biology and behavior

psychology, chapter 2

somatic nervous system

-includes sensory nerves

-motor nerves

-control voluntary movements and transmit sensory information to the central nervous system.

-It connects the brain and spinal cord to the muscles and skin.

-It plays a crucial role in perception and motor control.

- It is a part of the peripheral nervous system.

-It also includes skeletal muscles, allowing for conscious actions such as walking or grasping.

-the part of the peripheral nervous system that carries sensory information and controls body movement !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Autonomic nervous system

-A part of the peripheral nervous system

-regulates involuntary bodily functions such as heart rate, digestion, and respiratory rate.

-which includes sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions, controlling processes without conscious thought.

-It operates independently of voluntary control, managing functions that are essential for survival.

-the part of the peripheral nervous system that regulates the internal organs !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sympathetic nervous system

-Division of the autonomic nervous system arouses the body for action!!!!!!!!!!

-Prepares the body for stressful or emergency situations, often referred to as the "fight or flight" response.

-Digestion stops

-increased heart rate and blood flow to muscles occur.

-It mobilizes energy resources and heightens alertness for rapid reactions.

Parasympathetic nervous system

-Division of the autonomic nervous system

-Responsible for conserving energy and promoting a "rest and digest" state, counteracting the effects of the sympathetic nervous system.

-calms the body after a stressful event has passed

Medulla

-oldest part of the brain

-the most important section of the brain(heart beat, breathing, swalloing, and other autonomic functions). It connects the brain to the spinal cord and regulates vital functions.

-large number of endorphin sensor sights to help not feel pain as much

-located in the brainstem, crucial for autonomic control of reflexes and vital life functions.

Pons

-Part of the brainstem located above the medulla,

-plays a big role in DREAMING

-bridge of the brain that connects various parts of the nervous system, facilitating communication between them.

-It plays a key role in regulating sleep, respiration, swallowing, bladder control, hearing, equilibrium, taste, eye movement, facial expressions, and expression of emotions.

Cerebellum

-BIG ROLE IN BALANCE, CORDINATION, POSTURE

-Big role in habitual movements, things you already know

-located at the back of the brain, it helps fine-tune motor activity and maintains equilibrium.

-become better at sports because of your cerebellum if you're an athlete

-the neurons die in your cerebellum they cannot grow back

Limbic system

-A complex set of structures in the brain associated with emotions, memory, and arousal.

- It includes key areas such as the amygdala and hippocampus,

-plays a critical role in emotional responses and the formation of memories.

-Drama central

Hippocampus

-creates long term memory

-can’t make new memories if damaged; involved in spatial navigation and contextual learning.

-seahorse shaped structure that is part of the limbic system and is crucial for converting short-term memories into long-term ones.

-generates new neurons

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Hypothalomus

-In charge of things were motivatated to do to stay alive

-fight or flight

-sends neurons to the pituitary gland and regulates hormones related to stress, hunger, and thirst.

-sleep,sex,sexual desire

-Males hypothalamuses are larger by 7 times than females

-Four Fs fighting,fleeting,feeding,mating/fucking

Amygdala

-A key component of the limbic system responsible for processing emotions such as fear and pleasure.

- It plays a crucial role in emotional memory and the body’s response to stimuli.

Cerebrum

• -The largest part of the brain, involved in higher brain functions such as thought, action, and sensation.

  • It is divided into two hemispheres and plays a key role in everything from decision making to motor control.

-Latin for little brain

corpus callosum

• A thick band of nerve fibers that connects the left and right cerebral hemispheres, facilitating communication between them.

left hemisphere

• language processing

Right hemisphere

-visual spatial skills/ picture, drawings

-creativity.

-Facial recognition

-detecting/processing emotions

cerebral cortex

• The outer layer of the brain, responsible for higher brain functions such as thought, perception, and decision-making.

frontal lobe

-Motor cortex

• functions include reasoning, planning, and problem-solving.

• speech production

• brocas area is involved in controlling voluntary movements and higher cognitive functions, including decision-making and emotional regulation.

• only in the left hemisphere is responsible for voluntary movement control and cognitive functions.

occipital lobe

-processes visionand visual information, including color, shape, and motion detection.

