Genetics
These are long strings of genetic material known as DNA. The egg and sperm each contain 23 of them.
What are Chromosomes?
These serve as interconnected information processors, essential for all tasks of the nervous system. One of the two basic cell types that compose the nervous system.
What are Neurons?
The term used when a drug uses chemicals that mimic a neurotransmitter at the receptor site.
What are Agonists?
The two major subdivisions of the nervous system.
What are the Central Nervous System (CNS) and the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)?
This gland is often referred to as the "master gland" because it's messenger hormones control all other glands in the endocrine system.
What is the Pituitary Gland?
This theory state that organisms better suited for their environment will survive and reproduce, while those poorly suited will die off.
What is Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection?
What is the Threshold of Excitation?
This neurotransmitter is associated with mood and sleep. It modulates mood and suppresses appetite. Low levels are linked with Depression and often agonized by SSRIs.
What is Serotonin?
These are the two subdivisions of the autonomic nervous system. One is involved in preparing the body for stress-related activities, while the other is associated with returning the body to routine, day-to-day operations.
What are the Sympathetic Nervous System and the Parasympathetic Nervous System?
What is the Thyroid Gland?
The term for an individuals inherited physical characteristics. A combination of genetic and environmental influences.
What is Phenotype?
This is the very small space between two neurons and is an important site where communication between neurons happens.
What is the Synaptic Cleft?
This neurotransmitter is involved in mood, sleep, and learning. It increases pleasure and suppresses appetite. Low levels are associated with Parkinson's disease, while high levels are associated with Schizophrenia.
What is Dopamine?
This lobe of the brain is involved in reasoning, motor control, emotion, and language. A famous case of damage to this area involves Phineas Gage.
What is the Frontal Lobe?
These glands sit atop our kidneys and secrete hormones involved in the stress response, such as epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline).
What are the Adrenal Glands?
This is a specific version of a gene. Can be dominant or recessive.
What is an Allele?
This constitutes an electrical signal that typically moves from the cell body down the axon, to the axon terminals. Considered an all-or-nothing phenomenon.
What is Action Potential?
This neurotransmitter is influences the heart, intestines, and alertness. It increases arousal and suppresses appetite. It is active during our fight-or-flight response.
What is Norepinephrine?
Located in the parietal lobe, this area of the brain is essential for processing touch and sensation.
What is the Somatosensory Cortex?
This area serves as a sensory relay for the brain. All of our senses, with the exception of smell, are routed through here before being directed to other areas of the brain for processing.
What is the Thalamus?
Asserts that our genes set the boundaries within which we can operate, and our environment interacts with the genes to determine where in that range we will fall.
What is Range of Reaction?
This occurs when a neuron becomes slightly more negative than the resting potential before leveling off.
What is Hyperpolarization?
This inhibitory neurotransmitter is involved in brain function and sleep. It decreases anxiety and tension, while improving sleep.
What is GABA (Gamma-aminobutyric acid)?
This type of brain imaging creates pictures of the living, active brain. It involves ingesting or injecting a tracer containing a mildly radioactive substance, which is then monitored, creating a rough map of active/inactive areas of the brain during a given behavior.
What is a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan?
This part of the limbic system helps regulate many homeostatic processes, including regulation of body temperature, appetite, and blood pressure. It serves as an interface between the nervous system and the endocrine system, while also helping regulate sexual motivation and behavior.
What is the Hypothalamus?