Nature vs Nurture
The transmission of traits from parents to offspring
What is heredity
Brain and spinal cord
What is the central nervous system?
A neural impulse traveling down an axon
what is action potential?
Feel-good, pain reducing chemicals
controls heartbeat and breathing
what is the medulla oblongata?
Every non-genetic influence on behavior
What is environment (nurture)?
Connects the central nervous system to the body
the peripheral nerous system
Neuron fires or doesn't
What is the all or nothing principle?
neurotransmitter linked to reward and addiction
What is dopamine
what coordinates movement and balance?
the cerebellum
The debate over genes vs. experience
What is the nature-nurture issue?
Controls organs like heart and glands
what is the autonomic nervous system
Branches that receive messages
what are dendrites?
major inhibitory transmitter
What is gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)?
What is the emotion and fear center?
the amyglada
Research comparing biological and adoptive families
What are adoption studies?
Activates flight or fight
What is the sympathetic nervous system?
insulating layer that speeds signals
What is the myelin sheat?
Drugs that speed up the central nervous system
what are stimulants?
what cortex is responsible for decision making and planning
the prefrontal cortex
The idea of improving genetics through selective breeding
What is eugenics
calms the body
what is the parasympathetic nervous system
Gap between neurons
What is a synapse
Reduces effect requiring more drug
what is tolerance?
What connects left and right hemispheres?
the corpus callosum