Intro to Psychology - exam 1

PSY 1100 @ Columbus State Community College

Plasticity

Brain’s capacity for change

Brain most plastic

Early years of life

Major divisions of the Nervous System

Central Nervous System and Peripheral Nervous System

Structures of the Central Nervous System

The brain and spinal cord

Function of the peripheral nervous system

Relays sensory information to CNS and carries information from CNS to nerves in the body.

Peripheral nervous system

All nerves in the body excluding brain and spinal cord

afferent and efferent neurons

Divisions of the peripheral nervous system

Somatic nervous system and autonomic nervous system

Somatic nervous system

afferent nerves, whose function is to convey information from skin and muscles to CNS and efferent nerves, whose function is to tell muscles what to do

Afferent nerves

sensory neurons

Efferent nerves

motor neurons

Autonomic nervous system

take messages to and from body’s internal organs, monitoring needed survival functions

Divisions of the autonomic nervous system

Sympathetic nervous system and Parasympathetic nervous system

Sympathetic nervous system

Arouses body to mobilize for action (Fight or Flight Response)

Parasympathetic nervous system

calms the body

Stress

Body’s response to stressors

Stressors

circumstances and events that threaten people and strain their coping abilities

Fight-or-flight reaction

Stress response that mobilize body’s physiological resources to deal with threats

release corticosteroids that allow us to focus attention on what needs to be done

Neurons

Nerve cells that handle information and send it towards the cell body

Dendrites

receive information and send it towards cell body

Cell body

contains nucleus, which directs manufacturing of substances that neurons need for growth and maintenance

Axon

carries information away from cell body and towards other cells

Myelin Sheath

layer of cells containing fat, encases and insulates axons to speed up transmission of nerve impulses

Synapse

Space between neurons that impulses travel through after being converted into a chemical signal

Action Potential

brief wave of positive electrical charge that sweeps down that axon; depolarizing the membrane by flipping charges (lasts 1/1000 of a second)

Resting potential

neuron not transmitting information; ion channels are closed with slight negative charge along inside of membrane with positive charge on outside; voltage between -60 and -75 millivolts (1/1000 of a volt)

All or Nothing Principle

Once the electrical impulse reaches the threshold, it fires and moves all the way the axon without losing any of its intensity

Neurotransmitters

carry information across the synaptic gap to the next neuron

Acetylcholine

Involved in muscles’ learning and memory and stimulates firing of neurons

Alzheimer’s

GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid)

Keeps neurons from firing (controls precision of signal)

Anxiety

Glutamate

Learning and memory

Norepinephrine

excites the heart muscle, intestines and urogenital tract

Stimulated by stress, helps controls alertness

Dopamine

Control voluntary movement

Affects sleep, mood, attention, learning, reward recognition

Parkinson disease and schizophrenia

Serotonin

Regulation of sleep, mood attention and learning

Depression

Endorphins

Stimulates the firing of neurons, shields the body from pain