Psych U1 Vocab

The brain, drugs, senses, etc.

Narcolepsy

• excessive daytime sleepiness

• cataplexy - sudden muscle weakness; oftentimes involves emotion

Insomnia

• difficulty falling or staying asleep

• hard to get into NREM3

REM Sleep Behavior Disorder

• physically acting out your dreams

Sleep Apnea

• loud snoring

• pauses in breathing

• blocked airways

Somnambulism

• walking or incomplete arousal from sleep

• hard to wake them up

Dendrite

• branches that receive other neurons signals

Axon

• long cable that carries signals form dendrites to axon terminals

Myelin Sheath

• tissue that surrounds the axon and speeds up pulses

Soma

• cell body

• nuclease of the neuron is here

Axon terminals

• electrochemical signals are released here by the neuron

Synapse

• between the terminal branch of one neuron and the dendrite of another

• communication between neurons happens here

sensory (afferent) neurons

• detect stimuli and send info to central nervous system

motor (efferent nuerons)

• take into from the central nervous system and send it to muscles and glands to create action

interneurons

• random neurons

• help move stuff around

Spinal reflex; simple reflex arc

• response to a stimulus that bypasses the brain for faster reaction times

• ex. pulling your hand away from a fire

excitatory

• push the neuron toward firing an action potential

• ex. glutamate

inhibitory

• push the neuron away from firing, acting as a brake

• ex. GABA

refractory period

• break after a neurons firing

depolarization

• firing stage of a neuron

• shift in electrical charge balance

neurotransmitters (excitatory or inhibitory)

• chemical messengers released from one neurons axon terminals and absorbed by another neurons dendrites (neural receptors)

reuptake

• any excess neurotransmitters in the synaptic gap after one neuron fires are reabsorbed by the neurons axon terminals

agonist

• drug that mimics a neurotransmitter

• it binds to another neurons dendrites (neural receptors)

• triggers the same effect as the neurotransmitter

antagonist

• drug that mimics a neurotransmitter

• it binds to another neurons dendrites (neural receptors)

• doesn’t trigger any effect

acetylcholine - neurotransmitter

• muscles, learning, memory

• if not produced → alzheimers

dopamine - neurotransmitter

• movement, attention, emotion, pleasure

serotonin - neurotransmitter

• mood, hunger, sleep, arousal

norepinephrine - neurotransmitter

• altert, fight or flight, arousal

endorphines - neurotransmitter

• pain control, pleasure

substance P - neurotransmitter

• pain transmission

GABA - neurotransmitter

• inhibitory (makes it less likely for neurons to fire)

• slows body and brain down

glutamate - neurotransmitter

• excitatory (makes it more likely for neurons to fire)

• memory

stimulant drugs

• awake, alert, energized

depressant drugs

• slow, poor memory, poor coordination

hallucinogen drugs

• poor sense of time and reality

opioid drugs

• addictive, pain relief

brocas area

• frontal lobe

• if damaged you can’t form sound but you can understand speech

wernickes area

• temporal lobe

• if damaged you can’t understand language but you can form sounds

cerebral cortex - frontal lobe

• planning, judgement, motor cortex, speech, personality, memory, attention

cerebral cortex - parietal lobe

• touch, temperature, pain, spatial awareness

cerebral cortex - temporal lobe

• hearing, language comprehension

cerebral cortex - occipital lobe

• vision

cerebellum

• balance, coordination, movement

thalamus

• sensory relay EXCEPT SMELL

brainstem - medulla

• breath, heart rate

brainstem - pons

• sleep, facial expressions, relay station (spinal cord → brain)

brainstem - reticular formation

• focus, consciousness, neuron network

limbic system - amygdala

• emotions

limbic system - hippocampus

• memory formation

limbic system - hypothalamus

• hunger, temperature, hormones (controls pituitary gland), homeostasis

frontal lobe - motor cortex

• voluntary movement

parietal lobe - sensory cortex

• processes sensory input

endocrine system

• produces hormones for the body

shift work sleep disorder

• sleep deprivation

• when you have to work at night

dream consolidation theory

• you dream to convert things into long term memory

dream activation synthesis theory

• occasionally your brain fires a concept and then connections to that concept fire and a story is created

