Biology Of The Mind Flashcards
(72 cards)
0
Q
What connects the cortexes of the left and right hemispheres?
A
Corpus callosum
1
Q
What is the role of the left hemisphere?
A
Controls the right side of the body. Responsible for language and math problems.
2
Q
What causes seizures disorder?
A
A severed connection in the corpus callosum.
3
Q
What is the right hemisphere responsible for?
A
Controlling the left side of the body. Drawing, spatial reasoning, face perception, reading maps.
4
Q
What is the limbic system’s job? What parts of the brain are in this system?
A
Involved in emotion, memory, motivation and drives. Composed of: any gala, hippocampus, hypothalamus.
5
Q
What does the autonomic system do?
A
Controls (mostly) involuntary muscles (I.e heart, lungs, blood vessels, digestive system) as well as certain glands.
6
Q
What are the subsystems of the autonomic nervous system, and what are their functions?
A
- sympathetic (fight-or-flight)
* parasympathetic (rest-and-digest)
7
Q
What is the central nervous system?
A
The brain and spinal cord.
8
Q
What are neurons?
A
- Brain cells, or nerve cells
- Special in that they communicate with each other
- The brain forms networks of these cells
9
Q
What is the anatomy of a neuron?
A
- Cell body (soma)- has a nucleus and organelles
- Dendrites- increase surface area of the cell body and send messages to neutrons, connect
- Axon- comes out of the cell body; the highway for the message, comes from the cell body and travels to the terminal branches
- Terminal branches (buttons) - Electrical signals that start at the cell body, travel through the axon, and spread through the dendrites
- Myelin sheath- fatty coating that protects the axon as it travels
10
Q
What are the characteristics of a neuron at rest?
A
- Semi- permeable membrane
- Inside of the cell= negative charge
- Outside of the cell= positive charge
11
Q
What does it mean to say a neuron at rest has an ‘action potential’?
A
- Since the outside is positive and the inside is negative, the resting membrane potential (net negative charge) is on the inside
12
Q
What is an action potential?
A
- A brief electrical charge that travels down the axon (A “neural impulse”,The neuron is “firing”)
- Electrical signal is transmitted along the axon by the diffusion of charged atoms
- The membrane becomes more permeable
- Series of channel openings along the axon that allow the diffusion of charged atoms
- The membrane becomes more permeable
- Soudium channels open @ the axon hillock - Sodium is positively charged, the inside becomes positive)
- DEPOLARIZATION
- Resting membrane potential is restored
13
Q
What is the refractory period?
A
- When an action potential cannot happen in order to restore resting membrane potential
14
Q
What is depolarization?
A
- When the resting membranes inside and outside charges are reversed.
- Negative inside turns positive;
- Positive outside turns negative
15
Q
What is the role of the myelin sheath?
A
- Cover axon
- Sodium diffuses through the in between sections of myelin
- Provides insulation, which increases the speed of transmission
- Keeps the positive charge inside
16
Q
What is a synapse?
A
- Where 2 neutrons signal to each other (1 way conversation)
- Junction between an axon terminal and a dendrite/ cell body
17
Q
Describe the spinal cord.
A
- Connects the brain and peripheral nervous system
- sensory neurons enter from sensory systems
- motor neurons from the brain exit
18
Q
What does the central nervous system consist of?
A
- The brain and spinal cord
- brain = 40 billion neurons. 10 000 connections each. 400 trillion synapses.
19
Q
What are the two major divisions of the nervous system?
A
- The central nervous system:
- Brain and spinal cord
- The peripheral nervous system:
- Nerves
- Connect the brain to sensory organs, muscles, and glands
- Divided into the somatic and the autonomic nervous system
20
Q
Explain the somatic nervous system.
A
- Controls voluntary muscles attached to the skeleton
Ex: We control whether we want to walk or not
21
Q
Explain the autonomic nervous system
A
- Controlled involuntarily for the most part
Ex: heart, lungs, blood vessels - Divided into sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems
22
Q
What are the components of the peripheral nervous system, and what does it do?
A
- Nerves
- Connect the brain to the sensory organs, muscles, and glands
- Divided into the somatic and autonomic nervous systems
23
Q
What are neural networks?
A
- Systems of neurons with a common purpose
- some are innate (I.e visual perception, reflexes)
- some are learned (I.e neurons that fire together wire together)
24
What is the role of the sympathetic nervous system?
- Expend energy
- Fight-or-Flight
- Active if you've been challenged and your body or brain needs to do something
25
What Is the role of the parasympathetic nervous system?
- Conserve energy
- Active when you're at rest
- Rest-and-Digest
- Designed to calm you down after a stressful event
26
What do antagonists do?
- Block a neurotransmitter's functioning
| Ex: Botox
27
What do agonists do?
- Block reuptake
| Ex: black widow spider venom
28
What are neurotransmitters?
- Chemicals that transmit information from one neuron to another
29
What is the neurotransmitter Acetylcholine (ACh) responsible for?
- Enabling muscle action, reading, and memory
- It's the messenger at every junction between motor neurons and skeletal muscles
(with Alzheimer's disease, ACh-producing neurons deteriorate)
30
What psychological disorder is linked to an undersupply or serotonin?
- Depression
| - This neurotransmitter affects mood, hunger, sleep, and arousal
31
What is an oversupply of dopamine linked to?
- Schizophrenia
| - Dopamine influences movement, learning, attention, and emotion
32
Information travels through the nervous system in 3 types of neurons. Name them.
