AP Psychology Unit 1 (Part 2)

• Association area: any area of the cerebral cortex that is not associated with receiving sensory information or controlling muscle movements

• Occipital lobe: located at the very back of the brain; interprets messages from the eyes in the visual cortex; impulses from the retinas in the eyes are sent to the visual cortex to be interpreted; impulses from the right half of each retina are process in the visual cortex in the right occipital lobe and vice versa

• Frontal lobes: located at the top front part of the brain behind the eyes; front is called the prefrontal cortex and is thought to play a critical role in directing thought processes, acts as the brain’s central executive and is important in foreseeing consequences, pursuing goals, and maintaining emotional control; this part of the brain is responsible for abstract thought and emotional control

• Temporal lobes: process sound sensed by the ears; sound waves are processed by the ears, turned into neural impulses, and interpreted in the auditory cortex; not lateralized

• Parietal lobes: located behind the frontal lobe on the top of the brain; contain the sensory cortex

• Motor cortex: thin vertical strip at the back of the frontal lobe; sends signals to the muscles, controlling voluntary movements; top is controlled by neurons at the bottom, progressing down the body as you go up the cortex

Brain Scans & Surgeries

• CAT/CT scan (computerized axial tomography): uses several x-ray cameras that rotate around the brain and combine all the pictures into a detailed 3D picture of the brain’s structure; can show only the structure of the brain, not the functions or the activity of different brain structures

• EEG (electroencephalogram): procedure that detects brain waves; uses electrodes

• PET (positron emission tomography): measures how much of a certain chemical parts of the brain are using, the more used, the higher the activity

• MRI (magnetic resonance imaging): uses magnetic fields to measure the density and location of brain material; only gives structure

• fMRI (functional MRI): combines elements of the MRI and PET scans; can show details of brain structure with information about blood flow in the brain, tying brain structure to brain activity during cognitive tasks

• Brain plasticity: parts of the brain can adapt themselves to perform other functions if needed

• Lesioning: removal or destruction of part of the brain; sometimes doctors decide that the best treatment for a certain condition is this

Sleep & Dreams

• Sleep: state of consciousness in which we are less aware of ourselves and our environment than we are when we are in normal awake stage

• Consciousness: our level of awareness about ourselves and our environment; different levels of consciousness

• Insomnia: persistent problems getting to sleep or staying asleep at night

• Sleep apnea: causes a person to stop breathing for short periods of time during the night

• Narcolepsy: suffer from periods of intense sleepiness and may fall asleep at unpredictable and inappropriate times

• Sleep cycles: typical pattern of sleep; we cycle through different stages of sleep during the night; our brain waves slow down and our level of awareness lessens as we cycle down from sleep onset through stages 1-4; 1-2 not so deep, 3-4 is deep sleep

• REM sleep: our brain waves are active and intense during this stage; the deepest sleep stage of the sleep cycle

• Dreams: a series of story-like images we experience as we sleep

• Activation-synthesis dream theory: dreams are nothing more than the brain’s interpretations of what is happening physiologically during REM sleep; dreams are seen as biological phenomena

• Information-processing dream theory: brain may be dealing with daily stress and information during REM dreams; stress during the day will increase the number and intensity of dreams during the night; function of REM may be to integrate the information processed during the day into our memories

• Memory consolidation theory: sleep is an important step in the process of encoding new memories

• Energy conservation theory: while we are asleep, we use less energy, reducing the demand for more calories

• Restoration theory: during sleep, the body replenishes supplies of chemicals and other biological resources needed to function 

• Freudian dream interpretation: dream interpretation is a method to uncover the repressed information in the unconscious mind; dreams were wish fulfilling, meaning we act out our unconscious desires in our dreams

Hypnosis: a procedure involving the use of suggestion to induce a highly relaxed stage of concentration/focused attention