Psych 111 Terms (Test 2)

Glial Cells

Provide structural, foundational, functional support for other cells in the nervous systems

Blood Brain Barrier

barrier around brain that is meant to protect it

• protection to keep out substances that might negatively affect it

Neuroplasticity

The brains ability to change/make adjustments based on our experiences

• change in neural status/interaction

Neurogenesis

Production of new brain cells

• starts deep in the brain then slowly branches outwards

Neurons

Nerves made of this, communicate and process information

A: Dendrites

B: Soma/Cellbody

C: axon

D: Mylein sheith

F: Terminal Buttons/Axon terminal

Ignore (E)

Dendrites

Part of the Neuron:

Reaches out for information that it brings back to its neuron

Cell body/soma

Part of the Neuron:

Dendrites deliver information here in order to process information

Axon

Part of the Neuron:

Make up the largest part of the neuron which transfers the information across the neuron, or to other neurons

Myelin Sheath

Part of the Neuron:

Speeds up the information being transmitted

Terminal Buttons/Axon terminal

Part of the Neuron:

where information is released in order to be passed on to another neuron to be picked up

Synapse

Space between the terminal buttons of one neuron and the dendrites of another neuron

Synaptic Pruning

Removes connections between neurons that are generally weak in order to make networks faster

Sensory Neurons

• Afferent Neurons

Takes information from sensory organs and takes it to the brain

• _____: general term for taking information to the brain

Motor Neurons

• Efferent Neurons:

Taking information from the brain in order to make the body move

• _____: general term for taking information away from brain to somewhere else

Mirror Neurons

Neuron that mirrors those of which we are interacting with

• Ex: mirroring someone's hurt expression even if you aren't hurt (Empathy?)

Inter-neurons

neurons there to transmit information throughout the body

• Most neurons

Electrical V. Chemical

• Action Potential

Transfer of information within a neuron

Transfer of information between neurons

• Within neuron, sending information across axon

  • Change in electrical charge from -70mV to +40mV

Sodium and Potassium

Ions associated with Electrical information transmission

• flows into or out of axon

Refractory Period:

Absolute v. relative

general term for the two: ______

• brief time after action potential, cell membrane is recoverying resisting sending new electrical impulse

_____: neuron will not send information again no matter what

_____: get more information or more stimulus to send information again

• Gives neuron time to come back and prevent unnecessary loops 

Law of forward condition

• Information sent from dendrite flow to terminal buttons

  • NEVER OPPOSITE WAY

All or none principle

If a neuron fires, it will go through completely and not die half way through

Excitatory v. Inhibitory signals:

• _____: encourage cell body to send information on

• _____: encourage cell body to stop the information

Hebb’s rule:

Connection between neurons will strengthen if information is constantly sent between the neurons

Neuro-transmitters

chemical part of chemical transmissions between neurons

Agonist v. Antagonist:

• _____: make a neurotransmitter more affective

• _____: make neurotransmitter less affective

Dopamine

what brain releases when your brain believes you should receive a reward or a pleasureful experience

Serotonin

controlling negative emotionele

• Important for sleep, and arousal or attention 

• Disruption leads to OCD, depression(SSRI used to treat)

Epinephrine: Adrenaline

 causes energized mental states

• Just mental component

Norepinephrine

Causes Mental and physical arousal or alert

• Ptsd, some forms of depression

Endorphins

natural pain killers in the body when body is damaged

• Ex: runners high

• Body is damaged for short term but gives emotional high

GABA

inhibitory, signal to not send information through, slows nerve activity

• If not functioning properly can cause Epilepsy

Glutamate

activates/facilitates nerve cells 

• Too much = seizures and migraines

Acetylcholine

helps control muscle movement, memory, and basic organ functions in the nervous system 

• Helps treat Alzheimer's or dementia

Clean up:

• Enzymatic degradation:

• Reuptake:

Clean Up:

• _____: enzymes come along and eat up flowing neurotransmitters which cleans out synapsis for space

• _____: take back some of the neurotransmitters that were released that can be used again

  • Recycling for terminal buttons

The brain

Center of the Nervous System, cannot function without it

More wrinkles/more surface area makes an individual more intelligent but not the size

What is the intelligence correlation for the brain?

• what makes a brain smarter than anothers?

