Unit 2: The Brain and Psychology Flashcards
(31 cards)
Bodily processes are…
The (primarily unconscious) biological activities that keep us alive (i.e. breathing, blood circulation, urination, digestion, biofeedback).
Bodily functions are…
The remaining physical proceedings of our body (i.e. muscle movements/motor functions).
The three types of neurons are…
(1) Motor Neurons
(2) Sensory Neurons
(3) Interneurons
Motor Neurons are…
Those that send instructions from the CNS to the PNS. They connect to your brain to the rest of your muscles.
Sensory Neurons are…
Those that send messages and cues from the PNS to the CNS. They process your 5 senses.
Interneurons are…
Those that communicate within the CNS (from the spinal cord to the brain and from the brain down through the spinal cord). They are connectors.
What do neurons have in common with other cells in the body?
All cells in the body have nuclei.
What is the major difference between the CNS and the PNS?
Location! The CNS includes only the brain and the spinal cord (in the center of the body), while the PNS spreads all around the rest of the body.
The PNS is broken into…
(1) the autonomic nervous system and
(2) the somatic nervous system
The Autonomic Nervous System handles…
The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.
The Somatic Nervous System handles…
Sensory Input and Motor Output
The Sympathetic Nervous System handles…
“Fight or Flight”
Increases your heart rate, slows digestion, releases epinephrine, dilates your pupils, and more to keep you alert
The Parasympathetic Nervous System handles…
“Rest and Digest”
Slows your heart rate, re-stimulated digestion, lowers your blood sugar, and more to let your body know it can relax
How can one exercise their brain?
Crossword puzzles, Sudoku, and other word and math games
How much of your brain can you possibly use in any given situation?
Only about 10% will ever be active in any given situation.
PET scans…
Inject participants with temporarily radioactive glucose so that the release of gamma rays can be tracked to create a map of the most active sections of the brain during different tasks.
MRI scans…
Place a participant’s head in the middle of a magnetic field so that radio waves can temporarily disrupt the momentum of the brain’s atoms. When the atoms get back to their regular spin, they release a signal that is processed by a computer to create a detailed image of the brain.
Functional MRI scans…
Take multiple MRI scans each second as participants complete different tasks in order to watch the brain in action (by tracking and measuring blood flow). Blood flowing to the most active sections of the brain makes those areas appear more clearly on the scans, allowing us to figure out which sections are responsible for which activities.
Aphasia is…
A language disorder.
Fluent aphasia is…
When damage to the area between the left hemisphere temporal and parietal lobes causes an inability to understand writen and proken language, and sometimes hinders one’s ability to speak clearly/fluently.
Non-fluent aphasia is…
When damage to the area of the brain which handles “motor speech” (the LIPS) causes an inability to speak fluently, but leaves a person with the ability to understand others.
Paul Broca discovered…
Non-fluent aphasia
Carl Wernicke discovered…
Fluent aphasia
Why are Wernicke and Broca so important?
They both helped us understand just how many separate functions go into language processing AND further proved that the left hemisphere of the brain is primarily responsible for that task.
