AP Psych Unit 1 Test

Brainstem

-The brainstem connects the brain and spinal cord

-Contains the medulla, pons, and cerebellum; Structures involved in survival, sleep, alertness, and movement

Medulla

-Controls automatic, life-sustaining functions (such as breathing and heartbeat)

-The medulla is located at the lowest part of the brainstem

Pons

-Helps coordinate movement and sleep

-Connected to sleep and dreaming

Reticular Formation

-Runs through the brainstem

-Connected nerve cells that are responsible for arousal and alertness

-Helps regulate sleep and wakefulness

-Severe damage to the Reticular Formation can disrupt consciousness

Cerebellum

- Balance and coordinated movement

-Supports balance and posture

-The cerebellum helps movements become smooth and precise

Limbic System

Structures involved in emotion, memory, and motivation

Thalamus

-The brain’s sensory relay station to brain area

-Includes sight, taste, hearing, touch

-Exception: Smell

Hypothalamus

-Helps keep the body in balance/homeostasis

-Stable internal conditions

-Includes hunger, thirst, basic drives, pleasure & reward

Amygdala

-Responsible for fear, aggression, emotional processing

Hippocampus

-Responsible for the formation of memories

Corpus Callosum

-Nerve fibers that connect the two hemispheres of the brain

-Allows each side to share and coordinate information

Cerebral Cortex

-Outer covering of the brain that is responsible for reasoning, planning, organizing, remembering, and imagining

-Divided into 4 lobes and 2 hemispheres

Frontal Lobe

-Responsible for reasoning, planning, and problem solving

-Emotions and movement

-Contains the primary motor cortex

-Broca’s area: Responsible for speech production and language processing (Located in the left hemisphere)

Broca’s Area

-Speech production and language processing (left hemisphere)

Primary Motor Cortex

-Located in the back portion of the frontal lobe

-Controls voluntary movement

-Each hemisphere primarily controls the opposite side of the body

Parietal Lobe

-Located behind the frontal lobe

-Processes information from the skin senses

-Important for body awareness and spatial processing

-Damage to the Parietal Lobe can disrupt awareness of where parts of the body are located

-Also involved in mathematical processing

Somatosensory Cortex

-Located in the parietal lobe

-Processes bodily sensations such as touch, pressure, pain, and temperature

-Sense/feel

Occipital Lobe

-Located in the back of the brain

-Damage to the Occipital Lobe can create gaps or disruptions in visual processing

Visual Agnosia

Difficulty recognizing objects or people despite being able to see them

Temporal Lobe

-Responsible for hearing, memory, and speech comprehension

-Damage to the Temporal lobe can disrupt recognition of speech and sounds

-Wernicke’s Area: Language comprehension (left hemisphere)

-Important for face recognition

Wernicke’s Area

-Responsible for language comprehension (left hemisphere)

Association Areas

-Areas of the cerebral cortex that are involved in higher mental functions like learning, remembering, thinking, and speaking

-Neurons within the brain

Neuroplasticity

-The brain’s ability to change and reorganize its connections

-Happens through learning, experience, and development

-Neuroplasticity can help the brain adapt after injury

-Connections may strengthen, weaken, or reorganize over time

Contralateral Control

-Right hemisphere primarily controls the left side of the body, and vice versa

EEG

-Electrodes placed along the scalp record patterns of electrical activity in the brain

-Commonly used to track sleep disorders or epilepsy

MRI

-Uses strong magnetic fields and radio waves

-Creates highly detailed images of brain structure

-Useful for examining brain anatomy & structural abnormalities

fMRI

-Tracks blood oxygen changes during tasks

CT Scan

-Uses X-rays to create images of brain structure

-Useful for quickly identifying structural problems such as bleeding or injury

-Quick structural image + x-rays

Nervous System

-The body’s communication network

-Receives information from inside and outside the body

-Processes information and coordinates responses

Central Nervous System (CNS)

-Made up of the brain and spinal cord

-Receives information, processes it, and coordinates responses

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

-The nerves outside the brain and spinal cord that connect the CNS to the rest of the body

-Carries sensory information toward the CNS and motor commands away from it

Sensory Neurons

-Carry incoming information from sensory receptors toward the CNS

Interneurons

-Process and relay information within the brain and spinal cord (CNS)

Motor Neurons

-Carry outgoing commands from the CNS to muscles and glands

Somatic Nervous System:

-Controls voluntary movement of skeletal muscles

-Ex. Raising your hand, walking, throwing a ball

Autonomic Nervous System

-Controls involuntary functions of organs and glands

-Ex. Heart rate, digestion, sweating

Sympathetic Nervous System

-Activates the body during stress, danger, or excitement

-“Fight or flight” response

-Heart rate, breathing increase, pupils dilate, and digestion slows

Parasympathetic Nervous System

-Calms the body after a stressful event

-Conserves energy

-Heart rate and breathing decrease toward normal

-Digestion becomes more active

Reflex

-Simple, automatic response to a sensory stimulus

-Some reflexes can be coordinated by the spinal cord before conscious brain processing is complete

-Ex. Quickly pulling your hand away from something hot

Complete the Pathway: Sensory neuron —> ________ —> _________

Sensory Neuron → Interneuron → Motor Neuron

Neuron

-A specialized nerve cell that receives and transmits information

Nerve

-A bundle of axons from many neurons travelling together in the peripheral nervous system

Dendrites

-Receive incoming signals

Axon

-Long extension that carries the neural impulse (information) away from the cell body

