Csd

Front 1

Afferent

Back 1

toward the brain; afferent pathways (ascending pathways): carry sensory information from the distal structures of the body to the brain

Front 2

Allocortex

Back 2

Older and original human brain (10% of brain matter)

Front 3

Arachnoid Mater

Back 3

Second membrane layer of the menignes, which is one of the protective shields around the brain and spinal cord

Front 4

Axon

Back 4

Single efferent nerve extension which carries nerve impulses away from the cell body

Front 5

Brainstem

Back 5

Sits directly on top of the spinal cord and is the conduit between brain and spinal cord. It consists of midbrain, pons, and the medulla oblongata.
3 primary functions: Key transmitter of sensory info to the brain and motor info away from the brain; major relay station for the cranial nerves supplying the head and face and for controlling the visual and auditory senses; associated with metabolism and arousal.
3 reflex centers: cadiac center (heart); vasometer center (blood vessels); respiratory center (breathing)

Front 6

Broca's area

Back 6

Motor cortex of the left frontal lobe; responsible for the fine coordination of speech output.
Named after French physician Paul Broca

Front 7

Caudal

Back 7

Horizontal axis: Back of the brain
Vertical axis: Bottom of the spinal cord (near the coccyx)

Front 8

Cell body

Back 8

Center of the neuron containing its nucleus

Front 9

Central nervous system

Back 9

Brain and spinal cord; an anatomical structure of the nervous system which is part of the Human nervous system.

Front 10

Cerebellum

Back 10

oval shaped "little brain" which sits behind the brainstem and regulates motor and muscular activity like coordination of motor movements, maintenance of muscle tone, monitoring of the movement range and strength, and maintenance of posture and equilibrium

Front 11

Cerebrospinal fluid

Back 11

(CSF) circulates between intermost two layers of meninges (pia mater and arachnoid mater); carries chemicals important to metabolic processes and serves as important buffer for any jolts to the CNS.

Front 12

Cerebrum

Back 12

or cerebral cortex: crucial roles in "lang, conceptual thinking, creativity, planning and the ways in which we give form and substance to our thoughts.
40% of brain weight and contains 100 billion neurons.

Front 13

Connectionist models

Back 13

How the human brain processes and produces lang: a network of distributed processors that interact with one another via excitatory and inhibitory connections. Connectivity among units critical for understanding how info is processed.

Front 14

Corpus callosum

Back 14

Band of fibers that connects two hemispheres, serving as a conduit for communication between the left and right hemispheres of the cerebrum.

Front 15

Cranial nerve

Back 15

Emerge from the brain; 12 pairs.
Carry info back and forth between brain, spine, and rest of body along with Spinal nerves.
7 associated with speech and lang.: Trigeminal, facial, acoustic, glossophayngeal, vagus, accessory, and hypoglossal

Front 16

Dendrites

Back 16

Afferent extensions of a neuron; bring nerve impulses into the cell body from the axonal projections of the other neurons.

Front 17

Dendritic sprouting

Back 17

Formation of new synaptic connections among neurons. Utilized during Experience-dependent plasticity.

Front 18

Dorsal

Back 18

Horizontal axis: top of the brain
Vertical axis: back of the spinal cord (backside)

Front 19

Dura mater

Back 19

Third and outermost membrane layer of the menignes, encases brain and spinal cord (protective).

Front 20

Efferent

Back 20

Away form the brain.
Efferent pathways (descending pathways): carry motor impulses from the central nervous system to more distal structures of the body.

Front 21

Executive functions

Back 21

Frontal lobe: problem-solving, planning,creating, reasoning, decision-making, social awareness, and rationalizing.

Front 22

Experience-dependent plasticity

Back 22

Unique to a given individual; requires highly-specific types of experiences for change
Utilizes 3 mechanisms: formation of new synaptic connections among neurons (dendritic sprouting), generation of new neurons, and increase in synaptic strength.
Brain capacity available independent of age.
Vocabulary growth (Hart & rRsley, 1995)

Front 23

Experience-expectant plasticity

Back 23

Changes in brain structures that occur due to normal experiences; develops "obligatory cortical functions"
Once the sensitive period for a given experience-expectant brain function has passed, environmental experiences no longer readily modify cortical circuits

Front 24

Frontal lobe

Back 24

Largest lobe of human brain, most anterior part of the brain, behind the forehead.
2 key functions: activation and controlling fine and complex motor activities, including speech output and controlling human "executive functions."

Front 25

Functional magnetic resonance imaging

Back 25

(fMRI) brain imaging used to identify brain structures involved with specific mental functions: examines changes in blood oxygen levels that correspond to changes in neural activity
Images are very high resolution, can be collected relatively quickly, and require no injections o radioactive materials.
(Weismer and colleagues study, 2005)

Front 26

Grey matter

Back 26

Within nervous tissue: cell bodies of neurons and the dendrites where info is generated and processed.

Front 27

Heschl's gyrus

Back 27

Small region of the left temporal lobe that appears specialized for the processing of speech, particularly the temporal aspects of speech.

Front 28

Horizontal axis

Back 28

(BRAIN) Anterior (frontal) pole of brain to the posterior (occipital) pole of the brain

Front 29

Innervate

Back 29

Supply of nerves to a specific region or part of the body

Front 30

Left hemisphere

Back 30

Mirror image of the right hemi in the cerebrum.

Front 31

longitudinal fissure

Back 31

Long cerebral crevice separating two hemishperes

Front 32

magnetic resonance imaging

Back 32

(MRI) examines brain activity when individuals are engaged in specific processing task; radiation

Front 33

meninges

Back 33

A protective shield around the brain and spinal cord. Comprised of three layers: the pia matter, the arachnoid matter, and the dura matter.

