Unit One: Part 2 Vocab: Biological bases of Behavior

Review for test this week!

Biological Psychology

The scientific study of the links between biological and psychological processes

Sleep

A circadian state characterized by partial or total suspension of consciousness, voluntary muscle inhibition, and relative insensitivity to stimulation. Other characteristics include a unique sleep-related electroencephalogram and brain-imaging patterns (sleep stages).

Wakefullness

A condition of awareness of one’s surroundings, generally coupled with an ability to communicate with others or to signal understanding of what is being communicated by others. It is characterized by low-amplitude, irregular, fast-wave electrical acivity in the raw electroencephalogram.

Circadian Rhythm

Our biological clock; regular bodily rhythms that occur on a 24-hour cycle

Disruptions to circadian Rhythm

ex: Jet Lag

Hypnagogic Sensations

Hypnagogic sensations occur as one enters initial Stage 1 sleep. They are bizarre experinces, such as jerking or a feeling of falling or floating weightlessly, while transitioning to sleep.

NREM 1

alpha waves

• very light sleep

• our brain is still fairly active and responsive to sensations around us

NREM2

Theta waves

• light transitional sleep

NREM 3

Delta Waves

• deep sleep

• slow waves, gets shorter throughout the night

• night terors

• sleep walking

• sleep talking

REM Sleep

Beta waves

• Paradoxical sleep

• Dreams occur

• brains are active, internal systems are active

• gets longer throughout the ngiht

• nightmares

• large muscles are paralyzed

dreaming

a sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person’s mind

REM Rebound

the increased occurance of REM sleep following REM sleep deprivation

activation synthesis dream theory

dreams are the brain’s attempt to synthesize random neural activity

consolidation theory of sleep

dreams help us sort out the day’s events and consolidate our memories

memory consolidation theory of sleep

sleep helps us organize, restore, and rebuild our memories of the day’s experince

restoration theory of sleep

our bodies wear out during the day and use up hormones, neurotransmitters, and energy. sleep is necessary to restore these resources and re energize the body

• sleep helpsrestore and repair muscles and brain tissue

• sleep helps support growth

sleep disorders

a persistent disturbance of typical sleep patterns or the chronic occurence of abnormal events or behavior during sleep

insomnia

recurring problems in falling or staying asleep

narcolepsy

a sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks (randomly falling asleep)

rem sleep behavior disorder

physically act out dreams with violent movements during REM sleep

sleep apnea

temporary cessations of breathing during sleep and repeated momentary awakenings

somnambulism

sleepwalking

sensation

sensory receptors and the nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment. the process of detecting information from the environment that meets a certain threshold and transducing stimuli into neurochemical messages for processing in the brain

absolute threshold

the minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time

transduction

conversion of one form of energy inot another. transforming sights sounds and smells into neural impulses the brain can interpret

just noticeable difference

the minimum difference between the two stimuli required for detection about 50% of the time

sensory adaptation

diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation

weber’s law

the principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage

sensory interaction

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

synesthesia

a condition in which stimulation of one sense generates a simultaneous sensation in another. a sensation in which one system of sensation is experinced through another

vision

the sense of sight, in which the eye is the receptor and the stimulus isradiant energy in the visible spectrum

retina

the light-sensitive inner surface at the back of the eye, containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information

blind spot

the point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a blind spot ebcause no receptor cells are located there

incomplete retinal images

evidence of the incomplete images captured by the retina is demonstrated by the presence of the blind spot, where the visual nerve exits the eye. the brain fills in the gaps in the incomplete retinal images to perceive a relatively complete picture to the world.

lens

transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina. visual stimuli are forced onto the retina by the lens via a process called accommodation

accommodation

the process by which the focus of the eye is changed to allow near or distant objects to form sharp images on the retina, nearsightedness or farsightedness can occur

nearsightedness

myopia- light in front of the retina, can see near but hard to see things far away

farsightedness

hyperopia- light behind retina, can see far but hard to see things closely

rods

cells that lie in the periphery of the eye and detect shapes and movements, but not color. these cells are mainly activated in low-light environments. the play a major role in light and dark adaptation

dark adaptation

the ability of the eye to adjust to conditions of low illumination by means of an increased sensitivity to light. the bulk of the process takes 30 minutes and involves expansion of the pupils and retinal altercations

