Unit 1 Psych

The Brain

Medulla (brain stem)

regulates rhythm, blood flow, breathing rate, digestion, and vomitting

Pons (brain stem)

involved in regulating sleep and arousal

generate bursts of action potentials to the forebrain — activiation

Cerebellum

controls movement, posture, and equilibrium

Basal ganglia

regulates initiation of movements, balance, eye movements, and posture, and functions in processing of implicit memories.

Thalamus

relays visual,auditory, taste, and somatosensory info to/from appropriate areas of the cerebral cortex

Hypothalamus ( also a part of the endocrine system

controls multiple behaviors, activation of the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems, and secretion of hormones of the pituitary.It is involved in regulating homeostasis, including temperature, hunger, thirst, and circadian rhythms.

reticular formation

a network of neurons in the brainstem that regulates sleep, wakefulness, and alertness, playing a crucial role in arousal and attention.

pituitary gland

a small gland located at the base of the brain that produces and releases hormones regulating various body functions, including growth, metabolism, and reproduction.

amygdala

a key brain structure involved in processing emotions, particularly fear and pleasure: fight or flight reaction

corpus callosum

a thick band of nerve fibers that connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain, facilitating communication between them.

Hippocampus

enables formation of long-term memories

Cerebral Cortex

center for higher-order processes such as thinking, planning, judgment; receives and processes sensory info and directs movement

Frontal Lobe

region of the cerebral cortex associated with reasoning, problem-solving, and planning; involved in controlling voluntary movements.

Motor Cortex

area of the cerebral cortex involved in planning, controlling, and executing voluntary movements.

somatosensory cortex

region of the cerebral cortex responsible for processing sensory information from the body, including touch, temperature, and pain.

parietal lobe

region of the cerebral cortex that processes sensory information such as touch and spatial awareness, and integrates information related to body orientation.

occipital lobe

the region of the cerebral cortex responsible for processing visual information.

temporal lobe

plays a crucial role in processing auditory information, language comprehension, memory formation, and visual recognition.

Broca’s Area

Left Frontal Lobe — ability to speak — deterioration causes expressive aphasia

Wernicke’s area

Left Temporal Lobe — ability to comprehend language

Lesions

precise destruction of brain tissue

plasiticity

the brain’s ability to reorganize and take over a function if a certain region is damaged

Nervous System

—

Central Nervous System

brain + spine

Peripheral Nervous System

midline portion of nervous system — carries sensory information to and motor information away from your CNS via spinal and cranial nerves

divides into the somatic and autonomic parts

Somatic Nervous System

motor neurons that stimulate skeletal (voluntary) muscle

Autonomic Nervous System

motor neurons that stimulate smooth (involuntary) and heart muscle

divided into sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems

Sympathetic Nervous System/ Responses

stimulates your body in response to stress to help deal with it — dilation of pupils, secretion of adrenaline, acceleration of breathing rate.

Parasympathetic Nervous System/ Responses

calms your body following sympathetic stimulation — restores digestive processes (salivation, peristalsis, enzyme secretion), returning pupils to normal pupil size, stimulating tear glands, and restoring normal bladder contractions.

The Neuron

—

dendrites

branching tubular processes capable of receiving information

axon

a single conducting fiber(longer than a dendrite) that branches and ends at the axon terminals

myelin sheath

a fatty, protective coating that insulates the axons of neurons

Neurogenesis

growth of new neurons

action potential

after reaching the threshold, the rapid change in potential across the membrane

all-or-one principle

a neuron will only fire if it receives the full action potential and reaches the threshold, if not it won’t

glial cells

guide the growth of developing neurons, help provide nutrition for and get rid of wastes of neurons, and form an insulating sheath around neurons that speeds conduction.

sensory (afferent) neurons

transmits impulses from your sensory receptors to the spinal cord or brain

interneurons

located w/in brain and spinal cord — help with sensory + motor neurons

motor (efferent) neurons

transmit impulses from sensory/interneurons to muscles cells

Neurotransmitters

chemicals stored in structures of the terminal buttons called synaptic vesicles

Dopamine

reward- stimulates hypothalamus to synthesize hormones — affects alertness and movement

Glutamate

the ultimate excitatory neurotransmitter — info processing and memory formation

Serotonin

mood regulator — sexual activity, concentration, attention, moods, and emotions

Gaba

major inhibitory neurotransmitter

Norepinephrine

noradrenaline or adrenaline — attentiveness, sleeping, dreaming, and learning

Agonists

mimic neurotransmitters and bind to its receptor sites to produce the effect of said neurotransmitter

antagonists

block a receptor sites, inhibiting the effect of the neurotransmitter or agonist

endocrine system

system that consists of glands secreting hormones into the blood

Pineal Gland

produces melatonin and regulates circadian rhythms and is associated with S.A.D

Pituitary Gland

produces stimulating hormones promoting secretion by other glands

Thyroid Gland

gland in beck that produces thyrozine — stimulates and maintains metabolic activities

Parathyroids

• endocrine glands in neck that produce parathyroid hormone, which helps maintain calcium ion level in blood necessary for normal functioning of neurons.

