AP Psych Unit 1

What is epigenetics?

is the study of heritable traits, or a stable change of cell function, that happen without changes to the DNA sequence.

What did the Minnesota Twin Experiment show?

• 35 years of research

• Discovered twins reared apart have many similarities.

What does dizyogtic mean? (hint twins)

Two eggs

What does monozygotic mean? (hint twins)

One egg

Who were the Jim Twins

The Jim Twins of Ohio were reunited at age 39, after being separated at birth. When they got to talking, they found that they had lived identical lives!

their adoptive parents coincidentally named them both James

Both had beloved childhood dogs named Toy, and as schoolchildren, both had a proclivity for math and woodworking but were no great shakes at spelling. If their childhoods were uncannily similar, though, then their early adulthoods were truly remarkable.

Both Jims had married twice. The first time, they married women named Linda. When this didn’t work out and they divorced, they met (and went on to marry) women named Betty. Both Jim Lewis and Jim Springer had a son, and –I’m sure you saw this coming—both gave their boy the same name, James Alan (or James Allan in Springer’s case).

Both Jims were heavy smokers, drove the same car (a Chevrolet) and had similar jobs in security (Jim Lewis was a security guard, while Jim Springer had been a deputy sheriff). They even took vacations at the same Florida beach. N

What is the peripheral nervous system?

It is the nerves. It carries information too and away from the nervous system. It’s also divided into two parts, called the somatic and the autonomic.

What does the somatic nervous system do?

• Communicates sensory information via sensory neurons to Central NS

• Motor neurons take info about what to move and how to move from CNS to muscles

What does the autonomic nervous system do and what categories is it categorized into?

Regulates involuntary functions like heart rate, bp, breathing, digestion Divded into Sympathetic (fight or flight) and Parasympathetic (rest and digest)

What does the sympathetic nervous system do?

• Fight or flight response

  • Increases: heart rate, blood pressure, respi

  • ration, stress hormones

  • Dilates pupils

  • Decreases: digestion and saliva production

What does the parasympathetic system do?

• Rest and digest – calms body after fight or flight response

• Does opposite of what sympathetic does

What does the central nervous system consist of?

It consists of the brain and spinal cord

What are glial cells and what do they do?

help support, connect, and protect the neurons of the central and peripheral nervous systems. They come in many shapes, sizes, and types, each performing specialized functions. In the CNS, glial cells regulate neurotransmission and help form the blood-brain barrier. They can’t communicate with electricity

What do sensory or afferent nuerons do?

Different for each different sense Respond to non-chemical stimulation Neurons in the back of the eye respond to certain light Sensory neurons send afferent signals Afferent signals arrive at the brain.

What do motor or efferent nuerons do?

Connected to all of our muscles The only way our thoughts can exist in the real world Neurons in your arm muscles can react to involuntary and voluntary Receive efferent signals Efferent signals exit the brain

What does a typical nueron have?

A dendrite, soma (body), axons, nucleus, some have myelin sheaths, axon terminals, and terminal buttons

How do synapses help?

• Has a synaptic gap between neurons and the neurotransmitters cross and lock into the dendrite to fire it

What acronym can help students remember the anatomy of a nueron?

• D(endrite)S(oma)A(xon)T(erminal)s(ynapse)

What is action potential?

a rapid sequence of changes in the voltage across a membrane.occurs when a neuron sends information down an axon, away from the cell body.

What are the steps of action potential?

• Resting Potential

  • -70 millivolts → Polarized (Positive Outside)

• Firing Threshold

• All or none

  • The neuron will fire with the SAME intensity every time

• Action Potential

  • The electrical impulse that goes down the axon

  • Electricity creates a positive electrical charge

    • Depolarization

• Refractory Period

  • Neurons can’t fire for a brief period

• Reuptake

  • Sending neurons to recollect neurotransmitters

What does the neurotransmitter gluatmate do and is it inhibitory or excitory?

Most abundant excitatory neurotransmitter~Enhances learning and memory by strengthening synaptic connections

What does the nuerotransmitter GABA (gamma-animutyric acid)

Most abundant inhibitory neurotransmitter. Associated with various anxiety-related disorders

Where is acetylcoline found and what does it do?

• Found in both central and peripheral

• All movement involves ACh

• Involved in learning and memory

  • Alzheimer’s is associated with diminished ACh functions

What does dopamine do?

• Linked to the anticipation of pleasurable or rewarding activities

• Also involved in movement, attention, and learning

• Lack of dopamine is associated with Parkinson’s

• Exces dopamine is associated with schizophrenia

What do endorphins do?

• Body’s natural painkiller

• Stimulated by intense/prolonged exercise creating euphoria

• Excitatory 

What does enipherene (adrenaline) do?

• Primary fight or flight response

• Exitatory 

• Both a neurotransmitter and hormone that boosts energy

What does Norepinephrine (Noradrenaline) do?

• Arousal, alertness, vigilance

• Heavily involved in the sleep cycle

• Low levels are associated with depression

What does serotonin do?

