Physiological Flashcards
Franz Gall
Believes that behavior, intellect, and personality might be linked to brain anatomy. Phrenology.
Pierre Flourens
First person to study functions of the major sections of the brain by extirpation (surgical removal of parts of the brain).
Johanenes Muller
Identified the law of specify nerve energies, which states that each sensory serve is excited by only one kind of energy, and the brain interprets any stimulation of that nerve as being that kind of energy.
Herman von Helmholtz
First to measure the speed of a nerve impulse. He is often credited for transition of psychology into the field of natural sciences.
Sir Charles Sherrington
First inferred the existence of synapses.
Sensory neurons (afferent neurons)
Transmit sensory information from receptors to the spinal cord and brain. They transmit information through “afferent fibers”
Motor neurons (efferent neurons)
Transmit motor information from the brain and spinal cord to the muscles. They transmit information through “efferent fibers”
Walter Cannon
Pioneered word on the autonomic nervous system (ANS)
Brainstem
Consists of the hindbrain and midbrain
Extrapyramidal motor system
The pathway through which the basal ganglia relays information about body position to the brain and spinal cord.
Olds & Milner
Discovered that mild stimulation of the septal nuclei is intensely pleasurable and sexually arousing.
Septal rage
Since the septal nuclei inhibits rage, if it is damaged, aggressive behavior goes unchecked and results in this vicious behavior.
Convolutions
The bumps and folds of the cortex
Association areas
Areas that combines input form diverse brain regions
Projection areas
Areas that receive incoming sensory information or send out motor-impulse commands
Hubel and Weisel
Advanced understanding of the visual cortex through their work where they inserted ultra-sensitive micro-electrodes into single brain cells to record their activity.
Sodium potassium pump
The pump that keeps positively charged sodium ions out of the cell, as well as keeping potassium ions inside the cell; ultimately maintains the slight negative charge inside the cell membrane, the resting potential
Action potential spike
The highest positive charge of an action potential reached after the the cell reaches the threshold and the membrane produces a rapid electrical impulse.
Repolarization
When the cell’s original negative charge is restored, starting with hyperpolarization and eventually leading to resting potential
Saltatory conduction
The efficient conduction along a myelinated axon. A new action potential is generated at each node of Ranvier, and it skips from node to node, which is faster than an impulse traveling down the axon.
Binding
The process whereby a neurotransmitter fits and attaches itself on the receptor sites.
Graded potential
A description of postsynaptic potentials on the dendrites, which is influenced by how much the receptor sites are stimulated by neurotransmitters.
Eric Kandel
Studied simple networks in see slugs, and found out about habituation.
Phenothiazines
Antipsychotics thought to reduce the sensitivity of dopamine receptors in psychosis.
