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What is Neuropsychology?
the study of the relationship between behaviour and brain function
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What is Brain Hypothesis?
the idea that the brain is the main source for behaviour.
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What is the Neuron Hypothesis?
the unit of brain structure and function is the neruon.
The brain is a network of neurons.
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The Brain
has two HEMISPHERES
it is filled with CEREBRAL SPINAL FLUID to cushion the brain from damage.
outer layer of the brain is called the CEREBRAL CORTEX
- --> Gyri (folds)
- --> Sulci (creases)
large Sulci are called FISSURES
- -->longitudinal separated the hemispheres
- -->lateral divides divides each hemispheres into halves
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The lobes
Temporal: hearing
Frontal: last to develop fully and has to do with absract thinking, memory, planning, higher executive functions.
Parietal: any senses that arent hearing and seeing as well as finding things in space (spatial layout)
Occipital: Vision
Corpus callosum is how the two halves of the brain communicate with one another.
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The CNS
central nervous system, composed of the brain and the spinal cord
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The PNS
the nervous system that runs throughout the body....
made up of the somatic and autonomic systems which then break down further into the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems.
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What is the Pineal gland?
Where Descartes believed the MIND could be found in the brain.
not found on both halves of the brain and was close to the ventricles.
Cortex was just there for the PROTECTION of the Pineal gland.
BUT WAS REFUTED DUE TO THE FACT THAT WHEN THE PINEAL GLAND WAS DAMAGED, THERE WAS NO CHANGE TO BEHAVIOUR!!
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What is Dualism?
the position that the mind and the body are separate but INTERACT with one another
Descartes
Behaviour is caused by two things
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What is materialism?
rational behaviour can be fully explained by the nervous system without having to refer to the "mind" which is NOT materialized and palpable
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What is meant about the localization of function?
- Gall-phrenology
- bump on the skull meant well developed areas and places with indents meant that it was ill developed.
- specific functions being localized to certain areas of the brain, rather than others.
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Lateralization of Language
Language is lateralized in the left hemisphere
- Broca's area- Broca's aphasia
- Wernicke's area- wernicke's aphasia
CONDUCTION APHASIA- damage to the connection between Broca's and Wernicke's ...articuate fasciculus--> REPITION IS THE PROBLEM
- Alexia: loss of the ability to read
- Apraxia: loss of sequenced movements.
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What is Hierarchical Organization?
- John Hughlings-Jackson
- nervous system was organized in a hierarchal manner
THREE LEVELS: spinal cord, brainstem, and forebrain
if damage occurs to the higher levels, regression occurs back to older versions of the brain
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What is the Binding Problem?
how is it that we process sensory aspects in different areas of the brain although we perceive the object as a whole?
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What is ataxia?
can describe objects accurately but make mistakes when reaching for them.
damage to the pathway from the occipital lobe to the temporal lobe.
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What is topographic organization?
neural representations of different parts of the body on the brain
HOMONCULUS
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What is psychometrics?
the science measuring humans mental abilities
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What is trephining?
cutting a circular hole into the skull to relieve pressure or pain.
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what is the intelligence quotient (IQ)?
your mental age divided by chronological age multiplied by 100
age of you brain (tested with tests) divided by your age as a human being then X by 100
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What is multiple sclerosis?
hardening of nerve fibre pathways in the spinal cord.
loss of sensory and motor function.
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What is computerized tomography?
xrays through the head
dead cells show darker on the screen because they contain more water
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What is PET?
injection of radioactive substances that reach the brain which then gives off photons to be picked up by a machine.
Damaged areas use less oxygen.
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What is MRI
detects electrical charge generated by thier movement
uses levels of oxygen to determine brain activity
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What are genes?
the functional units that control the expression of traits
slight alterations= MUTATIONS
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What is a quasi-evolutionary sequence?
a sequence of animals that represent consecutive stages in evolutionary history
hedgehogs, tree shrew bush babies, monkeys, apes
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What is DNA?
the genetic material found in a cells nucleus.
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What is the Genome?
the full set of genes of a species
changes occur due to ADAPTATION
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What is the encephalization quotient?
the ratio of actual brain size to expected brain size.
as mammals increase in body size, the size of the brain increases a little bit less.
The human brain is exceptionally large from this case.
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What is Neoteny?
the rate of maturation slowing down enough that some of the juvenile features of earlier mammals become adult features in the next species.
EXAMPLES: the big toe, brain size, small faces, upright posture....
these were found as primitive features in the earlier humans but now are adult features of modern day humans
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