basic psychology brain

The Cerebrum

• Largest brain structure

• In charge of most sensory, motor, and cognitive processes

• Surrounded by cerebral cortex

• Corpus Callosum bundle of nerves that allow cerebral hemispheres to communicate

• Pituitary gland

  • master gland

Limbic system

HATCH

Hippocampus, Amygdala, Thalamus, Cerebellum, Hypothalamus

Hippocampus

• Long term memory storage

• Involved in processing and storage of memory

• Responsible for storage of new information in memory

Amygdala

• Responsible for

  • arousal

  • regulation of emotions

  • Initial emotional response to sensory information

• Plays important role in

  • mediating anxiety

  • emotional memory

• Involved in fear responses and volatile emotions like anger

Thalamus

• Relay station

  • Relays information/sensory signals from different parts of the body to different parts of the brain for processing

  • All sensory inputs except olfactory

• Regulate consciousness

• Sleep

• Alertness

Cerebellum

• Motor coordination

• Body posture

• Attention

• Language

• Regulates movement and balance

Hypothalamus

• Maintain body temperature

• Regulate ANS

  • autonomic nervous system

• Thirst and hunger

• Role in aggression

• Homeostasis

• Control pituitary gland / endocrine system

The Brain stem/ Hindbrain

Pavlov’s Rabid And Surely Mad

Pons, Reticular Activating System, Medulla

We have no conscious or control over these.

Pons

• Heartbeat

• Blood pressure

• Role in respiration

• Cardiac functions

• Sleep cycle

• Dreaming

Reticular activating system

• Arousal cortex

• screens incoming information

Medulla

• The base of the brain stem

• Responsible for certain autonomic functions such as breathing and heart rate

Mid brain

• Visual system

• Auditory system

• Eye movement

The neurons

Basic building blocks of the nervous system, responsible for transmitting information.

• Neurotransmitters- can excite or low or inhibit, facilitate communication between neurons across synapses

  • Adrenaline/Epinephrine

    • neurotransmitter and a hormone

    • fight or flight response

  • Dopamine

    • low levels- Parkinson’s disease

    • High level- Schizophrenia

  • Serotonin

    • low levels- associated with depression

  • Endorphins

    • alleviate pain, lower stress

    • improve mood, enhance sense of well being

• First neurotransmitter-Acetylcholine

  • Allow to contract muscles

Damn! Skinner Ate Mice ?!? Not Very Smart

• Dendrites - a neuron’s branching extensions that receive and integrate messages, conducting impulses toward the cell body.

• Soma - Cell body of neuron

• Axon - the neuron extension that passes messages through its branches to other neurons or to muscles or glands.

• Myelin sheath - Electrical impulses travel quickly, Protects the axon

• Nodes of Ranvier - help in jumping of signal, protect

• Vesicles - At the end of the axon, contain neurotransmitters

• Synapse - Space between one neuron and another or between a neuron and muscle

• Threshold - The level of stimulation required to trigger a neural impulse

• Glial cells - Cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons; they also play a role in learning, thinking, and memory

Depolarisation - Neurons reach excitatory threshold, making it depolarised. Na+ channels open and the charge across the membrane reverses

Autonomic nervous system

Central nervous system

• brain

• spine

Autonomic nervous system

• sympathetic

  • Fight or flight

  • preparing the body for action in stressful situations

  • if it stays active for long period → burnout

• Parasympathetic

  • Rest and digest

  • helping the body return to a state of calm

The Cerebrum

• Largest brain structure

• In charge of most sensory, motor, and cognitive processes

• Surrounded by cerebral cortex

• Corpus Callosum bundle of nerves that allow cerebral hemispheres to communicate

Hemispheres of the brain

Left hemisphere

• Recall

• verbal processing

• Broca’s area - language production

• Wernick’s area - language comprehension

• associated with logical reasoning, mathematics and analytical thinking

• Interpreting verbal instructions received

• controls right side of the body

Right hemisphere

• Emotional response

• Creativity

• Secretion of hormones

• Pattern recognition

• Comprehension of tone, sarcasm, irony, etc.

• Controls left side of the body

The cerebral cortex

Made up of densely packed neurons called the gray matter

Wrinkles - fissures

Freud Took Off his Pants

• Frontal lobe - front of brain

  • memory

  • higher cognitive thinking

• Temporal lobe - centre of ears

  • hearing, interpretation of voice

  • balance

• Occipital lobe - near nape of neck

  • vision

  • correlate memories and images

• Parietal lobe - top of the brain

  • Language

  • touch

• reason, perception, voluntary movement, thought processing, language development