Nature vs. Nurture
The genetic transmission of traits from parents
What is heredity?
Brain and spinal cord
What is the central nervous system (CNS)?
Branches that receive messages
What are dendrites?
Neurotransmitter linked to reward and movement
What is dopamine?
Tool that measures brain wave activity
What is an EEG?
Twins that share 100% of their genes
What are identical (monozygotic) twins?
Voluntary vs automatic control systems
What are somatic (voluntary) and autonomic (automatic) systems?
Electrical impulse traveling down the neuron
What is an action potential?
Main inhibitory neurotransmitter (calming)
What is GABA?
Difference between MRI and fMRI
MRI = structure, fMRI = activity + blood flow
The study of how environment affects gene expression
What is epigenetics?
System that activates “fight or flight”
What is the sympathetic nervous system?
Minimum stimulation needed to fire
What is threshold?
Neurotransmitter responsible for pain signals
What is Substance P?
System involved in emotion and memory
What is the limbic system?
Research method comparing twins raised together vs apart
What are twin studies?
System that calms the body
What is the parasympathetic nervous system?
When a neuron becomes positively charged to fire
What is depolarization?
Drug that increases vs blocks neurotransmitters
What are agonists (increase) and antagonists (block)?
Left brain controls which side of body?
What is the right side (contralateral organization)?
Why behavior cannot be explained by only nature or nurture
Because behavior results from the interaction of genes and environment
Pathway when you touch a hot stove
What is a reflex arc (sensory → interneuron → motor neuron)?
Brief period when neuron cannot fire again
What is the refractory period?
Drug that blocks reuptake of dopamine—why addictive?
What is a reuptake inhibitor, increasing dopamine → strong reward → addiction?
What is it called and what happens when corpus callosum is cut?
What is split brain → hemispheres can’t communicate?