- Sensory neurons (carry info from the body's tissues and sensory receptors to the brain and spinal cord for processing)
- Motor neurons (carry instructions from the central nervous system out to the body's muscles and glands).
- Interneurons (communicate internally and intervene between sensory inputs an motor outputs. Located within the brain and spinal cord).
33
What is phrenology?
- Early psychology
- Studied bumps on the skull, believing they could reveal a persons mental abilities and character traits
- Brought attention to the localization of function, even though it's theories were incorrect
34
What is a synapse?
- 'Meeting point between neurons'
- Junction between the axon and the tip of the sending neuron and the dendrite or cell body of the receiving neuron
- The tiny gap at this junction is called the synaptic gap (or cleft)
35
What is reuptake?
- A neurotransmitter's reabsorbtion by the sending neuron
36
What is the endocrine system?
- The body's "slow" chemical communication system; a set of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream, close to the central nervous system
- Divided into the;
- Adrenal glands
- Pituitary glands
37
What do the Adrenal glands do?
- Help around the body in times of stress
- Increase heart rate, blood pressure, and blood sugar
- Provide us with a surge of energy
38
What does the pituitary gland do?
- Regulates growth and controls other endocrine glands (I.e the adrenal gland in times of stress)
- Controlled by the hypothalamus
39
What does an Electroencephalogram (EEG) do?
- Measures the electrical activity of brainwaves (can diagnose epilepsy)
- Can measure the timing of brain's information processing
40
What does a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan do)
-Measures metabolic activity and glucose consumption
41
What is the brainstem responsible for?
- Heart rate, breathing, blood pressure
42
What are the pons involved in?
- Coordination of movement
43
What is the cerebellum responsible for? Where is it located?
- Coordination of movement
- Leaning and smooth, skilled movement
- Located at the base of the brain
44
What is the reticular formation?
- Network of neurons running through core of the brainstem
| - Involved in relaying the sensory nerves to the appropriate area of higher brain centres
45
What does the thalamus do?
- Senses send their information here first, then to other parts of the brain
- Major relay station of the brain (from the senses of touch, taste, sight, and sound, to the appropriate areas of higher processing- the cortex).
46
What is the role of the Amygalda?
- Involved with emotions; like fear and aggression
| - Involved with the processing of emotional memories (closely associated with the hippocampus)
47
What is the hypothalamus responsible for?
- Body temp
- Hunger, thirst
- Sleep/ wake cycle
- Controls the pituitary gland
- Reward centre
48
What is the cerebral cortex responsible for? How many neurons is it composed of?
- Perception, thinking, language, movement
- 20-23 million (of 40 million) neurons.
- Divided into 4 lobes: frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital
49
What is the motor cortex responsible for?
- Voluntary movements
| - Located @ the rear border of the frontal lobe
50
What does Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) do?
- Displays a 3-D image of the brain
- Magnetic field passed though head
- Causes atoms to spin in the same direction/ orientation- the atoms give off radio waves which a scanner detects based on their frequency
51
What does Functional Magnetic Resonance imaging (fMRI) do?
- Measures recent metabolic activity and blood flow
| - Detects the oxygenation of blood- by radio frequency
52
What is lesion?
- Tissue destruction (natural or experimental)
| - Today, scientists can selectively lesion tiny clusters of brain cells, leaving th surrounding tissue unharmed
53
If you injured your cerebellum, what would you have trouble doing?
- Keeping your balance
- Walking
- Shaking hands with someone
54
What neural systems is the limbic system composed of?
- Amygalda
- Hypothalamus
- Hippocampus
55
What is neurogenesis?
- When the brain tries to mend itself by producing new cells (neurons)
- Baby neurons originate feel in the brain and may migrate elsewhere and form connections with neighbouring neurons
56
What is constraint- induced therapy?
- Constraining the fully- functional limb, forcing patients to strengthen the "bad" limb
57
What is living with a split brain like?
- Life having 2 separate minds
| - Left hand often has an unruly independence
58
What is the left hemisphere like?
- An "interpreter" or press agent
| - Good at making quick, literal interpretations
59
What is the right hemisphere good at?
- Overseeing our sense of self, modulating speech to make meaning clear
- Excels in making inferences
- Helps us to orchestrate our sense of self
60
What is the sensory (somatosensory) cortex responsible for?
- Sense of touch
- Contralateral sensation
- No direct correspondence between the size of the sensory area, and the size of the area that receives its sensory neurons
61
What is the visual cortex responsible for? Where is it located?
- Sight
| - Located in the occipital lobe
62
What is the auditory cortex responsible for? Where is it located?
- Hearing
| - Located in the temporal lobe
63
What does the olfactory love do? Where is it located?
- Transmits smell from nose to brain
| - Located in the temporal lobe
64
What is the gustatory lobe responsible for? Where is it located?
- Sense of taste
| - Located in the frontal lobe
65
What happens during a hemispherectomy?
- Half of the brain is removed
| - Fluid compensates for the other half of the brain
66
What does the brain do with available area when someone suffers from visual or auditory impairment?
- Brain moves sense to a different area of the body.
| Ex: For someone who is blind, sense may move to fingers to help them with reading brail
67
What do association areas do?
- Interpret, integrate new info and experiences
| - compare incoming information to memories
68
What are the frontal lobes responsible for?
- Judgement and planning
69
What are the parietal lobes responsible for?
- Mathematical and spacial reasoning
70
What are the temporal lobes responsible for?
- Auditory processing an facial recognition
71
What is neural plasticity?
- The brain's ability to recognize itself in the face of different environmental stimulation
