ALL FINAL CARDS FOR PSYCH FOREVER

basal ganglia

a group of large subcortical structures in the forebrain (front of brain)

what the basal ganglia does

uses intermediate decisions and reasoning to initiate actions not directly guided by a stimulus

3 structures of the basal ganglia

caudate nucleus, putamen, globus pallidus

the region of the structures of the basal ganglia

all in the region of the limbic system

a readiness potential

a particular type of activity in the motor cortex that occurs before any type of conscious/voluntary movement

when the readiness potential occurs in relation to the movement

occurs at least 200ms before the movement

the procedure of Libet's Study of Conscious Decisions and Movement

a light went around in a circle and participants were asked to choose any random time to stop the light

how Libet's Study of Conscious Decisions and Movement changed our understanding of consciousness and movement

before the study, people thought that the readiness potential occurred some time in between when someone made the conscious decision to move and the movement itself, but Libet actually proved that the readiness potential begins a whole 5 seconds before we make the conscious decision to move

what Libet's Study of Conscious Decisions and Movement implies

when we think we are making a decision about movement, some unconscious part of our brain has already made the decision for us, then it enters our consciousness, which casts doubt on our free will in terms of movement

the part of the brain where the unconscious decision is made before we consciously decide to move

we don't know

2 structures critical for out loud speech

Broca's area - speech production, and Wernicke's area - speech comprehension

location of subvocal rehearsal

near Broca's area

functional lateralization of both Broca's area and Wernicke's area

they do not look structurally different or even look like they have a structure, but the areas are much more active in the left hemisphere than the corresponding area is in the right hemisphere

Louis Victor Leborgne

a patient of the neurologist Broca, who had syphilis and developed substantial difficulties in speaking

how Broca discovered Broca's Area

after his patient Louis died, he discovered that he had a syphilitic lesion in what we now know as Broca's Area because Broca inferred that was the area of the brain responsible for speech production

location of Broca's Area

mostly active in the left hemisphere toward the front of the brain

location of Wernicke's Area

mostly active in the left hemisphere toward the rear/back of the brain

damage to Broca's Area

produces expressive aphasia

damage to Wernicke's Area

produces receptive aphasia

6 main causes of aphasia

malfunction of brain blood vessels (including strokes), head trauma to the left side of the head (makes it less common than trauma to the front of the head), age-related dementia/degenerative diseases, infections (e.g. syphilis), certain kinds of poisoning (e.g. mercury poisoning), certain metabolic disorders

common pattern of damage to Broca's/Wernicke's Area

when one is damaged, usually the other is at least slightly damaged (rare for there to be damage to just 1 area)

expressive aphasia

speech production requires effort and does not sound fluent

receptive aphasia

speech is fluent, but does not make sense

how speech sounds in expressive aphasia

telegraphic meaning compressed with as few words as possible

how speech sounds in receptive aphasia

paraphasic meaning the tone and flow sound right, but the words make no sense and are sometimes not real words

awareness of speech errors in expressive aphasia vs. receptive aphasia

people with expressive aphasia are aware of their speech errors when Wernicke's area is mostly intact, but people with receptive aphasia are not aware of speech errors because Wernicke's area is damaged

testing fetal language capacity

researchers observe how they react (usually by measuring heart rate, sometimes via ultrasound) to stimuli outside the womb that the fetus hears

how fetuses hear sound

sound penetrates uterine tissue and fluid and is conducted by bone in the skull to the inner ear instead of coming through the ear

frequencies that prenatal infants can hear

they hear mostly lower frequencies, less than 1,000 Hz

sounds/letters that prenatal infants hear easier

they can hear vowels better than consonants because vowels are lower frequencies

detecting fetal reactions using ultrasound

good for seeing the fetus real time, but not great at quantifying responses and can't show a high level of detail (e.g. specific distance of movement)

fetal magnetocardiography (fMCG)

