Psych Test 2

Glial Cell

• Provide functional/structural support for more powerful cells (neurons)

Blood brain barrier

• Cushions brain against injury, protect brain from toxins 

• Some medicines have to build up before any effect can occur 

  • Explains why some drugs have to be taken for a certain period of time before any effect shows

Neuroplasticity

The brain’s ability to change / the brain's ability to reorganize its structure, function or connection in response to experience

Neuropeptides

Brain chemicals that help regulate our neurons

Neurogenesis

Production of new brain cells / process of generating new neurons

Neurons

• Cells that communicate with each other and other parts of the body for information processing tasks

• Transmit information through the nervous system

Dendrites

• Part of the neuron (looks like branches/fingers)

• Reach out to gather information from other neurons

  • Then sends information to the cell body/soma

• Receive incoming signals from other neurons 

Cell body/soma

• Takes info from dendrites -> Decides what to do next with the information

  • Stop there or send information on?

• Integrates signals, decides whether to fire an action potential

• If the information is important -> send to axon

Axon

• Largest part of the neuron

• If cell body decides to send information on -> travels down axon

• “Hallway for information”

Myelin sheath

• Grey area along axon

• Speeds up travel of information along axon

• Insulates axon / speeds up signal transmission

Terminal buttons

• Last part of the neuron 

• Sends info to another neuron

• Release neurotransmitters to the next neuron’s dendrites

Synapse

• Where the terminal buttons send info

• Tiny space between neurons 

• Neurons should NOT be touching

Synaptic pruning

• Remove synaptic connections as we better understand the info we are processing

• Make brain more efficient

Sensory Neurons

type of neurons, take info from sense organs into brain

Afferent

take info TO the brain

motor neurons

 type of neurons, takes directions/instructions from brain to muscles

Efferent

take info AWAY from brain

Mirror neurons

Type of neurons that allow us to process what others are feeling and doing

Inter neurons 

• Majority of neurons 

• Neurons that connect to other neurons

• Just send info onElec

Electrical Information Transmission

within a neuron (axon)

Chemical Information Transmission

 between neurons

action potential

the impulse of positive charge that runs down an axon

-70mV → +40mV

ions in action potential

Allow change from negative to positive to occur in an action potential

refractory period

 (below -70 mV), after action potential / brief interval after an action potential which a neuron's ability to fire is reduced

absolute refractory period

• Neuron will not fire again no matter how strong the stimulus 

• Cannot fire / membrane fully inactivated 

relative refractory period 

• After absolute 

• Neuron can send info but requires stronger stimulus 

• “Neuron is tired, has to be worth it”

• Can fire only with a stronger stimulus 

Agonist

• Enhances 

• Medicine that makes neurotransmitters more effective 

Antagonist

• Blocks

• Medicine that makes neurotransmitters less effective

Dopamine

• “pleasure/reward neurotransmitter”

• Also important for voluntary movement 

Dysfunction of Dopamine

Too much -> associated with schizophrenia -> need antagonist

Dysfunction of Dopamine

• Too little -> associated with Parkingson’s disease (inability of controlling movement) -> need agonist

Serotonin

• Important for controlling negative emotions

• Important for sleep, paying attention

Dysfunction of Serotonin

•  too little -> associated with depression, anxiety, OCD -> need agonist

Epinephrine

• Energized mental state

• “High risk situations”

Norepinephrine

• Focuses on mental and physical alertness

• Paying attention 

Dysfunction of Norepinephrine

• lack of -> associated with depression 

cocaine

agonist for Norepinephrine, produces burst of energy

Endorphins

• “Body’s pain killer”

• Often released when exercising 

  • Positive emotional state “runner’s high”

• Important for regulation of eating

• Pain relief + positive emotional state + eating regulation

GABA

• Primary inhibitory neurotransmitter 

• STOP sign

  • Tells next neuron to stop

  • Very common

• Signals downstream neurons to stop firing

Dysfunction of GABA

not enough -> epilepsy

Glutamate

• Primary excitatory neurotransmitter

• GO sign

Dysfunction of Glutamate

• Too much -> seizures

  • Brain overwhelmed with too many signals 

Acetylcholine

• 1st neurotransmitter to be discovered 

• Seems to be important for

  • Voluntary muscle movements

  • (primary function) memory and learning 

    • Important for healthy functioning memory

• a neurotransmitter that controls muscle movement and plays a role in mental processes such as learning, memory, attention, sleeping, and dreaming

Dysfunction of Acetylcholine

Alzheimer’s -> associated _____ __ ____

Information Transmission

with regard to communication between neurons as terminal buttons release into synapse 

