Intro to Psych Chapters 2 & 3 - FINAL EXAM

Plasticity

The brain's ability to change and reorganize itself

Central Nervous System

consists of the brain and spinal cord

Sympathetic Nervous System

One part of the Autonomic Nervous System, fight-or-flight response, involved with stress and arousal

Parasympathetic Nervous System

One part of the Autonomic Nervous System, calms the body

autonomic nervous system

The body system that takes messages to and from the body’s internal organs, monitoring such processes as breathing, heart rate, and digestion.

stress

The responses of individuals to environmental stressors.

stressors

Circumstances and events that threaten individuals and tax their coping abilities and that cause physiological changes to ready the body to handle the assault of stress.

fight or flight reaction

a reaction that quickly mobilizes the body’s physiological resources to prepare the organism to deal with threats to survival

dendrites

Treelike fibers projecting from a neuron, which receive information and orient it toward the neuron’s cell body.

cell body

The part of the neuron that contains the nucleus, which directs the manufacture of substances that the neuron needs for growth and maintenance.

axon

The part of the neuron that carries information away from the cell body toward other cells.

myelin sheath

A layer of fat cells that encases and insulates most axons.

synapses

Tiny spaces between neurons; the gaps between neurons are referred to as synaptic gaps.

neurotransmitters

Chemical substances that are stored in very tiny sacs within the neuron’s terminal buttons and involved in transmitting information across a synaptic gap to the next neuron.

dopamine

helps to control voluntary movement and affects sleep, mood, attention, learning, and the ability to recognize rewards and other important signals in the environment. Associated with being being extraverted.

Parkinson’s disease

disease that appears due to low levels of dopamine and physical movements deteriorate

serotonin

key to the brain’s neuroplasticity, involved in regulating sleep, mood, attention, learning, and states of wakefulness

depression

associated with lowered levels of serotonin

limbic system

A set of subcortical brain structures central to emotion, memory, and reward processing. Two principal structures are the amygdala and hippocampus.

amygdala

located in temporal lobe near the base of the brain, involved in processing emotions, crucial role in the fight-or-flight response, one of both sides of the brain, if damaged social interactions and decision making can be impaired

hippocampus

The structure in the limbic system that has a special role in the storage of memories. If damaged cannot retain any new conscious memories after the damage

cerebral cortex

Part of the forebrain, the outer layer of the brain, responsible for the most complex mental functions, such as thinking and planning. Folds to increase surface area.

occipital lobes

Structures located at the back of the head that respond to visual stimuli.

temporal lobes

Structures in the cerebral cortex that are located just above the ears and are involved in hearing, language processing, and memory.

frontal lobes

The portion of the cerebral cortex behind the forehead, involved in personality, intelligence, and the control of voluntary muscles.

parietal lobes

Structures at the top and toward the rear of the head that are involved in registering spatial location, attention, and motor control.

somatosensory cortex

A region in the cerebral cortex that processes information about body sensations, located at the front of the parietal lobes.

motor cortex

A region in the cerebral cortex, located just behind the frontal lobes, that processes information about voluntary movement.

corpus callosum

The large bundle of axons that connects the brain’s two hemispheres, responsible for relaying information between the two sides.

top-down processing

a cognitive process where our existing knowledge, expectations, and past experiences influence how we interpret new sensory information. (ex. finding you friend in a crowd by using your prior knowledge of what he looks like and what he usually wears).

bottom-up processing

The operation in sensation and perception in which sensory receptors register information about the external environment and send it up to the brain for interpretation. (ex. you see a red triangle and you first see the lines, angles, color, then combine them to recognize it as a triangle).

sensation

The process of receiving stimulus energies from the external environment and transforming those energies into neural energy.

perception

The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information so that it makes sense.

selective attention

The act of focusing on a specific aspect of experience while ignoring others.

sensory adaptation

A change in the responsiveness of the sensory system based on the average level of surrounding stimulation.

perceptual constancy

The recognition that objects are constant and unchanging even though sensory input about them is changing.

size constancy

The recognition that an object remains the same size even though the retinal image of the object changes.

shape constancy

The recognition that an object retains the same shape even though its orientation to you changes.

color constancy

The recognition that an object retains the same color even though different amounts of light fall on it