WACE Flashcards
(126 cards)
Cerebral Cortex
• Part of the forebrain (outer layer)
• Largest part of the brain, separates us from animals
• Divided into four anatomical areas (lobes)
o Frontal
o Parietal
o Occipital
o Temporal
Frontal lobe
- Personality
- Higher order processes (attention, impulse, organization etc)
- Contains the following functional areas: primary motor cortex and brocas.
Primary motor cortex
o Located at the back of the frontal lobe
o Different areas responsible for different body parts
• Laid out in the order of body parts
• Body parts involved in fine motor movement have more area dedicated to them
Broca’s
o Located on the left side of the frontal lobe o It controls; • Muscles responsible for fluent speech • Structures that understand grammatically rules o If damaged; • Speech isn’t fluent • Grammatically incorrect • However speech usually makes sense
Temporal lobe
o Contains the primary auditory cortex and Wernicke’s areas
o Responsible for creation of new memories
Primary auditory cortex
- Left hemisphere is responsible for verbal sounds
* Right hemisphere is responsible for non verbal sounds
Wernicke area
o Left side of temporal lobe o Language comprehension center- retrieves meaning of words from memory o If damaged: • Unable to understand speech of others • Unable to produce meaningful speech • Fluent gibberish
Occipital
- Contains primary visual cortex
* Responsible for vision
Primary vision cortex
- Receives visual information and transforms it
- Right to left side, left to right
- If damaged:
- Tumors
- Schizophrenia
Parietal lobe
o Contains primary sensory cortex
o Therefore responsible for sensations
Primary somatosensory cortex
- Similar layout to the primary motor cortex
- Areas which are more sensitive (mouth, fingers etc) have more area dedicated to them
- Creates meaning from raw sensory information (ie touching something that gets translated to pain)
- Damage results in:
- Problems with co-ordination, as well as sensation
- Hemi spatial neglect
- Other issues with spatial awareness
Central nervous system
- Also known as CNS
- Includes the brain and spinal cord
- Integrate and co-ordinate all in coming neural information and to initiate messages sent to different parts of the body.
- It does not have contact with the outside of the body and therefore relies on the PNS.
Spinal cord
- Passes sensory information from the PNS to the brain
* Passes motor information from brain to PNS
Peripheral nervous system
- Complete set of neurons outside the brain
- Links the central nervous system to the rest of the body
- Divided into two sections; somatic and autonomic
- Responsible for; carrying information to the CNS from the body’s muscles, organs and glands (about internal body) and from sensory organs; carry information from the CNS to the body’s muscles, organs and glands.
Somatic
- Transfer sensory information from the environment to the central nervous system
- Afferent (sensory) neurons receive information from the environment and send them inwards towards the CNS
- Efferent (motor) neurons transfer information outwards from the CNS to co-ordinate movement
- Controls voluntary muscle only
Autonomic nervous system
- Non voluntary body functions, glands, non skeletal muscles
- Unconsciousness
- Consists of the sympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic
Sympathetic nervous system
- Involved in fight or flight response
- When activated; heart rate increases, breathing rate increases, sweat glands increases, digestion decreases and pupils dilate.
Parasympathetic nervous system
- Responsible for bringing the body back to homeostasis after the sympathetic nervous system has been activated
- When activated; heart rate decreases, breathing rate decreases, sweat glands decrease and digestion increase.
Neural transmission
- Chemicals in the brain, which aid in the transmission of activity between neurons.
- Serotin and dopamine
- Neurotransmitters are created in cell body and are stored in synaptic vesicles.
- An action potential occurs and transports the vesicles down the axon.
- The neurotransmitters are released into the synapse.
- Neurotransmitter cross the synaptic cleft and attach to receptor sites on the dendrite of the post synaptic neuron
- Neurotransmitters have an inhibitory or excitatory effect, and if the action potential is strong enough, the process then continues in the next neurons.
- Excess neurotransmitters are then re-up taken to the presynaptic neuron and recycle.
o Inhibitory effect
calm neural activity balancing mood
o Excitatory effect
stimulates brain activity
Serotonin
• Regulation of mood, sleep, appetite
• Neurotransmitter
• Too little= depression,, increased appetite, sleep problems, OCD
• Too much= anorexia
• Factors influencing production:
o Antidepressants prevent the reuptake, increase the availability.
o Ecstacy increases short term decreases long term
Dopamine
- Involved in the rewards pathway and motor control
- Neurotransmitter
- Create feelings of pleasure and linked to formative of addictions
- Problems associated with balance
- Too little= Parkinson’s, Anxiety, depression
- Too much= schizophrenia
- Factors influencing production
- Alcohol and drug use
Alcohol and drug use - Physiological effect
- An effect on the body
- A change in neurotransmitters levels
- Cause psychological effects