psychology

Quest #2

“Tan”

a man had aphasia (a problem with saying words) and he could only say “Tan”

CNS

brain and spinal cord, central nervous system

PNS

peripheral nervous system, stuff on the side

autonomic nervous system

automatic, reflex

somatic

voluntary, has efferent (motor) and afferent (sensory nuerons)

sympathetic NS

arousal, fear, or anger, agitates body to prepare for fight or flight or freeze

parasympathetic NS

calming, brings everything back to homeostasis

brain stem

central core/ hindbrain. Does basic brain fuctions.

Medulla

heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure

Pons

sleep wake cycle

RF

reticular formation. controls arousal/calmness and filters stimuli. network of nuerons in brainstem

thalamus

relay station from the senses

cerebellum

coordinates body movements and muscle memory (procedural memory)

hippocampus

forms memories. Damage = no new memories

limbic system

a little higher order. Drives to eat, drink, have sex and memories

amygdala

regulates emotions; anger, violence, and emotions. Damage = docile or very agressive. Too active = panic/fear attacks

hypothalamus

drives to eat, drink, have sex

cerebrum

advanced function, forebrain

cortex

“bark” of the brain

convolutions

indents in brain that allow it to fit in the skull

fissures

split the brain into lobes

frontal lobe

motor cortex for movement and prefrontal cortex for voluntary action, goals, and keeping emotions (amygdala) in check. Damage = altered personality, immorality, decision making

temporal lobes

auditory info, complex visual tasks ex) matching people and objects, declarative memory

parietal lobes

somatasensory cortex (info for senses), coordinates body position, and spatial perception.

occupital lobe

recieves visual info

split brain patients

hemispheres of the brain don’t communicate

corpus callosum

fibers that connect the two halves of the brain

Roger Sperry

Found out about hemispheric specialization/lateralization and split brains

Vicki

split brained patient who would pick out 2 outfits that looked different bc her hemispheres didn’t communicate

HM

damaged her hippocampus and couldn’t form new memories

Brocas area

language production. Damage = aphasia: which means you can’t utter words (frontal lobe)

Wernicke’s area

language comprehensio. Damage: doesn’t understand sentence structure. (temporal lobe)

somatosensory cortex

senses in the brain. Is found in the parietal lobe

motor cortex

frontal lobe, voluntary movement

homonculus

certain areas of the body are more sensitive to touch ex) tongue, face, hands

association areas

nueral networks that connect different areas of the brain

nueroplasticity

the brain changes via experiences—> makes more synaptic connections, learning takes place

nuerogenisis

new brain cells are made

EEG

macroelectrode. Electrodes are put on the scalp to detect changes in body electrical activity

CT scan

scans the brain to see tissue damage (3d images)

MRI

scans the brain to see tissue damage

PET scan

sees movement of radiated glucosee throughout the brain to see what areas use up energy

fMRI

measuress flow of blood molecules. Active parts of brain have a higher blood flow

functional imaging

captures areas that the brain uses —> brain activity. includes: PET, fMRI, and SPECT

structural imaging

just looks at brain structures

Endocrine system

helps the nervous system. secretes hormones into the blood stream. Similar but slower effect than nuerotransmitters. Hypothalamus links nervous and endocrine systems

Pituitary

“master gland” → gets signal from hypothalamus→ tells other glands what to release. specializes in growth hormone. 

Pineal

Pons tells it to secrete melatonin → controls sleep wake cycle

Thyroid

secrete thyroxine that controls metabolism. related to energy levels

Adrenal

secretes hormones in a reaction to stress. Ephinephrine/ adrenaline: fight or flight hormone. Cortisol: long term stress

Pancreas

regulates blood sugar, secretes insulin and glucagon

Gonads

includes ovaries and testes. secretes estrogens and androgens(testosterone)

Testosterone

male sex hormone. Too little: fatigued. Too much: agression and sex drive.

Molecular genetics

direct study of the genetic code

Epigenetics

interaction between genes and environment

Heritability

extent to which diffs in a pop are caused by genes

Chromosomes

23 pairs (23 from each parent), contain genes

Behavior genetics

study of genetics from a behavior perspective

dendrite

picks up and recieves messages from other nuerons and transmits it to the cell body

axon

single long cell body that carries outgoing messages from the cell. Is split into terminal branches

Nerve

groups of axons bundled together

mylin sheath

white, fatty covering of axons that is pinched at intervals

action potential

a short term change in the charge of a nueron

critical period

when the brain is more sensitive to growth ex) age 2 and adolescence

conciousnesss

our awarness of oursleves and our environment

passive vs active conciousness

passive: day dreaming and sleeping, active: planning and descion making, waking conciousness

altered states of conciousness

natural: sleeping, dreaming, day dreaming. happen wether or not you try. Artficial: have to try to get them. hypnosis, meditation, drugs

dual processing

two neural pathways: concious and unconcious

selctive attention

focusing concious awarness on one stimuli

cocktail party phenomenon

focus selective attention only on convos happening

choice blindness

defend a choice you didn’t make, don’’’t remember choices made

change bias

miss changes because we only focus on one thing

inattenntional blindness

failing to perceive an unexpected stimulus due to lack of attention

sleep

we are unconcious but brain is still processing environmental info

circadian rythm

24 hour cycle of biological functioning

scn

when we see the sun/ light it stops the production of melatonin

EEG

can be used to detect irregular sleeping patterns

sleep stages and waves

awake and alert: alpha, NR1: beta, NR2: theta, NR3:delta, REM: alpha

sleep spindles

irregular bursts in brain activity

REM Sleep

“paradoxical sleep” paralyzed muscles, but eyes move and heart rate and breathing increase

REM rebound

deprived of it one night, spend more time there the next night

sleep deprivation

condition of chronically getting too little sleep. difficulty concentrating, obesity, fatigue, irritability, ect.

william dement

sleep deprivation makes us dumb

insomnia

inability to fall or remain asleep

VPN

inhibits the feeling of wakefulness, in hypothalamus (sleep stuff is), degenerates with age

Narcolepsy

sudden lapse into REM sleep. Triggered by intense emotions. genetic. Lack of orexin

sleep apnea

temporarily stop breathing in the night. “gasp” for air and wake up. CPAP and BIPAP can provide air.

Night terrors

most common in kids and early in sleep. Happen in stage 3. Uncontrollable arousal and screaming without the ability to be waken.

sleep walking and talking

most common in kids. happens in stage 3. dont remember walking/talking in their sleep

dreams

occur in REM sleep

manifest content

“dream storyline”

latent content

deeper meaning of dream storyline

frueds dream theory

dreams allow us to fulfill our wishes.

biological/physiological purpose of dreams

storing memories, problem solving, pruning synaptic connections, making connections based on random nueral firing

meditation

focusing attention to relax. purposefully trying to alter their conciousness

concentrative meditation

zen: breathing, transcendental: repeat a mantra, sufri: frenzied dancing

psychoactive drugs

chemicals that alter the brain and alter conciousness

tolerance

the diminishing effects of a drug with constant use over time, need more of a substance to feel an effect

physical dependence

adapted to need the drug to function

withdrawal

negative physical effects after the drug is no longer in the body