Brain Parts, Studies, and Terms Review (AP Psychology)

neurons

primary cells of the nervous system

glia

support cells of the nervous system

sensory neurons

neurons that receive and bring sensory information to the brain

motor neurons

neurons that carry motor info from the brain

interneurons

connect sensory and motor neurons, responsible for reflex arc

EEG

electric output of the brain, shows brain activity but not location (waves)

fMRI

uses magnets to ping oxygen being used by neurons to show brain activity and location in real time

lesions

brain damage

brain stem (medulla is part)

controls vital life functions (ex: heart rate, breathing)

reticular activating system

controls sleep patterns, attention, eye movement

cerebellum

controls coordination and balance

thalamus

relays sensory and motor signals to the appropriate brain areas for all signals EXCEPT smell (olfaction)

limbic system

control center for emotions, motivations, memories (contains amygdala, hippocampus, hypothalamus)

amygdala

FEAR and emotions

hippocampus

events and factual memory storage (not reflexes/ skill based memory)

hypothalamus

1. reward center of brain

2. eating behavior

3. hormones (controls the pituitary gland)

4. homeostasis

pituitary gland

makes and releases hormones (part of hypothalamus)

cerebral cortex

outermost layer of brain, contains your lobes

occipital lobe

vision

frontal lobe

1. language production

2. higher order thinking (creativity, critical thinking)

3. executive functioning (self-management, goals)

4. movement

prefrontal cortex (part of frontal)

executive functioning

primary motor cortex (part of front)

skeletal movement, sends motor neurons

temporal lobe

1. audition (auditory processing)

2. language processing

3. face recognition

4. memory (has part of hippocampus)

prosopagnosia

face blindness, due to temporal lobe lesions or genetics

Broca’s area

speech production, left frontal

Wernicke’s area

speech comprehension, left temporal

aphasia

loss of speech functions (damage to Broca’s or Wernicke’s areas)

parietal lobe

controls sensory perception and processing

somatosensory cortex

contains touch specific sensory neurons for every designated spot on the body, helps perception for every part associated (part of parietal)

corpus callosum

connects the two hemispheres

association areas

part of the cerebral cortex that receive input from multiple areas

blindsight

due to lesions in the primary visual cortex, a person may be blinded yet still respond to visual stimuli

plasticity

brain’s ability to heal from damage

phantom limb pain

post-loss of a limb, people may still feel pain as if it is there

neurogenesis

regeneration of neurons

lateralization

brain activities being predominantly left or right