Neuroscience, Psychology, and Sleep: Key Concepts and Brain Structures

Cerebellum

Coordinate voluntary movement and balance.

Medulla

Controls heartbeat and breathing.

Hypothalamus

Directs several homeostasis maintenance activities like eating, drinking, body temp, sexual behavior, sleep & control of emotions.

Thalamus

Sensory switchboard/Filter.

Hippocampus

Formation, organization, and storage of memories.

Amygdala

Regulates fear and anger.

Brainstem

Controls survival functions.

Pons

Coordinates movement and sleep.

Reticular formation

Controls arousal/Alertness.

Pituitary Gland

Manages the rest of the endocrine system, specifically regulating growth.

Temporal lobe

Recognizes faces.

Parietal lobe

Enables mathematical and spatial reasoning - location awareness, planning movements, sensory input for touch and body positions.

Frontal lobe

Judgment, decision making, impulse control, movement, planning, executive functioning skills.

Occipital lobe

Vision.

Motor cortex

Controls voluntary movements.

Sensory cortex

Receives information from the skin surface and sense organs.

Auditory cortex

Makes auditory perceptions.

Cerebral cortex

Allows us to think, perceive, learn, and have language.

Wernicke's Area

Comprehension/understanding language.

Broca's Area

Involved in talking/speech.

Left hemisphere

Analytical, language, logical, math, and science.

Right hemisphere

Intuitive, visual, spatial, musical ability, creative, emotional.

Psychoanalysis

The theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to the unconscious mind, motives, and conflicts.

Projective tests

An ambiguous stimulus which has no inherent significance, so the meaning is presumably a projection of their interests and conflicts.

Hierarchy of needs

Five-tier model of human needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid.

Physiological needs

Basic requirements for human survival, such as food, water, and shelter.

Safety needs

Protection from physical and emotional harm.

Love and belonging

Emotional relationships, including friendships and family.

Esteem

Recognition, respect, and self-esteem.

Self-actualization

The realization of personal potential and self-fulfillment.

Trait perspective

An individual's unique constellation of durable dispositions and consistent ways of behaving.

Big Five Factors

Conscientiousness, agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, extraversion.

Myers Briggs Type Indicator

Consists of eight preferences organized into four pairs of opposites.

Type A vs Type B

Type A: a term used for competitive, ambitious, hard-driving, impatient, etc; Type B: a term used for easy-going.

Learned helplessness

Unable to avoid repeated adverse events, an animal or human learns helplessness or passive resignation.

Internal locus of control

Perception that we control our own fate, essentially self-control.

Growth mindset

I can learn anything I want to. When I'm frustrated, I persevere. I like to challenge myself.

Consciousness

An awareness of ourselves and our environment.

Infradian rhythm

Biological rhythm that occurs once a month or a season (menstrual cycle).

Circadian Rhythm

A biological rhythm that occurs once every 24 hours (sleep-wake cycle).

Sleep cycle

A series of stages that the body goes through during sleep, typically lasting about 90 to 110 minutes.

Stage 1 of sleep

NREM 1 Light sleep - you are easily awakened from this state and will probably insist that you were never asleep (5-10 mins).

Stage 3 of sleep

NREM 3 Deep sleep - difficult to awaken (30 minutes).

REM sleep

(Rapid eye movement) Not easily awakened, no snoring, heart rate rises (10 minutes).

Sleep protects theory

Sleeping in the darkness when predators loomed about kept our ancestors out of harm's way.

Sleep restores theory

Sleep helps restore and repair the body and brain, fights infection and illness.

Sleep deprivation

When you aren't sleeping enough, or you aren't getting good, quality sleep.

Lucid dreams

We are aware while dreaming and wonder if we are actually dreaming.

Manifest vs. latent content

Latent content: The rated 'r' version of your dream; Manifest content: The remembered or apparent storyline of a dream.

Who can be hypnotized

People who are creative, open to suggestions, not resistant, enjoy fantasy, imaginative, and children.

Posthypnotic suggestion

A suggestion, made during a hypnosis session, to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotized.

Meditation

The practice of training your mind to focus on one thing at a time, and to be fully present in the moment.