Learn: 1.1, 1.4, 1.5 psych terms

Nature-nurture issue

The debate over how much genetics (nature) and environmental experiences (nurture) influence behavior and mental processes.

Evolutionary Perspective

A psychological approach that explains behavior and mental processes through evolution and natural selection.

Natural Selection

The process by which inherited traits that improve survival and reproduction become more common over generations.

Environment

All external, non-genetic influences, including experiences and surroundings, that affect behavior and development.

Heredity

The genetic transmission of physical and psychological traits from parents to offspring.

Eugenics

The discredited and unethical attempt to improve a population's genetic traits by controlling human reproduction.

Brain Plasticity

The brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming or changing neural connections in response to learning, experience, or injury.

EEG (Electroencephalogram)

A test that records the brain's electrical activity through electrodes placed on the scalp.

fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging)

A brain-imaging technique that measures changes in blood oxygen levels to identify active brain areas.

Lesions

Damaged or destroyed areas of brain tissue that help researchers understand the functions of different brain regions.

Brain Stem

The oldest, lower part of the brain that controls essential survival functions such as breathing, heartbeat, and arousal.

Medulla

A structure in the brainstem that controls automatic survival functions, including breathing and heart rate.

Reticular Activating System

A network of neurons in the brainstem that regulates alertness, arousal, and the sleep-wake cycle.

Cerebellum

A brain structure responsible for balance, coordination, voluntary movement, and certain forms of motor learning.

Cerebral Cortex

The brain's outer layer of neural tissue responsible for complex thinking, perception, language, and voluntary movement.

Limbic System

A group of brain structures involved in emotions, motivation, and memory.

Thalamus

The brain's sensory relay station that directs most incoming sensory information, except smell, to the appropriate areas of the cerebral cortex.

Hypothalamus

A brain structure that maintains homeostasis by regulating hunger, thirst, body temperature, and hormone release through the pituitary gland.

Pituitary Gland

The endocrine gland controlled by the hypothalamus that releases hormones regulating growth, reproduction, and other endocrine glands.

Hippocampus

A limbic system structure essential for forming and consolidating new explicit memories.

Amygdala

A limbic system structure involved in processing emotions, especially fear, aggression, and emotional memories.

Corpus Callosum

A thick bundle of nerve fibers connecting the brain's left and right cerebral hemispheres and allowing them to communicate.

Broca's Area

A brain region, usually in the left frontal lobe, involved in speech production; damage can impair speaking.

Wernicke's Area

A brain region, usually in the left temporal lobe, involved in language comprehension; damage can impair understanding language.

Cortex Specialization

The organization of the cerebral cortex into different areas that specialize in particular functions, such as language, vision, and movement.

Contralateral Hemispheric Organization

The arrangement in which each cerebral hemisphere primarily controls and processes information from the opposite side of the body.

Aphasia

A language impairment caused by brain damage that affects speaking, understanding, reading, or writing.

Occipital Lobe

The lobe at the back of the brain primarily responsible for processing visual information.

Temporal Lobe

The lobe near the sides of the brain involved in hearing, language comprehension, and memory.

Parietal Lobe

The lobe near the top and back of the brain that processes touch, body position, and spatial information.

Somatosensory Cortex

A region of the parietal lobe that processes bodily sensations such as touch, pressure, temperature, and pain.

Frontal Lobe

The front portion of the cerebral cortex involved in planning, decision-making, personality, speech production, and voluntary movement.

Prefrontal Cortex

The frontmost region of the frontal lobe responsible for executive functions such as planning, judgment, decision-making, and impulse control.

Motor Cortex

A region at the rear of the frontal lobe that controls voluntary skeletal muscle movements.

Consciousness

An individual's awareness of themselves, their thoughts, and their surrounding environment.

Blindsight

The ability to respond to visual stimuli without consciously seeing them, usually following damage to the visual cortex.

Circadian Rhythm

The body's internal biological cycle that repeats approximately every 24 hours and regulates sleep, wakefulness, and other functions.

Restoration Theory

The theory that sleep allows the body and brain to recover, repair themselves, and restore energy.

Jet Lag

A temporary disruption of the body's circadian rhythm caused by traveling rapidly across multiple time zones.

EEG Patterns

Distinct patterns of electrical brain activity recorded by EEG that help identify different stages of sleep.

NREM (Non-Rapid Eye Movement)

Sleep stages N1, N2, and N3, characterized by progressively deeper sleep and slower brain-wave activity.

Hypnagogic Sensations

Vivid, dreamlike sensory experiences, such as feeling like you are falling, that occur while transitioning from wakefulness into sleep.

REM (Rapid Eye Movement)

A sleep stage characterized by rapid eye movements, vivid dreaming, high brain activity, and temporary paralysis of most skeletal muscles.

REM Rebound

The tendency to spend more time in REM sleep after being deprived of REM sleep.

Activation Synthesis Theory

The theory that dreams occur when the brain attempts to interpret and organize random neural activity during sleep.

Consolidation Theory

The theory that sleep strengthens, organizes, and stabilizes newly acquired memories for long-term storage.

Insomnia

A sleep disorder involving persistent difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or obtaining restful sleep.

Narcolepsy

A neurological sleep disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and sudden, uncontrollable sleep episodes.

REM Sleep Behavior Disorder

A sleep disorder in which normal REM muscle paralysis is absent, causing people to physically act out their dreams.

Sleep Apnea

A sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops or becomes restricted during sleep, interrupting restful sleep.

Somnambulism

Sleepwalking, a disorder involving walking or performing activities while asleep, typically during deep NREM sleep.