Myelin Sheath

-Fatty insulating layer around portions of the axon that help signals travel more efficiently

Glial Cells

-Support, nourish, protect, and help maintain neurons

Axon Terminals

-Communicate with the next cell

Resting Potential

-Before firing, the neuron is in electrical state, ready to be fired (resting state)

-Incoming stimulation can move the neuron toward threshold

Threshold

-The minimum level of stimulation needed to trigger an action potential

-Trigger point

Action Potential

-Brief electrical impulse that travels down the axon and the neuron is fired

All-or-None Principle

-When the threshold is reached full action potential occurs

-Before this point, there is no action potential (no response)

-Stronger stimulation can increase how frequently neurons fire

Refractory Period

-A brief recovery/reset period immediately after an action potential

-During this time, the neuron returns to resting potential

-The neuron cannot immediately fire another identical action potential

Synapse

-The communication junction between neurons

-The gap between them

Neurotransmitter

-Chemical messages released from axon terminals that travel across the synapse to the next cell

-Released from axon terminals when the neural signal reaches the end of the neuron

-Different neurotransmitters can have different effects on behavior and body functions

-Ex. Dopamine, Serotonin

Endocrine System

-Glands that release hormones into the bloodstream

Hormones

-Chemical messengers carried through the blood to influence target tissues and behavior

-Compared with neural signaling, hormonal communication is generally slower but can have longer-lasting effects

Pituitary Gland

-Endocrine gland located near the base of the brain

-Called the “Master gland” because its hormones help regulate other endocrine glands

What brain structure regulates the pituitary gland?

Hypothalamus

How does communication through the endocrine system differ from communication through the nervous system?

The endocrine system communicates slowly using hormones in the blood, while the nervous system communicates instantly using electrical signals.

Nature

-Genetic and biological influences

-Characteristics inherited from biological parents

Nurture

-Environmental influences and experiences

-Family, culture, friends, education, nutrition

Behavior Genetics

-The study of how genes and environment influence behavior

Heredity

-Passing biological characteristics from parents to offspring

-Ex. Eye color, height

Chromosomes

-Structures made of DNA that contain genes (23 pairs, 46 total)

-XX is for Female

-XY is for Male

DNA

-Genetic material containing instructions (code) for development & functioning

Genes

-Biochemical unit (blueprints) of heredity made of DNA that influences traits

Mutation

-A change in genetic material that can be beneficial, harmful, or have little effect

Epigenetics

-How environmental factors can influence gene expression (without changing the underlying DNA sequence)

-Influences can include nutrition, stress, chemical exposure, life experiences

-How nurture (environment) can influence how nature (biological traits) is expressed

Natural Selection

-Organisms with traits best suited to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce (evolution over time)

Eugenics

-Movement that attempted to control human reproduction based on beliefs about “desirable” and “undesirable” traits

-Selective breeding, sterilization

-Targeted poor, racial minorities, and people with disabilities

Identical (Monozygotic) Twins

-Develop from one egg

-Share the same genetic information

-Small differences develop over time

-Identical twins raised apart are still very similar

Fraternal (Dizygotic) Twins

-Develop from two separate eggs

-Genetically similar to ordinary biological siblings

Why are identical twins raised apart useful for studying nature and nurture?

Identical twins raised apart are useful because they share the exact same DNA, which lets researchers see which traits stem from shared genes versus different environments.

Consciousness

-Our awareness of ourselves and our environment

Dual Processing / Two-Track Mind:

-The brain can process information on two tracks at the same time

Parallel Processing

-Processing multiple aspects of information at the same time

-Automatic

-Ex. Looking at someone’s face and processing color, shape, depth, identity

Sequential Processing

-Processing information one step at a time

-Requires focused attention

-Solving a difficult math problem step-by step

Circadian Rhythm

-Your biological clock

-Our 24-hour biological cycle

-Influences body temperature, hunger, sleep, alertness

Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN)

-Located in the hypothalamus and regulates the body’s circadian rhythm

Melatonin

-Hormone involved in regulating sleep

Brain Waves

-Measured using an EEG

Beta Waves

-Awake and alert

Alpha Waves

-Awake but relaxed (resting with eyes closed)

Theta Waves

-Relaxed wakefulness to light sleep

Delta Waves

-Deep sleeping

Complete the Sleep Cycle: Awake —> ______ —> ______ —>______ —>______

NREM 1 —> NREM 2 —> NREM 3 —> REM

Approximately how long is one sleep cycle?

90 minutes

NREM 1

-Very light sleep (feeling of falling/jerking awake)

NREM 2

-Deeper sleep (heart rate and temp decrease)

-More difficult to wake

NREM 3

-Deep sleep (delta waves)

REM Sleep

-Rapid Eye Movement

-Brain activity increases

-Vivid dreaming

REM Rebound

-After being deprived of REM sleep, people may spend more time in REM when they next sleep

Which stage is the deepest stage of sleep?

NREM 3

Which brain waves are associated with deep sleep?

-Delta Waves

During which stage does vivid dreaming most commonly occur?

-REM Sleep

Effects of Sleep Deprivation

-Attention/concentration

-Learning/memory

-Reaction time

-Mood

-Decision-making/performance

-Physical health

Insomnia

-Persistent difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or getting restorative sleep

Narcolepsy

-Excessive daytime sleepiness and sudden sleep episodes

Sleep Apnea

-Repeated interruptions in breathing during sleep

REM Sleep Behavior Disorder

-Person may physically act out dreams