Front 34

myelin

Back 34

Neuron coating
Rapid relay of nerve impulses, particularly within white matter; protects the neuron.

Front 35

myelinization

Back 35

Growth of the myelin sheath; slow process not complete until late in childhood.

Front 36

neocortex

Back 36

Enlarged regions which have grown over the original human brain (allocortex/now only 10%)
Controls most of the functions we consider to exemplify human thought and lang.

Front 37

neural plasticity

Back 37

Malleability of the central nervous system; capacity for the sensory and motor systems to organize and reorganize themselves by generating new synaptic connections, or by using existing synapses for alternative means.

Front 38

neuroanatomy

Back 38

Anatomy of the nervous system.

Front 39

neurolinguists

Back 39

Structures and functions of the nervous system that relate to lang.

Front 40

neurons

Back 40

Billions of highly specialized cells that make up the nervous system; carry electrical-chemical nerve impulses.
4 components: Cell body, Axon, Presynaptic terminal, and dendrites.

Front 41

neurophysiology

Back 41

Physiology of the nervous system/

Front 42

neuroscience

Back 42

Focused branch of the more general disciplines of anatomy and physiology.
Neuroscientists study anatomical structures of the nervous system and how the structures work together as a complex unit and as separate, distinct biological units.

Front 43

neurotransmitters

Back 43

Chemical agents that help transmit information across the synaptic cleft.

Front 44

occiptal lobe

Back 44

Single lobe toward the back of the brain. Used for visual reception and processing.
Contains primary visual cortex at the posterior pole of the occipital lobe. The PVC receives and processes visual information from the eyes, fusing info on depth, space, shape, movement, and color into a single visual image.

Front 45

parietal lobes

Back 45

Two lobes which sit posterior to the frontal lobe on the left and right sides (above the ears). The key functions are perceiving and integrating sensory and perceptual info (left), and comprehending oral and written lang. and calculation for mathematics (right).
*Important to working memory and essential for most higher-order executive functions and or acquiring and accessing one's lexicon.*
Contains Primary somatosensory cortex and sensory association cortex.

Front 46

peripheral nervous system

Back 46

System of nerves connect to brainstem and spinal cord. Carries sensory info to the CNS and motor commands away from the CNS. Controls nearly all voluntary and involuntary activity of the human body.

Front 47

phonetic modules

Back 47

Human brain as a specialized processor designed specifically for phonetic segments of speech.

Rapid analysis of temporal characteristics of speec sounds occurs int he auditory centers of the left temporal lobes, processing of spectral charcteristics of speech sounds occurs in the right temporal lobe, and brain research has not been able to identify a single structure of location in the brain that is specialized only for the processing of speech.

Front 48

pia mater

Back 48

Innermost membrane layer of the menignes. Carries blood vessels that serve the brain.

Front 49

prefrontal cortex

Back 49

Most anterior portion fo the frontal lobe.
Affective aspects of sensation, including gloom, elation, calmness, and friendliness. Also called the "Regulator of the depth of feeling" (Noback, 2005)

Front 50

premotor cortex

Back 50

Control of the skilled motor functions, including control of musculature and programming patterns and sequences of movements.

Front 51

presynaptic terminal

Back 51

Distal end of each terminal branch; sites at which the axonal connection of one neuron corresponds with the dendritic extension of another neuron.

Front 52

primary motor cortex

Back 52

Controls the initiation of skilled, delicate, voluntary movements, including movements of the extremities and those used in speech.

Front 53

primary somatosensory cortex

Back 53

(primary sensory cortex) "sensory strip"
*parietal lobes

Front 54

receptive speech area

Back 54

(Wernicke's area) language comprehension. Sits in the superior portion of the left temporal lobe near the intersection of the parietal, occipital and temporal lobes. Point of convergence for receiving and integrating associations from throughout the brain.

Front 55

right hemisphere

Back 55

Part of the cerebrum.

Front 56

rostral

Back 56

Horizontal axis: front of the brain
Vertical axis: top of the spinal cord (near the brain)

Front 57

sensitive period

Back 57

Timeframe of development corresponding to growth of change in a particular aspect of neuroanatomy of neurophysiology that underlies a giben sensory or motoric capacity.
*Studies of prego women in Nagasake and Hiroshima in WW2

Front 58

sensory association cortex

Back 58

part of the parietal lobes.

Front 59

synaptic cleft

Back 59

space between the axon of the transmitting neuron and dendrite of the receiving neuron

Front 60

spinal nerves

Back 60

31 pairs emerge from the spinal cord.
Mediate reflexes and volitional sensory and motor activity.

Front 61

synapse

Back 61

Site where two neurons meet: nerve implse must cross the synapse in order to communicate

Front 62

synaptic pruning

Back 62

Pruning of excess synapses

Front 63

synaptogenesis

Back 63

The formation of synaptic connections. Driven by our sensory and motoric experiences after birth;occus most rapidly inthe first year of life (Huttonlocher, 2002)

Front 64

temporal lobes

Back 64

2 lobes which sit posterior to the frontal lobe but inferior to the parietal lobes (behind the ears); contain functions for processing auditory info as well as lang comprehension.

Front 65

ventral

Back 65

Horizontal axis: bottom of the brain
Vertical axis: front of the spinal cord (bellyside)

Front 66

vertical axis

Back 66

(SPINAL CORD) Superior portion of the brain downward along the entire spinal cord.

Front 67

Wernicke's area

Back 67

(receptive speech area) language comprehension.
Wernicke's aphasia: damage to the Wernicke's area; significant challenges in processing and producing coherent lang in both spoken and written form.

Front 68

white matter

Back 68

Carries info among grey matter (in nervous tissue)