Psychoactive Drugs
This neurotransmitter is affected by drugs such as cocaine and amphetamines, increasing feelings of pleasure and reward.
What is dopamine?
You dream during this stage. Even though your motor cortex is active, during this stage you only occasionally twitch, and your eyes might move quickly.
What is REM?
This hormone is involved in social support and cohesion. In women, it sparks contractions during labor
What is oxytocin?
This lobe is located in the front and is involved in decision-making and planning
What is the frontal lobe?
This system governs processes that are involuntary and includes the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems.
What is the parasympathetic nervous system?
This class of drugs excites neural activity. Pupils dilate, breathing rates increase, and appetite is reduced. This class includes cocaine, nicotine, and methamphetamine.
What are stimulants?
This hormone, produced by the pineal gland, helps regulate sleep-wake cycles.
What is melatonin?
This class of neurotransmitters influence the perception of pain. Opioid abuse can affect your body's natural supply of these.
What are endorphins?
This neural system is key to processing emotions and drives, including components like the amygdala and hippocampus
What is the limbic system?
This perspective explores how natural selection affects the expression of behavior and mental processes to increase survival and reproductive success
What is evolutionary psychology?
This term refers to the reduced effect of a drug after repeated use, leading individuals to require larger doses to achieve the same effect
What is tolerance?
This term refers to a sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks, often leading to the sufferer falling directly into REM sleep.
What is narcolepsy?
This neurotransmitter mostly inhibits neurons. Too little of this can cause seizures
What is GABA?
This part of the brain includes the medulla, pons, and cerebellum, and is crucial for survival functions like breathing and balance.
What is the hindbrain or brainstem?
This tool for depicting brain activity tracks which areas of the brain are consuming glucose during specific tasks
What is a PET scan?
This class of psychoactive drugs reduces neural activity, slowing down body functions. They include alcohol, barbiturates, and even opioids.
What are depressants?
This theory suggests that dreams are the brain's attempt to make sense of random neural activity during sleep.
What is the activation-synthesis theory?
This hormone arouses hunger. Your body increases production of this when you're sleep deprived
What is ghrelin?
Often referred to as the sensory switchboard, this brain structure receives information from the senses and relays it to the appropriate areas of the brain.
What is the thalamus?
These studies suggest that events in your life (stress, trauma, drug use) can literally change the expression of your genes and that you can pass on that genetic expression to future generations
What is epigenetics?
This is the process by which neurons reabsorb neurotransmitters. SSRI's treat depression by inhibiting this process.
What is reuptake?
These are large, slow brain waves associated with deep sleep
What are delta waves?
This neurotransmitter triggers muscle contraction. It is also involved in learning, memory, and muscle contraction. Neurons that produce this deteriorate in Alzheimer's
What is acetycholine?
This system, nestled within the brainstem, acts as a gatekeeper, regulating wakefulness, arousal, sleep, and sensory processing.
What is the reticular activating system?
These are the three types of neurons that work together in the spinal cord to create a reflex arc.
What are the sensory neurons, motor neurons, and interneurons?