Enzymatic degradation

• Enzymes go into synapse and “eat up” leftover neurotransmitters

Reuptake

• Where terminal buttons “suck up” some of the neurotransmitters it releases

• Reabsorbs neurotransmitters for future use

Intelligence correlation

• People originally thought a larger brain = more intelligence

• In reality, more surface area = more intelligence

  • Hence wrinkly brains 

Contralateral control 

• Brain concerned with opposite side of body

  • Generally left hemisphere of the brain is focused on the right side of the body

  • Generally right hemisphere of the brain is focused on the left side of the body

Association area

• Area not involved with motor or sensory

  • Involved with higher order thinking in humans 

    • Logic, reasoning, decision making, etc

      • These are disturbed across both hemispheres

• Regions not devoted to pure motor/sensory jobs

Hindbrain

• Oldest evolutionary and in fetal development

• Located at the bottom of the brain

• Develops 1st, keeps body alive

Midbrain

• On top of hindbrain

• (not talked about much in this class)

•  focused on movement component, process environment info, coordinate physical response to sensory input, produces dopamine 

Forebrain

• Last to develop evolutionary and in humans (into 20s)

  • Differs most across species, especially in humans 

• More complex thinking/ most complex functions 

Conduction

• Elements have to go through the hindbrain both ways

• Important for connecting the brain to the rest of the body

Medulla

• At the very bottom 

• Critical for heart rate, circulation, respiration, and reflexes

  • If damaged -> almost certainly going to die

reticular formation

• Important for sleep, mood, attention 

• Some neurotransmitters are very connected 

  • Serotonin

  • Norepinephrine 

• Damage -> profound arousal and mood deficits 

•  a network of nerve fibers that runs up through both the hindbrain and the midbrain; it is crucial to waking up and falling asleep

pons

• Also important in sleep, attention 

• Important for facial expressions

  • In terms of you making them and processing those of others

• Way station for the cerebellum 

• Damage -> disrupted sleep and social cue reading 

Cerebellum

• Big wrinkly part at the back

• “Little brain”

• The densest area of neurons in the brain (more than 50% of neurons are here)

• Important for fine motor movement (includes speech, more in humans than other animals), balance and gracefulness

• Looks more different in humans than other animals

Tectum

• Back of the midbrain

• Receives sense info about environment

• Helps move (physically respond) in response to that sense info

• Helps physically respond to sensory input

Tegmentum

• Front of the midbrain

• Helps determine where to focus attention to get more information

• Processes new environmental info during movement 

Cerebral cortex

• exterior of forebrain, wrinkly surface people think about when they think of the brain

men

tend to have lots of connection within a hemisphere

women

tend to have more connections across/between hemispheres

Corpus callosum

• Band of fibers below the cerebral cortex that allow the hemispheres to connect 

Frontal Lobe

• Higher order processing occurs here

  • Reasoning, logic, decision making, creativity elements, executive functions

prefrontal cortex

• Part of the frontal lobe

• Larger in humans compared to other animals 

• “Executive control system”

• “Manager of the brain”

• Area we see not fully developed until the early 20s

• 28% of the frontal lobe

  • Large compared to other animals 

Phineas Gage

• Railroad worker who had a piece of steel go through his head during an explosion 

• Frontal lobe impacted -> big change in personality (more impulsive, easily angered)

• Helps us understand what damage here means

  • Frontal lobe damage -> affects personality and impulse control 

Motor Cortex 

• Band of fibers at the very back of the frontal lobe

• responsible for movement control 

• Different parts that require more fine motor control -> larger portion of motor cortex 

  • Ex: lips, tongue, hands, etc require lots of fine motor control -> larger portion in the motor cortex

  • Ankles, toes, etc require very little fine motor control -> small portion in the motor cortex 

Parietal Lobe

behind the frontal lobe

• Somatosensory cortex 

• visual integration

• orientation

Somatosensory cortex

• Right next to the motor cortex, similar to motor cortex

• Process touch information 

 a strip of the parietal lobe involved in the processing and perception of sensory information from the body, especially temperature, touch, pressure, and pain

Visual integration 

• Combines visual info with other sensory inputs

  • Sensory integration -> processes and combines multiple sensory streams

• Humans rely heavily on vision

  • Trust vision more than other senses 

Occipital lobe

(more vision related than parietal lobe), back of the brain, specializes in vision processing

Temporal lobe

- goes across temples 

• hearing and language

• recognition

Lateralization

• Difference in the left hemisphere from the right hemisphere, generally its like a mirror but not with lateralization

• Functional differences between left and right hemispheres, unlike most brain regions that operate as mirror images 