produces a quantifiable fetal response by measuring the heart rate of the fetus through measuring the disruptions in the magnetic field outside the mother's body that the heart rate causes

fetal magnetoencephalography (MEG)

measures the magnetic field outside the skull of the fetus that is generated by the electrical activity in the brain by having the mother press her stomach against the sensors; this can also detect fetal heart rate

orienting response

a response to familiar or less intense stimuli in which heart rate generally decreases

startle response

a response to novel or more intense stimuli in which heart rate generally increases

orienting and startle responses in fetuses compared to toddlers

fetuses' heart rates respond the same way in orienting and startle responses that toddlers' heart rates respond

orienting and startle responses in fetuses while they sleep

heart rate changes showing these responses in fetuses can happen while they fetus is asleep, demonstrating they already have the complex processing to allow them to process input while asleep

measuring fetuses' responses to their mothers' voices from 33-41 weeks gestation

when the fetus was awake, researchers used MEG to measure fetal heart rate when they heard their mother's voice, to which they showed an orienting response, vs. a stranger's voice, to which they showed a startle response

4 main pieces of evidence that fetuses recognize complex speech attributes after approximately 26 weeks gestation

they know their mother's voice from a stranger's voice, they know the difference between their mother's voice and a recording of their mother's voice, they can distinguish between vowels, and they can distinguish between languages

procedure of the infant memory of melodies study

one group of fetuses heard an ascending melody and another group of fetuses heard a descending melody twice a day from weeks 35-38, then they underwent the trauma of birth, and then 4 weeks later, researchers measured the infants' responses to the melodies

findings of the infant memory of melodies study

each group had a slight orienting response to the melody they had not heard, but a very strong orienting response to the melody they had heard

implications of the infant memory of melodies study

fetuses were able to store the melody they heard in long-term memory, the memory survived the trauma of birth, and they were able to recognize it approximately 7 weeks after hearing it for the last time

similar study to the infant memory of melodies study

looked at how fetuses could learn a word before birth and recognize it after birth, and had similar results to the melody study

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

a hypothesis, not a fully worked out theory, extracted from letters that Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf wrote to each other that were discovered after they died

2 parts of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

linguistic relativism and linguistic determinism

linguistic relativism

language influences thought

linguistic determinism

language completely determines thought and its parameters

technically-worded Lennenberg-Brown (1953, 1954) interpretation of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

structural differences between languages will be paralleled by nonlinguistic differences of thinking, perceiving, and memory

basic explanation of the Lennenberg-Brown interpretation of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

the structure of anyone's native language strongly influences or fully determines their world view because we cannot think beyond the walls of our language

example demonstrating the idea of the Lennenberg-Brown interpretation

if eskimos have 250 words for snow, they can see snow in 250 ways, but if we only have 1 word for snow in english, we see all snow the same way

relationship between internal processing and movement

internal processing would be useless without the ability to react to the environment (i.e. move)

what all muscles are composed of

many individual fibers

3 categories of vertebrate muscles

smooth muscles, skeletal muscles (aka striated muscles), and cardiac muscles

smooth muscles

control the digestive system and other organs (= viscera except the heart)

skeletal/striated muscles

control the movement of the body in relation to the environment

cardiac muscles

heart muscles that have properties of both smooth and skeletal/striated muscles

fiber/cell make-up of smooth muscles

long, thin cells found in the intestines and other organs

fiber/cell make-up of skeletal/striated muscles

long cylindrical fibers with stripes

fiber/cell make-up of cardiac muscles

fibers that fuse together at various points

contraction of cardiac muscles

because of the fusions of the fibers, cardiac muscles contract together, not independently

muscle fibers receiving info from axons

each muscle fiber only receives info from 1 axon, but the 1 axon can send info to many muscle fibers

