PHYSIO BIO | Finals Coverage

TOPICS: Neurotransmitters, Recording Brain Activity, Parts of the Brain, and Hunger

Epinephrine

“fight or flight”; when a person experiences stress or fear

Norepinephrine

strongly affects our nervous system; involved in sleep, alertness, arousal, and mood

Dopamine

“pleasure-reward”; involves voluntary movement, learning, memory, emotion, sleep, motivation, and reward

Serotonin

“happy pill”; involved in sleep, mood, appetite, and judgement

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)

regulates anxiety, vision, and motor control

Endorphins

“pain reliever”; works in lowering the transmission of pain signals to the brain and promotes feelings of euphoria

Acetylcholine (ACT)

focused on muscle movements, memory, and learning, associated with motor neurons.

leads to depression

What happens when you have low levels of norepinephrine?

leads to mania, anxiety, and schizophrenia

What happens when you have high levels of epinephrine?

leads to depression and Parkinson’s disease

What happens when you have low levels of dopamine?

leads to mania, anxiety, bipolar, addiction and schizophrenia

What happens when you have high levels of dopamine?

leads to depression and Parkinson’s disease

What happens when you have low levels of serotonin?

leads to mania, anxiety, and schizophrenia

What happens when you have high levels of serotonin?

leads to bipolar, anxiety, schizophrenia, mania and ADHD

What happens when you have low levels of GABA?

leads to hypersomnia, depression, or lack of energy

What happens when you have high levels of GABA?

leads to depression, anxiety, mood swings, and chronic physical pains

What happens when you have low levels of endorphins?

leads to addiction to exercise or physical activity

What happens when you have high levels of endorphins?

leads to motor disabilities, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, paralysis, stroke, muscle weakening, and learning and memory impairments

What happens when you have low levels of ACTs?

leads to increased salvation, muscle weakening, blurry vision, and paralysis

When happens when you have high levels of ACTs?

Ablation

removal of the brain area

Lesion

damage to the brain area, often done for research

Stereotaxic Instrument

this is used to damage structures in the interior of the brain

Injecting chemicals

kills neurons or inactivates them temporarily

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)

intense magnetic field application that temporarily inactivates a brain area; active, inactive, then active again

Electroencephalograph (EEG)

records electrical activity from scalp; distinguishes wakefulness from stages of sleep

Magnetoencephalograph (MEG)

measures faint magnetic fields generated by brain activity

Positron-emission Topography (PET)

records emission of radioactivity; produces high resolution images

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

uses oxygen consumption in the brain to provide a moving and detailed picture; safer and less expensive than PET

Computerized axial tomography Scan (CAT Scan)

injects dye into the blood; maps brain areas and requires exposure to x-ray

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

applies powerful magnetic field to image the brain

Spinal Cord

passage for motor activities; communicates with all the sense organs and muscles except those of the head

Hindbrain

consists of the medulla, pons, and cerebellum

Medulla (Medulla Oblongata)

controls vital reflexes; enlarged extension of the spinal cord

Pons

Latin word for bridge; hindbrain structure that lies anterior and ventral to the medulla; allows hemispheres to control the left and right sides of the body

Cerebellum

contributes to movement control; for balance and coordination

Midbrain

a relay system, transmitting information necessary for vision and hearing

Forebrain

most prominent part of the brain and has two cerebral hemispheres; responsible for voluntary actions, thinking, and processing

Amygdala

most central for evaluating emotional information especially with regard to fear

Hypothalamus

controls our appetite for eating, drinking, temperature control, and reproductive behaviors; the master control of the autonomic system

Thalamus

where most sensory information go first; receives input from a sensory system and transmits information to a single area of the cerebral cortex

Pituitary Gland

synthesizes hormones that the blood carries to organs throughout the body

Hippocampus

essential for certain types of memories and monitors where you are and where you’re going

Cerebral Cortex

outer layer of the cerebrum; responsible for motor areas, sensory areas, and association areas

Cerebrum

largest part of the brain; initiates and coordinates movement and regulates temperature

