Psychology- Chapter 3, Brain

Chapter of Psychology, based mainly on the brain

Central Nervous System(CNS)

Brain and Spinal Cord

Peripheral Nervous System(PNS)

Made of nerves, they connect brain and spine to muscles, organs, and senses in body.

Somatic Nervous System

A component of the Peripheral Nervous System that controls voluntary movements by transmitting signals from the brain to skeletal muscles.

Autonomic Nervous System(ANS)

A component of the Peripheral Nervous System that regulates involuntary bodily functions such as heart rate, digestion, and respiratory rate, controlling smooth muscle and glands.

Sympathetic Division

Branch of ANS, preps body for stress related activities.

Parasympathetic Division

Branch of ANS that returns body to default homeostasis day to day.

Forebrain

Largest part of the brain, containing cerebral cortex, thalamus, pituitary gland, and other important structures responsible for complex functions like reasoning, emotion, and sensory processing.

Cerebral Hemispheres

The two halves of the brain, each responsible for different functions, including motor control and sensory perception, with the left hemisphere typically associated with language and analytical tasks, and the right hemisphere with creativity and spatial abilities.

Corpus Callosum

The structure that connects the left and right cerebral hemispheres, facilitating communication between them and playing a crucial role in integrating sensory information and coordinating motor functions.

Right Hemisphere Functions

Functions include spatial awareness, creativity, and social interaction

Left Hemisphere Functions

Functions include language processing, motor processing, cognitive functions, analytical thinking, and logical reasoning.

Anencephaly

A serious neural tube defect resulting in the absence of a major portion of the brain, skull, and scalp. It occurs during early fetal development and is usually fatal shortly after birth.

Cortex

Outer layer of organs

Frontal Lobe

Largest part of brainresponsible for decision making, problem solving, and controlling behavior.

Motor Cortex & its organization

Part of brain that plans and coordinates voluntary movements.

Broca’s Area

Part of brain responsible for language production

Frontal Lobotomy

Surgery that severs connections in the brain

Phineas Gage & how he changed

The brain changed after a traumatic injury of a rod through the head, changing his personality

Parietal Lobe

Part of the Cerebral Cortex, processes sensory and perceptual information

Somatosensory Complex

Essential for processing sensory info across body: touch, temperature, and pain. Each area corresponds to different body part.

Temporal Lobe

Part of the cerebral cortex: responsible for hearing, memory, emotion, and some language.

Primary Auditory Complex

Recieves and processes sounds

Auditory association Cortex

receives and processes sounds

Wernicke’s area

produces speech comprehension

Occipital Lobe

contains primary visual cortex, interprets incoming visual information

Primary Visual Cortex

processes basic visual information

Visual Association Cortex

processes visual information and complex pictures

Visual Agnosia

affects ability to recognize meaning of visual stimuli

Neglect Syndrome

deficit that affects awareness and attention

Limbic System

Processes emotion and memory, smell projects to it as well. Contains hypothalamus, pituitary gland, thalamus, pituitary gland, amygdala, and hippocampus.

Hypothalamus

Regulates homeostatic processes: temperature, appetite, and blood pressure.

Thalamus

Sensory relay

Amygdala

Emotion, and tying it to memories.

Hippocampus

structure for learning and memory.

Midbrain

Structures between forebrain and hindbrain. Controls sleep/wake cycle.

Reticular Formation

Centered in midbrain, extends to forebrain. Known to hinder sleep/wake cycle, arousal, alertness

Hindbrain

Back of the head, spinal cord

Pons

“bridge” that connects hindbrain to rest, regulates brain activity when asleep.

Medulla

auto processor of nerve system: breathing, blood pressure, heart rate.

Cerebellum

controls balance, coordination, movement, motor skills, and memory.

ACh

neurotransmitter that controls muscle, contractions, memory, and learning

NE

neurotransmitter that controls alertness, arousal, attention, and heart rate.

DA

neurotransmitter that controls movement motivation, pleasure, learning memory

Serotonin(5HT)

neurotransmitter that controls mood

GABA

neurotransmitter that controls calming neuronal activity

Endorphin

neurotransmitter that controls relieving pain