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68 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Afferent
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toward the brain; afferent pathways (ascending pathways): carry sensory information from the distal structures of the body to the brain
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Allocortex
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Older and original human brain (10% of brain matter)
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Arachnoid Mater
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Second membrane layer of the menignes, which is one of the protective shields around the brain and spinal cord
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Axon
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Single efferent nerve extension which carries nerve impulses away from the cell body
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Brainstem
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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) |
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Broca's area
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Motor cortex of the left frontal lobe; responsible for the fine coordination of speech output.
Named after French physician Paul Broca |
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Caudal
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Horizontal axis: Back of the brain
Vertical axis: Bottom of the spinal cord (near the coccyx) |
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Cell body
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Center of the neuron containing its nucleus
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Central nervous system
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Brain and spinal cord; an anatomical structure of the nervous system which is part of the Human nervous system.
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Cerebellum
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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
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Cerebrospinal fluid
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(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.
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Cerebrum
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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. |
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Connectionist models
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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.
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Corpus callosum
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Band of fibers that connects two hemispheres, serving as a conduit for communication between the left and right hemispheres of the cerebrum.
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Cranial nerve
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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 |
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Dendrites
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Afferent extensions of a neuron; bring nerve impulses into the cell body from the axonal projections of the other neurons.
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Dendritic sprouting
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Formation of new synaptic connections among neurons. Utilized during Experience-dependent plasticity.
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Dorsal
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Horizontal axis: top of the brain
Vertical axis: back of the spinal cord (backside) |
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Dura mater
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Third and outermost membrane layer of the menignes, encases brain and spinal cord (protective).
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Efferent
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Away form the brain.
Efferent pathways (descending pathways): carry motor impulses from the central nervous system to more distal structures of the body. |
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Executive functions
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Frontal lobe: problem-solving, planning,creating, reasoning, decision-making, social awareness, and rationalizing.
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Experience-dependent plasticity
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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) |
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Experience-expectant plasticity
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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 |
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Frontal lobe
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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." |
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Functional magnetic resonance imaging
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(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) |
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Grey matter
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Within nervous tissue: cell bodies of neurons and the dendrites where info is generated and processed.
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Heschl's gyrus
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Small region of the left temporal lobe that appears specialized for the processing of speech, particularly the temporal aspects of speech.
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Horizontal axis
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(BRAIN) Anterior (frontal) pole of brain to the posterior (occipital) pole of the brain
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Innervate
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Supply of nerves to a specific region or part of the body
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Left hemisphere
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Mirror image of the right hemi in the cerebrum.
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longitudinal fissure
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Long cerebral crevice separating two hemishperes
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magnetic resonance imaging
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(MRI) examines brain activity when individuals are engaged in specific processing task; radiation
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meninges
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A protective shield around the brain and spinal cord. Comprised of three layers: the pia matter, the arachnoid matter, and the dura matter.
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myelin
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Neuron coating
Rapid relay of nerve impulses, particularly within white matter; protects the neuron. |
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myelinization
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Growth of the myelin sheath; slow process not complete until late in childhood.
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neocortex
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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. |
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neural plasticity
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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.
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neuroanatomy
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Anatomy of the nervous system.
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neurolinguists
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Structures and functions of the nervous system that relate to lang.
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neurons
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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. |
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neurophysiology
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Physiology of the nervous system/
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neuroscience
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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. |
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neurotransmitters
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Chemical agents that help transmit information across the synaptic cleft.
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occiptal lobe
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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. |
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parietal lobes
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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. |
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peripheral nervous system
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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.
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phonetic modules
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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. |
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pia mater
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Innermost membrane layer of the menignes. Carries blood vessels that serve the brain.
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prefrontal cortex
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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) |
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premotor cortex
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Control of the skilled motor functions, including control of musculature and programming patterns and sequences of movements.
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presynaptic terminal
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Distal end of each terminal branch; sites at which the axonal connection of one neuron corresponds with the dendritic extension of another neuron.
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primary motor cortex
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Controls the initiation of skilled, delicate, voluntary movements, including movements of the extremities and those used in speech.
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primary somatosensory cortex
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(primary sensory cortex) "sensory strip"
*parietal lobes |
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receptive speech area
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(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.
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right hemisphere
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Part of the cerebrum.
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rostral
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Horizontal axis: front of the brain
Vertical axis: top of the spinal cord (near the brain) |
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sensitive period
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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 |
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sensory association cortex
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part of the parietal lobes.
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synaptic cleft
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space between the axon of the transmitting neuron and dendrite of the receiving neuron
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spinal nerves
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31 pairs emerge from the spinal cord.
Mediate reflexes and volitional sensory and motor activity. |
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synapse
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Site where two neurons meet: nerve implse must cross the synapse in order to communicate
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synaptic pruning
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Pruning of excess synapses
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synaptogenesis
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The formation of synaptic connections. Driven by our sensory and motoric experiences after birth;occus most rapidly inthe first year of life (Huttonlocher, 2002)
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temporal lobes
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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.
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ventral
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Horizontal axis: bottom of the brain
Vertical axis: front of the spinal cord (bellyside) |
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vertical axis
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(SPINAL CORD) Superior portion of the brain downward along the entire spinal cord.
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Wernicke's area
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(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. |
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white matter
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Carries info among grey matter (in nervous tissue)
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