Broca’s area

• Left hemisphere

• Important for speech production

Broca’s aphasia 

• Issue with producing speech

• Difficulty putting sounds together to make things make sense

• Can’t create understandable speech

• They are aware of it

• Can be caused by stroke or damage 

• women reporter 

  • No words, but aware she didn't make sense

Wernicke’s area

• Left hemisphere

• Important for speech comprehension

Wernicke’s aphasia

• No meaning in sentences / “word salad”

• Difficulty in finding meaning of others speech 

• Have a harder time understanding their condition

• Can be caused by stroke or damage 

• Man on the boat

  • Everything he said was a word but there was no meaning

  • Not aware that he doesn’t make sense

Thalamus

• Way station for sense info

• Sensory info goes to the thalamus before going to other parts of the brain

  • All senses except smell

pituitary gland

• At the bottom of the forebrain

• Controls release of hormones throughout glands throughout the body

• Effected by stress, hunger, etc 

• “master gland of the body”

Limbic system

Generally a center for emotion and memory in the forebrain

Hypothalamus

part of limbic system

• Very close to pituitary glands

• Regulates the 4 Fs: feeding, fleeing, fighting and fornicating 

• Biologically driven survival behaviors 

• a limbic structure; the master regulator of almost all major drives and motives we have, such as hunger, thirst, temperature, and sexual behavior; also controls the pituitary gland 

Amygdala

part of limbic system

• “Little angry part of the brain”

• Critical for processing emotional memory

  • Many negative emotions like fear and anger 

• Stress reaction -> creates memory for event -> avoid situation in the future 

• a small, almond-shaped structure located directly in front of the hippocampus; has connections with many important brain regions and is important for processing emotional information, especially that related to fear

Hippocampus

part of limbic system

• Central to memory, most closely associated with memory 

• Decrease in size and function as we age

  • Hence memory problems with age

•  a limbic structure that wraps itself around the thalamus; plays a vital role in learning and memory

Cingulate gyrus

part of limbic system

• Band of fibers just below the cerebral cortex

• Important for focusing on information

  • Attention component 

• Seems to not function well with people with schizophrenia

Basal ganglia

part of limbic system

• Technically a system of itself 

• Important in motor control and dopamine (reward neurotransmitter) production

  • Parkinson’s disease -> usually less active __________ 

CT Scan

looks at structure of brain

• Series of X-rays of brain from different angles 

  • Combines X-rays to understand what the brain looks like

MRI

looks at structure of brain

• Use magnets to get static image of brain, magnets pulse

• “Slices of what the brain looks like”

• Cannot do if a person has metal inside them

DTI

looks at structure of brain

• Type of MRI

• Uses magnets pulse 

• Focuses in myelination of neurons

  • What myelination looks like 

• Cannot do if a person has metal inside them

NIRS

looks at structure of brain

• Use light pulses to get an image of the brain

EEG

looks at activity of brain

• Put weird looking cap with electrodes 

  • Look for when electrical activity happens in the brain

  • Look for action potential 

• General area of where activity happens -> not specific 

• Good for when things happen (temporal info)

• Generally used for research (not usually medical)

ERP

looks at activity of brain

• Data point you can get from EEG

• Gives temporal information

fMRI

looks at activity of brain

• Uses magnets to trap iron in blood

  • Tracks where blood is going 

    • Idea of where blood is going is where the activity is 

• Very expensive $$$

• Used in medical and research

PET

looks at activity of brain

• Measures glucose rather than blood

  • Drink special liquid to trace where glucose goes in the brain

    • Fuel -> where it goes should have more activity 

TMS

looks at activity of brain

• Use magnetic pulse to disrupt or enhance brain functioning or response 

• Used in medical and research

  • Clinical -> helps people with drug resistant depression (drugs won’t work)

  • Research -> helps with causal determination

• “If I send a pulse, it causes this thing to happen”

peripheral nervous system

everything that connects to the brain and spinal cord

central nervous system

brain and spinal cord

autonomic nervous system

automatic actions 

•  all the nerves of the peripheral nervous system that serve involuntary systems of the body, such as the internal organs and glands

somatic nervous system

voluntary actions 

nerve cells of the peripheral nervous system that serve the skeletal muscles. Somatic nerves transmit from the central nervous system (CNS) to the skeletal muscles and sensory information from the skeletal muscles back to the CNS

Spinal cord

• Connects to brain, transmission of communication (important for communication between brain and nervous system)

• Does some responding without the brain’s input 

  • There are times where the spinal cord is going to respond to a situation without the brain input

    • Generally more reflexive reactions

      • Move hand when touching something hit