Neurotransmitter Mayhem
This neurotransmitter is responsible for muscle contraction and memory formation, and its deficiency is linked to Alzheimer's disease.
Acetylcholine
Damage to this brain structure would result in inability to form new long-term memories
Hippocampus
This is the resting charge of a neuron's interior, maintained at approximately negative 70 millivolts. Waiting to be charged to fire...
Resting Potential
This hemisphere is typically dominant for language production and comprehension in most people.
Left Hemisphere
This hormone, released by the pineal gland in darkness, makes us feel sleepy and regulates our circadian rhythm.
Melatonin
These drugs, including cocaine and amphetamines, excite neural activity and increase dopamine and norepinephrine.
Stimulants
This lobe at the back of your head is dedicated entirely to processing visual information.
Occipital Lobe
An SSRI increases this neurotransmitter in the synapse by preventing its reuptake, helping to treat depression.
Serotonin
This brain region controls vital functions like breathing and heart rate. Damage here is typically fatal.
Medulla
All-or-Nothing Principle: This principle states that once __________ is reached, the neuron fires at full strength or doesn't fire at all.
Threshold
The right hemisphere controls this side of the body due to neural pathway crossover.
Left side
During this sleep stage, we experience vivid dreams, rapid eye movement, and temporary muscle paralysis.
REM (Rapid Eye Movement)
These drugs, including alcohol and benzodiazepines, slow neural activity by increasing GABA.
Depressants
This "little brain" at the base of your skull is responsible for balance, coordination, and fine motor movements.
Cerebellum
This neurotransmitter is both excitatory when it helps with learning, but its overactivity can cause seizures and neuronal death.
Glutamate
Damage to this area in the left frontal lobe results in slow, labored speech where people know what they want to say but struggle to form words.
Broca's Area
During this brief period after firing, the neuron cannot fire again, ensuring signals travel in one direction only.
Refractory Period
If a split-brain patient sees an object only in their left visual field, this hemisphere processes it.
Right Hemisphere
Across a full night, sleep cycles show this pattern: early cycles have more of this restorative stage, while later cycles have longer REM periods.
NREM Stage 3 (or Deep Sleep/Slow-Wave Sleep)
This type of drug blocks receptors, preventing neurotransmitters from binding and reducing neural activity.
Antagonist
This sensory relay station receives all sensory information (except smell) before it reaches the cortex.
Thalamus
People with Parkinson's disease have low levels of this neurotransmitter, which affects both movement and motivation. Antipsychotic drugs block its receptors.
Dopamine
Damage to this limbic structure would reduce fear responses and impair the ability to recognize fear in others' faces.
Amygdala
This fatty substance wraps around axons, insulating them and dramatically increasing the speed of neural transmission.
Myelin Sheath
A split-brain patient sees the word 'KEY' in their left visual field only. When asked what they saw, they would say this.
"nothing" or "I didn't see anything"
This sleep disorder involves sudden, uncontrollable sleep attacks and is caused by loss of hypocretin neurons.
Narcolepsy
This type of drug binds to receptors and activates them, mimicking a neurotransmitter's effects.
Agonist
This limbic structure regulates the fighting, fleeing, feeding, and reproduction. It also controls body temperature and links the nervous and endocrine systems.
Hypothalamus
This is the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain and slows brain activity. Anti-anxiety medications like benzodiazepines enhance its effects, and alcohol increases its activity.
GABA
This structure connects the two hemispheres. When severed in split-brain patients, the left hand literally doesn't know what the right hand is doing.
Corpus Callosum
This process removes neurotransmitters from the synapse by reabsorbing them into the sending neuron for recycling.
Reuptake
This hemisphere is superior at spatial awareness, facial recognition, and holistic thinking.
Right Hemisphere
What stage of sleep is considered Deep Sleep with slow wave Delta waves helping consolidate memories and learning?
NREM 3
Reuptake inhibitors work by preventing this process, leaving more neurotransmitter in the synapse for longer periods.
Reuptake (or reabsorption)
This brain structure, also called the RAS, controls arousal and alertness. Damage to it can result in a coma
Reticular Activating System
Runner's high is caused by these natural opiates. Morphine and heroin are agonists of these, mimicking their pain-relieving and euphoric effects.
Endorphins
Damage to this temporal lobe area causes fluent but meaningless speech, and patients cannot understand language but are unaware of their deficit.
Wernicke's Area
While neurons transmit signals, these support cells perform critical functions including forming the myelin sheath, removing waste, and regulating neurotransmitter levels.
Glial Cells
Split-brain surgery was originally performed as a last-resort treatment for this neurological condition.
Epilepsy
According to this theory, dreams are the brain's attempt to make sense of random neural firing during REM sleep.
Activation-Synthesis Theory
Addiction develops because repeated drug use causes the brain to reduce its natural production of neurotransmitters or decrease this in response.
receptor sensitivity (or number of receptors)
This strip of cortex in the parietal lobe receives sensory information from your body. Different areas correspond to different body parts, with more space devoted to sensitive areas like hands and lips.
Sensory Cortex (or Somatosensory Cortex)