Brain and Behavior Course Review Flashcards

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts from a Brain and Behavior course review, focusing on nervous systems, neural communication, sensory systems, motor systems, learning, neuroplasticity, emotion, stress, hunger, satiety, psychological disorders and drug addiction.

Central Nervous System

Consists of the brain and spinal cord.

Peripheral Nervous System

Incorporates motor and sensory nerves; divided into somatic and autonomic systems.

Sympathetic Nervous System

Prepares the body for action.

Parasympathetic Nervous System

Tells the body to relax and recuperate.

Enteric Nervous System

Operates independently within the gastrointestinal tract.

Frontal Lobe

Responsible for executive functions.

Parietal Lobe

For spatial cognition.

Temporal Lobe

For learning, memory, and auditory processing.

Occipital Lobe

For visual processing.

Essential Gyrus

Important for motor control.

Post Central Gyrus

Important for mediating sensory information.

Neurons

Primary information processors and transmitters in the nervous system.

Glial Cells

Neuronal support system providing physical, nutritional, and functional support.

Oligodendrocytes

Responsible for myelinated axons, enhancing the speed of electrical impulses.

Neuronal Communication

Internal communication via electrical signals of action potentials between each other through neurotransmitters.

Resting Membrane Potential

State of readiness, with the neurone more negative inside compared to outside.

EPSPs

Triggered by sodium influx, leading to depolarisation and action potentials.

IPSPs

Caused by chloride influx, resulting in hyperpolarization and inhibition of action potential firing.

Spatial Summation

Integration of postsynaptic potentials from different locations on the dendritic tree.

Temporal Summation

Integration of postsynaptic potentials occurring close in time at the same location.

Isotropic Receptors

Enable rapid, direct responses essential for immediate actions.

Metabotropic Receptors

Provide slower, longer lasting modulation of cellular activities.

GABA

The major inhibitory neurotransmitter.

Glutamate

Main excitatory neurotransmitter.

Dopamine

Involved in reward, cognition, emotions, behavior, and motivation.

Norepinephrine

Modulates arousal, mood, and sexual behavior.

Serotonin

Implicated in sleep states, mood, sexual behavior, and anxiety.

Drugs (Pharmacological)

Chemicals that change the normal functioning of neurotransmitters at the synapse.

Agonists

Occupy and activate receptors, allowing for receptor activation.

Antagonists

Occupy and block receptors allowing no activation minimizing postsynaptic response.

Reuptake Inhibitors

Blocking the reuptake of neurotransmitters from the synapse back up into the presynaptic terminal.

Transducers

Convert electrical energy from a stimulus into a change in membrane potential in a receptive cell.

Primary Motor Cortex

Motor commands are initiated.

Non Primary Motor Cortices

Additional source of motor commands.

Cerebellum and Basal Ganglia

Have modulatory control.

Pyramidal System

Network of neurones in the cerebral cortex and their axons which form pyramidal tract to the spinal cord.

Premotor Cortex

Involved in movements in response to external influences.

Supplementary Motor Area

Important for planning movements that are internally generated.

Classical Pavlovian Conditioning

Involves an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) that naturally causes a behavior and a UCR (unconditioned response) that's the reflexive behavior to stimulus.

Engram

Neural concept of new neural pathways which connects sensory information to muscle movement.

Working Memory

Capacity to process and transform information in memory with limited capacity.

Long Term Memory

Capacity to retain information and use it for adaptive purposes, made up of declarative and non-declarative memory.

Declarative Memory

Knowing type of memory; explicit knowledge divided into semantic and episodic memory.

Semantic Memory

Knowledge of facts; general knowledge about the world.

Episodic Memory

Memory for personally experienced events.

Non declarative Memory

Implicit type of memory associated with knowing how to do something.

Neuroplasticity

Describes the way the brain can change, particularly as a result of experience.

Simplest Form of Neuroplastic Change

Change to synaptic transmission.

Synaptic Genesis

Formation of new synapses.

Synaptic Pruning

Synapses that aren't activated are lost.

Long Term Potentiation

Cells that fire together, wire together.

Schachter's Cognitive Attribution Theory

Proposes emotional experience results from cognitive analysis of context around us including physiological responses.

Stress

Any circumstance which upsets homeostatic balance.

Negative Feedback

Regulatory mechanism in which a change in physiological variable triggers response that counteracts initial change.

Hypothalamic Appetite Controller

Complex network of cells within the hypothalamus that integrates various signals to regulate hunger and satiety.

Anxiety Disorders

Characterized by unrealistic or unfounded fear and anxiety. Include social and specific phobias, panic disorders, OCD and PTSD.

Unipolar Depression

Demonstrates a consistently low mood with a loss of pleasure in most activities.

Bipolar Disorder

Have periods of very high and very low moods.

Psychosis

Set of symptoms where a person's mental capacity, affective response and capacity to recognize reality communicate and relate to others is impaired.

Dopamine Hypothesis

Hypothesizes hyperactive dopamine D2 receptors in the media limbic pathway.

Serotonin Hypothesis

Hypothesizes hyper function, Increased activity in 5 H2 cortical receptors.

Glutamate Hypothesis

Hypothesizing an NMDA receptor hypo function.

Drug Addiction Treatments

Used to reduce consequences of withdrawal or increase positive coping strategies.

Contingency Management

Behavioral intervention where people are rewarded or reinforced for abstinence.