• Plays a role in mood, appetite, sleep, and dreaming

• Low levels are associated with depression

What do agonists do?

• enhances actions of neurotransmitter

What are some examples of indirect agonists?

• Reuptake inhibitors

  • A blockade that blocks the reuptake channel

  • Prozac

    • Inhibits reuptake of serotonin

  • Cocaine

    • Inhibits reuptake of dopamine

What are some examples of direct agonists?

• Heroin, Nicotine, Black widow toxin

What do antagonists do?

• Block neurotransmitter from being released to the receptor site

What are some examples of antagonists?

• Botox

  • Antagonist for ACh and blocks it from reaching receptors

• Thorazine

  • Drugs for Schizophrenia and block dopamine receptors

What is the blood-brain barrier?

• The semi-permeable membrane that allows some chemicals from the blood into the brain

What do depressents do?

• Slow or inhibit the central nervous system

• Create drowsiness, sedation/sleep and can relieve anxiety or lower inhibition

• THESE CAN BE DEADLY IF COMBINED

What do opiods/opidates do?

• Agonist for endorphins

• Heroin, Oxycodone, Fentanyl

• Incredibly addictive

What do stimulants do?

• Activate the sympathetic nervous system

• Increase brain activity, arouse behavior, and increase mental alertness

What are some examples of common stimulants?

• Caffeine

  • The most widely used drug in the world

  • Promotes wakefulness by stimulating the release of dopamine

  • Antagonist for adenosine

• Cocaine

  • Dopamine agonist

  • Crash after high dissipates

What do hallucinogens (psychedelics) do?

• Create sensory and perceptual distortions, alter mood, and affect thinking

• THC

  • Mild hallucinogen 

  • In “Hippy grass” and produces a sense of well-being, euphoria, and state of relaxation.

What does the medulla obloganda do?

• basic autonomic functions

  • Heart rate

  • Breathing

  • BP

What is a reflex and what are some common examples of a reflex?

A reflex is a response to stimuli that the brain is not directly involved in. Examples include moving your hand after you touched something hot.

What does the pons do?

• Connects brainstem and cerebellum

• Coordinate and integrate movements on each side of the body

• Role in sleep and dreaming

What does the Reticular Activating System or Reticular Formation do?

• Network involved in attention, arousal, and alertness

What does the cerebellum do?

• Balance and equilibrium

• Coordinated sequences of movement

• Implicit memory

What does the midbrain do?

• Nerve system connecting higher and lower portions

• Relays info between the brain, ears, and eyes

What parts to the limbic system consist of?

Thalamus, hypothalamus, amygdala, and hippocampus

What does the thalamus do?

• Sensory switchboard

• Receives and sorts sensory information and sends it to where it goes.

  • EXCEPT SMELL

What does the hypothalamus do?

• Fight or flight

• Feeding

• Fornication

What does the amygdala do?

• Anger

• Aggression

• Afraid (fear response)

• Plays a role in emotional memories

What does the hippocampus do?

• Converts short-term memory into long-term memory

• Involved in processing and retrieving declarative memory

• Spatial relationship memories

• Dysfunction: Alzhemier’s and anterograde amnesia

What does the limbic system do?

• The limbic system is involved in emotions, memory, integration of sensory info, and motivation.

How many lobes does the cortex have?

4

How many hemispheres does the cortex have?

2

What does the prefrontal cortex/most of the frontal lobe do?

• Thinking, planning, decision-making, impulse control

What does the motor cortex do?

• Initiating voluntary movement

• Contralateral (left controls right)

• Body areas that make diverse and precise movements get more tissue

What does the parietal lobe do?

• Somatosensory

  • A strip of tissue represents a sense of touch

  • Contralateral

  • Parts of the body more sensitive has more tissue devoted to this strip

What does the occiputal lobe do?

• Primary Visual cortex

What does the temporal lobe do?

• Primary auditory cortex

• Auditory Association cortex

What does the cerebral cortex do?

• Primary auditory cortex

• Auditory Association cortex

What does the collosum do?

• Bundle of nerves connecting two hemispheres

• Allows constant communication between right and left hemisphere

What is split brain research and what is its benefit?

It can help relive epilepsy

What is brain lateralization and an example of this?

• Somethings tend to be lateralized to left or right

• Language is left hemisphere

  • Broca’s area 

What is the left hemisphere?

Language (expression, comprehension, reading)

Interpreter

what is the right hemisphere?

Spatial abilities Facial recognition Stronger at controlling and recognizing emotional expression More active creating/appreciating art/music

What is nueroplasticity?

• Throughout life, the brain can grow new connections and new neurons

• Ability to change is a result of experience or injury

• Examples

  • Neurogenesis

  • Long-term potentiation

What is neurogenesis and what can influence it?

• Creation of new cells

• Exercise increases it and social isolation decreases it

What is structural plasticity?

• long term potentiation

  • When a network of neurons fires together that pathway becomes smoother and efficient

  • Changes in physical structure in response to learning, practice or enviromental influences

  • LTP may represent biological basis of learning

What are some examples of neuropalsticity?

