Psychology Chapter 3: Biopsychology

Parasympathetic Division

Acts to calm the body after an emergency situation has engaged the sympathetic division; provides a means for the body to maintain storage of energy sources

Sympathetic Division

Acts to prepare the body in stressful emergency situations, mobilizing resources to respond to a threat

Amygdala

BRAIN: Damage to this area can result in usually docile and tame animals into belligerent savages

Cerebellum

BRAIN: Damage: Instability and unsteadiness in movement. Inability to walk a straight line without staggering and lurching forwards

Hippocampus

BRAIN: Damage: Results in difficulty in learning and remembering new information

Corpus Callosum

BRAIN: Damage: delayed social skills, learning processes, and are sensitive to certain sensory cues. A patient might have trouble with coordinating their hands, preventing them from matching sensations on one hand with movement on the other, because the information doesn't get to where it's needed.

Corpus Callosum

BRAIN: Function: Bridge of fibers passing information between the two cerebral hemispheres - divides it into two hemispheres - transferring motor, sensory, and cognitive info from left and right hemispheres

Cerebellum

BRAIN: Function: Controls bodily balance

Amygdala

BRAIN: Function: Controls fear and aggression

Hippocampus

BRAIN: Function: Learning and Memory

hypothalamus

BRAIN: Function: Maintain a steady internal environment for the body - responsible for regulating basic biological needs: hunger, thirst, temperature control

Thalamus

BRAIN: Function: Relay information about the sense, relay center for cortex, handles incoming and outcoming signals

Medulla Oblongata

BRAIN: Function: Responsible for regulating largely unconscious functions such as breathing and circulation

Cerebral Cortex

BRAIN: Function: The "new brain" responsible for the most sophisticated information processing in the brain; contains four lobes: Think, evaluate, make complex judgements

Medulla Oblongata

BRAIN: Location:

Cerebral Cortex

BRAIN: Location: Above everything

Corpus Callosum

BRAIN: Location: Below Cerebral Cortex

Thalamus

BRAIN: Location: In the middle of the central core

Cerebellum

BRAIN: Location: Just above the medulla and behind the pons

hypothalamus

BRAIN: Location: Just below the thalamus

Amygdala

BRAIN: Location: Small end of the limbic system a series of doughnut shaped structure

Hippocampus

BRAIN: Location: part of the limbic system the doughnut shaped structure

Central nervous system

Consists of brain and spinal cord

Nervous System

Consists of the brain the neurons extending throughout the body.

Frontal Lobes

Function: MOTOR AREA: body's voluntary movement BORCA'S AREA: speech Location: Lie in the center of the cortex

Pariental Lobe

Function: SOMATOSENSORY AREA: sensations of touch and pressure on skin SOMATOSENSORY ASSOCIATION AREA: permits you to determine the exact shape and texture of an object by feeling it Location: Behind frontal lobes

Temporal Lobe

Function: WERNICKE'S AREA: understand spoken language PRIMARY AUDITORY AREA: hearing AUDITORY ASSOCIATION AREA: Allows you to recognize a particular sound as speech, music or noise Location: Occupy lower center position

Occipital Lobe

Function: stimulation by electrodes produces the experiences of flashes of light or colors, suggestive that the raw sensory input from the eyes is received in this area of the brain and transformed into meaningful images VISUAL AREA: sight VISUAL ASSOCIATION AREA: allows one to recognize visually Location: Behind temporal lobe

Dopamine

NEUROTRANSMITTER: LOCATION: Brain EFFECT: Inhibitory or excitatory FUNCTION: Movement control, pleasure and reward, attention

Acetylcholine

NEUROTRANSMITTER: LOCATION: Brain, Spinal cord, peripheral nervous system, especially some organs of the parasympathetic nervous system EFFECT: Excitatory in brain and autonomic system; inhibitory elsewhere FUNCTION: muscle movement, cognitive functioning

Glutamate

NEUROTRANSMITTER: LOCATION: Brain, spinal cord EFFECT: Excitatory FUNCTION: Memory

Serotonin

NEUROTRANSMITTER: LOCATION: Brain, spinal cord EFFECT: Inhibitory FUNCTION: Sleeping, eating, mood, pain, depression

Gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA)

NEUROTRANSMITTER: LOCATION: Brain, spinal cord EFFECT: Main inhibitory neurotransmitter FUNCTION: Eating, aggression, sleeping

Endorphins

NEUROTRANSMITTER: LOCATION: Brain, spinal cord EFFECT: Primarily inhibitory, except in hippocampus FUNCTION: Pain suppression, pleasurable feelings, appetites, placebos

Peripheral Nervous System

Nervous system that includes the autonomic and somatic subdivisions: Made up of long axons and dendrites, it contains all parts of the nervous system other than the brain and spinal cord and reaches extremities of the body

Transcranial magnetic stimulation imagine (TMS)

Newest brain-scannning technique. Exposing a region of the brain to a strong magnetic field, it disrupts electrical activity. One can note the effect on normal brain functioning. Identifies areas of the brain that are responsible for particular functions - useful treatment for depression an schizophrenia.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

Scans provide detailed, three-dimensional computer-generated images of brain structures and activity by aiming a powerful magnetic field at the body. Vivid, detailed images of the functioning of the brain. Used in planning brain surgeries because they can help distinguish areas of the brain involved in normal and disturbed functioning.

Position Emission Tomography (PET)

Shows biochemical activity within the brain at a given moment. Begin with an injection of radioactive liquid into the bloodstream, which carries into the brain. Computer pinpoints more active regions, providing a picture of the brain at work. Used to search for brain tumors in people with memory problems.

terminal buttons

small bulges at the end of axons that send messages to other neurons

axon

the part of the neuron that carries messages destined for other neurons

synapse

the space between two neurons where the axon of a sending neuron communicates with the dendrites of a receiving neuron by using chemical messages

Somatic Division

Specializes in the control of voluntary movements and the communication of information to and from the sense organs

dendrite

a cluster of fibers at one end of a neuron that recieves messages form other neurons

myelin sheath

a protective coating of fat and protein that wraps around an axon

action potential

an electric nerve impulse that travels through a neuron's axon when it is set off by a "trigger" changing the neuron's charge from negative to positive

Spinal cord

bundle of neurons that leaves the brain and runs down the length of the back and is the main means for transmitting messages between the brain and the body

neurotransmitters

chemicals that carry messages across the synapse to dendrite (and sometimes the cell body) of a receiving neuron

Autonomic Division

concerned with the parts of the body that function involuntarily without our awareness

neurons

nerve cells, the basic elements of the nervous system

Brain

An organ roughly half the size of a loaf of bread that constantly controls behavior

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

Records electrical activity in the brain through electrodes placed on the head. Electrical activity into a pictorial representation of the brain that allows more precise diagnosis of such disorders as epilepsy and learning disabilities