Adrenal glands

above lungs — produces cortisol and adrenaline

pancreas

secretes insulin and glucagon, regulating blood sugar, fueling all behavioral processes

ovaries and testes

• gonads in females and males, respectively, that produce hormones necessary for reproduction and development of secondary sex characteristics.

Behavioral Geneticists

study the role played by our genes and our environment in mental ability, emotional stability, temperament, personality, interests, and so forth; they look at the causes of our individual differences.

identical twins

two individuals who share all of the same genes/heredity because they develop from the same fertilized egg or zygote; they are monozygotic twins.

Fraternal Twins

siblings that share about half of the same genes because they develop from two different fertilized eggs or zygotes; they are dizygotic twins.

Heritability

the proportion of variation among individuals in a population that is due to genetic causes

Levels of Consciousness

Preconscious — the level of consciousness that is outside of awareness but contains feelings and memories that you can easily bring into conscious awareness

nonconscious —level of consciousness devoted to processes completely inaccessible to conscious awareness, such as blood flow, filtering of blood by kidneys, secretion of hormones etc

unconscious — the level of consciousness that includes often unacceptable feelings, wishes, and thoughts not directly available to conscious awareness.

dual processing— processing information on conscious and unconscious levels at the same time.

unconsciousness — haracterized by loss of responsiveness to the environment, resulting from disease, trauma, or anesthesia.

Sleep and Dreams

Computerized axial tomography (CAT or CT)

Structure — a computerized image using X-rays passed through various angles of the brain showing two-dimensional “slices” that can be arranged to show the extent of a lesion.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

Structure — a magnetic field and pulses of radio waves cause the emission of faint radio frequency signals that depend on the density of the tissue

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

an amplified tracing of brain activity produced when electrodes positioned over the scalp transmit signals about the brain’s electrical activity (“brain waves”) to an electroencephalograph machine.

Positron Emission Tomography ( PET)

• produces color computer graphics that depend on the amount of metabolic activity in the imaged brain region.

Functional MRI (fMRI)

hows the brain at work at higher resolution than the PET scanner.

Changes in oxygen in the blood of an active brain area alters its magnetic qualities, which is recorded by the fMRI scanner.

Sleep

• complex combination of states of consciousness, each with its own level of consciousness, awareness, responsiveness, and physiological arousal.

Circadian Rhythm

natural,internal process that regulates the sleep-wake cycle and repeats roughly every 24 hours — your body’s internal clock— influenced by light and darkness and influences when you sleep and wake up

sleep spindles

high frequency bursts of brain activity occuring during NREM-2

EEGs in sleep

theta waves = high amp low freq. — meditation , daydreaming, deep relaxation

alpha waves = high frew low amp — relaxed wakefulness

Stages of sleep

—

NREM- 1

theta waves

hypnagogic state — relaxed and fail to respond to outside stimuli

NREM-2

sleep spindles occur here and k complexes

NREM-3

delta waves

REM sleep

Rapid Eye Movement sleep — happens 90 min after falling asleep

nightmares occur during this stage

manifest content

the remembered story line of a dream

latent content

the underlying meaning of a dream

activation-synthesis theory

dreams are result of the brain’s attempts to make sense of random neural a

sleep disorders

—

insomnia

the inability to fall asleep and/or stay asleep

nacolepsy

condition in which an awake person suddenly and uncontrollably falls asleep, often directly into REM sleep

sleep apnea

temporary cessations of breathing that awaken the sufferer repeatedly throughout the night

night terrors

most likely childhood sleep disruptions during the deepest stage (NREM-3)— characterized by trips out of bed or carrying on complex activities

sleepwalking

characterized by trips out of bed or carrying on complex activivies

dissociation theory

hypnotized individuals experience two or more streams of consciousness cut off from each other

Psychoactive drugs

chemicals that can pass through the blood-brain barrier into the brain to alter perception, thinking, behavior, and mood, producing a wide range of effects from mild relaxation or increased alertness to vivid hallucinations.

psychological dependence

develops when a person has an intense desire to achieve a drugged state despite adverse effects

tolerance

decreasing responsibility to a drug

physiological dependence/addiction

changes in brain chemistry from taking the drug necessitate taking the drug again to prevent withdrawal symptoms

depressants

psychoactive drugs that reduce the activity of the CNS and induce relaxation

includes sedatives like barbiturates, tranquilizers, and alcohol

narcotics

pain reducers that work by depressing the CNS

can also depress the respiratory system

stimulants

psychoactive drugs that activate motivational centers and reduce activity in inhibitory centers of the central nervous system by increasing activity of serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine neurotransmitter systems.

hallucinogens

also called psychedelics, are a diverse group of psychoactive drugs that alter moods, distort perceptions, and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input.

Substance P

a neuropeptide involved in various physiological processes, including pain transmission, inflammation, and immune regulation

Actecholine

endorphins

body’s natural painkiller & mood boosters

leptin

regulation of appetite and fat storage

ghrelin

stimulates hunger

melatonin

causes sleepiness