Nervous System
What two groups is the nervous system divided into?
Central Nervous System and the Peripheral Nervous System.
Name all the lobes of the brain.
Frontal, Parietal, Temporal, and Occipital
What is Aphasia and what structures of the brain are impacted?
Aphasia is a language disorder that affects a person's ability to communicate effectively and Broca's area and Wernicke's area is impacted.
What are the 7 major structures of a neuron?
Dendrites, soma, axon, myelin sheath, axon terminals, synapse
What are the 3 processes by which you sense and perceive the world around you?
Sensation, Transduction, and Perception
Describe the function of the somatic nervous system.
Controls voluntary muscles and transmits sensory information to the CNS.
What is contralateral processing (in terms of vision) and where is the primary visual cortex and what is its function?
Contralateral processing is where visual input from the left visual field is sent to the right hemisphere for interpretation and vice versa. The primary visual cortex is in the occipital lobe and it processes visual information.
What is Alzheimer's disease and the loss of what neurotransmitter is associated with it?
Alzheimer's disease is a progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills. The loss of acetylcholine is associated with the disease.
What is the difference between conduction and synaptic transmission?
Conduction - Communication within a neuron
Synaptic Transmission - Communication between neurons
What is absolute threshold, difference threshold, and Weber's law?
Absolute Threshold - smallest stimulus intensity that can be detected
Difference Threshold - smallest possible difference between two stimuli
Weber's law - explains the difference threshold in any given situation is proportional to the intensity of the original stimulus
What two groups make up the Autonomic nervous system?
Sympathetic and Parasympathetic.
What are the structures of the hindbrain and what are their functions?
The hindbrain consists of three main parts; the cerebellum, the medulla, and the pons. The cerebellum coordinates muscle movement, balance, and posture. The pons is where motor information from the body crosses to the opposite side of the brain and coordinates movement. The medulla regulates vital functions like heart rate, breathing, and digestion.
What is Parkinson's disease and which structures of the brain are impacted?
Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disease that affects the substantia nigra and striatum. Parkinson's patients have motor difficulties (slow movements and tremors).
What is resting potential and action potential?
Action Potential - is an electrical signal that allows conduction of information within the neuron
Resting Potential - when the neuron is not sending nor receiving a message
What is bottom-up and top-down processing?
Bottom-up processing - processing information at level of sensory receptors first then putting together bits of information to form a whole perception
Top-down - processing information and stimuli as a whole, then applying our experiences and expectations to generate a perception
Describe the difference between the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic nervous systems.
Sympathetic: Arouses body to expend energy
Parasympathetic: Calms body to conserve and maintain energy
What are the two parts of the Nigrostriatal pathway and what are their functions?
The Nigrostriatal pathway is made up of the striatum and the substantia nigra. The substantia nigra contains dopamine cell bodies (reward pathway) involved in initiation of fluidity of movement and neuron cell bodies. The striatum contains the axons of the cell bodies in the substantia nigra and is responsible for motor control.
What disorder or disease does low and high levels of dopamine cause?
Low- Parkinson's
High - Schizophrenia
What is the refractory period and all-or-none principle?
Refractory Period - sodium potassium pump works to restore balance of the sodium outside and the potassium inside (during this a neuron cannot fire an action potential)
All-or-none - A neuron will only fire an action potential if a stimulus is strong enough to reach its threshold, causing depolarization
What is the path of the visual pathway?
rods and cones, bipolar cells, ganglion cells, optic nerve, optic chiasm, thalamus, visual cortex
Describe the path of a spinal reflex.
1) A receptor detects a stimulus.
2) A sensory neuron transmits the impulse to an interneuron within the spinal cord.
3) The signal is processed and sent to a motor neuron.
4) The motor neuron carries the impulse to the effector (muscle or gland that produces the response).
What are the functions of the reticular formation, hypothalamus, thalamus, and amygdala?
Reticular formation - Regulates arousal, attention, and sleep
Hypothalamus - Regulates body temperature, thirst, sexual behavior, and hunger (links brain to endocrine system and controls ANS)
Thalamus - Receives sensory information (except olfactory system) and relays information to cerebral cortex
Amygdala - Controls emotion processing, fear conditioning, and social cognition
What is amnesia?
Amnesia is memory loss caused by brain damage, illness, or psychological trauma, affecting the ability to recall past events or store new memories.
What are the four processes of plasticity?
Neurogenesis, Synaptogenesis, Synaptic Pruning, and Programmed Cell Death
What are the receptors for kinesthetic sense called and where are the vestibular sense receptors located?
Kinesthetic - Proprioceptors
Vestibular - semicircular canals and vestibular sacs