Temporal lobe

-Processes auditory information, including sounds and language comprehension, as well as aspects of memory.

-on both sides of the brain

-crucial part of the brain located near the temples

Parietal lobe

-Integrates sensory information from different modalities, including touch, temperature, and pain. Also involved in spatial awareness and coordination.

pituitary gland

-sits at the base of your brain just under the hypothalamus

-receives signals from the hypothalamus and releases hormones that regulate various bodily functions, including growth, metabolism, and reproductive processes.

-basically, a control center for your hormones

werenicks area

• a region in the left temporal lobe that is critical for language comprehension and processing.

• in the temporal lobe of the cerebrum

• usually in the left hemisphere

Neuroplasticity molable

• the brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life, allowing it to adapt to new experiences, learn new information, and recover from injuries.

cortex

-thin layer of the brainthat covers the cerebrum and is involved in many higher brain functions, including perception, thought, and decision-making.

Neurons

-the building blocks of the nervous system

-each neuron consists of a cell body and its branching fibers that transmit signals throughout the body, including dendrites and axons.

• that communicate via electrical and chemical signals.

Dendrite

-fibers receive information as electrical signals and conduct those signals toward the cell body

of a neuron, playing a crucial role in processing and transmitting information in the nervous system.

Axon

-depending on the signals from the dendrite to the axon, the axon generates a new electrical message and passes it along the axon terminals to communicate with other neurons or muscle cells.

synapse

-once the message from the axon reaches the axon terminal, it is transmitted across the synapse to the next neuron, chemical signals pass the message across the synaptic gap to other neurons or to muscles or glands.

-allowing for communication between nerve cells. This gap is crucial for neurotransmitter release and reception, facilitating neural communication.

The process of neural communication

-Begins when a neuron is stimulated by chemical messages from the neighboring neurons

-Most are excitatory signals that increase the neurons’ ability to fire (generate a neural impulse) but some are inhibitory signals that block the excitation

Neural impulse

-also known as the action potential is a brief electrical surge that travels down thr axon from the cell body toward the axon terminals

-when the action potential/ neural impulse reaches the knoblike terminals at the axons end it causes the synaptic vesicles to release chemical messengers called neurotransmitters into the synaptic gap

Neurotransmitter

• After the synaptic vesicles release chemical messengers into the synaptic gap, within a fraction of a second the neurotransmitters molecules cross the synaptic gap and stimulate a dendrite or the cell body of the next neuron

Nervous system

-The nervous system is the human body’s fast communication system

-Consist of the central nervous system which is the brain and spinal cord.

-Peripheral nervous systems which is all the other nerves in the body

-The nervous system contains around 85 billion individual nerve cells called neurons

Central nervous system/ CNS

• includes most of the neurons in the body

• Handles the information and processing and decision-making tasks

• sensory info from the outside world and from the inside of the body which is chanled through the peripheral nervous system and gets analyzed by the cns

• If action is required, the cns organizes a response and communicates the message through the pns to the appropriate muscles or internal organs

Peripheral nervous system

-the pns is subdivided into the somatic nervous system (which carries sensory messages from skin and muscles and controls the bodys movement) and the autonomic nervous system (which regulates involuntary functions such as heart rate and digestion).

-the sensory and motor neurons outside the brain and spinal cord

Brain

largest part of the central nervous system

consist of 80 billion neurons organized into networks for processing sensory information

storing memories

controlling behaviors

spinal cord

-the part of the central nervous system that extends downward from the brain through the spine

brocas area

is when a person is speaking and brocas area generates the speech code and sends those signals to the motor cortex which moves the muscles of the mouth to produce speech sounds

auditory cortex

when a person is listening to speech the auditory cortex processes the sound waves and creates an auditory code Wernick’s area then interprets the auditory code as language

when a person is reading what two brain areas go off

the visual cortex processes the printed words on a page to create a visual representation of each letter

then the angular gyrus uses the output from the visual cortex to produce an auditory code that wernicks area can understand

visual cortex

processes written words and created visual representations

Wernick’s area

interprets auditory code as language

angular gyrus

turns visual representations into auditory code

motor cortex

moves mouth muscles to pronounce words

brocas area

generates speech code and controls speech muscles via the motor cortex