light adaptation

the process by which the eye adjusts to conditions of high illumination, takes less than 10 minutes and involves constriction of the pupil and a shift in the sensitivity of the retina so that the retinal cones become active in place of the retinal rods

trichromatic color theory

theory that the retina contains three different types of color receptors- one most sensitive to red, one to greee, one to blue- which, when stimulatied in any combination can produce the perception of any color

opponent process color theory

opposing retinal processes enable color vision

cones (blue/red) cones in the retina

photoreceptor cells located in the fovea of the eye that process color and detail are called cones. blue- short wavelengths, green-medium wavelengths, and red, long wavelengths cones in the retina

afterimages

when certain gaglion cells in the retina are activated while others are not. the ganglion cells involved in this opponent process are red/gren blue/yellow and black/white

ganglion cells

the only type of neuron in the retina that sends signals to the brain resulting from visual stimulation. the axons of the retinal ganglion cells form the optic nerve

fovea

the central focus point in the retina around which the eye’s cones cluster

color deficiency

involved damage or irregularities to one or more cones or ganglion cells- dichromatism or monochromatism

dichromatism

contains only two types of cone photopigment instead of three red-green color blindness (common) or blue-green (more rare)

monochromatic

the eye contains only one type of cone photopigment instead of the typical three; everything appears in various shades of a single color

prosopagnosia

can’t recongnize faces, but able to recongnize objects

• occupitial lobe damage

blindsight

some individuals with damage to the primary visual cortext to detect and even localize stimuli presented to the blind portion of the visual fiueld. not accompanied by conscious awareness

sound waves

sounds occur through the movement of air molecules at different wavelengths called pitch and amplitudes called loudness

place theory (pitch perception)

sounds of different frequencies stimulate different places along the basilar membrane and pitch is coded by the place of maxmal stimulation

volley theory (hearing)

individual fibers in an auditory nerve respond to one or another stimulus in. rapid succession of rhythmic sound stimuli, they take terns and no single fiber is required to respond to every stimulus. 

frequency theory (pitch perception)

Pitch is coded by the rate at which auditory neurons generate action potentials in the basilar membrane of the ear. The wavelength (frequency) of a tone is precisely replicated in the electrical impulses transmitted through the auditory nerve. it explains how we hear low-pitched sounds

sound localization

how we identify where sounds in our environment are coming from

conduction deafness

loss of hearing due to a disorder in the structures that transmit soundto the cochlea

sensorieneural deafness

hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea’s receptor cells or to the auditory nervesl the most common form of hearing loss

pheromones

a chemical signal that is released outside the body by members of a species and that influences the behavior of other members of the same species

chemical senses

the senses receptive to chemical stimulation, particularly the senses of smell and taste

olfactory system/bulb

structures in the nose and brain process olfactory stimuli. the only sense not processed first in the thalamus of the brain

gustation

the sense of taste, and the types of tastes. structures in the tongue mouth and brain process and/pr transduce basic tastes

supertasters, medium, and non

the number of taste receptors on the toungue is related to how sensitive people are to tastes

super: person with uncommonly low gustratory thresholds and strong responses to moderate concentrations of taste stimuli. super tasters usually have high numbers of taste buds

sensory interaction

the chemical senses interact to create the sensation of taste. without the sense of smell, taste sensations are either muted or not experinces

touch

structures in the skin and brain process and/or transuce touch stimuli. the sensatioin of hot is produced by the activation of warm and cold recpetors in the skin. pain is processed by both the body and the brain

gate control theory

pain is modulated by large nerve fibers in the spinal cord that act as gates, such pain is not the product of a simple transmission of stimulation from the skin rather sensations from noxious stimulation on the pain recpetors have to pass through these spinal gates to the brain 

phantom limb syndrome

the feeling that an amputated body part is still there, tingling, painful

vestibular sense

controls balance and is primarily detected by the semicircular canals and structures in the brain

semicircular canals

three looped tubular channels in the inner ear that detect movements of the head and provide the sense of dynamic equalilibrium

• channles are fuild with fluid

• when the head moves in a certain place endolymph flows through the corresponding canal, displacing the cupla and causing hairs to bend

• sending messages to the brain about the direction and rate of movement

kinesthesis

the sense of one’s body movement- allows the body to move in coordinated ways without having to look at the various parts of the body as it moves