AP Psychology - Brain Biology

Medulla

The first hump of the stem. Responsible for intake of oxygen, heart rate, and homeostasis.

Pons

The next hump of the brain stem. Links the cerebellum to posture and movement, balance, and creating a level of consciousness necessary to sleep. Works with conjunction with the RAS.

Cerebellum

Largest structure depicted in the brain. Motor movement, in conjunction and coordination with the motor cortex of your frontal lobe. Allows you to move and shit.

RAS (Reticular Activating System)

Your alertness center. How sleepy or awake you are. It lets you know when you're tired or when you need to wake up, and it works with your pons to put you on a circadian rhythm of strength and replenishment.

Thalamus

A RELAY STATION FOR SENSORY IMPULSES. If you touch something fuzzy, the motor cortex moves your hand, the sensation of the fuzzy thing will go to the thalamus and then go to the parietal lobe.

Hypothalamus

Hunger, thirst, and sex drive. Hormone balance. Not really an emotional component to that but ideally, in a sexual relationship, the people should actually care about each other.

Limbic System

Core of the brain. Collectively known as a system of structures that are correlated with our emotion. Four structures to it: hypothalamus, thalamus, amygdala, and hippocampus.

Cerebrum

Cerebral cortex = outer grey matter layer.

The primary differentiation between humans and animals. It sets man kind apart in terms of its mass and size and sophistication in comparison to other creatures.

Works with the motor cortex.

Corpus Callosum

Connective tissue, bundle of nerve fibers that sits right in the center of the core of your brain and connects the left hemisphere of your brain with the right hemisphere of your brain, allowing them to communicate.

Epileptic patients, abundance of electric activity in the brain. Severed the corpus callosum. They do this to dissipate the seizures, it is very successful, but it can have a lot of side effects.

Amygdala

the most emotional aspect of the limbic system, processes things like fear, anger, aggression, intensity, etc.

Hippocampus

related to our formation of new memories. The brain structure that is most related to new memory formation, so relates to things like short term memory and whatnot.

Motor Cortex.

In the very back of the frontal lobe.

\
Contains all these different body parts that when I think and plan to move them voluntarily, I do. Allows you to move things like your neck and thumb.

Frontal Lobe

In the front.

\
Executive function: thinking, planning . Decision-making. Higher order thinking skills, analysis, voluntary motor movement. Also consists MOTOR CORTEX.

Parietal Lobe

Behind Motor cortex in frontal lobe.

Top back center in the parietal lobe.

\
Sense of touch.

Occipital Lobe

Back of the head.

\
Primary Visual Cortex

Temporal Lobe

Processes the sound that we hear.

Aphasia

due to some kind of brain trauma usually such as stroke.

Broca’s (expressive) aphasia

In the left frontal lobe.

\
a language impairment that reduces a person's ability to speak or understand language. There is nothing wrong with the intellect of the individual but the ability to communicate may very well be impaired. Know what they wanna say but can't say it.

Wernicke’s (receptive) aphasia

linguistic difficulty in the left temporal lobe. LINGUINSTIC = LEFT.

\
Defined by a lack of understanding of information as it comes into the temporal lobe, so when asked to respond to such information, they cannot. Responses ≠ sense. unlike Broca’s aphasia.

Left Hemisphere

Logical, analytical part of brain.

Right Hemisphere

Creative artistic part of brain.

Central nervous system

Brain and spinal cord. If damaged, paraplegia, etc.

Peripheral nervous system

Neural tissue outside brain and spinal cord.

Somatic nervous system

Branch of peripheral nervous system.

\
VOLUNTARY sensory and motor nerves movement

Automatic nervous system

Branch of peripheral nervous system.

\
INVOLUNTARY (automatic) internal systems (breathing, blinking, etc.)

Sympathetic Division

Branch of Autonomic nervous system.

\
Fight or Flight Mechanism.

Adrenaline, makes mouth dry, stuff like that.

Parasympathetic Divison

Branch of Autonomic nervous system.

