Who's In Charge Here⁉️
The brain and spinal cord make up this division, which serves as the body's primary information-processing center.
Central nervous system (CNS)
A neuron must reach this level of stimulation before it fires an action potential.
Threshold
Too little of this neurotransmitter is associated with Major Depressive Disorder:
serotonin
A drug occupies a receptor and prevents that neurotransmitter from binding. What type of drug is this?
Antagonist
This brain structure helps control breathing and heart rate.
Medulla
Damage to this brain structure would cause a person to fall into a deep coma:
reticular formation / reticular activating system
You consciously decide to raise your hand in class. This division of the nervous system controls the voluntary movement involved.
Somatic nervous system
A person touches a hot stove. Which type of neuron first detects and carries information about the stimulus toward the CNS?
Sensory (afferent) neuron
This neurotransmitter generally inhibits neural activity, helping prevent excessive neural firing.
GABA
Caffeine belongs to this category of drugs that typically increase neural activity.
Stimulant
This structure helps coordinate movement, maintain balance, and contributes to procedural learning.
Cerebellum
After skipping lunch, a student becomes very hungry. Which structure is most directly involved in regulating that drive?
hypothalamus
Your heart continues beating while you sleep without conscious effort. This division controls such involuntary processes.
Autonomic nervous system
Once threshold is reached, the neuron fires completely—or not at all. This principle explains why increasing the strength of a stimulus does not make an individual action potential "stronger."
All-or-none / all-or-nothing principle
This neurotransmitter is associated with movement, reward, and motivation.
Dopamine
Drugs like ecstasy and LSD that produce distortions in perception and/or cognition belong to this category:
Hallucinogens
"I see dead people." Okay, maybe not—but this lobe is primarily responsible for processing visual information.
Occipital lobes
After brain damage, a person has difficulty forming new memories of facts and events. Which structure would researchers be especially interested in?
hippocampus
You're walking down a dark hallway when you suddenly hear a loud crash. Your heart races and your body prepares for action. Which division of the autonomic nervous system is taking charge?
Sympathetic division
Immediately following an action potential, the neuron temporarily cannot—or is much less likely to—fire another action potential. This is called:
refractory period
You haven't eaten for hours and your body sends signals increasing your motivation to seek food. Which hormone is associated with hunger?
Ghrelin
A drug binds to a receptor and mimics or enhances the effects of a neurotransmitter. What type of drug action is this?
Agonist
This lobe contains the somatosensory cortex, which processes information about touch.
Parietal lobes
A researcher presents a child with different sensory stimuli to study the brain structure that helps relay that information to other parts of the brain. Which brain structure is being studied?
thalamus
The danger passes. Your heart rate slows, digestion resumes, and your body begins returning to its baseline state. Which division is now dominating?
Parasympathetic nervous system
A medication prevents a neurotransmitter from being reabsorbed into the neuron that released it. What neural communication process is being affected?
Reuptake
This is the most common excitatory neurotransmitter of your nervous system. It's also the most abundant neurotransmitter in your brain.
Glutamate
Drugs like alcohol and xanax belong to this category because they typically decrease neural activity:
Depressant
This lobe contains the motor cortex and prefrontal cortex and is involved in higher-order thinking and executive functioning.
Frontal lobes
A researcher is studying the brain structures involved when people experience strong emotional reactions. Which structure would be especially relevant?
amygdala
A person loses the ability to produce fluent speech after brain damage. Which area should investigators examine?
Broca's area
A signal from interneurons in the spinal cord ultimately reaches a muscle that pulls the hand away. Which type of neuron carries the message to the muscle?
Motor (efferent) neurons
A chemical messenger associated with social bonding and attachment is sometimes popularly called the "love and cuddle hormone." What is it?
oxytocin
A person initially loses a function after brain damage but gradually regains some of that function as another area takes over. What principle explains this recovery?
Neuroplasticity / brain plasticity
A patient has normal hearing but struggles to understand spoken language. Which brain area is most likely damaged?
Wernicke's area
This brain structure helps manage your sleep-wake cycle:
pons
Which brain structure detects the threat that triggers your sympathetic nervous system response?
amygdala
A neuron’s myelin sheath is damaged, making neural messages travel less effectively. Which disorder is associated with this type of disruption?
Multiple sclerosis (MS)
Which neurotransmitter is associated with muscle movement and is also linked to Alzheimer’s disease?
acetylcholine
A person repeatedly uses a psychoactive drug and eventually needs more of it to produce the same effect. When they stop taking it, they experience symptoms like sweating, shaking, nausea, and vomiting. Identify the terms for both concepts.
Tolerance and withdrawal
Information presented to the right visual field is initially processed primarily by which hemisphere?
left hemisphere (contralaterality)
What structure is severed in split-brain surgery?
corpus callosum