Brain Basics
The part of the brain that controls balance and coordination
What is the cerebellum?
The part of the neuron that receives messages from other cells.
What are dendrites?
The sleep stage where dreams most often occur.
What is REM?
This stimulant is found in coffee and energy drinks.
What is caffeine?
sleep disorder characterized by problems in falling asleep or staying asleep
What is insomnia?
This lobe processes visual information.
What is the occipital lobe?
The gap between neurons where neurotransmitters are released.
What is the synapse?
Freud believed dreams reveal this part of the mind
What is the unconscious?
The term for needing more of a drug to feel the same effect.
What is tolerance?
Sleepwalking is most likely to occur during this stage.
What is Stage 3 NREM?
The brain's communication highway connecting the two hemispheres
What is the corpus callosum?
This neurotransmitter is involved in learning and reward; too much is linked to schizophrenia.
What is dopamine?
Jung believed dreams connect us to this shared human experience.
What is the collective unconscious?
A drug that slows down brain activity.
What is a depressant?
Region of the brain that includes the medulla, the pons, and the cerebellum; it is the oldest part of the brain to develop in evolutionary terms.
What is the hindbrain?
The limbic system includes this structure responsible for emotion.
What is the amygdala?
This process ensures that neurotransmitters do not overstimulate the receiving neuron by reabsorbing them into the sending neuron.
What is reuptake?
The biological clock that regulates sleep/wake cycle through light and dark. Located in the hypothalamus.
What is the suprachiasmatic nucleus/SCN?
Category of psychoactive drugs that speed up the nervous system like caffeine, cocaine, and amphetamines.
What are stimulants?
A division of the peripheral nervous system that controls voluntary activities (like your muscles and skeleton)
What is the somatic nervous system?
Damage to this area will not inhibit a person's ability to understand language, but will inhibit the ability to speak coherently.
What is Broca's area?
The “fight or flight” neurotransmitter.
What is norepinephrine?
This theory suggests dreams are the brain’s attempt to make sense of random neural activity.
What is the activation-synthesis theory?
The focusing of attention to clear one's mind and produce relaxation called?
What is mediation?
Located in the forebrain; it receives input from all of the senses, except smell, and directs this information to parts of the brain. The brain's "switchboard"
What is the thalamus?