AP Psych: Biological Bases of Behavior Review

Nature vs Nurture

• our genes/what we inherit from our parents

• our environment

Twin Studies

it shows that identical twins share 100% of the same DNA, while fraternal twins share 50% of the same DNA making them no more alike than siblings

Central Nervous System

brain + spinal cord

Somatic

component of the peripheral nervous system, responsible for moving your muscles

Automatic

component of the peripheral nervous system, responsible for regulating involuntary physiologic processes including heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, digestion + sexual arousal.

Sympathetic

component of the automatic nervous system, fight/flight or freeze

* speed things up

Parasympathetic

component of the automatic nervous sytem, rest + digest

* pumps the brakes

Action potential

where we have actually picked up the message

All-or-nothing

neuron’s reaction of either firing (w/a full-strength response or not firing)

Depolarization

movement of a cell’s membrane potential to a more positive value

Refractory period

neuron’s inability to fire

Resting potential

neuron is at rest

Threshold

minimum intensity needed to fire a neuron

Acetylcholine

skeletal + heart muscles, alertness, interneuron communication

• lack: plays a part in Alzheimer’s disease

* myastenia gravis

Dopamine

movement, learning + the brains pleasure + reward system

• lack: lead to Parkinson’s

• excess: lead to Schizophrenia

Serotonin

mood stabilizer + regulates sleep + wake cycle

• lack: related to depression/anxiety

* never too much

Norepinephrine

fight/flight; attention + memory

GABA

responsible for sleep

• lack: insomnia

• excess: narcolepsy

* inhibits neurotransmitters

Glutamate

learning + memory, sensory + motor functions

Endorphins

moderates the experience of pain + pleasure

Substance P

modulation of pain

* released when you get hurt

Frontal lobe

higher-order thinking, control linguistic processing

Parietal lobe

association areas (Broca’s + Wernike’s) + process/organize sensory info

Temporal lobe

auditory + linguistic processing

Occipital lobe

process visual info

Thalamus

sensory info except smell

Hypothalamus

fight/flight

* hunger + thirst

Pons

balance, sleep-wake cycles

Medulla

breathing + heart rate

Cerebellum

coordination of muscle movement + balance

Corpus Callosum

connects the 2 hemispheres

Adrenaline

fight/flight, increase heart rate, blood pressure + sugar

Melatonin

released during sleep

Oxytocin

enables contractions associations w/birthing, milk flow during nursing + orgasm

* love hormone

Depressants

decreases our neural activity, makes us feel relaxes + releases our emotions

Stimulants

coffee - increases neural activity, allows us to not feel tired + solve problems easier, + make us feel insanely drowsy + massive headaches

cocaine - causes our CNS to be more active, we might start to hallucinate

Left hemisphere

analytical, problem solving

* right side of the body - speech, lang comprehension

Right hemisphere

creativity, music/arts

* left side of the body - recognize faces

Brain plasticity

the brain’s ability to change + adapt as a result of experience

Hallucinogens

lead to perception and/or cognition

ex: can cause ppl to see, hear/feel things that are not there (someone might see vivid colors/patterns that don’t exist)

Narcolepsy

inability to maintain a natural circadian rhythm, then you just fall asleep immediately

Sleep Apnea

when you stop breathing at night

Insomnia

having a hard time falling/staying asleep

Somnambulism

sleep walking

REM Sleep Behavior Disorder

outburst of violence while you are in REM sleep

Activation-synthesis

during REM sleep, where neural activity triggers the creation of dreams w/o real external stimuli

Consolidation Theory

idea that our brains strengthen + stabilize memories over time, particularly during sleep

Memory Consolidation

memories are strengthened + organized during sleep, esp during the deep N-REM stages

Restoration

process of recovering mental + emotional well-being after experiencing stress/fatigue

Absolute Threshold

the minimum amount of energy needed to produce sensation 50% of the time

Just-noticeable difference

the smallest difference btwn 2 stimuli, that can be consistently + accurately detected 50% of the time

Cornea

protective layer of the eye

Iris

dilates + constricts in response to light

Pupil

lets light into your eyes

Lens

focus, zoom in + out

Retina

convert light energy, into neural impulses

Fovea

makes sure that images aren’t blurry

Optic Nerve

connects eye to the brain

Ganglion Cells

after images

Bipolar Cells

connects rods + cones to ganglion cells

Rods

black + white

* peripheral vision, shapes, mvoement

Cones

color, fovea + detail

Sensory adaptation

when sensory receptor cells are constantly stimulated, they undergo a loss of sensitivity to stimuli

Habituation

a decrease in response to a stimulus that is repeatedly presented

Dichromatism vs Monochromatism

• when you have issues seeign 2 diff colors, specifically red + green

• when you can only see in black + white

Trichromatic Color Theory

the retina contains 3 diff color receptors 1 most sensitive to red, 1 to greenm 1 to blue - which when stimulated in combination, can produce the perception of any color

Opponent-Process Theory of Color

opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) enable color vision

Monocular Cues

depth cues that can perceived w/1 eye

• relative clarity: object is close bc it is seen w/more detail + sharpness, object is far bc it looks hazier + less detailed

• relative size: is close bc it looks larger, is far bc it looks smaller

Binocular Cues

require the use of both eyes to perceive depth

• retinal disparity: the slight difference btwn the right + left retinal images

• convergence: the rotation of the 2 eyes inward toward a light source so that the image falls on corresponding points on the fovea

Place theory

we hear diff pitches bc diff sound waves trigger activity at diff places along the cochlea’s basilar membrane

Frequency theory

we headiff pitches bc diff sound waves trigger neural impulses to the brain at the same rate as the sound wave

Volley theory

neural cells work tg, alternating when they fire, operating in a rapid succession, they can achieve a combined frequency above 1000 waves per sec

Olfaction

our sense of smell

Pheromones

chemical signals released by animals to communicate w/others of the same species, often influencing mating/marking territories

Gate-Control theory

non-painful sensory imput can dampen/block painful sensations from reaching the brain

Eardrum

allow sound to go further into your ear

Hammer

malleus, transmit sound vibrations from eardrum to the inner ear

Anvil

incus, transmits vibrations from the malleus to the stapes

Semicircular

full of fluid + vibration

* balance

Cochlea

hair cells that help w/transduction

Stirrup

stapes, transmit sound vibrations from incus to oval window

Sensory interaction

principle that 1 sense may influence another, as when the smell of food influences its taste

Transduction

process of converting light energy into neural impulses

Semicircular Canals

fluid-filled structures in the inner ear that are essential for maintaining balance + detecting rotational movements

• it is related to the vestibular system bc it enables the maintainance of balance