Biological Bases of Behaviour Flashcards
The nervous system
Central nervous system and Peripheral nervous system
Central nervous system
Spinal cord and The brain
The spinal cord
The spinal cord transfers messages to and from the brain and the rest of the body, responsible for simple reflex actions
Frontal lobe
is associated with higher order functions, holds primary motor cortex involved in controlling bodily movements through the control of skeletal muscles, left lobe controls right side of body and vice versa. Also involved in attention, personality, control of emotion and expression of emotional behaviour
also holds homunculus and brocas area
Brocas area
involved in the production of clear, fluent and articulate speech, regulates motor movement that allows humans to produce speech and movement of tongue and jaw
damage to brocas area
Brocas aphasia, can read and understand each other, difficulty speaking, poor grammar and pronunciation
Hommunculus
Homunculus is a topographic map that maps the skeletal muscles that innervate different parts of the body
occipital lobe
processes visual information
holds Visual cortex receives and processes visual information, contains different parts that process different types of information including colour, shape, movement
Parietal lobe
Parietal lobe integrates information from the different senses and plays an important role in spatial navigation
holds sensorimotor cortex responsible for planning and executing voluntary movements and sending signals to muscles in the body, right half of cortex controls left side of body (vice versa) and Somatosensory cortex processes raw sensory information, different cortexes for different body parts, size reflects sensitivity and number of sensory neurons located in that body part, homunculus sensory map inverse representation of body
Temporal lobe
processes auditory information
holds Auditory cortex responsible for analysing and processing acoustic information, contains different parts, involved in processing simple features of sound
also holds wernickes area
Wernicke’s area
Wernicke’s area connected to Broca’s, responsible for comprehension and understanding of language, locating appropriate words to express meaning
damage to wernickes area
Fluent aphasia, difficulty in reading, writing, understanding and making meaning of words, no trouble in pronunciation or grammar but trouble in expression
Peripheral nervous system
Somatic nervous system and Autonomic nervous system
Peripheral NS functions
To communicate information from the body’s organs, glands and muscles to the CNS from both external and internal stimuli and to communicate information from the CNS to the body’s organs, glands, and muscles by motor neurons
Somatic nervous system
Sensory receptors and Motor pathways
Somatic NS functions
Maintains communication between the central nervous system and outside world, responsible for voluntary movement of skeletal muscles
sensory receptors
Sensory receptors carry information to the spinal cord and brain
Motor pathways
Motor pathways allow the brain to control movement
Autonomic nervous system
Sympathetic nervous system and Parasympathetic nervous system
ANS function
Plays an important role in homeostasis and consists only of motor pathways
Controls function of internal organs through muscles, skin, blood vessels, the eye, the stomach intestines and bladder, the heart, gastrointestinal tract, gall bladder, liver, glands, pancreas, adrenal medulla, sweat gland
Actions are usually involuntary and do not depend on voluntary control by the brain but can be voluntarily instigated
Sympathetic NS
Sympathetic NS is responsible for increasing activity of most visceral muscles, organ and glands in time of vigorous activity, stress, or threat
Sympathetic NS responses
Decreased heart rate, reduced stomach activity, inhibited saliva production, pupil dilation, relaxation of the bronchi of the lungs, glucose released
fight or flight response as a survival instinct
Parasympathetic NS
Parasympathetic NS is responsible for decreasing the activity of most visceral muscles, organs and glands, and restoring body functioning to its normal state
Parasympathetic NS responses
Decreased heart rate, increased stomach activity, increased saliva production, pupil contraction, constriction of bronchi within the lungs, glucose stored
restores homeostasis