\
Counter for the fight or flight mechanism.

Establishes body’s natural state of equilibrium. Only responsibility is homeostasis.

Hypothalamus (GLAND)

Brain structure in limbic system that has to do with hunger, thirst, sex drive, and HORMONES.

\
Release of pituitary hormones.

Anterior Pituitary

Ovaries and testes.

Breast milk production.

Metabolism.

Reaction to stress.

Posterior Pituitary

Conservation of water in the body (perspiration, sweat, cooling agent).

Breast milk excretion.

Uterus contraction.

Thyroid

Metabolism.

Physical growth and development. (HGH)

Parathyroid

Calcium levels in the body

Gut

Digestion

Pancreas

Secretes insulin - blood glucose regulator.

Glucose metabolism (diabetes).

Adrenal Glands

ADRENALINE

Fight-or-fight response.

Epinephrin.

Metabolism.

Sexual desire (in women).

Serotonin

Affects mood, hunger, sleep, and arousal. Prozac. Selective serotonin reuptake rehibitor.

Dopamine

Influences movement, learning, attention, and emotion. Linked to schizophrenia and tardive dyskensia (side effect that mimics parkinson’s disease)

Acetylcholine (ACh)

Enables muscle action, learning, and memory. Deteriorates with Alzheimers.

Norepinephrine

Helps control alertness and arousal.

GABA

A major inhibitory neurotransmitter. Anxiety disorders, OCD, Panic, linked to seizures, tremors, and insomnia.

Glutamate

A major excitatory neurotransmitter involved in memory. MSG.

Endorphines

Opiate drugs, natural pain killers in our brain, similar to shit like morphine, runner’s high. It’s a defense mechanism to pain.

Lesioning

DEEP SLIGHT, STAB WOUNDS. they randomly destroyed animals brains and created lesions. Calcification and disfunction. When they lesioned a certain part of the hypothalamus in rats, their hunger was modified. They would keep eating and never feel full.

EEG: Electro-encephalograph

primarily, the EEG helped us understand that there were a number of different stages of sleep. To stage 1 to 4, with delta waves and REM sleep. We saw that each of the different stages of sleep have a unique electrical pattern.

CT/CAT SCAN (COMPUTERED AXIAL TOMOGRAPHY)

glamorized X-ray using radiation. Typical for concussion. Maybe less detailed version of MRI.

PET SCAN (POSITIVE EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY)

They inject radioactive glucose intravenously up to the brain pathways, and they're going to monitor which areas of the brain have particularly high absorption rates of this glucose.

MRI: MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGERY

a couple of advantageous: it uses no radiation. Detailed imagery regarding soft tissue. MRI is the gold standard for imaging techniques regarding structural damage. It won't say anything about functionality. It doesn't get better than the MRI orthopedically and brain wise.

FMRI: “FUNCTIONAL” MRI

has there been any functional damage? Certain cognitive tasks and whatnot, and if so, what parts of the brain might be compromised functionally. While you're in the machine, they ask you to do certain cognitive tasks while you're in there and parts of the brain will light up. They have you read, or do math, or speak, or whatever and if you can't, maybe they can pinpoint where the damage occurred.

Neuron

SODIUM AND POTASSIUM are the ions most important in neurons.

Multiple Scoloris

When they have too much myelin sheath and that effects the physical body. Will do things like make one leg unusable.

Synapse

The space between the axon mutton of one neuron and the dendrite of the next

Myelin sheath

Covers the axon of some neurons and helps speed neural impulses

Schwann Cell

Produce a substance that not only serves to insulate the axon but also leaves the transmission to be fast and fluid.

Dendrites

The fingerlike things at the end of the neuron that receivesAx

Axon

Passes messages away from cell body to other neurons, muscles, or glands

Action potential

Electrical signal traveling down the axon

The all-or-none response

When chemicals get sent into the synapse it either finds a match from the opposite side or it doesn’t and it gets swept away.