precision of muscle movements based on the axon:fiber ratio

the fewer fibers that a single axon sends info to, the higher the precision

axon:fiber ratio of most skeletal muscles

(approximately) 1:100

why eye movements have such a high degree of precision

their ratio of axon:fiber is 1:3

neuromuscular junction

a synapse between a motor neuron axon and a muscle fiber

the neurotransmitter whose release causes muscles to contract

acetylcholine

what movement requires from the muscles

the alternating contraction of opposing sets of muscles called antagonistic muscles

acetylcholine's effect on skeletal muscles

it always excites the skeletal muscles to contract and never to relax because relaxed is their default state

flexor muscle

a muscle that flexes or raises an appendage (e.g. arm/leg)

extensor muscle

a muscle that extends an appendage or straightens it

relationship between flexor and extensor muscles

they always work in pairs (e.g. biceps are flexors and triceps are extensors)

range of skeletal muscle types

range from fast-twitch to slow-twitch; but everyone has varying percentages of fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscles

fast-twitch muscles

fibers produce fast contractions but fatigue quickly

slow-twitch muscles

fibers produce less vigorous contractions without fatigue (or with little fatigue)

parallel between fast- and slow-twitch muscles and the complementary learning theory

fast-twitch muscles are to slow-twitch muscles as the hippocampus is to the cortex

use of oxygen - fast-twitch fibers

anaerobic, so they use reactions that do NOT require oxygen for fuel EXCEPT in prolonged use

use of oxygen - slow-twitch fibers

aerobic, so they require oxygen during movement, which is why they do not fatigue (or fatigue slowly)

movements that utilize fast-twitch fibers

behaviors requiring quick movements

movements that utilize slow-twitch fibers

nonstrenuous activities

what happens with prolonged use of anaerobic muscles/fast-twitch fibers

oxygen debt builds up

main source of fuel for slow-twitch fibers

glucose

proprioceptors

receptors that detect the position or movement of a part of the body

2 types of proprioceptors

muscle spindles and Golgi tendon organs

muscle spindles

proprioceptors that respond to a muscle being stretched and cause a contraction of the muscle

stretch reflex

a reflex in response to the muscle already being stretched or extended that causes it to contract; monitored by muscle spindles

what precedes a stretch reflex

when muscle proprioceptors detect the stretch and tension of a muscle and send messages to the spinal cord to contract it

example of extensor stretch (caused by a tap) followed by contraction (aka example of a stretch reflex)

the knee jerk reflex where the doctor taps the knee (the contracting is the actual reflex part)

The Gogli tendon organ

another type of proprioceptor that responds to increases in muscle tension

the body's system of monitoring muscle contraction

Golgi tendon organs monitor and control the magnitude of the force of the contraction to prevent damage to the body

where the Golgi tendon organs are located

in the tendons at the opposite ends of the muscle

how Golgi tendon organs act as a "brake" or "governor" against excessively vigorous contraction

by sending an impulse to the spinal cord, where motor neurons are inhibited

process of Golgi tendon organs reacting to stretched muscles

when a muscle is stretched, nerves from the muscle spindles transmit impulses that lead to contraction of the muscle, then the contraction of the muscle stimulates the Golgi tendon organ, which acts as a brake or shock absorber to prevent a contraction that is too quick or extreme

reflex

involuntary, consistent, and automatic responses to stimuli

voluntary aspect of movement

most movements are a combination of voluntary and involuntary; reflexive and nonreflexive

how respiration is both a voluntary and involuntary movement

we can control our breathing when we think about it, but when we talk, our brain unconsciously inhales in between words or sentences because you can't speak when exhaling

variation in movements with respect to feedback

some movements are guided by feedback and others are ballistic and cannot be changed once initiated

ballistic

a rapid, pre-programmed muscular action that, once initiated, cannot be altered

central pattern generators

hardwired neural mechanisms mostly in the spinal cord that generate rhythmic patterns of motor output

2 examples of central pattern generators

wing flapping in birds or "wet dog shake"

sequence of central pattern generators

they're initiated in the brain, but once initiated always occur in the same sequence w/ no control over sequence (or, usually, frequency)