Brain development: timeline

Bottom, Top

• upper part

•  oldest parts of the brain are on the ____, and newest is on the ____

  • ____ parts don't develop fully until after an individual is born

Contralateral control

• Left side of the brain is concerned with right side of the body

• Right side of the brain is concerned with left side of the body

Association Area

Region of Cerebral Cortex that connects sensory and motor inputs to perform at areas of the body associated with specific complex cognitive ability or skill

Hindbrain(brainstem), Midbrain, Forebrain

3 parts of the brain

_____: oldest from evolutionary perspective and developmentally

_____: Smallest part of the brain

_____: Newest area evolutionary and developmentally, highest level (on top of the brain)

Hindbrain(Brain Stem)

part of the brain:

• conducts information to and from spinal cord

• associated with vital body functions that keep the body alive/functioning

Medulla

• Recticular Formation

Part of the Hindbrain:

• lower part of the hindbrain

• spinal bodily function: heart rate, reflexes, circulation, respiration

• if damaged = dead

• _____: important for sleep, mood, attention and is the source of Serotonin and Epinephrine

Pons

Parts of the Hindbrain:

• on top of the medula

• important for sleep, facial expression, arousal

• works as a relay to third part of the hindbrain

Cerebellum (Little brain)

Parts of the Hindbrain:

• Has most condensed neurons

• Critical for fine motor movement and balance

  • muscle movement/balance

• biggest area that helps differentiate humans from other animals in intelligence

Midbrain

• Orientation of space

part of the brain:

• _____: place ourselves in an environment and move within it

• critical source of dopamine

Tectum

Part of the Midbrain:

• Take in sent information and moves the body in response to that information

• For humans, a lot of visual information 

• For other species, could be hearing, smell, etc.

• directs the other part of the midbrain

Tegmentum

Part of the Midbrain:

• A network of nerves that keeps you awake, alert, and conscious

• Guide our attention in the environment in order to continue to process environment

• can help recognize danger

Forebrain

• cerebral cortex

Part of the brain:

• Most complicated thinking is occurring here

• _____: wrinkly skin/outer layer, 2 hemispheres

(1): males

(2): females

Sex differences between brain:

(1): More connections/concentration of neurons in the front of the brain

(2): A lot of cross talk between left and right hemisphere not mainly front concentration

Corpus callosum

connection that allows for the left hemisphere to talk with the right hemisphere of the brain

Subcortical Structure

structure sitting beneath cerebral Cortex

• bridge between body and higher thinking

Frontal Lobe, Parietal Lobe, Occipital Lobe, Temporal Lobe

8 Lobes across Cerebral cortex:

• (4 names, left and right mirror each other)

Frontal Lobe

• Higher order processing

8 Lobes across cerebral cortex:

• manages movement thinking and behavior, CEO of the brain

_____: judgement, creative thinking

Prefrontal Cortex, Motor Cortex

2 Parts of the Frontal Lobe

Prefrontal Cortex

Parts of the Frontal Lobe:

• larger in humans than in other animals 

• Regulating a lot of cognitive components or brain patterns 

  • manages high-level thinking, emotional regulation, and goal-directed behavior

• Central executive system

• Generally last area to develop in humans

Motor Cortex

• Homonculus

Parts of the Frontal Lobe:

• Deal with motor movement

• Hand movement, mouth movement 

• _____: image of a human if parts of the body is proportional to the function of the motor cortex

Phineas Gage

Had a pipe went through his skull, affected frontal lobe most

• Mild manner developed into impulsive, anger issues

• Front lobe controls impulse control

Occipital Lobe

8 Lobes across cerebral cortex:

• Responsible for vision

• Builds: as information processes, build into complex image

Parietal Lobe

• Somatosensory cortex

• visual integration

  • Orientation

8 Lobes across cerebral cortex:

• responsible for orientation

• _____: right behind motor cortex Focuses on touch information across the body, More proportionate to body, but not really: hands and mouth more focus

• _____: making sense of a signal that the structure receives

  • _____: details within a process

Temporal Lobe

8 Lobes across cerebral cortex:

• Hearing and language = recognition

• Puts a name to what you see

Lateralization:

the specialization of certain mental functions, cognitive processes, or physical behaviors to one side of the body or brain hemisphere over the other

• left and right hemispheres

Broca’s Area:

• Broca’s Aphasia

Left temporal lobe:

• _____: Responsible for speech movement

• _____: Communication disorder that affects a person's ability to speak and write, caused by damage to the frontal lobe of the brain

Wernicke’s Area:

• Wernicke’s Aphasia

Left temporal lobe:

• _____: Responsible for Speech comprehension and assortment

• _____: words are being spoken but no meaning behind it at all 

Thalamus

Subcortical Structures:

• All Sense information goes thru here: exception is smell, which goes straight to forebrain

• Goal is to send sense information to the appropriate part of the brain

Pituitary Gland

Subcortical Structures:

• Controls release of hormones throughout the body

• ex: digestion, stress, reproduction

Limbic System

• The emotional part of the brain

• Relating to emotion and membrane

Hypothalamus

Limbic System:

• Deals with fleeing, fighting, feeding, reproduction (4Fs)

• Hunger signals, when or when not to eat

Amygdala

Limbic System:

• Emotional Memory

• Controls a lot of negative emotions, especially fear(danger)

• ex: PTSD

Hippocampus

Limbic System:

• Important for creating long term stable memory

• As an individual gets older, decrease function

• Acetylcholine

Cingulate Gyrus

Limbic System:

• Band of issue in the brain that helps with focus on information

• allows to focus on emotion pain and decision making information

• Schizophrenia typically indicates that it is not working properly

Basal Ganglia

Limbic System:

• Has its own system, important source of dopamine, positive emotion and voluntary muscle movements 

• Taking on dual role

Hypothalamus, Amygala, Hippocampus, Cingulate Gyrus, Basal Ganglia

All the parts of the Limbic System

Brain Imaging Techniques: Structure

• CT Scan

• MRI

• DTI

• NIRS

• _____: series of x ray of the brain from different angles that combine to make a picture of the brain

• _____: magnets to take pictures of the brain to put it together to see what is happening

  • Focus on brain matter

• _____: type of (the one above) that uses magnets focuses on the myelination of the neurons

  • Focus on white matter: Myelin sheath

• _____: Light pulses to see images of the brain based on reflection of the pulses

Brain Imaging Techniques: Activity

• EEG

• ERP

• fMRI

• PET

• TMS

• _____: electrodes that are placed along the scalp to determine when electrical changes are happening

• _____: the specific data coming from a singular electrode placed on the scalp

• _____: uses magnets to track the metal in our blood to see where blood is going to determine where activity is happening

• _____: tracking glucose since brain uses glucose for energy 

• _____: using magnets to disrupt the brain to see what happens when it is disrupts it 

Spinal conduction, Brain, Cerebrospinal fluid

parts of the Central nervous system

Spinal conduction

Helps the conduction of information between brain and body

Cerebrospinal fluid

• cushioning to help the central nervous system

  • Also provided nourishment for central nervous system 

Autonomic nervous system:

• Sympathetic

• Parasympathetic

• Enteric

:controls involuntary bodily functions without needing conscious thoughts:

_____: fight or flight response

• Increase heart rate or respiration

_____: Rest or digest system

• Helps body recovery from a charge period by the sympathetic 

• Day to day component

_____: nerve cells embedded in the gastral intestinal system

• Second brain, as many nerve cells here as in the spinal cord

• Serotonin wrapped in this system, includes fullness signal

Sensation

Objective interaction between sense organ and external stimulant

Perception

•  brain subjective interpretation of that interaction

  • Happens after external/objective and internally

Transduction

external sensation turns into internal perception

Just Noticeable Difference

• Smallest change in the stimulant needed for you to perceive a change in the stimulant

• subjective

• Not fixed amount of change: vary depending on initial stimulus 

  • ex: small candle + one vs. lots of candles + one

Weber’s Law:

Just noticeable difference is constant in proportion to/based on the size of the initial stimulus

Absolute Threshold

Minimum amount of stimulus to say that a stimulus exists

Response Criteria: 4 options

• Hits:

• False Alarm:

• Correct Rejection:

• Miss:

• ____: Stimulus Present, answer: yes

• ____: Stimulus not present, answer: yes

• ____: stimulus not present, answer: no

• ____: Stimulus present, answer: no

Response Criteria

• Liberal

• Conservative

how much experience someone has to say something exists

_____: saying yes more than no to a stimulus existing

• more False Alarms

_____: says no more than yes, less chance of being wrong when yes

• more misses

Stimulus intensity

Amount of a stimulus applied to a sense

Noise

 Any unrelated stimulus typically from External environment 

• ex: movie is stimulant, phone light is external

Processing theory: Bottom Up

• Starting with stimulant right in front of us then Builds perception based on the information from initial

  • Typically more accurate when processing info

Processing theory: Top down

• Perceptual Set

• Expectations, previous knowledge or belief influence perception

  • _____: Ambiguous sensory info is being interpreted as it fit into a past experience

Constancy

ability to recognize singular stimulant is the same even if sensation is changing, perception might still be the same

(1)Light vs. (2)Color

• (1): objective visual stimuli causing sensation

• (2): brain’s interpretation of a visual stimuli (perception)

Light’s waves:

• Wavelength:

• Amplitude: 

_____:

• Longer = warmer colors

• Shorter = cooler colors

_____:

• (small height)Low: washed out, pale color

• (tall height) High: saturated to the point it looks dark

Eye:

Cornea, Pupil, Iris, Lens

Parts of the eye for processing light

Cornea

• outer protective layer of the eye

Pupil

black of our eye, hole where light will go thru

Iris

colored part of the eye which is a muscle to change the shape of pupil

Lens:

• Accommodation

behind the pupil, focusing the light

• _____: shape changes depending on focus point

Retina

cells at the very back of your eyes where real sensation is occurring