Evolutionary Psychology
This is the process where organisms with traits better suited to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce
What is natural selection?
These specific segments of a DNA molecule contain the precise instructions for making particular proteins. .
What are genes?
This is the molecule that serves as the universal carrier of genetic instructions for all living organisms.
What is DNA?
This oldest part of the brain is responsible for basic survival functions.
What is the brain stem?
This is the main division of the nervous system that includes the brain and the spinal cord.
What is the Central Nervous System (CNS)?
This term refers to an organism's ability to successfully reproduce and pass its genes to the next generation, not necessarily its physical strength.
What is "fittest"?
This is the scientific study of heredity, which is the process of passing traits from parents to offspring.
What is genetics?
These are the fundamental chemical units that make up DNA, each with a sugar, a phosphate group, and one of four nitrogenous bases.
What are nucleotides?
This part of the cerebral cortex is responsible for processing visual information.
What are the occipital lobes?
This part of the nervous system is responsible for involuntary functions like heart rate, breathing, and digestion.
What is the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)?
This is the name for the process where traits that enhance an organism's survival and reproductive success become more common within a population over many generations.
What is adaptation?
This term encompasses all of an individual's observable characteristics, resulting from the interaction between their genes and the environment.
What is a phenotype?
The total number of chromosomes typically found in human cells.
What is 46?
This component of the limbic system is key for forming new long-term memories
What is the hippocampus?
This part of the autonomic nervous system is activated in a "fight or flight" response to a stressful situation.
What is the sympathetic division?
According to the principles of evolutionary theory, this is the correct relationship between humans and modern monkeys.
What is a common ancestor?
This is the difference between a spontaneous change in DNA and a specific condition passed down from parents.
What is a genetic mutation versus an inherited disorder?
These are indispensable molecules that serve as the fundamental "building blocks" and "workers" of the body, carrying out vital functions.
What are proteins?
This outermost layer of the brain, often called the "thinking cap," is responsible for higher-level mental processes such as planning, decision-making, and language, and includes the frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes.
What is the Cerebral Cortex?
This is the name for the chemical messengers that cross the microscopic gap between neurons and bind to receptor sites on the receiving neuron.
What are neurotransmitters?
The four key principles of natural selection as proposed by Charles Darwin.
What are variation, heritability, survival and reproduction, and adaptation?
This emerging field investigates how environmental factors can "turn genes on or off" without altering the DNA sequence itself.
What is epigenetics?
This is the term for a spontaneous or induced change in the DNA sequence that can lead to altered gene function.
What is a genetic mutation?
While the frontal lobes handle voluntary movement and planning, this pair of lobes is responsible for processing auditory information and is crucial for language comprehension.
What are the temporal lobes?
This electrical signal travels down a neuron's axon and follows an "all-or-nothing" principle, meaning it either fires completely or not at all.
What is an Action Potential?