AP Psychology module 12 vocab

Cerebral cortex

The body’s ultimate control and information processing center.

Frontal lobe

Involved in decision making, movement, personality characteristics.

Parietal lobe

Involved in identifying objects and understanding spatial relationships.

Occipital lobe

Receives visual information.

Temporal lobe

Involved in short term memory, speech, smell recognition.

Motor cortex

Controls voluntary movement.

Somatosensory cortex

Registers and processes body touch and movement sensations.

Association areas

Parts of the cerebral cortex that are not involved in primary motor and sensory functions, but rather, higher mental functions like learning, memory, thinking, speaking.

Plasticity

The brain’s ability to change by reorganizing after damage or by building new pathways based on experience.

Neurogenesis

The formation of new neurons.