• Jody Miller had right hemisphere removed and within weeks the left had fully compensated

  • Shows functional plasticity

• Gabby Giffords was a victim of gun violence and had aphasia but recovered a lot of it but still has some paralysis

How can the brain be researched?

• Autopsy

• Case Studies (such as Phineas Gage)

• Surgery (lesioning parts of the brain

• Scans (such as fMRI’s EEGs)

What does a EEG (Electroencephalograph) do?

• Measures electrical activity coming off surface of brain

• Can be used to identify epilepsy or sleep disorders

What does an fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) do?

• Shows structure and function

• Measures changes in oxygen levels as brain activates/deactivates

What are the first parts of the sleep cycle?

• NREM 1 (Non rapid eye movement)

• NREM 2

• NREM 3

• Gets shorter throughout the night

How long is a sleep cycle?

90-120 minutes

What are the last parts of a sleep cycle?

• REM (Rapid Eye Movement)

  • Gets longer throughout the night

• At first we go down to deeper stages where our body becomes less responsive 

  • Later in cycle we transition back up to more active stages

What seperates NREM from REM?

Night terrors

Sleepwalking and talking

Essential for the body

According to the memory consoldlidation theory, what part of the sleep cycle is responsible for retaining formation?

REM

What are psychological (mainly Freudian) ideas about dreams?

• Sigmund Freud's “The Interpreation of Dreams” 1900

  • Dreams are road to the unconscious mind filled with content that cannot be faced

  • Manifest content

  • Latent Content

What are biological/information processing theories regarding dreams?

Dreams provide a wat to sort out the day’s events and consolidate memories for storage. Activation Synthesis Model REM helps with neural connections REM weaves together random activations to create a dream

How many hours of sleep does an adult need?

7-9

How many hours of sleep does a child need?

8-10

What contributes to sleep apnea and how can it be cured?

• Cessation of breathing

• Breathing stops repeatedly

• Snoring, Gasping not feeling rested or restored

• Types

  • Obstructive sleep, Central or Complex

• Causes

  • Weight

  • Smoking

  • Gender

  • Age

  • Etc…

• Treatment

  • Lose weight

  • Surgery

  • CPAP

What is narcoplepsy and its cures?

Chronic sleepiness-treatment-medications and support

How do lenses work?

• It inverts the image so its projected onto the back of the retina upsidedown

What is the sclera?

shell of the eye

What is the cornea do?

help clean debris off

What does the pupil do?

helps light enter the eye

What does the retina have and what can it do?

• Rods, black and white, peripheral vision

What is the anatomy of the outer ear?

• Pinna (things you put the back of sunglasses on)

• Ear Canal (think of it like a cave)

What is the anatomy of the middle ear?

• Ear Drum (tympanic membrane)

  • Hammer = Malleus

  • Anvil = Incus

  • Stirrup = Stapes

What is the anatomy of the inner ear?

• Made of cochlea

  • Size of a pea

  • Snail shell shaped

  • Filled with fluid

What are the origins of the corti and cilia?

• Cochlea is organ of Corti

• Cilia is sticking out of the membrane (each is like a brade of grass)

• Frequency at which its stimulated tells nerve to fire at certain things

What is place theory?

HIGH PITCH EXPLANATION

• Spatial Coding

• When cochlear fluid crashes on place of organ of corti cilia stimulated

• Nerve cell attached to cilia sends signal

• Brain knows if certain are stimulated and interprets as pitch

What is frequency theory?

LOW PITCH EXPLANATION

• Temporal coding

• Time is important

• Frequency tells brain which pitch to interpret

What’s the most the ear can hear?

• Max: amplitude 150 dB (more is pain)

  • Highest frequency is 20,000 Hz

Whats the least the ear can hear?

•  amplitude 3-5 dB

  • Lowest frequency 25 Hz

Do we perceive sound?

No-we sense it

What can cause neurological deafness?

• Cochlea is not sending the correct signals

  • Inherited disease

  • Over-use of loud noises

  • Regular long use of normal noises

What can cause conduction deafness?

• Something is not functioning in outer or middle ear

• Vibrations not making it to the cochlea

  • Swelling

  • Blockage

  • Damage

Do nuerotransmitters have to fit into receptor sites?

Yes-agonists fit into these sites

How does smell work?

• Olfaction

• Countless molecules float around us and come into our nose

• Odorant molecules bind with receptor sites in olfactory neurons

• Goes into the olfactory bulb just like the occipital lobe

• Bypasses the thalamus which is the router of sensory signals

• It goes into the frontal, amygdala, hippocampus, etc…

What are some similarities and differences between olfaction and vision?

Vision	Olfaction
Photoreceptors concentrated in the fovea 3 types of cones Countless colors perceived Ratio of signals from three cones tells what color	Olfactory receptors in mucus membrane of nose (Olfactory epithelium) Hundreds of receptors Sense thousands of smells but depends on ratio