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41 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Genes |
Hereditary factors |
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Synaptic Transmisson |
Process through which neurons communicate |
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Dendrites |
Receive messages from other neurons |
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Receptors |
Area of the post-synaptic neuron that neurotransmitters bind to |
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Serotonin |
A neurotransmitter that regulates mood |
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Motor Neurons |
Carry messages from the CNS to the muscles |
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Sensory Neurons |
Receive information from preceptors and carry it to the CNS |
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Relay Neurons |
Receive information from sensory neurons and pass it to motor neurons |
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Reflex Arc |
A reflex reaction |
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Central Nervous System |
Brain + Spinal Cord |
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Fight or Flight response |
A response to dangerous or threatening experiences |
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Genotype |
The genes you are born with |
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Phenotype |
How your genes are expressed |
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The Peripheral Nervous System |
Connects your brain to the outside world and organs |
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The Autonomic Nervous System |
A part of the PNS that controls automatic actions |
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The somatic nervous system |
Part of the PNS responsible for voluntary movement |
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Excitation |
When a neuron becomes depolarised which increases chance of action potential |
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Inhibition |
When a neuron becomes hyperpolarised decreasing the chance of action potential |
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What happened to Phineas Gage? |
Skewered frontal lobe |
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How was Phineas Gage effected? |
Change in personality and impulses |
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Frontal Lobe |
- planning and organising - memory and attention - speech and language |
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Temporal Lobe |
- sound - speech - memory |
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Occipital Lobe |
- process information - perceives shapes and colours |
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Parietal Lobe |
- sensory information - primary sensory cortex - helps us know which was is up |
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Cerebellum |
- balance - movement - coordination |
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Brain stem |
- involuntary actions (Breathing, heart rate, swallowing) - alertness and sensation |
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Broca's Area |
Speech production |
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Wernicke's Area |
Speech comprehension |
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Evaluation of Localisation of Function |
+ case studies + brain scans + neurosurgery - some functions are so complex that one area cannot be pinpointed |
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Brain plasticity |
Brain structure changing with experience |
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Maguire et al study on Brain Plasticity |
London taxi drivers - posterior hippocampus had more grey matter |
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Draganski et al study on brain plasticity |
Medical students - posterior hippocampus + parietal cortex had more grey matter |
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Mechelli et al study on Brain Plasticity |
Bilingual people - parietal cortex had more gray matter |
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Ways the brain can recover functions |
- unmasking secondary neural pathways - axonal sprouting - blood vessels reform - similar areas take over |
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Evaluation of Brain Plasticity |
+ practical application + negative plasticity - age and plasticity (Bezzola) + animal studies + cognitive reserve (education) |
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Schneiders study on Brain Plasticity and age |
More time in education = greater chance of disability free recovery (40% vs 10%) |
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Left Brain responsibilities |
Language Analytical tasks Viewing objects in the right field Control of right side of body |
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Left Brain Responsibilities |
Drawing Emotional content of language Music Objects in left visual field Left side of body Spatial stasks Face recognition The synthesiser |
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What part of the brain connects the left and right side of the brain |
Corpus Callosum |
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Keyring - what type of word is that |
Composite word |
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Ways of investigating the brain |
- EEGs - fMRIs - ERPs - Post Mortem Examination |