Biological Bases of Behaviour Flashcards
central nervous system
spinal cord
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brain (which includes the cerebrum, cerebellum, and brain stem)
peripheral nervous system
somatic nervous system
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autonomic nervous system (which includes the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system)
somatic nervous system
sends and receives messages that control voluntary motor movements of the skeletal muscles
autonomic nervous system
controls automatic or involuntary bodily functions of the smooth muscles and glands (digestion, heart rate, breathing)
sympathetic nervous system
the “mobilizing” system, dominant during times of stress, controls the fight or flight response
parasympathetic nervous system
the “energy conserving” system, dominant when a person is relaxed
quadriplegia
- severing of the spinal cord anywhere between C1 and C5
- all 4 limbs are paralyzed
paraplegia
- severing of the spinal cord at C6 or C7 = paralyzed legs and partial paralysis in arms
- severing of the spinal cord at T1 or below = paralyzed legs only
paresis
- incomplete severing of the spinal cord
- results in muscle weakness
left hemisphere
- dominant in about 97% of people
- responsible for rational, analytical, logical, and abstract thinking
- damage can result in aphasia, language problems, apraxia, and difficulties with the right side of the body
- positive emotions (L for love)
right hemisphere
- responsible for perceptual, visuospatial, artistic, musical, and intuitive activities
- damage can result in left-side hemi-neglect, prosopagnosia, visual perceptual disturbances, impulsivity, abnormal sexual behaviour
- negative emotions (think what does music help regulate?)
Broca’s aphasia
- located in left frontal lobe
- controls muscles that produce speech
- damage results in an inability to express language
- speech is slow and effortful (short phrases and lengthy pauses)
Wernicke’s aphasia
- located in the left temporal lobe
- involved in verbal memory and language comprehension
- damage results in an inability to comprehend speech
- fluent spoken language but sentences are nonsensical
conduction aphasia
- intact language comprehension, fluent speech but nonsensical
- cannot repeat verbal phrases
- can follow through with verbal commands because comprehension in not impaired (unlike Wernicke’s), no slowed speech like in Broca’s
global aphasia
- most language functions are impaired (fluency, comprehension, repetition, naming)
parietal lobes (gertmans syndrome)
- processes somatosensory information (shape, size, weight, texture, pain, heat, movement of the body) bc somatosensory cortex is here
- damage causes: asomatognosia (not aware of body parts), Anosognosia (denial of illness), hemispacial neglect(contra lateral neglect; neglect one’s side of body ie. dress only one side of body), ideomotor apraxia (can’t carry our movements if told to do something) , ideational apraxia (can’t conceptualize sequences or steps involved in movements) AND Gretsmann syndrome (left parietal lobe damage, agraphia, acalculia, right left finger agnosia and disorientation)
proprioception
ability to sense position, location, and movement of the body
frontal lobes
- largest portion of the brain
- Broca’s area is here.
- 3 main divisions = prefrontal cortex, premotor area, motor area
- critical to personality, emotionality, inhibition, planning and initiative, abstract thinking, judgment, and higher mental functions
- damage can result in loss of movement of various body parts, changes in personality, emotional lability, perseveration, inattention, difficulty with problem-solving, Broca’s aphasia. DOESNT impact IQ (bc damage only impacts divergent thinking NOT convergent thinking which IQ tests measure)
occipital lobes
- involved in sight, reading, and visual images
- damage can result in difficulty recognizing drawn objects, and achromatopsia (difficulty seeing colours/identifying colours, visual agnosia (hallucinations and illusions), and inability to recognize words / problems with reading or writing, prosopagnosia (inability to recognize familiar faces), cortical blindness (loss of vision)
- research: some people with cortical blindness experience blindsight= not consciously see things but reach for it or can feel/identify sad feeling when presented by a sad picture without seeing it (affective blindsight)
temporal lobes
- contains the primary auditory cortex
- also involved in emotional memory and behaviour
- damage can result in increased aggression, increase or decrease in sexual behaviour, problems with declarative memory, Wernicke’s aphasia also auditory agnosia (inability to recognize familiar sound).
corpus callosum
bundle of nerve fibres that serve as a bridge between the left and right hemispheres making it possible for the two to communicate
split-brain patients
- severed corpus callosum
- information cannot be shared with or transferred to the opposite hemisphere of the brain
- dichtonic listening task (language lateralization)
thalamus
- sensory relay center
- receives input from all senses (except smell), then processes and integrates it before projecting it to the appropriate other areas of the brain
hypothalamus
- major role in homeostasis
- regulates temperature, hunger, thirst, sex, cyclic sex hormone secretion, aggression, the sleep-wake cycle and involved in pituitary gland stimulation (important for oxytocin release)
- electrical stimulation: trouble regulating emotions
- mammillary bodies is in SCN (body’s biological clock) and that’s in the hypothalamus
- research: initiates development of secondary sex characteristics, also involved in release of oxytocin for childbirth and milk release and baby bonding. Women also react to stress with an oxytocin release which supports initiation/maintenance of relationships