Biological Psychology and Brain Structures

Flashcards covering key brain structures, functions, imaging techniques, and biological psychology terms from the lecture notes.

What is neuroplasticity?

The brain’s ability to change and reorganize because of learning, experience, or injury.

What is an EEG?

A test that records the brain’s electrical activity using electrodes placed on the scalp.

What is a CT scan?

A scan that uses X-rays to create detailed images of brain structure.

What is an MRI?

A scan that uses magnetic fields and radio waves to make detailed images of brain structure.

What is an fMRI?

A type of MRI that tracks changes in blood flow to show which brain areas are active.

What is the hindbrain?

The lower part of the brain that controls basic survival functions, movement, and balance.

What is the brainstem?

The base of the brain that connects to the spinal cord and controls automatic life functions.

What is the medulla?

Part of the brainstem that controls breathing, heart rate, and other automatic functions.

What is the thalamus?

The brain’s main sensory relay station; it directs most sensory information to the cortex.

What is the cerebellum?

A brain area that helps control balance, coordination, and fine movements.

What is the limbic system?

A group of brain structures strongly involved in emotion, motivation, and memory.

What is the amygdala?

A limbic-system structure important for fear, aggression, and emotional reactions.

What is the hypothalamus?

A small brain structure that helps regulate hunger, thirst, body temperature, and hormones.

What is the hippocampus?

A brain structure important for forming new explicit memories.

What is the cerebral cortex?

The thin outer layer of the brain involved in thinking, perception, language, and voluntary actions.

What is the frontal lobe?

The front brain lobe involved in planning, judgment, personality, speaking, and movement.

What is the occipital lobe?

The back brain lobe that processes visual information.

What is the temporal lobe?

The side brain lobe involved in hearing, language, and memory.

What is the motor cortex?

A strip of cortex in the frontal lobe that controls voluntary body movements.

What is the somatosensory cortex?

A strip of cortex in the parietal lobe that processes touch, pain, temperature, and body position.

What is MEG?

A brain-imaging method that measures the magnetic fields produced by brain activity.

What is a PET scan?

A scan that uses a radioactive tracer to show activity, such as how the brain uses glucose.

What is the midbrain?

A small brain region involved in movement, alertness, and visual and auditory reflexes.

What is the forebrain?

The largest, most developed brain region; it includes areas involved in thinking, emotion, memory, and sensory processing.

What is the reticular formation?

A network in the brainstem that helps control alertness, attention, and sleep.

What is the parietal lobe?

A brain lobe that processes body sensations and helps with spatial awareness.

What are association areas?

Areas of the cortex that combine information and support higher thinking, learning, memory, and judgment.

What is the prefrontal cortex?

The frontmost part of the frontal lobe; it supports planning, decision-making, impulse control, and personality.

What is the corpus callosum?

A thick band of nerve fibers that connects the left and right brain hemispheres.

What is a split brain condition?

A condition in which the corpus callosum has been cut, limiting communication between the hemispheres.

What is biological psychology?

The study of how the brain, body, genes, and nervous system influence behavior and mental processes.

What is the biopsychosocial approach?

The idea that behavior and health result from biological, psychological, and social influences working together.

What are levels of analysis?

Different ways to explain behavior, such as biological, psychological, and social-cultural explanations.

What is the mind's eye?

The ability to create or picture images mentally without seeing them with your actual eyes.

What is a lesion?

Tissue damage or destruction in the brain; researchers sometimes study lesions to learn what a brain area does.

What is neurogenesis?

The creation of new neurons.

What is the pons?

A brainstem structure that helps regulate sleep, breathing, movement, and communication between brain areas.