Biopsychology
The study of neural bases of behavior and mental processes
What is biopsychology (behavioral neuroscience)?
The basic building blocks of the nervous system
What are neurons?
The most anterior portion of the cerebral cortex
What is the frontal lobe?
The processes by which successive generations of individuals change over very long periods of time?
What is evolution?
The processes that generate, shape, and reshape the NS, from the earliest stages of embryonic development
What is neurodevelopment?
The covariation of two measures
What is correlation?
The cells that provide support for and contribute to information processing neurons
What is glia cells?
A collection of neurons within the central nervous system
What is a nucleus?
The Darwinian theory that evolution proceeds by differential success in reproduction?
What is natural selection?
A fertilized egg
What is a zygote?
The method of examining the relationship between body variables and behavioral variables that involves altering body structure or function and observing any resulting changes in behavior
What is somatic intervention?
The small spheres in the presynaptic axon terminals that contain a neurotransmitter
What is a synaptic vesicle?
This system, including structures like the hippocampus and amygdala, is essential for emotion and memory.
What is the limbic system?
A trait that increases the probability that an individual will leave offspring in subsequent generations
What is adaption?
This first stage of neurodevelopment involves the mitotic production of neurons from non-neuronal cells.
What is neurogenesis?
The process of breaking a system down into its smaller parts in order to understand it
What is reductionism?
The four zones of a neuron
What is the input zone, the integration zone, the conduction zone, and the output zone?
One of the vertical columns that constitute the basic organization of the neocortex
What is cortical column?
When individuals select mates based on traits that indicate good genes, and subsequently, successful offspring
What is the Good Genes Hypothesis?
Myelination begins shortly after birth and continues until approximately this age.
What is 20 years?
The organization that governs animal research
What is the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC)?
The four kinds of glial cells
What are astrocytes, microglial cells, oligodendrocytes, and Schwann cells?
This small midbrain structure plays a crucial role in reward and dopamine release.
What is the ventral tegmental area (VTA)?
This species is the pinnacle of peak performance
What is the Japanese Giant Salamander (Andrias japonicus)?
Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by amyloid plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, and the disappearance of these forebrain structures.
What are basal forebrain nuclei?