Conversing with chemicals
Brain development
Neurons and friends
Nature AND nurture
Where in the brain?
100
Chemical signals carry messages across this small gap between neurons.
What is the synapse?
100
The number of years it takes the human brain to complete development.
What is 20 - 25 years?
100
The part of the neuron responsible for transmitting information in the form of an electrical impulse.
What is the axon?
100
A segment of DNA that contains the "recipe" for a protein, it is the basic unit of heredity.
What is a gene?
100
This part of the brain stem regulates basic body functions like heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure.
What is the medulla?
200
These specialized proteins on the "listening" neuron detect neurotransmitter molecules.
What are receptors?
200
Rats that grow up in this kind of environment have many more synapses than rats that grow up in a deprived environment.
What is an enriched environment?
200
The nucleus containg the neuron's DNA is found in this structure.
What is the soma?
200
Temperament, which has a strong hereditary component, is the foundation for this psychological feature, which is a product of both nature and nurture.
What is personality?
200
The lobe of the cerbral cortex is important in processing and interpreting visual information.
What is the occipital cortex?
300
This neurotransmitter is used by neurons in the brain's reward pathway and also by neurons affected by the disease schizophrenia.
What is dopamine?
300
The name given to the mechanism that eliminates synapses that are not activated by experience?
What is pruning?
300
Oligodendrocytes make this protein, which acts as an insulator to speed up electrical impulses.
What is myelin?
300
Researchers from the University of Wisconsin and in New Zealand found that children with the "low activity" form of a gene coding for a protein that breaks down neurotransmitters were significantly more likely to become violent as teens IF they also grew up in this kind of environment.
What is severely abusive?
300
This part of the brain, well-known for its important role in memory, deteriorates in Alzheimer's disease.
What is the hippocampus?
400
This neurotransmitter is used by the motor neurons to "talk" to our muscles.
What is acetylcholine?
400
The name used to describe the exceptional flexibility of the brains of children and teens, which allows the growing brain to adapt to any circumstances.
What is plasticity?
400
The "end feet" of processes on these glial cells form the "blood-brain barrier" that prevents potentially harmful chemicals from entering the brain.
What are astrocytes?
400
The three basic temperament types
What are flexible, feisty, and fearful?
400
This egg-shaped structure, located in the center of the brain, is an i.mportant relay station for sensory information
What is the thalamus?
500
This neurotransmitter is used by neurons that trigger the body's "fight or flight" response.
What is norepinephrine (noradrenaline)?
500
In an animals without a gene linked to this developmental disorder, which affects the ability to read, immature brain cells failed to move into their correct positions.
What is dyslexia?
500
These immature cells can develop into all types of neurons or glia.
What are neural stem cells?
500
According to developmental researcher Jerome Kagan, an infant who is easily overstimulated at 4 months of age is likely to have this kind of personality as a child.
What is shy and inhibited?
500
Stimulating this area of the pons with an electrode will cause a sleeping animal to wake up.
What is the reticular activating formation?
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