The Brain
Controls the most basic functions of life, including breathing, attention, and motor responses
What is the brain stem?
Consists of two almond-shaped clusters, and is primarily responsible for regulating our perceptions of and reactions to aggression and fear
What is the amygdala?
Responsible primarily for thinking, planning, memory, and judgment
What is the frontal lobe?
A principle that the brain is wired such that in most cases the left hemisphere receives sensations from and controls the right side of the body, and vice versa
What is contralateral control?
The forming of new neurons
What is neurogenesis?
The area of the brain stem that controls heart rate and breathing
Consists of two "horns" that curve back from the amygdala, important in storing information in long-term memory
What is the hippocampus?
Extends from the middle to the back of the skull and is responsible primarily for processing information about touch
What is the parietal lobe?
The part of the cortex that controls and executes movements of the body by sending signals to the cerebellum and the spinal cord
What is the motor cortex?
The brain's ability to change its structure and function in response to experience or damage, enables us to learn and remember new things and adjust to new experiences
What is neuroplasticity?
Narrow network of neurons that filter outs some of the stimuli that are coming into the brain from the spinal cord and relays the remainder of the signals to other areas of the brain
What is the reticular formation?
Responsible for memory and emotions, including our responses to reward and punishment
What is the limbic system?
At the very back of the skull, processes visual information
What is the occipital lobe?
Receives information from different parts of the body, namely the skin's sensory receptors as well as from the movements of different body parts
What is the somatosensory cortex?
The folding of the cerebral cortex
What is corticalization?
Egg-shaped structure sitting just above the brain stem that applies still more filtering to the sensory information coming from the spinal cord and through the reticular formation, and it relays some of these remaining signals to the higher brain levels
What is the thalamus?
Cells that surround and link to the neurons, protecting them, providing them with nutrients, and absorbing unused neurotransmitters
What are glial cells?
Responsible primarily for hearing and language
What is the temporal lobe?
The area located in the occipital lobe (at the very back of the brain) that processes visual information
What is the visual cortex?
A chemical that relays signals across the synapses between neurons
What is a neurotransmitter?
(literally, "little brain") consists of two wrinkled ovals behind the brain stem. It functions to coordinate voluntary moveme
What is the cerebellum?
Folds that separate each hemisphere into four lobes
What are fissures?
The outer barklike layer of our brain that allows us to so successfully use language, acquire complex skills, create tools, and live in social groups
What is the cerebral cortex?
Responsible for hearing and language
What is the auditory cortex?
A process in which neurotransmitters that are in the synapse are reabsorbed into the transmitting terminal buttons, ready to again be released after the neuron fires
What is reuptake?