Mcat-Behavioral Sciences

Front 1

Frontal lobe

Back 1

Executive function, synthesizing ideas

Front 2

Occipital Lobe

Back 2

Vision processing

Front 3

Parietal Lobe

Back 3

Touch, pressure, temperature, pain

Front 4

Temporal Lobe

Back 4

Sound, speech, memory, language, emotion

Front 5

Hippocampus

Back 5

Responsible for memory and learning

Front 6

Amygdala

Back 6

Promotes aggressive and defensive Behavior

Front 7

Septal nuclei

Back 7

Primary pleasure Center

Front 8

Hypothalamus

Back 8

Regulates homeostasis and the autonomic nervous system.

Also regulates hunger and thirst, and emotion.

Hint 8

Feeding fighting flighting functioning

Front 9

Hindbrain

Back 9

Manages vital functions, arousal, alertness, balance, and motor coordination.

Front 10

Midbrain

Back 10

Processes sensorimotor reflexes

Front 11

Sympathetic nervous system

Back 11

Fight or flight response

Front 12

Parasympathetic nervous system

Back 12

Conserves energy, encourages digestion, slows heartbeat, vasodilation

Front 13

Somatic nervous system

Back 13

Manages sensory and motor functions

Front 14

Autonomic nervous system

Back 14

Manages heartbeat, respiration, digestion

Hint 14

Autonomic is automatic

Front 15

Afferent neurons

Back 15

Brings information to the brain and the spinal cord

Hint 15

Ascend spinal cord

Front 16

Efferent neurons

Back 16

Brings information from the brain to the musculoskeletal structures

Hint 16

Efferent exits

Front 17

Which nucleic acid pairs with guanine

Back 17

Cytosine in DNA and RNA

Front 18

Which nucleic acid pairs with cytosine

Back 18

Guanine in RNA and DNA

Front 19

Which nucleic acid pairs with thymine

Back 19

Adenine in DNA

Front 20

Which nucleic acid pairs with adenine

Back 20

Thymine in DNA

Uracil in RNA

Front 21

Which nucleic acid pairs with uracil

Back 21

Adenine in RNA

Front 22

Basal ganglia

Back 22

Responsible for smooth movements. When damaged, associated with Parkinsons disease.

Front 23

Cerebellum

Back 23

Regulates motor movements

Front 24

Cerebral cortex

Back 24

Responsible for complex perceptual, cognitive, and behavioral processes

Front 25

Acetylcholine

Back 25

In the peripheral nervous system, acetylcholine is used to transmit nerve impulses to the muscles.

In the central nervous system, acetylcholine has been linked to attention and arousal.

Front 26

Epinephrine and norepinephrine

Back 26

Primary neurotransmitter of the sympathetic nervous system. Promotes the fight or flight response.

Front 27

Dopamine

Back 27

Catecholamine that plays an important role in movement and posture

Front 28

Serotonin

Back 28

Regulate mood, eating, sleeping, and dreaming. Can play a role in depression and mania if undersupplied and oversupplied respectively

Front 29

Gamma-aminobutyric acid

Back 29

Producing inhibitory postsynaptic potentials and played a role in stabilizing neural activity in the brain

Front 30

Glycine

Back 30

Amino acid, but it also serves as a neurotransmitter in the central nervous system. Hyperpolarizes the postsynaptic membrane, similar to the function of gamma-aminobutyric acid.

Front 31

Glutamate

Back 31

Excitory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system

Front 32

Endorphins

Back 32

Natural painkillers produced in the brain that have actions similar to Morphine or opioids

Front 33

Pituitary gland

Back 33

Releases hormones that regulate activities of endocrine glands

Front 34

Adrenal medulla

Back 34

Release of epinephrine and norepinephrine is part of the sympathetic nervous system

Front 35

Adrenal cortex

Back 35

Releases corticosteroids including stress hormone cortisol. The adrenal cortex contributes to sexual functioning by releasing testosterone and estrogen

Front 36

Pineal gland

Back 36

Regulates melatonin, which is related to sleep patterns.

Front 37

Dominant (left) hemisphere

Back 37

Primarily analytic in function, making it well-suited for managing details like language, logic and math skills.

Front 38

Nondominant (right) hemisphere

Back 38

Associated with intuition, creativity, music cognition, and spatial processing.

Front 39

Sensation

Back 39

Conversion of analog signals in the environment into electrochemical signals to the central nervous system.

Front 40

Perception

Back 40

Processing information to make sense of its significance.

Front 41

Absolute threshold

Back 41

The minimum intensity that is required to activate sensation

Front 42

Threshold of conscious perception

Back 42

Minimum intensity of a stimulus to require the central nervous system to perceive that stimulus.

Front 43

Difference threshold

Back 43

They said the minimum difference in a density between similar stimuli before a person can distinguish the difference between the two.

Weber's Law says the difference needs to be at least about 0.68 %.

