Visual System
Light has entered Alexa's eyes. After being detected by the photoreceptors, the information will be passed on to _____ .
What are bipolar cells?
Do this to make a tone both louder and lower in pitch
What is increase the amplitude and decrease the frequency?
This hormone is released by the pineal gland and influences circadian rhythms.
What is melatonin?
Made to ease pain, this drug binds to the same receptors as endorphins.
What is morphine/opioids?
What is depth perception?
This neurotransmitter is released by axons that carry information about mild pain
What is glutamate?
This disorder is characterized by episodes of physically acting out vivid dreams during REM sleep.
What is REM behavior disorder?
This theory states that the human retina contains three types of photoreceptor cells—known as cone cells—that are each sensitive to different wavelengths of light corresponding to blue, green, and red
Trichromatic Theory
He is responsible for the psychoanalytic theory, the concepts of the id, ego, and superego, and the inspiration for my Halloween costume.
Who is Sigmund Freud?
This phenomenon is responsible for helping us distinguish visual borders by sharpening the contrast.
Lateral Inhibition
This touch receptor is specialized for detecting high-frequency vibration and deep pressure.
What are Pacinian corpuscles?
Name at least three neurotransmitters important for wakefulness/arousal?
What are Acetylcholine, Glutamate, Histamine, Orexin, Norepinephrine?
Which cardinal direction is hardest on your circadian rhythm and why?
East, because it is going forward in time. You have a harder time falling asleep because it feels too early to sleep for you
This brain structure's name comes from the Greek word for seahorse because of its curved shape. It plays a major role in forming new episodic memories and spatial memory.
What is the hippocampus?
A person can see a cup clearly but cannot identify what the object is. However, they can reach toward it accurately when asked. What two visual processing systems are dissociating here, and what does each system normally do?
The ventral stream supports identifying/recognizing objects ("what"), while the dorsal stream supports spatial processing and visually guided actions ("where/how").
When two odors smell similar, they tend to activate neighboring areas of this brain structure. Odors that smell different activate more separated areas, creating spatial patterns that help the brain identify each smell.
What is the olfactory bulb?
Researchers have demonstrated that the expression of the SCN genes can be changed through ____.
What is exposure to light?
Places less emphasis on the pons, PGO waves, or even REM sleep. Suggests that dreams are similar to thinking, just under unusual circumstances
The neurocognitive hypothesis
This type of cell responds to a pattern of light in a particular orientation anywhere within its large receptive field, regardless of the exact location of the stimulus.
Complex
A person looks directly at a small colored object in bright light and sees its color and fine details clearly. When the same object moves into their peripheral vision at night, they can detect its movement but have difficulty identifying its color or fine details. Use retinal organization and the magnocellular/parvocellular systems to explain this change.
The fovea contains a high density of cones and provides high-acuity, color-sensitive vision through the parvocellular system. The peripheral retina contains more rods and is particularly sensitive to dim light and motion, with greater contribution from the magnocellular system. Thus, peripheral/night vision favors detecting movement over fine detail and color.
The frequency theory proposes that auditory neurons fire in synchrony with the frequency of a sound. What is the major limitation of this theory when explaining high-pitched sounds?
What is the limitation imposed by the maximum firing rate of neurons? Individual neurons cannot fire action potentials rapidly enough to match very high sound frequencies.
A patient cycles between sleep and wakefulness, but shows no evidence of awareness of their surroundings or purposeful behavior. How does this differ from a coma, in which the patient cannot be awakened?
The patient in a vegetative state has periods of wakefulness and eye opening, whereas a patient in a coma lacks wakefulness and cannot be aroused.
Trichromatic Theory: color vision depends on three types of cones in the retina, each most sensitive to different wavelengths of light: short (blue), medium (green), and long (red). The brain compares the relative activity of these cones to perceive different colors.
Opponent-Process Theory: color vision is organized into opposing pairs: red vs. green, blue vs. yellow, and black vs. white. Activation of one side of a pair inhibits the other. This helps explain why we do not perceive colors such as reddish-green or bluish-yellow, and why we experience negative afterimages.
Neither can explain color/brightness constancy
In 1986, a catastrophic accident at a nuclear power plant in this Ukrainian city released radioactive material across parts of Europe, becoming one of the worst nuclear disasters in history.
What is Chernobyl?