Untitled Flashcards Set

Unit 1.4 Review – The Brain

Verified for 2025 AP® Psychology Exam

Overview

This unit focuses on the major structures of the brain and how each contributes to behavior, cognition, and biological processes. Understanding these systems helps explain everything from basic survival functions to complex mental tasks like speaking, thinking, and remembering.

1. Brainstem & Reticular Activating System

These are your brain's most basic survival systems — think “autopilot” functions that keep you alive and alert.

• Brainstem includes:

  • Medulla: regulates heart rate, breathing, blood pressure.

  • Pons & Midbrain: bridge areas for motor/sensory signals, involved in sleep and arousal.

• Reticular Activating System (RAS):

  • Controls wakefulness, alertness, and attention.

  • Filters incoming sensory info — helps you focus.

  • Damage can result in sleep disorders or even coma.

2. Cerebellum: Coordination & Learning

Sits at the back of the brain and handles physical coordination, balance, and certain types of learning.

• Coordinates precise, smooth movement (e.g., balancing, throwing).

• Helps with motor learning (procedural memory — how-to knowledge).

• Also involved (to some extent) in attention and language processing.

3. Cerebral Cortex & Hemispheres

The outer layer of your brain — highly folded and complex. Handles complex thoughts, perception, and voluntary movement.

• Two hemispheres:

  • Connected by the corpus callosum.

  • Left: usually handles language and logic.

  • Right: spatial awareness, emotion, and holistic processing.

• Lobes of the Cortex:

  • Frontal Lobe:

    • Controls decision-making, reasoning, and impulse control.

    • Prefrontal Cortex: executive functions (planning, self-control).

    • Motor Cortex: triggers voluntary movement.

    • Broca’s Area: speech production (left hemisphere).

  • Parietal Lobe:

    • Processes body sensations: touch, pressure, pain, temp.

    • Somatosensory Cortex: maps sensory input from the body.

    • Also involved in spatial reasoning and body awareness.

  • Temporal Lobe:

    • Auditory processing (hearing).

    • Wernicke’s Area: speech comprehension (left hemisphere).

    • Contains parts of limbic system (hippocampus, amygdala).

  • Occipital Lobe:

    • Main center for visual processing.

    • Interprets info like color, motion, and depth.

4. Limbic System: Emotion & Memory

This system sits beneath the cortex and plays a huge role in emotion, learning, and memory.

• Thalamus: sensory relay center — passes data to cortex.

• Hypothalamus: controls hunger, thirst, body temp, and emotion. Links nervous and endocrine systems.

• Hippocampus: forms new long-term (explicit) memories.

• Amygdala: processes emotions, especially fear/aggression.

• Pituitary Gland: releases hormones (regulated by hypothalamus).

5. Split-Brain Research & Hemispheric Specialization

Split-brain studies helped uncover major differences between the two hemispheres.

• Split-brain surgery:

  • Cuts corpus callosum to treat epilepsy.

  • Helps isolate each hemisphere’s functions.

• Hemispheric specialization:

  • Left: language production and comprehension.

    • Broca’s Area: speech production.

    • Wernicke’s Area: understanding speech.

  • Right: spatial processing, facial recognition, reading emotions.

• Contralateral organization:

  • Left visual field → right hemisphere.

  • Right visual field → left hemisphere.

  • Used in split-brain experiments to isolate hemisphere functions.

6. Brain Plasticity

Your brain’s ability to change and adapt over time — especially useful after injury or during learning.

• Forming new neural connections.

• Strengthening or pruning old ones (based on experience).

• Most flexible during childhood, but continues in adults.

• Helps explain recovery after strokes or brain damage.

7. How We Study the Brain

Several research methods help scientists explore how different brain areas work and interact.

• EEG (electroencephalogram):

  • Measures brain wave activity.

  • Good for tracking sleep stages and seizures.

• fMRI (functional MRI):

  • Tracks blood flow in the brain.

  • Shows what parts of the brain are active during tasks.

• Other techniques:

  • PET scans: show brain metabolism and neurotransmitter activity.

  • Lesioning: studying effects of brain damage (natural or surgical).

  • Case studies: in-depth look at people with unique brain damage (e.g., Phineas Gage).

  • TMS: uses magnetic fields to temporarily disrupt part of the brain.

Key Takeaways

Brainstem controls vital life functions like heart rate and breathing.

RAS regulates alertness, attention, and sleep-wake cycles.

Cerebellum is important for balance, coordination, and motor learning.

The cerebral cortex handles higher-order thinking, with each lobe having specialized roles.

Frontal lobe manages planning, decision-making, and voluntary movement (Broca's area = speech production).

Parietal lobe processes touch and spatial awareness (somatosensory cortex).

Temporal lobe handles hearing, language comprehension (Wernicke’s area), and memory.

Occipital lobe processes visual information.

Limbic system controls emotion and memory (includes amygdala, hippocampus, hypothalamus).

Split-brain research shows hemispheric specialization and contralateral brain function.

Brain plasticity allows the brain to adapt and rewire, especially after injury.

Tools like EEG and fMRI help researchers study structure and brain activity.