Brain Basics
This brain structure helps regulate breathing and heartbeat.
What is the medulla?
This division controls voluntary movements of skeletal muscles.
What is the somatic nervous system?
This neurotransmitter is primarily inhibitory in the central nervous system.
What is GABA?
This disorder involves repeated difficulty falling or staying asleep.
What is insomnia?
This common debate in psychology asks which factor influences a person more.
What is heredity vs. environment (nurture vs. nature)?
This lobe is primarily responsible for processing visual information.
What is the occipital lobe?
This division prepares the body for an emergency or stressful situation.
What is the sympathetic nervous system?
Low levels of this neurotransmitter are strongly associated with Parkinson's disease.
What is dopamine?
This disorder is characterized by uncontrollable episodes of falling asleep during the day.
What is narcolepsy?
The minimum stimulation needed to detect a stimulus 50% of the time is called this.
What is the absolute threshold?
This structure plays an important role in forming new explicit memories.
What is the hippocampus?
After a stressful situation ends, this division helps return the body to its normal resting state.
What is the parasympathetic nervous system?
This neurotransmitter is commonly associated with mood and is linked to depression when its functioning is disrupted.
What is serotonin?
This structure serves as the brain's "master clock" for regulating circadian rhythms.
What is the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)?
The smallest detectable difference between two stimuli is called what?
What is the difference threshold (aka Just-Noticeable Difference)?
A patient understands what others are saying but struggles to produce meaningful speech after a brain injury; which area was likely damaged?
What is Broca's area, which is involved in speech production?
A person suddenly pulls their hand away after touching a hot stove; explain which type of neuron carries the sensory information that triggers this response.
A sensory neuron carries information about the painful stimulus from the hand toward the central nervous system.
A medication produces the same effect as a naturally occurring neurotransmitter by binding to its receptor; how is the medication functioning?
As an agonist, because it mimics or enhances the neurotransmitter's effects.
A student stays awake all night studying and struggles to remember the material the next day; explain how lack of sleep could contribute to this problem.
Adequate sleep supports memory consolidation, so sleep deprivation can interfere with the strengthening and storage of newly learned information.
Two people experience the same event but react very differently; explain how both heredity and environment could contribute to their different responses.
Heredity can influence predispositions such as temperament, while environmental experiences can shape how those predispositions are expressed.
A patient can form new memories but has difficulty remembering information learned before a brain injury; which brain structure would be more likely involved, and why?
The hippocampus is involved in forming new explicit memories, so damage would primarily be expected to interfere with new memory formation.
A person has an unusually high heart rate during a stressful event but then has difficulty returning to a resting state afterward; which two nervous system divisions are involved, and how do their effects differ?
The sympathetic nervous system increases heart rate during stress, while the parasympathetic nervous system decreases heart rate and helps restore the body to a resting state.
A drug blocks the action of a neurotransmitter at its receptor, causing the neurotransmitter to have less influence on the nervous system; is the drug an agonist or antagonist, and how do you know?
An antagonist, because it blocks or reduces the action of a neurotransmitter rather than mimicking it.
Two students study the same material for the same amount of time, but one sleeps normally while the other stays awake all night; predict which student will likely remember more the next day and explain why.
The student who slept normally will likely remember more because sleep supports memory consolidation and allows newly learned information to be strengthened.
Researchers find that identical twins raised in different environments share some personality traits but also develop important differences; what does this evidence suggest about the relationship between heredity and environment?
It suggests that both heredity and environment interact to influence behavior. Genes can create predispositions, while environmental experiences can influence how those predispositions develop and are expressed.