Turn the Wheels
The branch of neuroscience that commonly uses fMRI and EEG to observe thought, including memory, attention, language, and decision-making
This neurotransmitter acts in the basal ganglia and limbic system, and is responsible for modulating pain, mood, and reward
What is dopamine?
Hodgkin and Huxley discovered this concept using by measuring the electrical activity of a giant squid’s axon
What is an action potential?
This visual pathway structure allows each hemisphere of the brain to process the opposite visual field, contributing to the brain’s cross-wired organization
What is the optic chiasm?
In temporal lobe epilepsy, seizures often originate in this structure critical for memory
What is the hippocampus?
Language disorder caused by brain damage that affects a person's ability to speak, write, read, and understand others
What is aphasia?
This part of the brainstem controls breathing, heart rate, and basic life functions
What is the medulla obloganta?
This 1920s experiment on “Little Albert” showed that emotional responses like fear can be learned through conditioning
What is classical conditioning?
This lobe processes visual information like color, motion, and shape.
What is the occipital lobe?
Degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in this brain region causes Parkinson’s disease
What is the substantia nigra?
Split-brain patients reveal lateralization of function because this structure is severed
What is the corpus callosum?
This structure is known as the relay station for sensory information heading to the cortex
What is the thalamus?
This technique, first used in the 2000s, lets scientists turn neurons on or off with light, revolutionizing circuit-level experiments
What are optogenetics?
This lobe is responsible for decision making, executive functioning, personality, speech, and more
What is the frontal lobe?
Individuals with this disorder manipulate others and show little empathy, often breaking rules or laws.
What is antisocial personality disorder?
This technique uses magnetic pulses to temporarily stimulate or inhibit specific regions of the brain to observe their effects on cognition
What is TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation)?
This neurotransmitter is responsible for pain inhibition and euphoria, often acting in the spinal cord and brain
What are endogenous opioids?
Edward Tolman’s maze experiments suggested that rats form internal maps of space, leading to the discovery of these hippocampal neurons
What are place cells?
What is the temporal lobe (or Wernicke's area)?
This disorder involves unstable relationships, self-image, and emotions, often with impulsive behaviors
What is borderline personality disorder?
This “binding problem” in cognitive neuroscience asks how the brain combines color, shape, and motion into a unified perception
What is feature integration?
This neurotransmitter is responsible for orchestrating long-term potentiation (LTP) in the hippocampus, essential for learning
What is glutamate (via NMDA receptors)?
In the London taxi driver study, neuroscientist Eleanor Maguire found enlarged posterior hippocampi, providing evidence for this type of experience-driven brain change
What is neuroplasticity?
Pain and temperature signals travel along this sensory tract, which crosses to the opposite side of the spinal cord near where the nerve enters
What is the spinothalamic tract?
Progressive neurodegenerative disorder affecting upper and lower motor neurons, leading to muscle weakness and atrophy
What is ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis)?