Week 4/Brain + Biology

Question 1

Central Nervous System (CNS)

Answer 1

-Brain and spinal cord
-What is encased in bone
The brain is the commans center and the spinal cord is the pathway for messages

Question 2

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

Answer 2

Network of nerves connecting the CNS to the body’s organs and muscles

Question 3

what does the nervous system do?

Answer 3

transmits signals between the brain and the rest of the body, including internal organs.

Question 4

What does the Peripheral nervous system include?

Answer 4

Somatic and Autonomic system

Question 5

Autonomic Nercvous system

Answer 5

Heart muscle, smooth muscle, and glands. Involuntary muscle

Question 6

Somatic Nervous system

Answer 6

Voluntary Skeletal Muscles

Question 7

What does the Autonomic Nervous System include?

Answer 7

Parasympathetic and sympathetic division

Question 8

Parasympathetic division

Answer 8

rest and digest

Question 9

sympathetic division

Answer 9

active and alert

Question 10

Basic components of a neuron

Answer 10

Dendrites, Cell body, axon, and terminal buttons

Question 11

Dendrites

Answer 11

receive incoming signals

Question 12

Axon

Answer 12

extended fiber of a neuron through which nerve impulses travel from the soma to axon terminals and terminal buttons

Question 13

Terminal buttons

Answer 13

bulblike structure that have a chemical substance responsible for passing signal to next neuron

Question 14

Synapse

Answer 14

where chemical communication occurs
Neurons do not touch each other, they communicate by sending chemicals into the synapse (i.e., tiny gap between terminal buttons of sending neuron and dendrites of receiving neuron)

Question 15

Resting Neuron- Resting Membrane potential

Answer 15

theelectricalchargeinsidetheneuro
isslightlymorenegativethanthe
electricalchargeoutside

Question 16

Phase one of firing

Answer 16

When aneuronreceiveschemicalsignalsfromnearbyneuronsthroughitsdendrites, thesechemicalsignalsimpactlocalionchannels,and influence thepolarization
(+/-charge) oftheneuron.

Question 17

Excitatory

Answer 17

decrease negative charge inside cell and thus increase likelihood of neuron firing
depoloraize

Question 18

Inhibitory

Answer 18

increase negative change inside cell and thus decrease likelihood of neuron firing
Hyperpolarize

Question 19

what happens after signals are recieved and the decrease negative chahrge in the cell occurs

Answer 19

If the excitatory inputs outnumber the inhibitory ones by enough, then the positive charge of the cell reaches a threshold and an action potential is generated

Question 20

Action potential

Answer 20

-55mv threshold
The action potential is an electrical ripple that travels down axon.
When the neuron fires positive ions rush (i.e., sodium ions) into neuron.
from - to +

Question 21

What happens after the action potential?

Answer 21

Immediately after positive ions stopped from entering cell and positive ions rush out of cell, causing membrane potential to be negative once again.

Finally channels close and at this point membrane is slightly more negative than resting potential, called relative refractory period

Question 22

What happens after the refractory potential?

Answer 22

Then balance of positive and negative ions restored to resting potential

Question 23

Neurotransmitters

Answer 23

Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that transmit signals between nerve cells (neurons) in the brain and throughout the body

Question 24

Action potential in the neurons

Answer 24

Pre-synaptic neuron-axon terminal connects to the post-synaptic neuron of the dendrite spine.

Question 25

Phineas Gage

Answer 25

Damage to the frontal lobe. He survived, but Left frontal lobe damage started to exhibit personality changes Until recently with more advances in technology much of what we know about the brain is from brain damage

Question 26

Localization assumption:

Answer 26

psychological functions are localized in specific and distinct brain regions. big assumptions

Question 27

Brainstem

Answer 27

houses the nerves that control the most basic functions of survival, such as heart rate, breathing, swallowing.

Question 28

spinal cord

Answer 28

sends motor commands from the brain to the body, send sensory information from the body to the brain, and coordinate reflexes.

