Highly influential structure under the thalamus that regulates basic survival drives and maintains homeostasis.

Homeostasis

Body’s tendency to maintain optimal internal balance (temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, etc.).

Feeding Center

Hypothalamic region that triggers hunger; damage can cause lack of eating.

Satiety Center

Hypothalamic area that signals fullness; damage can lead to overeating and obesity.

Weight Set Point

Hypothesized body-defended weight range that resists dieting efforts.

GLP-1 Drugs (e.g., Ozempic)

Medications that enhance satiety signals in the hypothalamus and slow digestion, aiding weight loss.

Anorexia Nervosa

Eating disorder characterized by restricted food intake and intense fear of weight gain.

Bulimia Nervosa

Eating disorder involving cycles of bingeing and compensatory purging behaviors.

Binge-Eating Disorder

Eating disorder marked by recurrent episodes of consuming large quantities of food without purging.

Orthorexia

Pathological obsession with ‘correct’ or ‘healthy’ eating, leading to rigid food avoidance.

ARFID

Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder based on sensory aversions or fear of adverse consequences, not body image.

Amygdala

Limbic structure that detects threat and mediates fear responses; interacts with the hypothalamus.

Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD)

Condition characterized by disregard for others, impulsivity, aggression, and rule violation, often linked to underactive amygdala.

Psychopath

Informal term for individuals with ASPD plus profound lack of empathy and remorse (‘cold-hearted’).

Hippocampus

Limbic structure that stores new experiences temporarily and distributes them to long-term memory during REM sleep.

Clive Wearing

Musician whose hippocampal damage from encephalitis caused profound anterograde amnesia.

Pleasure Center

Neural pathway rich in dopamine that produces reward; stimulated by natural pleasures and all drugs of abuse.

Dopamine

Neurotransmitter central to reward, motivation, and addiction pathways.

Cerebral Cortex

Convoluted outer layer of the cerebrum responsible for higher intellectual functions.

Gray Matter

Regions of the cortex composed of neuronal cell bodies and unmyelinated neurons.

White Matter

Brain tissue consisting mainly of myelinated axons that connect different brain regions.

Sulci

Creases or grooves on the cerebral cortex surface.

Gyri

Raised bulges between sulci on the cerebral cortex.

Corpus Callosum

Large bundle of nerve fibers connecting the two cerebral hemispheres and enabling communication between them.

Frontal Lobe

Cortical lobe involved in executive functions, motor control, speech production, and emotional regulation.

Executive Functioning

Set of cognitive skills—attention, impulse control, planning, task switching—primarily managed by the frontal lobe.

Primary Motor Cortex

Region of the frontal lobe that issues voluntary motor commands to skeletal muscles.

Broca’s Area

Frontal-lobe region responsible for speech production; damage causes expressive aphasia.

Parietal Lobe

Cortical lobe housing the primary somatosensory cortex and integrating sensory information.

Primary Somatosensory Cortex

Parietal-lobe strip that processes tactile sensations, temperature, pain, and proprioception.

Occipital Lobe

Posterior cortical lobe containing the primary visual processing area.

Temporal Lobe

Cortical lobe with primary auditory areas and language comprehension sites.

Wernicke’s Area

Temporal-lobe region vital for language comprehension; damage results in fluent but nonsensical speech (receptive aphasia).