Occipital Lobe

targets visual information

Parietal Lobe

essential for spatial and numerical information; monitors all information about the eye, head, and body positions and passes it on to brain areas that control movement

Temporal Lobe

primary cortical target for auditory information

Frontal Lobe

involves voluntary movement, expressive language and for managing higher level executive functions

damage in the Cerebellum (Cerebellar Damage)

damage in this area may cause clumsiness or make them lose their balance; they may also have difficulty in shifting their attention back and forth between auditory and visual stimuli

damage in the Broca’s Area (Broca’s aphasia)

is located in the frontal lobe; damage in this area causes difficulty in articulation

damage in the Wernicke’s Area (Wernicke’s aphasia)

is located in the temporal lobe; damage in this area makes the person formulate sentences that makes no sense or meaning

damage in the Hypothalamus

damage in this area causes abnormalities in motivated behaviors such as feeding, drinking, temperature regulation, sexual behavior, fighting or activity level

damage in the Hippocampus

damage in this area may cause memory impairments

damage in the Primary Visual Cortex (Occipital Lobe)

damage in this area may cause cortical blindness; may have no conscious visual perception and no visual imagery

tumor in the Temporal Lobe

damage in this area may cause visual or auditory hallucinations

tumor in the Occipital Lobe

damage in this area may evoke simple sensations like flashes of light

Kluver-Bucy Syndrome

a syndrome where the temporal lobe is damaged and that a rare behavioral impairment that causes people to put objects in their mouths and engage in inappropriate sexual behavior

Visual Agnosia

damage in the occipital lobe that leads to the inability to visually recognize objects

Prefrontal Lobotomy

among its common consequences were apathy, a loss of ability to plan and take initiative, memory disorders, distractibility, and loss of emotional expressions

Delayed-Response Task

leads to an abnormality of delay in response after hearing or seeing something

Prefrontal Cortical Damage

damage in this area would cause people to act impulsively because of their failure to weigh the pros and cons

Mouth

where digestion begins

Mother’s milk

What do newborn mammals consume in order to survive?

Lactase

enzyme necessary for metabolizing lactose

Lactose

the sugar in milk

Sham feeding

any procedure that mimics normal food consumption but where food and drink are not actually digested or absorbed.

Cranial Nerve X or Vagus Nerve

the cranial nerve that conveys information to the brain about the stretching of the stomach walls

Duodenum

part of the small intestine adjoining the stomach; major site for absorbing nutrients; it is the first digestive site that absorbs a significant amount of nutrients.

Cholecystokinin (CKK)

acts to limit meal size

Pancreas

increases the release of insulin and glucagon

Insulin

enables glucose to enter the cell; is produced to keep blood glucose from rising too high.

Glucagon

stimulates the liver to convert some of its stored glycogen back to glucose; keeps blood glucose from dropping too low

Leptin

limited to vertebrates; signals your brain about your fat reserves

Arcuate Nucleus

has one set of neurons sensitive to hunger signals and a second set sensitive to satiety signals

Ghrelin

acts to increase appetite; triggers stomach contractions.

insulin, CKK, and leptin increase satiety

Name three hormones that increase satiety

Syndromal Obesity

when a gene causes a medical problem that includes obesity

Monogenic Obesity

occurs when a single gene leads to obesity without other physical or mental abnormalities

Polygenic or Common Obesity

relates to many genes, each of which slightly increases the probability of obesity

Bulimia Nervosa

condition which people alternate between binges of overeating and periods of strict dieting; many induce themselves to vomit

Anorexia Nervosa

characterized by refusal to eat enough to maintain a healthy body weight; it can become life-threatening

Carnivores

are also called meat eaters

Herbivores

are also called plant eaters

Omnivores

those who eat both plants and meat

Conditioned Taste Aversion

a robust phenomenon that occurs reliably after just a single pairing of food with illness.

Splanchnic Nerves

convey information about the nutrient contents of the stomach

Glucose

an important source of energy throughout the body and nearly the only fuel used by the brain.