Question 29

Midbrain

Answer 29

- Nerve pathway of the cerebral hemispheres; contains auditory and visual reflex centers. acting as a sort of relay station for auditory and visual information.

Question 30

Pons

Answer 30

– “Bridge” where fibers cross (horizontally) across brain, and connects to the cerebellum. Sleep.

Question 31

Medulla

Answer 31

Connects spinal cord and brain. Controls breathing, blood pressure, heart rate, and some reflexes (coughing, gagging, swallowing, and vomiting). Basic life support

Question 32

Reticular formation

Answer 32

projects up into cerebral cortex and affects alertness and involved in inducing and terminating different stages of sleep

Question 33

Cerebellum

Answer 33

Coordinates voluntary muscle movements, balance, posture. does not produce them but it smooths them out

Question 34

Limbic system

Answer 34

above brainstem and lying under the cerebral cortex . Important for emotion and motivation

Question 35

Hypothalamus

Answer 35

-Motivated behavior or the 4 “F’s”: Fighting, Fleeing, Feeding, and Romance -Hormone regulation -Survival and reproduction

Question 36

Thalamus

Answer 36

-Receives sensory information for vision and touch. -Organizes and routes information to the appropriate cortical areas.

Question 37

Amygdala

Answer 37

-Motivation and emotion, aggression, and emotional memory -Controls responses to emotionally salient situations and stimuli

Question 38

Hippocampus

Answer 38

-Stores new memories by interacting with temporal lobe -Interacts with amygdala to make emotional memories. -Important for storing new memories

Question 39

Basal ganglia

Answer 39

Crucial for planning and producing movement. Receive input from cerebral cortex & send to motor centers of brain stem

Question 40

Cerebral cortex

Answer 40

outter layer of the cerebral hemispheres (the wrinkly part). Complex mental activity

Question 41

Occipital

Answer 41

dedicated entirely to vision

Question 42

Temporal

Answer 42

hearing, memory, language (Wernicke’s area) , smell

Question 43

Parietal

Answer 43

-Body sensation (somatosensory cortex) – touch, pressure, temperature, pain -Fine sensation – judgment of texture, weight, size, shape sensations -Spatial awareness

Question 43

Wernicke region

Answer 43

what: language comprehension contains motor neurons involved in the comprehension of speech. Word salad, random words dont make sense. Impared comprehension speech is clear. - Temporal lobe

Question 44

Frontal

Answer 44

-Motor control (motor cortex) -“Higher” cognition (planning, decision making, problem solving, selective attention) -Personality -Language (Broca’s Area)Damage cannot produce words. Routine language not here ( counting cursing)

Question 45

Brain plasticity

Answer 45

Brain plasticity is a property of the human brain that allows it to change in response to experiences or injuries. As age increases, brain plasticity decreases due to the various influences the brain has already undergoes throughout life.

Question 46

Brocas

Answer 46

WHAT: Broca’s area is responsible for speech production, including the articulation of words, grammar, and the motor control needed to produce speech. - difficulty producing speech, which can be slow and labored ( comprehension remains intact)

Question 47

○Primary sensory cortex

Answer 47

processing sensory information and providing us with the ability to perceive and respond to our environment -Pariental lobe

Question 48

primary motor cortex function

Answer 48

voluntary muscle movement frontal lobe

Question 49

Steps from sensation to perception

Answer 49

1.Signal Occurs 2.Sensory receptors detect 3. Transduction ( Physical properties of stimuli translated into neural impulses for brain to process) 4. Thalamus (Sensory information pre-liminary processing in thalamus (except smell) 5.Cerebral cortex (Thalamus relays information to region in cerebral cortex associated with sense processing (e.g., occipital lobe for vision). 6. Perception ( Perception processing begins in cerebral cortex)

Question 50

Brain plasticity

Answer 50

refers to the brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections in response to learning, experience, or injury

Question 51

Perception is actively constructed and goal directed

Answer 51

○ Inattentional blindness ○ Change blindness