hypnagogic sensations

• as you go from awake to NREM1

  • hallucinations

• exploding head syndrome

  • you hear a loud noise

• contrations

  • you twitch

REM rebound

• if you keep missing REM sleep the next time you sleep you will only sleep in the REM stage

eye - retina

• transforms light waves into electrochemical signals

eye - iris

• muscle expands to dilate or contract the pupil depending on the amount of light

eye - optic nerve

• connects the brain to the retina

retina - rods

• sense brightness

• takes over in low light

retina - cones

• helps you see color

light frequency

• determines hue

light amplitude

• determines brightness

nearsighted - myopia

• only see objects up close

• light focuses in front of retina

farsighted - hyperopia

• only see objects far away

• light if focused in the back of retina

color vision - tri color

• you have red, blue, green cones and when they go off in combinations you see the other colors

color vision - opponent

• your eyes work in pairs

  • red + green

  • blue + yellow

  • black + white

• we perceive color when one member of the pair suppresses the other

color blindness

• damage to cones

• dichromacy

  • only 2 working cones

• monochromacy

  • no working cones

left hemisphere

• language

• reasoning

• numbers

• analytics

• controls right side of the body

right hemisphere

• spatial skills

• emotions

• art

• music

• pattern recognition

• controls left side of body

ear - frequency of waves

• the pitch of the sound

• too high → ultrasonic

• too low → infrasonic

ear - intensity of waves

• the volume of the sound

ear - eardrum

• area of high pressure and low pressure (sound waves) come in

• eardrum vibrates

ear - cochlea

• filled with fluid that ripples

ear - basillar membrane

• has hairs (cilia) that move and transduce sound into electrochemical signals

ear - auditory nerve

• takes these signals to the auditory cortex

location of sound

• comparing how quickly each of your ears hears the sound

place theory

• different pitches activate different parts in the basillian membrane

• works for high pitches

frequency theory

• auditory nerves fire with the same frequency of the sound

  • works or low pitches

volley theory

• place theory for high pitches

• frequency theory for low pitches

taste and evolution

• sweet - pleasure and energy source

• salty - pleasure and essential sodium

• sour - dislike may be rotten

• bitter - dislike potentially poisonous

• umami - pleasure and helps with protein repair

smell - olfaction

• gaseous odors go into your nose

• a specific olfactory sensory neurons that matches with the specific smell will fire into the olfactory bulb

• the frontal lobe and limbic system will interpret these smells

taste - gustation

• you have tastebuds all over your mouth

• every area on your tongue detects all the tastes

• your brain receives signals and translates them

temperature

• sensed by thermo-receptors on the skin

  • cold receptors - signal travels faster

  • warm receptors - signal travels slower

pain

• sensed by nociceptors in the skin and along the body

  • also activated by extreme temps

  • sharp, burning, dull, etc. types of pain

movement

• many sensors that detect vibrations, and whether you skin is being stretched, pulled, etc.

gate control theory

• gates open: pain goes through the sensory neurons

• gates closed: if you stimulate other sensory neurons, the original painful stimulus will be closed off

balance - vestibular sense

• fluid in the semicircular canals (ear) sends signal to vestibular nerve

• this will send info to cerebellum telling you whether or not you need to get balanced out

depressants - alcohol

• agonist for GABA

  • boosts affects of GABA

depressants - xanax

• agonist for GABA

  • boosts affects of GABA

opioids - heroin

• agonist for endorphines

opioids - oxycodone

• agonist for endorphines

opioids - fentanyl

• agonist for endorphines

stimulants - caffeine

• adenosine antagonist

  • no sleepiness

stimulants - cocaine

• dopamine agonist

  • high and happy

hallucinogens - marijuana

• serotonin agonist

hallucinogens - psilocybin

• serotonin agonist

peripheral nervous system - somatic nervous system

• controls voluntary movement

• transfers sensory information to the central nervous system

peripheral nervous system - automatic nervous system

• controls involuntary movement