AP Psychology: The Brain, Sleep, and Sensation

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering brain anatomy and organization (Topic 1.4), states of consciousness and sleep disorders (Topic 1.5), and sensory systems including general sensation, vision, hearing, taste, smell, pain, touch, and balance (Topic 1.6).

Brain Plasticity (Neuroplasticity)

The brain's ability to change and reorganize itself.

EEG

Records electrical activity in the brain.

Brain Stem

Controls basic survival functions, like breathing and heartbeat.

Medulla Oblongata

Controls breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure.

Reticular Activating System (Reticular Formation)

Helps control alertness and wakefulness.

Cerebellum

Controls balance, coordination, and movement.

Cerebral Cortex

The brain's outer layer responsible for complex thinking and processing.

Limbic System

Involved in emotion, motivation, and memory.

Thalamus

Relays most sensory information to the cerebral cortex; smell is an exception to the usual initial pathway.

Hypothalamus

Regulates hunger, thirst, body temperature, and hormones.

Pituitary Gland

Releases hormones and controls other endocrine glands.

Hippocampus

Helps form new memories.

Amygdala

Processes emotions, especially fear and aggression.

Corpus Callosum

Connects the brain's left and right hemispheres.

Broca's Area

Helps produce speech.

Wernicke's Area

Helps understand language.

Cortex Specialization

Different brain areas perform different functions.

Contralateral Hemisphere Organization

Each brain hemisphere mainly controls the opposite side of the body.

Aphasia

Difficulty speaking or understanding language due to brain damage.

Occipital Lobe

Processes vision.

Temporal Lobe

Processes hearing, language, and memory.

Parietal Lobe

Processes touch and other body sensations.

Somatosensory Cortex

Processes touch, temperature, pain, and body position.

Frontal Lobe

Involved in planning, decision-making, and movement.

Prefrontal Cortex

Helps with planning, judgment, and self-control.

Motor Cortex

Controls voluntary movements.

Consciousness

Awareness of yourself and your surroundings.

Circadian Rhythm

The body's roughly $24\text{-hour}$ sleep-wake cycle.

Jet Lag

Tiredness caused by traveling across time zones and disrupting your body clock.

EEG Patterns

Patterns of electrical activity in the brain.

NREM

Sleep stages that are not REM sleep.

Delta Waves

Slow brain waves associated with deep sleep.

REM

Sleep stage associated with rapid eye movements, vivid dreams, and temporary muscle paralysis.

REM Rebound

Getting more REM sleep after being deprived of it.

Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN)

Brain region that regulates circadian rhythm using light information.

Dream

A series of thoughts, images, or experiences during sleep.

Activation-Synthesis Theory

The brain creates a story from random neural activity during sleep.

Consolidation Theory

The idea that dreams help process and strengthen memories.

Insomnia

Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep.

Narcolepsy

A disorder involving extreme daytime sleepiness and sudden sleep episodes.

REM Sleep Behavior Disorder

A disorder in which a person physically acts out dreams.

Sleep Apnea

A disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep.

Somnambulism

Sleepwalking.

Sensation

Detecting information through the senses.

Sensory Receptors

Cells that detect sensory information.

Signal Detection Theory

Detection depends on the stimulus and factors like attention and alertness.

Absolute Threshold

The weakest stimulus detected $50\%$ of the time.

Just-Noticeable Difference (Difference Threshold)

The smallest difference between two stimuli detected $50\%$ of the time.

Weber's Law

The noticeable difference depends on the original stimulus's intensity.

Sensory Adaptation

Becoming less sensitive to a constant stimulus.

Sensory Interaction

One sense influences another, such as smell affecting taste.

Synesthesia

Stimulation of one sense automatically triggers an experience in another sense.

Subliminal

Below the level of conscious awareness.

Priming

When exposure to one stimulus influences your response to another.

Transduction

Converting sensory energy into neural signals.

Rods

Retinal cells that help you see in dim light but do not detect color.

Cones

Retinal cells that detect color and fine details.

Trichromatic Theory

Color vision comes from three types of cones sensitive to different wavelengths.

Opponent-Process Theory

Color vision uses opposing pairs, such as red-green and blue-yellow.

Feature Detectors

Brain cells that respond to specific visual features, like edges and lines.

Afterimages

Images that remain briefly after you look away from a stimulus.

Ganglion Cells

Retinal cells that send visual information toward the brain.

Dichromatism

Color vision involving two functioning cone types.

Monochromatism

Very limited or absent color discrimination.

Prosopagnosia

Difficulty recognizing faces.

Blindsight

Responding to visual information without consciously seeing it.

Parallel Processing

Processing multiple aspects of information at the same time.

Place Theory

Pitch depends on where the cochlea's basilar membrane vibrates.

Volley Theory

Groups of neurons take turns firing to help detect higher sound frequencies.

Frequency Theory

Pitch is represented by the rate at which auditory neurons fire.

Conduction Deafness

Hearing loss caused by problems transmitting sound through the outer or middle ear.

Sensorineural Deafness

Hearing loss caused by damage to the inner ear or auditory nerve.

Cochlear Implant

A device that electrically stimulates the auditory nerve to provide a sense of sound.

Sound Localization

Identifying where a sound comes from.

Olfactory System (Olfaction)

The sensory system responsible for smell.

Pheromones

Chemical signals that affect other members of the same species.

Gustation

The sense of taste.

Taste Receptors

Cells that detect chemicals responsible for taste.

Umami

The savory taste associated with foods containing glutamate.

Oleogustus

A proposed taste associated with certain fatty acids.

Supertasters

People who experience certain tastes, especially bitterness, very intensely.

Medium Tasters

People with average sensitivity to certain taste compounds.

Nontasters

People with lower sensitivity to certain taste compounds.

Gate Control Theory

The spinal cord and brain can regulate how strongly pain is felt.

Phantom Limb Sensation

Feeling sensations in a limb that has been amputated.

Vestibular Sense

The sense that helps maintain balance and detect head movement.

Semicircular Canals

Inner-ear structures that detect rotational head movements.

Kinesthesis

The sense of the position and movement of body parts.