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What is a neuron?
Neurons are brains cells that are the basic unit of the nervous system
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Summarise the action potential process.
- 1. When at rest,the neuron is more negative than the outside
- 2. During signalling, AP travels down axon and continues until it reaches the terminal button
- 3. During an AP, Na+ into the cell while K+ rushes out of the cell-->the cell returning to resting state
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What is the process of neural communication?
- 1. Action potential causes the vesicle to bind to the cell membrane
- 2. Neural transmitters are released into the synaptic cleft
- 3. Neural transmitters bind to receptors located on dendrites of the next cell
- 4. Ion channels open to allow Na+ to enter the cell= small de-polarisation= graded potential
- 5. Accumulation of graded potential= action potential
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How does dopamine affect neurotransmitters?
Confuses the dopamine transporters, blocks transporters->Dopamine remains in the cleft for longer->over activation of dopamine receptors in the next cell
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Describe the structure and functions of the medulla.
- - contain tracts carrying signals between the brain and the rest of the body
- - Regulates heartbeat, blood pressure and respiration
- - regulates vomiting, coughing, sneezing and swallowing reflexes
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What is the reticular formation?
- - Is a region that runs through the brainstem.
- - Neurotransmitters are produced here and transferred to axons throughout the body.
- - Involved in actions such as awaking/sleeping cycle, and filtering incoming stimuli to discriminate irrelevant background stimuli
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Describe the structure and function of the pons.
- - Regulates consciousness and attention
- - Contains neurons that are active during wake and inactive during sleep
- - damage= coma
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Describe the function of the cerebellum.
- - motor control and correction
- - damage= lack of coordination, problems with balance and posture
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Describe the function of the tectum.
- - Basic visual and auditory function
- - Detects movement and sound in environment- coordination of movement towards sound
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Describe the function of the tegmentum.
- serves a variety of functions related to movement
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Describe the functions of the hypothalamus.
- - regulation of motivational behaviour for survival
- - activates pituatary hormones
- - homeostasis- keeping vital processes within a fairly narrow range. blood temp, glucose levels, metabolism
- - also controls the autonomic nervous system
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Describe the functions of the thalamus.
- - processes sensory information and transmit it to higher brain centres
- - highlights, dilter and de-emphasises these messages
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Describe the autonomic nervous system and its sub-systems.
- - serves basic life functions
- -sympathetic nervous system- activated in response to threats- flight or fight
- - parasympathetic nervous system- supports mundane/ routine activites, maintains energy
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Describe the functions of the limbic system.
- - learning/memory
- - emotion/motivation
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Describe the functions of the basal ganglia.
- important for reward, movement, judgement
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Describe the functions of the amygdala
(from the limbic system)–recognises fear and attaches emotional significance to events.It orchestrates a defence response.
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Illustrate which parts of the brain store the various types of memory.
- Hippocampus- episodic and somantic
- Basal ganglia- procedural memory
- Prefrontal cortex- STM
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Describe the different types of brain scans.
- CT- xray, structure only, uses brain damage
- MRI- Magnets/hydrogen, structure only, uses brain damage
- PET- Radioactive glucose, function only, use function during
- fMRI- oxygen, structure and function, uses during a task
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Describe the cerebral cortex.
- - folded to increase surface area: gyrus: filled, sulcus: empty bits
- - allows flexible construction of sequences voluntary movements
- - permits subtle discrimination among complex sensory patterns
- - makes possible symbolic thinking
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Name the different lobes of cerebral cortex.
frontal, parietal, occipital, temporal.
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Describe the frontal lobes.
- - Responsible for movement, attention, memory, personality, social skills, planning
- - Primary area– responsible for motor function
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Describe the parietal lobes.
- - Responsible for touch
- - Primary area– called the somanto sensory cortex– responsible for touch inputs from different areas of the body
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Describe the occipital lobes.
- Responsible for vision
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Describe the temporal lobes.
- Responsible for hearing
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so, tell me all you know about the fucking hemispheres.
- left- language
- right- non linguistic functions
- corpus callosum- band of neural fibres connecting the left and right hemispheres
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