Front 44

Signal detection Theory

Back 44

Says that our perception of a stimulus depends on the context of that stimulus. For example, in a crowd, how loud would somebody have to yell your name for you to hear it?

Front 45

Adaptation

Back 45

Changing perception of a stimulus over time.

Hint 45

Cold sea water doesn't feel so cold once you get used to it

Front 46

Sclera

Back 46

Whites of the eyes

Front 47

Retina

Back 47

Contains cones and rods for sensing color and black and white

Front 48

Iris

Back 48

Contains dilator and constrictor pupillae. It is the colored parts of the eyes.

Front 49

Aqueous humor

Back 49

Bathes the front part of the eye

Front 50

Vitreous humor

Back 50

Transparent gel that supports the retina

Front 51

Cones

Back 51

Senses colors

Front 52

Rods

Back 52

Senses light and dark

Front 53

Bipolar cells

Back 53

Highlights gradients between adjacent rods or cones

Front 54

Ganglion cells

Back 54

Synapse with bipolar cells and group together to form the optic nerve

Front 55

Optic chiasm

Back 55

Images on the left visual field are projected on the right half of the brain and vice versa.

Hint 55

Front 56

Parallel processing

Back 56

The ability to simultaneously analyze and combined information regarding color, shape, and motion.

Front 57

Parvocellular cells

Back 57

Specialize in shape detection

Front 58

Magnocellular cells

Back 58

Specialize in motion detection

Front 59

Tympanic membrane

Back 59

The eardrum divides the outer ear from the middle ear and vibrates with the same frequency as the incoming sound

Front 60

Ossicles

Back 60

The three smallest bones in the body in the middle ear.

Malleus

Incus

Stapes

Front 61

Malleus

Back 61

A hammer that is affixed to the tympanic membrane it acts on the Incus (anvil).

Front 62

Incus

Back 62

Anvil, which receives the malleus strikes, that acts on the stapes

Front 63

Stapes

Back 63

Receives the audio signal from the Incus and sends it to the cochlea

Front 64

Eustachian tube

Back 64

How to equalize pressure between the middle ear and the environment

Front 65

Inner ear

Back 65

Contains the cochlea, vestibule, and semicircular canals. These form the membranous Labyrinth.

Front 66

Organ of corti

Back 66

The actual hearing apparatus, which contains thousands of hair cells, that convert physical stimuli into an electrical signal.

Front 67

Vestibule

Back 67

Contains otoliths that act as LINEAR accelerometers in the ear.

Front 68

Semicircular canals

Back 68

Contains ampulla that act as ROTATIONAL accelerometers in the ear.

Front 69

Papillae

Back 69

Bumps on the tongue that host taste buds

Front 70

Somatosensation

Back 70

Pressure, vibration, pain, and temperature.

Front 71

Two point threshold

Back 71

Minimum distance necessary between two points of stimulation on the skin so that the points can be felt as two distinct stimuli

Front 72

Nociception

Back 72

Pain sensation

Front 73

Gate theory of pain

Back 73

There's a gating mechanism that can turn pain signals on or off affecting whether or not we perceived pain.

Hint 73

Rubbing an injury like a bump on your knee seems to reduce the pain of the injury.

Front 74

Bottom up processing

Back 74

Brain takes the individual sensory stimuli and combines them together to create a cohesive image before determining what the object is.

Front 75

Top-down processing

Back 75

The brain uses memories and expectations to quickly recognize objects without needing to analyze their specific parts.

Front 76

Law of Proximity

Back 76

Gestalt principal that says that elements close to one another tend to be perceived as a unit.

Hint 76

Front 77

Law of good continuation

Back 77

Gestalt pricinple that says that the elements that appear to follow the same pathway tend to be grouped together.

Hint 77

Front 78

Subjective contours

Back 78

Gestalt principle that says that we perceive contours, and therefore shapes that are not actually present in the stimulus.

Hint 78

Front 79

Law of closure

Back 79

Gestalt principle that does that went to space is enclosed by a contour it tends to be perceived as a complete figure.

Hint 79

Front 80

Law of pragnanz

Back 80

Perceptual organization will always be as regular, simple, and symmetric is possible.

Front 81

Habituation

Back 81

Repeated exposure to the same stimulus can cause a decrease in response

Front 82

Dishabituation

Back 82

Recovery of a response to a stimulus after habituation has occurred.

Front 83

Associative learning

Back 83

Creation of a paring, or association, between two stimuli or between a behavior and a response.

Classical and operant conditioning

Front 84

Classical conditioning

Back 84

Ivan Pavlov.

Creates associations between two unrelated stimuli.

Process of taking advantage of a reflexive, unconditioned stimulus to turn a neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus.

Front 85

Extinction (stimulus-response)

Back 85

Habituation occurs such that the conditioned stimulus no longer produces the conditioned response.

Front 86

Generalization

Back 86

Similar stimulus can also produce the conditioned response

Front 87

Discrimination

Back 87

The opposite of generalization.

An organism learns to distinguish between two similar stimuli.