Chapter One: Brain Basics

Cerebrum

Largest part of the human brain

What does the cerebrum control?

Thinking, perceiving, planning, and understanding language

Corpus Callosum

Bridges the two hemispheres together

Cerebral Cortex

A sheet of tissue that covers the outermost layer of the cerebrum

What is the cerebral cortex also referred to as?

Gray Matter

How much of the cerebral cortex is folded into grooves?

Two-Thrids

The purpose of the grooves are?

To increase the brain's surface area, allowing for the inclusion of many more neurons

What is the frontal lobe responsible for? (6)

Initiating and coordinating motor movements; higher cognitive skills, such as problem solving, thinking, planning, and organizing; and for many aspects of personality and emotional makeup

What is the parietal lobe responsible for?

Sensory processes, attention and language

What can the damage to the right side of the parietal lobe cause?

difficulty navigating spaces

What can the damage to the left side of the parietal lobe cause?

difficulty understanding language

What is the occipital lobe responsible for?

process visual info

What is the temporal lobe responsible for?

process auditory info

The amygdala creates?

learned emotional responses

Cerebral nuclei helps?

coordinate muscle movements and reward useful behavior

thalamus

passes most sensory info on to the cerebral cortex after helping to prioritize it

hypothalamus

the control center for the appetites, defensive and reproductive behaviors, and sleep-wakefulness

colliculi

a collection of neurons that play a critical role in visual and auditory reflexes and relaying them to the thalamus

medulla oblongata

controls respiration, heart rhythms, and blood glucose levels

cerebellum

control movement and cognitive processes that require precise timing, and also play an important role in Pavlovian learning

The spinal cord generates?

nerve impulses in the nerves that control the muscles and the viscera, bot through reflex activities and through voluntary commands from the cerebrum

What forms the Central Nervous System (CNS)?

The forebrain, midbrain, hindbrain, and spinal cord

What is the length of the spinal cord?

17 in (43 cm)

Function of the sympathetic nervous system?

mobilizes energy ad resources during times of stress and arousal

Function of the parasympathetic nervous system?

conserves energy and resources during relaxed states, including sleep

Function of neurons?

send and receive electrical messages

The mammalian brain contains between...

100 million and 100 billion neurons

What are the parts of the neuron?

cell body, dendrites, and an axon

The endings of an axon are called?

nerve endings

Synapses

the contact points where one neuron communicates with another

Action potential

a dramatic reversal in the electrical potential that occurs on the cell membrane as the neuron switches from an internal negative charge to a positive charge state

neurotransmitters

the brain chemical messangers

A neurotransmitter fits into its receptor like...

a key and lock

myelin sheath

accelerates the transmission of electrical signals along the axon

inhibition

the stimulation of enzyme activity

What was the first neurotransmitter to be discovered?

Acetylcholine (ACh)

What is myasthenia gravis, and how is it caused?

A disease characterized by fatigue and muscle weakness, caused by antibodies that block one type of ACh receptor

Amino acids

serve as building blocks of proteins

gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)

inhibit the firing of neurons

How does GABA effect Huntington's disease

GABA producing neurons in brain centers that coordinate movement degenerate, causing uncontrollable movements

Glutamate and Asparate act as?

Excitatory signals that activate N-methyl-dasparate (NMDA) receptors

N-methyl-dasparate (NMDA) receptors have been implicated in what activities?

NMDA ranges in activities from learning and memory to development and specification of nerve contacts

Catecholamines include which two neurotransmitters?

Dopamine and Norepinephrine

Dopamine is present in how many principal circuits in the brain? And what does each circuit regulate?

Three; regulates movement, cognition and emotion, and the endocrine system

Dopamine's Endocrine circuit directs what part of the brain?

The hypothalamus to manufacture hormones and hold them in the pituitary gland

Deficiencies in norepinephrine could cause what?

memory loss and decline in cognitive functioning

adrenal medulla

the innermost part of the adrenal gland

Serotonin is an important factor in?

sleep quality, mood, depression, and anxiety

peptides

short chains of amino acids that are linked together

What are trophic factors?

substances that are necessary for the development, function, and survival of specific groups of neurons

What is the function of the pituitary gland?

to secrete factors into the blood that act on the endocrine glands to either increase or decrease hormone production

The process of communication from the brain to the pituitary to the endocrine gland and back to the brain is know as?

feedback loop

What is the function of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH)

GnRH is a peptide that acts on cells in the pituitary in both males and females causing the release of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and the luteinizing hormone (LH)

What is the function of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and the luteinizing hormone (LH) in females?

These hormones act on the ovary to stimulate ovulation and promote release of the ovarian hormones estradiol and progesterone.

What is the function of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) and the luteinizing hormone (LH) in males?

they are carried to the testes where they promote spermatogeneis and release the male hormone testosterone

Testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone are often referred to as?

sex hormones

What are the two gas neurotransmitters?

nitric oxide and carbon monoxide

What goes nitric oxide govern?

erection in the penis, the relaxation that contributes to the normal movements of digestion, and a major regulator of the intracellular messenger molecule cyclic GMP

What is the function of endocannabinoids?

control the release of neurotransmitters, usually by inhibiting them, and can also affect the immune system and other cellular parameters still being discovered

What is the function of the secondary messengers?

they convey the chemical message of a neurotransmitter (the first messenger) from the cell membrane to the cell's internal biochemical machinery

What is the purpose of adenosine triphosphate (ATP)?

the chemical source of energy in cells

What is the function of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)

as a secondary messenger cAMP exerts a variety of influences within the cell, ranging from changes in the function of ion channels in the membrane to changes in the expression of genes in the nucleus