Dual Enrollment Psychology

Psychology

The study of the brain’s role and behavior

Medulla

The region of the brain that adjoins the spinal cord and is responsible for your breathing, heart rate, blood circulation and balance.

Pons

Controls attentiveness and the timing of sleep and dreaming.

Reticular formation

Lies inside the Pons and the medulla and is a network of nerves that play a role in autonomic functions, pain modulation, sleep and consciousness.

Midbrain

Helps orient an organism in the environment and guide movement toward or away from stimuli. It is also said to help regulate our experience of pain, modulate mood and shape motivation.

Cerebellum

Coordinates voluntary movements such as posture, balance and coordination

Forebrain

It includes structures such as the thalamus, hypothalamus, amygdala, hippocampus and cerebral cortex.

Thalamus

Involved in sleep, wakefulness and relaying motor and sensory signals to the cortex.

Hypothalamus

Involved in controlling motivated behaviors such as eating, drinking, sexual activity and involuntary rhythms such as the sleep/wake cycle and detecting when the body is too hot or cold.

Amygdala

Plays a role in emotional response specifically anger and is involved in determining whether a stimulus is a threat or not.

Hippocampus

Plays an important role in learning, memory, spatial orientation and creating new memories.

Cerebral Cortex

A thin covering on the outside surface of the brain that plays a part in every thought and perception and our ability to produce and understand language. It is crucial in order for us to believe, organize, remember and even hope.

Corpus Callosum

A thick band of fibers that allows communication between the two hemispheres of the brain (left hemisphere, right hemisphere) and is responsible for transferring neural messages between both hemispheres.

Primary somatosensory cortex

Located in the front of the parietal lobe, this area is the initial receiving area for sensory information arriving from the skin senses

Dendrites

This is the input side of the neuron and it receives signals from many other neurons.

Cell body

Contains the neurons nucleus and all the elements needed for normal metabolic activities of the cells.

Axon

This is the output side of the neuron and sends neural impulses to other neurons.

Glia

A cell in the brain that provides nourishment for the neurons and controls the nutrient supply. Glia also produces the chemicals that help shut down the process of neural growth.

Action Potential

A signal sent from one end of the neuron to the other, which is the neurons main response to input, as well as the fundamental information carrier of the nervous system.

Depolarization

When the positively charged sodium ion channels open at the beginning of the action potential and positively charged sodium ions move into the axon.

Repolarization

Occurs when the positively charged potassium channels open and the positively charged potassium ions move out of the axon.

Synaptic Cleft

A fluid filled gap between neurons less than a millionth of an inch wide.

Synaptic Reuptake

When the neurotransmitter molecules are rejected from the receptors vacuumed up by the molecular pumps back into the presynaptic axon terminals and repackaged for future use.

Excitatory Neurotransmitters

Increases the likelihood that the neuron will fire an action potential.

Inhibitory neurotransmitters

decreases the likelihood that the neuron will fire an action potential.

Glutamate

One of the most common neurotransmitters in the central nervous system It rapidly excites neurons increasing the odds that they will talk with other neurons.

GABA

One of the most common neurotransmitters in the central nervous system. It inhibits neurons by dampening neural activity.

James-Lange Theory

This theory says our feelings follow our bodily reactions to external situations.

Cannon-Bard Theory

This theory says that our philological responses to emotions are quite general and it is not easy

Display rules

Rules about what emotions are appropriate to show in a situation.