Colby College: PS111 - Unit 1 Test

Friontal Lobe - for decision making, planning, and personality.

Parietal lobe

parietal lobe - somatosensation, spatial awareness, and coordination of movement.

Temporal Lobe - Memory, Auditory, Language processing

Occipital Lobe - Visual stimulus processing

Grey Matter

Cerebral cortex, information processing

White Matter

Inner brain, neural communication, where action potentials happen

Motor cortex - what, where, organization

controls voluntary movements - In frontal lobe - Somatotopic organization

Auditory Cortex - what, where, organization

Processes sound - temporal lobe - Tonotopic organization

Visual Cortex - what, where, organization

Processes visual stimuli to send to association areas - occipital lobe - retinotopic organization

Somatosensory Cortex - what, where, organization

Processes body touch, & movement sensations - Parietal Lobe - Somatotopic Organization

Somatotopic Organization Meaning

Nearby regions of the brain work together for nearby tasks. ex). Similar flavors are processed in nearby parts of the brain.

Tonotopic Organization Meaning

Auditory receptors; how the brain processes audio stimuli

Retinotopic Organization Meaning

The stages of visual processing. 1. basic forms & shapes 2. more context like color 3. recognizable features like eyes and nose

What is this, name the parts, name their purpose

Neuron -

Dendrites: Listens and takes in input from other neurons

Cell Body: Decides whether to use the input and fire an action potential

Axon: Sends output to other neurons

FFA - Fusiform face area

Association area that recognizes faces

PPA - Parahippocampal Place Area

Association area for recognizing locations like your school

Association Cortex functions

Takes the information from primary and secondary cortexes and integrates it in specialized ways

Neural Communication: Electrical

Change in membrane voltage that opens voltage-gated channels

neural communication: Chemical

Neurotransmitters from one neuron send inhibitory or excitatory signals to another through synaptic connection to another neuron → opens ligand-gated channels of other neuron

Sodium-potassium Pump: resting

Cell is polarized: inside of cell is more negative than outside

Sodium-potassium Pump: Reaching threshold

Neurotransmitters bind to ligand-gated channels, channels open at -55mv, sodium enters cell.

Sodium-potassium Pump: Depolarization

Sodium rushes into cell and makes inside more positive than outside

Sodium-potassium Pump: Repolarization

Potassium voltage-gates open at 40mv after action-potential, inside of cell starts becoming more negative again

Sodium-potassium Pump: hyperpolarization

Too much potassium enters cell, makes cell too negative. Some eventually leaves and cell goes back to normal -77mv at resting.

Excitatory Signals

Synaptic signals from other neurons that make inside of a neuron more likely to fire

Inhibitory Signals

Synaptic signals from other neurons that make inside of a neuron less likely to fire

Psychology

Scientific study of behavior

Naturalistic Observation

watch how animals behave

Survey

ask an animal about themselves or others

Experimentation - behavioral and somatic intervention

Observe how performance tasks change animal behavior.

Behavioral: animal does task → measure behavior changes

Somatic: change animal’s body → measure behavior changes

Mind-Body Problem

How does the mind relate to the body

Dualism

The brain is separate from the mind

Materialism

Brain functions cause the mind to exist

Episodic memory

Long-term memories of events in our lives

Implicit Memory

Long-term memories used and acquired subconsciously - procedural memory

ex). Learning to ride a bike

Associative memory

the strong connection built by neurons coded for specific stimuli over time

ex). keys & desk → associate the keys with being on my desk i.e, see my desk and wonder ‘where are my keys?’

Synaptic plasticity

Learning → The more neurons fire together, the stronger their connection becomes

Hippocampus

The memory center of the brain, integrates stimulus from association areas like the perirhinal cortex (what) and parahippocampal cortex (where) to form full memories

Dorsal Stream

“where” memory, processes stimulus relating to locations

Ventral Stream

“what” memory, processes stimulus relating to objects

Parahippocampal Cortex

Processes stimuli relating to locations - “where” memory

Perirhinal Cortex

Processes stimuli relating to objects - “what” memory

Biomarkers of Alzheimers

• Amyloid beta plaques

• Nerual fribulator tangles

Alzheimer’s Disease

Degenerative brain disorder where Amyloid beta plaques and neural fribulator tangles build up and disrupt the connection between the associative memory cortexes and the hippocampus.

Parkinson’s Disease

Degenerative disorder that depletes the basal ganglia’s substantia nigra, disrupting dopamine channels. Creates uncontrollable body movements and affects implicit memory

Long-term potentiation

The stimulation of neuron connections in order to increase associations and therefore also memory retention

Would an Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s patient do worse on Cued recall?

Alzheimers, because the disease disrupts episodic memory.

Would an Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s patient do worse on learning to brush their teeth?

Parkinson’s, because the disease affects implicit memory.

Hypothalamus

Limbic neural structure → hunger, thirst, temperature regulation

Thalamus

Sensory contorl center → Relays information about about incoming motor & sensory information