Chapter 3 Biopsychology

Which of the following is not a disadvantage of PET scanning?

An alternative diagnostic tool is fMRI.

Language production largely takes place in the left frontal cortex in which of the following regions of the brain?

Broca's area

When a neuron fires, it fires in a(n) ________ fashion, as there is no such thing as "partial" firing.

all-or-none

Which of the following are the two most basic divisions of the human nervous system?

central; peripheral

The ________ receives messages from muscles, tendons, joints, and structures in our ear to control balance, coordination, movement, and motor skills.

cerebellum

Which of the following BEST represents the order in which a neuron receives and transmits information?

dendrites, cell body, axon, axon terminals

The communication system that uses hormones to influence thoughts and actions is called the __________ system.

endocrine

Gyri and sulci are the ________ and ________, respectively, which characterize the surface of the human brain.

folds; grooves

Cardelia is visiting the National Aquarium in Washington, D.C., and is watching the seahorses swim with various fish. She begins thinking about the human brain, and remembers that one major structure, which is important in the formation of new memories, gets its name because it is shaped like a sea horse. Which brain structure is Cardelia thinking about?

hippocampus

Elaina has been diagnosed with a small brain tumor. She first went to see her doctor after experiencing symptoms such as feeling very cold, almost fainting, a reduced appetite, and reduced sexual desire. Which of the following structures is her tumor most likely affecting?

hypothalamus

The ________ is the deep groove that separates the brain into two halves.

longitudinal fissure

One purpose of the ________ is to speed up the neural message traveling down the axon.

myelin

Sammy is doing research that involves placing objects in the visual fields of visually impaired elderly men. He wants to discover what specific neurons fire in response to the features of the objects. The study requires electrodes to be implanted in the men's brains. In which part of the brain would you suggest Sammy place the electrodes?

occipital lobe

Yasmeen and her girlfriend recently got into a major fight, and there was a lot of yelling and screaming before Yasmeen stormed out of the house and drove away. Now, thirty minutes later, she is calming down due to increased activity in her __________ nervous system.

parasympathetic

What do we call the state of a neuron when it is NOT firing a neural impulse?

resting potential

Kelvin is pitching for his high school baseball team. He has mastered the art of the curveball, and knows just how to twist his fingers around the seam of the baseball to make the pitch work. The part of the nervous system that helps him feel the seams on the baseball and control his fingers to throw the curveball properly is the __________ nervous system.

somatic

James is a painter who continuously must adjust the tension of his brush-holding hand to execute strokes. The ability to control his grip is supported by the __________ nervous system, a subdivision of his __________ nervous system.

somatic; peripheral

The saclike structures found inside the synaptic knob containing chemicals are called ________.

synaptic vesicles

Mollie was born totally deaf. She has never been able to hear a sound. Her physicians note that the structures of her ears are all fine, as are the auditory nerves that send sound information to the brain. "There must be a problem with the ________ lobes, which contain the auditory cortex," the physicians report to Mollie's parents.

temporal

Which of the following is part of the central nervous system?

the spinal cord