Neurons
What is a neuron?
A nerve cell, the basic building block of the nervous system
What is the nervous system?
The body's speedy electrochemical communication network, consisting of all the nerve cells of the peripheral and central nervous system
What part of the brain is known as the quarterback of information received from your senses?
Thalamus
_________ is a thin surface layer that contains some 20 to 23 billion of the brain's nerve cells
Cerebral cortex
What did Sperry say about people who had split brain surgery?
Split-brain surgery leaves people with two separate minds
How do neurons communicate?
Each neuron has a cell body with branching fibers. These dendrite fibers receive and integrate information, conducting it toward the cell body. The cell's single lengthy axon fiber passes the message through its terminal branches to other neurons or to muscles or glands.
What nervous system is responsible for gathering information and for transmitting CNS decisions to other body parts?
Peripheral Nervous System
What is the nickname for the hypothalamus?
The quarterback of hormones
How is the brain divided?
Frontal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, temporal lobe
How did Phillip Vogel and Joseph Bogen help reduce epileptic seizures in patients?
They servered the corpus callosum
What is a neurotransmitter?
Chemical messengers that cross synaptic gaps between neurons
What nervous system controls the glands and the muscles of the internal organs?
Autonomic nervous system
What is the cingulate cortex's main role?
Main role is to avoid negative experiences
What is neurogenesis?
The formation of new neurons
What effect does environment have on personality?
The environment shared by a family's children has virtually no discernible impact on their personalities
What neurotransmitter affects mood, hunger, sleep, and arousal?
Serotonin
What is the difference between the parasympathetic nervous system and the sympathetic nervous system
Sympathetic nervous system is the division of the autonomic nervous system that arouses the body, mobilizing its energy
Parasympathetic nervous system is the division of the autonomic nervous system that calms the body conserving its energy
What structures are part of the hindbrain?
Medulla oblongata
Pons
Reticular formation
Cerebellum
What is plasticity?
The brain's ability to change, especially during childhood, by reorganizing after damage or by building new pathways based on experience.
What is dual processing?
The principal that information is often simultaneously processed on separate conscious and unconscious tracks
What is the difference between Agonist vs Antagonist?
Agonist is a molecules that increases a neurotransmitter's action
Antagonist is a molecule that inhibits or blocks a neurotransmitter's action
The ______ system is the body's slow chemical communication system; a set of glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream
Endocrine
What part of the brain influences sleeping and dreaming?
Pons
What parts of the body require the greatest amount of cortical space?
Fingers and mouth
what is epigenetic?
The study of environmental influence on gene expression that occur without a DNA change